Peshawar Lancers Redux: North America

By 1902 it was clear that Teddy was making lots of progress. People began to feel a lot better about the country and themselves. The result was that the Nationalist expanded their majority in the Congress The Brooklyn Naval Yard began to work on plans for a dreadnought type of Battleship. It would still be a few years before construction would begin. The US population was beginning to grow but slowly. Experts predicted that in 1904 Teddy would win a second term.
 
President Theodore Roosevelt had pushed through a number of laws designed to insure the safety of the American Food. Meat was inspected to insure that people would not suffer having rotten or infected food. The President went after Monopolies which tried to eliminate competition and raise prices to unbelievable highs. A lot of road and rail connections had been repaired and steel production was rising. While attention was focused on rebuilding the nation Teddy turned to restoring the military might of America. In 1904 work began on the first two American Dreadnoughts the USS Connectisut and the USS South Carolina Armed with 8x12"/45 guns in four turrets they were the largest warships ever built in the US.
 
While the effects of The Fall continued to loosen their grip on the world in the United States Teddy had relighted the spirit that had been sleeping. It was now clear that the country was coming back. New York City was reborn and the President campaigned for re-election all over the nation. In November Teddy won a landslide victory.
 
The Federal Capital was located in what hat been Lawrence ,Kansas. . It had been renamed New Washington. There had been a lot of new construction in the area and little remained of the old city> Teddy had made sure that there were lots of parks and he didn't want it to be crowed. The President continued to put his p\imprint into the city. America was changing and it was on a path that would see a lot of improvements.
 
In 1905 the president pushed through the Naval Act of 1905 which called for the building of new capital ships cruisers and destroyers. Federal Law now was established in the lands formerly known as the Indian Territory of Arizona. Montana was admitted as a state.
 
President Roosevelt had spent federal Money widening the Rio Grand River and turning it into a canal capable of allowing shipping as far west as El Paso Texas. It was a great undertaking and would not be completed until 1912. The Brooklyn Naval Yard was now planning the construction of the next generation of battle ship. Already the USS Arkansas and USS Wyoming were under construction in Virginia but the new ships would be started in the Brooklyn Naval Yard being the USS New York and her sister ship the USS Texas.
 
President Roosevelt had a lot of projects that he was pushing to get done. Time just seemed to be speeding by and he next knew that the mid term elections were coming up and once they took place he would have just two years left in his term as President. He had promised the family that it would be just two terms and then he would retire but there were party officials who urged him to run for a third term. He would have a meeting with the Mexican Prime Minister and latter a meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister. Hawaii's Prime Minister would arrive fora state visit and the President was expected to visit Europe to see to efforts at restoration.
 
In decisions between the President and the Prime Minister of Canada there had been a meeting of the minds regarding trade and co-operation on further restoration efforts that could benefit both nations. A decision was made to move up the restoration of rail links between the two nations as well as the construction of several bridges which would allow cars and trucks to travel between the two nations. The Hawaiian- Canadian agreements now became an American-Canadian Hawaiian Treaty to assist one another and share information.
 
In meetings with the Mexican Prime Minister the American President expressed concern that Mexico was failing to address problems along the border with the United States.
There seemed to be a growing Crime problem and Teddy explained that it was Mexico's responsibility to re-establish law and order.While the US was willing to assist if Mexico ignored the problem the US would deal with it. The result was Mexico sent 5,000 Federal Police into the border region and was prepared to send Military forces to back up the police.
 
President Roosevelt had expanded the professional army and nearly 30% of it was manning post along the border with Mexico. He had met with the Indian chiefs and they had agreed to form a Joint US army-Apache unit to strike at Mexican bandits that had raided into the US. With intelligence the joint unit stuck at 6 sites in Mexico killing all of the Bandits. The unit vanished across the border back into the US.
 
President ROOSEVELT was in 1907 looking at who he could support for the nomination for President in the 1908 election. His Vice President had already shown that he would be more happy with an appointment to the Federal court. . He was looking at one of his comrades from his days in the army as a possible replacement. The Democrats were showing some indication that they may have learned from their past mistakes and reforming the party.
It appears that the secret raids into Mexico may have solved the problem and given the Mexican government a chance to restore control to the border region.
 
