Nobel Committee awarded to Roosevelt the annual prize for services
to peace.

Relations with all the world were friendly between 1905 and 1909. Great
Britain contributed to the cordiality by sending to the United States
as her ambassador the best-fitted of her subjects, James Bryce. Under
his tactful management the next five years were a period of
unprecedented friendship. The South American republics, always sensitive
about the headship of the United States, were brought to kindlier
feelings. There had been two congresses of all the Americas, one in
1889, at the instigation of Blaine, the next in Mexico in 1901. In 1906
the American republics convened at Rio de Janeiro in July. Secretary of
State Elihu Root made a plea for friendship before this congress. From
Rio he went to other capitals of South America, achieving notable
triumphs in his public speeches.

The Pan-American Conference at Rio was an American preliminary to a
larger meeting in which the United States played an important part in
1907. During 1904 Roosevelt had agreed to start a movement for a second
conference at The Hague. He took up the negotiation during the
Russo-Japanese War, deferred it at the instance of the Czar, and then
stood aside to let the latter issue the formal invitation. The American
delegation at the Second Hague Conference was led by Joseph H. Choate,
leader of the American Bar and former ambassador to Great Britain. It
forced the discussion throughout the session, tried in vain to produce
an agreement to abolish the right of capture of enemy property on the
high seas in time of war, and helped to strengthen the permanent court
of arbitration. In January, 1906, the United States had sat in
conference at Algeciras, over the affairs of Morocco. It had mediated
in the Oriental war. It had strengthened its position at home. It was no
longer true that the United States was entirely disinterested in the
affairs of Europe, for it had become a world power.

A visible emblem of power was afforded to the world in 1907. Since the
Treaty of Portsmouth there had been friction with Japan over the
treatment of Japanese subjects on the Pacific Coast, and alarmists had
drawn pictures of a possible war. Late in 1907 the President announced a
practice voyage for the whole effective navy that would carry it around
South America and into the Pacific. In December he reviewed the fleet,
and saw it off from Hampton Roads. From the Pacific it was ordered ro