When he was there the main streets of the city were nothing but unbroken chains of mud puddles in which, during the wet season, carriages sank almost to the axles. When he returned he found those same streets well paved with vitrified brick, measuring up to the best standards of American street work. Where formerly peddlers hawked water from disease-scattering springs, there were hydrants throughout the town and wholesome water on tap in almost every house. Where there had been absolutely no attempt to solve the problems of sewage disposal, where the masses of people lived amid indescribable filth, absolutely oblivious to its stenches and its dangers, now there was a sewerage system fully up to the best standard of American municipal engineering. When one considers that the Republic of Panama is made up largely of the cities of Panama and Colon, with a large area of almost wholly undeveloped territory, it will be seen that this service was rendered to practically all the people of the Republic. The relations which have existed between the Republic of Panama and the United States have not always proved wholly satisfactory to the Panamans. Like all other tropical Americans, the Panamans profess great admiration for a republican form of government, but the party in power seldom has relished the idea of a full and free accounting of its stewardship at the polls. When the time came for the first national election, the party in power sought to insure its return by the use of tropical-American methods; that is, by a wholesale intimidation of the opposition supporters. When the registration books were opened the administration was unwilling to register the supporters of the opposition. The government forces always were relied upon to back up the registrars. This situation was resented by the opposition and the indications were that the usual civil war, the tropical American substitute for an election, was about to follow. At this juncture Governor Blackburn called the Panaman authorities together and notified them that the United States did not care a continental which side won the election, but that it was very deeply interested in maintaining conditions of peace and amity on the Isthmus--conditions which could not prevail except there be a fair election. He reminded them of the right of the United States to maintain order in their two principal cities, and of the blood and treasure the United States had invested in Panama, all of which would be placed in jeopardy by any civil conflict. He therefore declared it the intention of the United States to see that there was a fair election.