Teddy had a long and serious conversation with Leonard Woods a man wh he had served with in the US Army and who had been Chief of Staff and Commanding General just two years earlier. He convinced the former General to run for President under the Banner of the Nationalist/Republican Parties to succeed him as President. Teddy used a lot of his charm and arm twisting to support the man. As a result Woods won the nomination and went on to win the race. This allowed Teddy to for-fill his promise to his family
 
The Election of Leonard Wood had marked the election of someone who was born when Abe Lincoln was first elected as President. He remembered the Fall as a child and had struggled. He had graduated from college in 1881 and had gone to Medical school and then straight into the army. While he was a doctor he had been involved in combat and had ended up leading men in battle. He had served with Colonel Roosevelt and Colonel Pershing and had remained in the army rising in rank. He had no politcal ambition but had been convinced by the President to run . He was stunned when he won the election. The former President remained at the capital to help Leonard pick his cabinet but then left for New York where he owned an estate in the city. He also owned a home in the nations capital but wanted to give his friend a chance to step out of his shadow.
 
President Leonard Woods was a much different person than Theodore Roosevelt.. He had spent his life in the army and was an Army officer who had seen combat and who had also served as a doctor. He had worked as a Military Adviser to the President. Now he was President and had to make a lot of decisions. Weather was improving and the country was in a lot better shape than After The Fall. Teddy's Rio Grande Canal Project continued but he had doubts that it should continue westward into the rougher terrain of New Mexico and then Arizona.
 

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President Woods ordered the formation of a Commission to study whether continuing to build a canal along America' southern border made any sense and how much would it cost and how long would it take. It would have some of the best and most talented engineers on it. The Canal was nearly to El Paso, Texas and work could continue for another six months but a decision would have to be made.. President Woods traveled to the region to see for himself what it looked like. He sent a team of Army engineers to look at the possible route. General Pershing would oversee the project as he was the commander of US forces along the border region.
 
Since the Hawaiians had experience building a canal (they had built the one in the Central American Republic and had helped Neuva Granada when they had run into problems building the Panama Canal) the Commission decided to consult with the Royal Hawaiian Army Engineers. The Hawaiians sent a team to the region and looked at the region and took samples. The Hawaiians conclusion was build into New Mexico would be very costly and take a lot of time. Arizona might be slightly easier to do especially if the used the Sea of Cortez as an exit.
 
The recommendation of the commission was that based upon current technology to continue to build the canal into New Mexico and Arizona would be so costly as to be unrealistic. It would take an unbelievable amount of explossives and perhaps as long as 50 years to construct the remaining part of the Canal. A guess is that the cost would be 900 Billion to 1.2 trillion dollars. Thus the only part that might be continued would be from the Sea of Cortez eastward say for 50-70 miles.
President Woods thanked the Commission for its workand then invoted former President Roosevelt to the White House to discuss matters. Teddy arrived and was given a copy of the report . The former President and the current one exchanged thoughts and upon reflection both agreed that the cost and the time that it would takewould be too great.
 
President Woods issued an order which scaled back any future work on the canal. The only thing that was allowed was survey work to find the best route should the Congress and the President decide to go ahead with an expansion. Improvements were made so that the canal would function from the Gulf of Mexico to the port of El Paso, Texas. The former President was not happy that it was not continued but realized that current technology would not allow it to be. It was simply too expensive in view of all of the other work that was needed.
 
The president had a number of things that needed to be dealt with some where ongoing efforts to repair damage from The Fall and others were things that had come to light.
Among the projects that the President felt needed to be addressed was the electrification of the Nation, Improvement in Health care for the American people and a major effort to reunite the parts of Florida which had been separated by The Fall.. The Construction of some Dams moved up on the priority list to prevent flooding and provide power.
Sewer lines were built with money provided by the federal government and the President got the Congress to provide grants to train more doctors and nurses to provide better access to healthcare.
 
One of the projects which had been started in the late 1880s was the reunification of Florida. The Fall had shattered Florida uring it into a mainland and two bid islands plus some smaller ones. Some ideas were tried but what was lacking was a real plan that would work. Hawaii's Military engineers had tackled a lot of projects in building the America Canal and they had come up with several ideas that might just accomplish the goal. President Theodore Roosevelt was willing to try and as someone who had seen the impossible done in the rebuilding of New York and Boston he was willing to try it. Thus massive amounts of stone from clean ups and construction projects were shipped by rail from the Northeast to Florida. Massive concrete manufacturing was set up and the project began in 1902. By the end of TRs 2nd term there had been some progress.
Land had been regained but it would take at least another 20 years before the impact would be to the point that Florida would reappear
 
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