Manifest Destiny, Progressivism, War, and the Roaring Twenties 195across the Isthmus of Panama. When native Panamanians, aided by
foreign promoters of a canal, rose up in rebellion in November 1903 ,
American troops were used to block Colombia’s effort to crush the re-
bellion, and Roo sevelt was quick to recognize the inde pendence of
the new Panamanian republic. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, signed
on November 10 , 1903 , granted the United States control of a ten-mile
zone across the isthmus. The United States also agreed to guarantee
the inde pendence of Panama. Furthermore, it obtained the right to
intervene at any time to protect the sovereignty of this new Republic,
and it agreed to pay $ 10 million and an annual fee of $ 250 , 000 to oper-
ate a canal after it had been built.
Manifest Destiny had now moved south across the border. Army
engineers under Colonel William C. Gorgas set to work on the canal,
and on January 7 , 1914 , the first ship passed through it. Later, Roo sevelt
would boast, “I took the Canal Zone.” The canal not only aided world
trade but provided a vital means by which the United States could
move its fleet to protect its Pacific and Asian possessions. Much later,
during the administration of President Jimmy Carter in 1977 , treaties
were negotiated by which the United States would continue to operate
the canal until the year 2000 , after which ownership of it would be
turned over to Panama. with the understanding that its neutrality
would be guaranteed even during periods of war.
Once Roosevelt won election as President in 1904 against the
Democrat Alton B. Parker, the Socialist Eugene Debs, the Prohibi-
tionist Silas C. Swallow, and the Populist Thomas E. Watson, he felt
more comfortable about urging additional social and economic re-
forms. In his first message to Congress, after his election on November
4 , he proposed several measures regarding child labor, slum clearance,
and the strengthening of investigative agencies. These proposals re-
sulted in some of the most important legislation of his administration,
starting with the Pure Food and Drug Act, passed on June 30 , 1906.
This measure forbade the manufacture, sale, and distribution of adul-
terated drugs and food in interstate commerce, and it prohibited fraud-
ulent labeling of these products. Congress also enacted the Meat
Inspection Act, but it took the publication of Upton Sinclair’s book The