many, Roosevelt told the
Ambassador that in view of the Kaiser's silence, the American fleet
would sail a day earlier than had been planned, and as promptly as
cables could do the work, Germany gave in and consented to arbitration.
Roosevelt's prompt action in this matter and the courageous stand he
took with the Berlin government undoubtedly prevented war, which might,
when started, very easily have embroiled the world.

The power of America, Roosevelt believed, was the strongest influence
against war. When he was conscious of a "veiled truculence" in the
Japanese diplomatic communications, the American battle fleet was
ordered to make a cruise around the world, ostensibly for training, but
really to show the world, and particularly the Asiatics, that the
United States had ample means to enforce its rights in all waters and
on every sea.

"Every particle of trouble with the Japanese Government and the
Japanese press," says Roosevelt in a letter, "stopped like magic as
soon as they found that our fleet had actually sailed and was obviously
in good trim. As I told Von Tirpitz (the German admiral), I thought it
a good thing that the Japanese should know there were fleets of the
white races which were totally different from the fleet of poor
Rojestvensky."

But Roosevelt was not a lover of war in spite of the warlike stand he
took on several occasions. And his efforts in bringing about peace
between Japan and Russia resulted in the award to him of the Nobel
Peace Prize of $40,000.

The constructive work he accomplished while in office is too great to
be even sketched in these brief pages. It was in Roosevelt's term,
however, that the famous Panama Canal was begun and pushed toward
completion.

When his administration had ended and he was a private citizen once
more, Roosevelt started on his famous hunting trip to the jungles of
Africa, where he indulged to the full his love of excitement and his
interest in natural history. He killed lion, hippopotamus and elephant,
tracking his game on foot and having several narrow escapes from death
by infuriated and wounded wild beasts. He then toured Europe on a trip
the like of which has not fallen to the lot of any other living man,
for he was feted and cheered like a monarch wherever he went, and
received honors that never before in the history of the world had been
accorded to a man in private life.

Roosevelt returned to America more honored and loved than any other man