The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-06-12
TOL[SEXEMPT|0
PASSES SENATE
By 50 10 35
WAS IMMEDIATELY SENT TO THE
HOUSE
The Ad ninistration Thus Wins An
other Victory, Probably It's
Most Important
(By Associated Press.)

of the canal tolls exemption for the
United States of coastwise shipping
passed the Senate last night by a
vote of fifty to thirty-fve. 1t now
goes to the House, which, it is eX-
pected will accept the amendment
reserving the United States rights
as specified in the Hay Pauncetfore
treaty.
When the bill was returned to the
House for action on an amendment
before going to the president, Chair
man Adamson of the commerce com
mittee Immediately moved concur
renee instead of sending the amend
ment to a conference.
The question of making the Pana-
ma canal free to American vessels
was brought to the front when the
House, on May 23, 1912, incorporat
ed in the act providing for the es
tablishment of civil government in
the canal zone provision authoriZ-
ing the president to charge tolls to
vessels using the canal, with pro-
yiso eXempting American coastwise
vessels from such charges. President
Taft, in a message to Congress had
urged the exemption, The bill had
been reported to the House providing
tolls for all vessels but the eXemp-
tion provision was adopted as an
amendment. This amendment was
in the bill as it went to the Senate
Before the bill passed the Senate,
Great Britain, on July IL, 1912,
filed a formal protest against the
proposed exemption. The note trans
mitted to the State department con-
tended
"The British government thinks
that to allow American vessels to
pass through the canal without the
payment of tolls would be to violate
the -Pauncefote treaty whether
the tolls are not collected, or wheth-
or if collected they are refunded AS
to coastwise trade, the British gov
ernment thinks it would be difficult
to frame a provision which would
not do injustice to their interests
The IIay-Pauncefote treaty super
seeded the Clayton-BulWer treaty un-
der which Great Britain and the
United States were, jointly, to build
the canal The Hay-Pauncefote
agreement, after providing rules for
the regulation of the canal, based on
the rules governing Suez canaltraf-
fc ,setforth:
THE canal shall be free and open
to the vessels of commerce and of
war of all nations observing these
rules on terms of entire equality, so
that there shall be no discrimination
against any such nation or its citi-
zens of traffic or otherwise, Such
conditions or charges of traffic shall
be just and equitable
The British note of protest start
ed a lengthy diplomatic correspond
ence on the subject. Great Britain
throughout claimed that the United
States could not, under the terms of
the treaty, make toll exemption Of
any vessels, whether its own, or of
other nations Secretary Knox, who
conducted the correspondence for the
United States, in several lengthy
notes contended that the exemption
of American coastwise shipping was
in no way a discrimination against
other traffic using theca nal. He as
serted that the exemption was in the
nature of a subsidy paid, not by i'm
posing the tolls for certain American
vessels upon other ships passing
through the canal, but by the Amer
ican taxpayers themselves in paying
for the maintenance of the canal.
"The avoidance Of poscsible fric-
tion," said the note, has been one
of the main objects Of those meth
DDS of arbitration of which the
United States has been for so long
foremost and consistent advocate. "
Throughout the first year Of
President Wilson's administration
there was a constant agitation for
the repeal of the exemption clause.
The president let it be known that
he favored the repeal, and on March
5, 1914, he delivered an address to
Congress in joint session, earnestly