Panama Kanalen I 1912

exclusive of the Panama Canal, it has never entered into the conception of Congress to erect a tollgate in the path of our domestic trade, for the benefit of which these im- provements have been made. The minority enters an emphatic protest against the abandonment in this bill of our historic policy of free commercial intercourse between the States. This great canal, built for the American people by American money, genius, and enterprise, should be forever a free and un- trammeled competing route with transportation by land. We can not emphasize too strongly the elementary pro- position that tolls levied upon vessels engaged in commerce between our eastern and western seaboards increase the amount the transcontinental railroads may charge for the same service. If a vessel en route from San Francisco to New York through the canal were required to pay $ 10,000 in tolls, the transcontinental railroads would largely be the beneficiaries. This question affects every ton of domestic freight that passes through the canal and every ton that is carried across the country by the railroads.“ Det hedder endvidere her: „We can not too strongly protest against the following language contained in section 5 of the bill: „No preference shall be given nor discrimination shown, directly or indirectly, to the vessels of any nation, its citizens or subjects, other than vessels belonging to the Government of the United States (including those belonging to the Panama Railroad Company) and the Government of the Republic of Panama observing the rules and regulations of the Panama Canal.“ C. P, O. Moltke: Panama-Canalen i 1912 6