broadly and liberally
by the United States Government and made free to all mankind, while
Canadian railroads and navigation companies share in our country's
transportation upon terms as favorable as are accorded to our own
citizens.

The canals and other public works built and maintained by the Government
along the line of the lakes are made free to all.

In contrast to this condition, and evincing a narrow and ungenerous
commercial spirit, every lock and canal which is a public work of the
Dominion of Canada is subject to tolls and charges.

By Article XXVII of the treaty of 1871 provision was made to secure to
the citizens of the United States the use of the Welland, St. Lawrence,
and other canals in the Dominion of Canada on terms of equality with the
inhabitants of the Dominion, and to also secure to the subjects of Great
Britain the use of the St. Clair Flats Canal on terms of equality with
the inhabitants of the United States.

The equality with the inhabitants of the Dominion which we were promised
in the use of the canals of Canada did not secure to us freedom from
tolls in their navigation, but we had a right to expect that we, being
Americans and interested in American commerce, would be no more burdened
in regard to the same than Canadians engaged in their own trade; and
the whole spirit of the concession made was, or should have been, that
merchandise and property transported to an American market through these
canals should not be enhanced in its cost by tolls many times higher
than such as were carried to an adjoining Canadian market. All our
citizens, producers and consumers as well as vessel owners, were to
enjoy the equality promised.

And yet evidence has for some time been before the Congress, furnished
by the Secretary of the Treasury, showing that while the tolls charged
in the first instance are the same to all, such vessels and cargoes as
are destined to certain Canadian ports are allowed a refund of nearly
the entire tolls, while those bound for American ports are not allowed
any such advantage.

To promise equality, and then in practice make it conditional upon our
vessels doing Canadian business instead of their own, is to fulfill a
promise with the shadow of performance.

I recommend that such legislative action be taken as will give Canadian
vessels navigating our canals, and their cargoes, precisely the
advantages granted to our vessels and cargoes upon Canadian canals, and
that th