Canals

Miller Freeman notifies Theodore Roosevelt that a delegation of “Southern Pacific Attorneys” left to attend a hearing in Washington, D.C. to protest against Henry L. Stimson, U.S. Secretary of War, letting Lake Washington canal lock a contract. Freeman says there are no legal questions involved and left to Stimson on sound judgement. Freeman states if Roosevelt attended the hearing, he would see that the corporation is trying to block the pacific coast from the benefits of the Panama Canal, and Freeman asks Roosevelt for his help in the matter. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-17

Miller Freeman writes to Theodore Roosevelt to ask for Roosevelt’s assistance in convincing the federal government to accept a proposal in Seattle to construct a canal in Lake Washington thereby expanding the city’s water front. Freeman adds the federal government has been less receptive to their proposals and big interests have interfered in the past and that he hopes Roosevelt is able to speak on their behalf as they have been trying to construct the canal for many years.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-07

Miller Freeman notifies Theodore Roosevelt that a delegation of “Southern Pacific Attorneys” left to attend a hearing in Washington, D.C. to protest against Henry L. Stimson, U.S. Secretary of War, letting Lake Washington canal lock a contract. Freeman says there are no legal questions involved and left to Stimson on sound judgement. Freeman states if Roosevelt attended the hearing, he would see that the corporation is trying to block the pacific coast from the benefits of the Panama Canal, and Freeman asks Roosevelt for his help in the matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-17

Lee C. Spooner believes Americans share the sentiment that poverty can and must be abolished and proposes how this can be accomplished, primarily by turning competition into cooperation. He argues that the laborers are the enemy of the republic, as they either turn to crime or revolution. To feel the responsibility of citizenship, the laborer must first own property. Spooner proposes they be granted a one-acre, suburban tract of land with a house through a federal initiative. Next, the prohibition of liquor will prevent laborers from wasting their earnings. Instead, they can then invest their earnings in federally regulated trusts. This redistribution of wealth will bring “socialism by purchase” and the end of poverty.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-19

President Roosevelt will do what James Bronson Reynolds suggests, and asks him to send the canal reports. He shares Reynolds’s opinion regarding renominating Governor Charles Evans Hughes. While the state leaders are justified in their strong opposition to Hughes, Roosevelt believes they will accept his judgment and renominate Hughes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-21

President Roosevelt has received Secretary Hay’s letter. Senator Lodge will support the canal treaty.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-09-28

Charles C. Bull writes to Theodore Roosevelt about progress on the Panama Canal construction, which he says is going well. He states his opinion that though he opposes “white slaves traffic,” as by law women cannot be brought across country lines for “immoral” purposes, he says there is a problem in Panama where there are too many canal workers and too few prostitutes, and the prostitutes that are there have venereal diseases. Bull thinks there needs to be a way to bring (specifically white) prostitutes who have freely chosen the vocation to Panama and to have better health monitoring. He discusses San Francisco politics and greater U.S. politics, stating he will not support William H. Taft and he does not think the Republican Party will do well the next couple of terms, so he hopes the Democratic Party runs a presidential candidate he does not dislike too much so he does not have to vote Socialist. Lastly, he believes part of the Panama Canal construction area is not well fortified and is vulnerable to potential attack.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-14

William H. Taft is aware of the controversy and criticism around Cromwell but feels that he is honest and loyal and could be beneficial on the canal matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-06-30

John Hay returns a letter from Andrew Carnegie to President Roosevelt. Hay denies congratulating Carnegie as the Senate did not accept the amendments of the first canal treaty and prophecy by Carnegie was not fortunate after all.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-07

President Roosevelt, dressed in white, passes through the Culebra Cut on the canal railroad.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-02

Scenes of the Panama Canal, generally in the natural order of passage, from a ship moving from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The ship passes by the Panamanian city of Colón on the Atlantic end, through the channel to Gatun Locks and into Gatun Lake, with views of the Gatun spillway and the Chagres River. From here she passes from Gaillard Cut (Culebra Cut), into the Pedro Miguel Locks and into Miraflores Lake; then through the Miraflores Locks and into the final portion of the canal, passing the Canal Zone towns of Ancon, Balboa, and Balboa Heights. Final views are of the Ancon Hospital (Gorgas Hospital) and the United States Administration Building at Balboa.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1919

A variety of boats and ships, as balloon aircraft loaded with tourists and travelers, float above the Panama Canal. It is suggested that the age of aviation will render the canal obsolete. Caption: At which distant day ocean navigation will be a trifle out of date.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Uncle Sam, with a bundle of papers labeled “Canal Plans,” pats a diminutive man, wearing a hat labeled “Panama,” on the shoulder. The man smiles broadly and is leaning on a large sword. Canal construction equipment is just offshore, in the background. Caption: Uncle Sam — Well! Well! You boys have at last had a revolution which will help the whole world.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Sometimes in cartoons, as well as texts — and perhaps more so, literally — history can “read between the lines.” Joseph Keppler Junior’s cover cartoon in Puck appeared one week after the United States and the new Republic of Panama concluded a treaty that recognized the latter’s national independence.

