Chapter 248.
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/statutes-at-large/vol-27/chapter-248-1107974·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 248.— An act to enforce reciprocal commercial relations between the United States and Canada, and for other purposes.July 26, 1892. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Canadian canals. President to suspend free passage through Saint Marys Falls Canal when unjust charges are made for navigation of Saint Lawrence River, etc., by United States vessels, etc. That, with a view of securing reciprocal advantages for the citizens, ports, and vessels of the United States, on and after the first day of August, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, whenever and so often as the President shall be satisfied that the passage through any canal or lock connected with the navigation of the Saint Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, or the water ways connecting the same, of any vessels of the United States, or of cargoes or passengers in transit to any port of the United States, is prohibited or is made difficult or burdensome by the imposition of tolls or otherwise*Post*. p. 1032. which, in view of the free passage through the Saint Marys Falls Canal, now permitted to vessels of all nations, he shall deem to be reciprocally unjust and unreasonable, he shall have the power, and it shall be his duty, to suspend, by proclamation to that effect, for such time and to such extent (including absolute prohibition) as he shall deem just, the right of free passage through the Saint Marys Falls Canal, so far as it relates to vessels owned by the subjects of the government so discriminating against the citizens, ports, or vessels of the United States, or to any cargoes, portions of cargoes, or passengers in transit to the ports of the government making such discrimination, whether carried in vessels of the United States or of other nations.
In such case and during such suspension tolls shall be levied, collected,Tolls. and paid as follows, to wit: Upon freight of whatever kind or 268 description, not to exceed two dollars per ton; upon passengers, not to exceed live dollars each, as shall be from time to time determined by *Proviso*. No charge for navigation west of Ogdensburg, N. Y.the President: *Provided*, That no tolls shall be charged or collected upon freight or passengers carried to and landed at Ogdensburg, or any port west of Ogdensburg, and south of a line drawn from the northern boundary of the State of New York through the Saint Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and their connecting channels to the northern boundary of the State of Minnesota.
Sec. 2. All tolls so charged shall be collected under such regulationsCollection of tolls. as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, who may require the master of each vessel to furnish a sworn statement of the amount and kind of cargo and the number of passengers carried and Proof of destination.the destination of the same, and such proof of the actual delivery of such cargo or passengers at some port or place within the limits above named as he shall deem satisfactory; and until such proof is furnished such freight and passengers may be considered to have been Tolls to be a lien.landed at some port or place outside of those limits, and the amount of tolls which would have accrued if they had been so delivered shall constitute a lien, which may be enforced against the vessel in default wherever and whenever found in the waters of the United States.
Approved, July 26, 1892.