The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

THROUGH ONE ADMINISTRATION 301
ber of contractors outside of the department. Some of these
officials have been tried and convicted and others acquitted.
Some are waiting trial. Under the vigorous policy of Presi-
dent Roosevelt dishonesty and incompetency were weeded out
of the department and its administration placed above
suspicion.
RECOGNIZES REPUBLIC OF PANAMA
The closing month of 1903 was an epoch-marking December
for the United States, for in that month President Roosevelt,
seizing the opportunity presented by the secession of Panama
from Colombia, negotiated the treaty which finally after many
decades of effort gave the United States the right to build
and own the Panama Canal.
EXTRA SESSION FOR CtJBAN RECIPROCITY
President Roosevelt won his fight for Cuban reciprocity
in the closing months of 1903. The treaty negotiated by
Tasker H. Bliss was ratified, with amendments by the Senate,
March 29. The amendments provided for action by the
House. The House was unable to reach the question before
adjournment.
President Roosevelt summoned an extra session of
Ten days later, November
Congress, which met November 9.
ig, the House passed the resolution ratifying the treaty by a
vote of 385 to 21. The Senate passed the Reciprocity Bill
December 16, and the treaty went into effect December 27,
1903. Time already has justified President Roosevelt's Cuban
policy. The trade between the United States and Cuba is
growing larger month by month.
One of the features of President Roosevelt's administration
was his attack upon the proposed consolidation of two
great competing transcontinental lines of railway, the North-