A railroad lobbyist puts on a puppet show. The puppets, labeled “Nicaragua Route” and “Panama Route,” stand in opposition to each other. Caption: Railroad Lobbyist — The railroads won’t have to compete with a canal so long as I can keep these figures fighting.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Largely forgotten in history’s considerations of the Panama Canal — and debates that still rage — is the general opposition of American railroads and railroad barons to the concept of a trans-oceanic canal. The railroads of course benefited from commerce and passenger business over the North American continent, absent a canal. The theoretical military advantages (savings of sailing times) mitigated in favor of a canal after the Spanish-American War. These were issues that raged, and Keppler’s cartoon is a reminder of the cynical role of the railroad interests. Ironically, as the United States developed a two-navy policy through the years, the strategic importance of the Panama Canal has receded as security concerns, including terror attacks, have increased. And a large percentage of international trade through the Canal in our times is between eastern South American countries and Pacific powers like China and Japan.

A bulldog labeled “Jingoism” stands in a ditch labeled “Nicaragua Canal” confronting animals representing European countries: the British Lion holding a pick labeled “England,” a boar labeled “Germany,” the Russian Bear leaning on a shovel, a donkey labeled “Spain,” a rooster labeled “France,” and a monkey labeled “Italy.” Each wants a piece of the construction of the canal.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon represents a rare editorial stance for Puck magazine, ascribing American proprietary attitudes toward a trans-oceanic canal not to the Monroe Doctrine of commercial advantages, but to Jingoism — overheated nationalistic patriotism. While United States advocates of a canal debated Nicaragua and the Panamanian region of Colombia as likely sites, world powers desired their own participation.

A huge man, representing “Transcontinental R.R. Interests,” holds many strings linked to members of the U.S. Senate to stall legislation on a “Nicaragua Canal Treaty.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

This cartoon is reminiscent of Puck‘s famous “Bosses Of the Senate” (1889) by Joseph Keppler Sr., showing many large figures representing the Trusts in the Senate galleries. Here, the Railroad Trust is depicted as manipulating the members on the floor in opposition to the proposed Isthmian canal (Nicaragua the likely route, in most speculation). Largely neglected by history is the opposition to the building of a canal by railroad monopolies that profited from coastal trade in the United States.

The mythological figure Hermes/Mercury, as “Commerce,” stands atop a cliff, extending his arm to “Peace” standing on a cliff opposite, with the Nicaragua Canal separating them. On the cliff below Hermes, Uncle Sam stands on a ladder supported by John Bull. Uncle Sam is placing a sign that states, “Notice No Fighting on These Premises.” Another man labeled “Jingo” is pulling on the tails of Uncle Sam’s coat.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Three years prior to the successful revolution and secession of Panama from Columbia, a Nicaraguan canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans seemed as a likely a prospect as any. Many in the United States favored such a route, and international forces including the French who had invested and abandoned efforts to build a Colombian canal, and Great Britain. Keppler’s cartoon betrays the mindset, in pre-Roosevelt times, that American foreign policy was inextricably tied with England’s. The adornments of the figure of Hermes asserts that trade, commerce, and travel — domains which the Greeks assigned to the god — was a natural ally of Peace. The figure labeled “Jingo” (traditionally, a hyper-nationalist) is meant to attack those Americans who opposed an American-backed canal of any sort; or those who militated for the Colombian alternative. By his hat and sword he possibly was meant by Keppler to be French; the French government and surviving Franco-American financial interests, argues against a Nicaraguan canal — hoping at least to salvage their investments.

View of Georgetown Heights with the Alexandria Aqueduct Bridge in the background crossing the Potomac River. The Aqueduct Bridge is shown its first incarnation as a means of transporting canal boats from Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to the Alexandria Canal. Mason’s Island, later called Theodore Roosevelt Island, is seen in the distance.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial

Creation Date

1864

The Alexandria Aqueduct Bridge in its original incarnation as a means for transporting canal boats across the Potomac River between the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Alexandria Canal. The Chesapeake and Ohio is visible in the foreground while Mason’s Island, later Theodore Roosevelt Island, can be seen in the distance.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial

Creation Date

1864

The Alexandria Aqueduct Bridge is a double level bridge with a canal on the bottom level and a roadway on the top level. Georgetown can be seen in the distance.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial

Creation Date

1880