Roosevelt Proud Of His Peace Record.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 11, 1912:
Believes His Greatest Service Was the Sending of the Fleet Around the World.
LOATHES A BRAWLING NATION
Says Panama Canal Is His Product — Washington State Split Between Him and Wilson.
Special to The New York Times.
    TACOMA, Sept. 10, (On Board the Roosevelt Train.)— Col. Roosevelt to-day invaded the western part of this State, and wound up his visit to Seattle and Tacoma by making a speech to 20,000 people at the Stadium here. He spoke three times in Seattle before coming here, and had a good deal to say about the Panama Canal. That is a very live question in this part of the country, and President Taft is getting a good many votes because of his attitude on the subject. The Colonel knew this, and reminded the Washingtonians that the Panama Canal was his product, and he got a rise out of the crowd every time.
    This is a hard country for Roosevelt to deal with. The eastern part of the State is for him, but the western, which casts a much bigger vote, is counted as unfriendly. The Bull Moose got a very black eye at Saturday's primaries, where it had counted upon obtaining 40 per cent. of the vote and got only 10 per cent. The nomination of Robert T. Hodge for Governor by the Bull Moose Party has not helped. It is the same here as it is nearly everywhere, except in Montana — the Progressives weakened their cause by their Gubernatorial nomination.
    Hodge is Sheriff of King County, and is supposed to be strong with the labor element, having been a coal miner, but no man cam carry Washington without the votes of women, and the women are against Hodge because he is a divorced man. And yet it is admitted that Hodge was not to blame in the matter, as it was he, and not his wife, who obtained the divorce.
    But the women hold it against him, just the same. Hodge is a grizzly bear of a man, with a thick Irish brogue and a slam-banging sort of way with him. Gov. Hay is very popular in the State, and is likely to be elected without regard to what happens to Taft.
    The Bull Moose does not make as strong an appeal in this State as in some others, for the reason that men and women who want to see Progressive principles enacted into State legislation are aware that they can get it done through the old parties. On the Presidential ticket the fight is between Wilson and Roosevelt, with the odds favoring Wilson.

Colonel Is for Peace.
    The Colonel got a great reception in both Seattle and Tacoma, although, it was more one of quality than one of quantity in the first-named city. He never spoke to a more serious and earnest audience than he did in Seattle. Four thousand people were jammed in the hall, and the attitude of the whole 4,000 was that of a Methodist congregation at church.
    Everywhere through the crowd were women voters, most of them gray-haired and all of them in dead earnest. The biggest hit Roosevelt made was when he said:
    "I believe with all my heart in peace. I loathe the bully and brawler in private life, and I loathe the Nation that plays the part of the bully and brawler, but I want peace that comes not because men do not think it worth while to kick us, but because they recognize in us just men armed — a Nation that will do injustice to no one and that will suffer injustice from no one.
    "If I were asked to name the greatest service I ever rendered in the cause of peace, I am not sure I would name the service for which I received the Nobel Peace Prize at the close of the Russo-Japanese war. I think I would name the fact that I sent the fleet around the world."
    The Colonel delivered this sentence with a vim that produced a storm of cheers. Next to this, his biggest hit was when he talked about the Panama Canal.
    "There had been four centuries of conversation about the canal," he said, "and I thought we might just as well translate conversation into action, though I allowed Congress to debate me instead of the canal. Congress has been debating me fitfully ever since, and will possibly continue so to do until my death. They got the debate and the people got the canal." When he took up Gov. Wilson's statement that the Democratic platform is not a programme, he made the crowd shout wildly by saying: " If it is not a programme, it is a lying promise."
    After this speech the Colonel addressed a great and enthusiastic throng at the Progressive State Convention, and then left for Tacoma.