_— Mackenzie’s dream obstructed for 60 years By CHARLES SIMS ILLIAM Lyon Mackenzie more than 100 years ago had the vision of ocean ships sailing up the broad St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes. The treaty of 1783, ending the American War of Independence, provided that the St. Lawrence was Canada’s river, except that the 110-mile stretch from Cornwall to Kings- ton formed the Canada-U.S. bor- der. Since then Canadians have built and paid for every canal, and vital channel improvement, between the Atlantic and Lake Erie—on 1,596 miles of the 2,225 distance twixt the sea and the Lakehead. We also built locks at Sault Ste. Marie. All this cost our country over $300 million. Ships of the U.S. and all coun- tries travel this Canadian-built and operated seaway without pay- ing a copper cent in tolls! F Long ago, in 1895, Canada ask- ed the U.S. to cooperate in a plan for constructing a deep-draft waterway from the Atlantic to the Lakehead. Stacks of engin-— eering reports, all proving its feasibility and value, are piled high in Ottawa and Washington. Canada has always wanted to go ahead. But the U.S. Congress in 1897 turned the project down. Since then, with a variety of tricks, Wall Street and Washington have effectively blocked the comple- tion of the St. Lawrence Seaway. In 1932, when Canada opened the new Welland Canal, one of the world’s greatest engineering feats, the U.S. signed a treaty with Canada to cooperate in fin- ishing the seaway and to jointly develop the 2,200,000 horsepower of hydro electric power available. — The U.S. Senate, acting for the Wall Street coal, railway and shipping trusts, vetoed this treaty. Again in 1941 a Great Lakes- St. Lawrence Basin agreement was signed by Canada and the USS., but Congress vetoed this too. A Canadian Press report from Ottawa as late as January 5 said the government “does not plan to wait for U.S. Congress to take action in getting the St. Lawrence Seaway started. . . . After“wait- ing many years for the U.S. to join in, Canada definitely cooled off on the joint job two years ago and made plans to go ahead alone.” Similar despatches have been appearing for several years, but _as yet not a single spadeful of earth has been turned, nor has any date been set. Canadians will hope this report finally means the end of the talk and the be- ginning of action. : Successive Conservative and Liberal governments at Ottawa have yielded to this U.S. plot. They have never done. the logi- cal, sensible thing: finish the final link of the almost completed waterway and provide 27-foot navigation between Montreal and Prescott on Canadian territory. For nearly 60 years the US. has blocked a Canadian Seaway, STEEP ROCK, ONTARIC DEVELOPMENT . cHiCaco @ > @ cary ! while Ottawa has made_ brave proposals and buckled under to Washington. : President Eisenhower told the Canadian parliament on Novem- ber 4 that he favored the sea- way, but then he referred it to the U.S. Congress which, he knows, is determined to block it. The Toronto Globe and Mail re- ported that Eisenhower’s seaway reference had caused “grave ap- prehension” in Ottawa. F. F. Estes, head of the U.S.- National Coal Association, declar- ed last April that he is against it because it would reduce Canada’s dependence upon USS. coal. G. B. Perry, Texas shipping and traffic expert, also declared: “The added burden on the Am- erican taxpayer is terrifying to’ contemplate. This seaway in- volves passage through a tortuous « CONSTRUCTION Vv ; SEVEN SLAMDS, QUEBEC INTERNATIONAL RAPIDS & CANAL SITE OF PROPOSED: SEAWAY NEW GERSEY MINES @ AsHranuta (<4 ELAWARE oy RETHUHEM eget MILLS oT _ PENN. MINES eA ALE ae 300-400 @0 @ RR MILES RIVER MILLS 4 PALTIMORE MILLS channel 1,196 miles long, through Canadian territory except for 110 miles, ice-bound for more than five months of the year and beset by fog and inclement weather during the remainder.” No wonder Canadians are wrathful at such insulting poppy- cock and demand that Ottawa tell Washington to get out of the way while Canada finishes the job! e Premier Louis St. Laurent, un- _ der rising public pressure in 1951 declared that ,Canada would com- plete the seaway alone. But he went down td Washington and agreed with President Truman that the matter would again be referred to the U.S. Congress— the sure way to stymie the job. And Tory leader George Drew on October 18, 1952, declared in Port Arthur: “Completion of the SS SEVEN ISLANDS TO ASHTABULA 952 MILES 3 Atle nlic C): LAC@aAN St. Lawrence Seaway would have little effect on the Lakehead.” Complete the St. Lawrence Sea- way! That’s the Canadian peo- ple’s demand. Every trade union and farm organization, the Labor- Progressive party and the CCF, provincial and municipal authori- ties and business spokesmen are united on this demand. Now is the time when with one voice the Canadian people should demand that the session of parliament which resumed this week should clearly and de- finitely decide to complete the St. Lawrence Seaway at once. Like the all-Canada natural gas pipeline from Alberta to Quebec, the seaway and its hydro power is a great nation-building project. It would open up jobs for thousands of Canadians and a new era for our industries and agriculture. It is a project to put Canada first—to speed trade, to bring the iron ore and coal of Quebec and the Maritimes to new steel mills in Canadian cities on the Great Lakes, to serve our western provinces, to build Can- ada. sy Here are. some of the things the ‘seaway and power project would mean to Canada: + More than 40,000 Canadian engineers and workers would be assured jobs for two years. Ex- perts say canals and dams could “be completed in two years. + This would mean jobs in many industries. The seaway, for example, needs 150,000 tons of structural steel and 7 million barrels of cement, vast quantities of lumber. + All our Great Lake ports would become ocean ports. B¢ About 80 percent of the ships of the world could sail up to the Lakehead. This is the way to develop Canada’s trade with the nations. + Ten million tons of wheat and grain would go down the seaway every year at a saving of about $23 million a year for our western farmers. + Freight rate savings every year would come to about $50 million. + The seven locks and eight bridges needed between Montreal and Prescott would cost about $300 million; the deepening of the Lachine Canal about $90 mil- lion. + To complete the hydro works would cost Canada about $300 million, and the value of the electric power would be not less than $30 million a year. . All of this can be, and should be done, without wasting another minute with Washington. é In a word the seaway would save Canada $90 million a year on freight bills and fuel bills, and the project would pay for itself in a few years. Five Talks. A Hollywood film about Hiawatha has been cancelled be- cause it might have been taken for “indirect support” for Big FROM the Islands of the Blessed, From the Land of the Hereafter, Came the ghost of Hiawatha, Hiawatha, valiant warrior, And the lovely Minnehaha, Minnehaha, Laughing Water. Wandered they through New York City, Wandered they through street and subway, Wondering at the mighty buildings, Wondering at the flashing symbol Of the goddess Ko-ka-ko-la, ; Ko-ka-ko-la, Brownish Water. Then the ‘valiant Hiawatha Lit his Pipe of Peace and smoked it, And the smoke rose slowly, slowly, Till policemen rudely seized them, Taking them to Jo-makar-thee, Jo-ma-kar-thee, Sewer Water. The return of Hiawatha “Who are these?” asked Jo-ma-kar-thee. - “Who are these who come before me?” “Sir, the guy is Hiawatha, “And the dame is Minnie Haha: “Picked ’em up in town this morning, “Smoking Pipes of Peace on Wall Street.” Then the awful Jo-ma-kar-thee Fumed and. raged like a volcano: “Un-American behavior! “Worse than Robin Hood of Sherwood! “Fling them in a dreadful dungeon! “Dupes of Moscow! Dirty Redskins!” So the ghost of Hiawatha, And the lovely Minnehaha, Sadder, infinitely wiser} Winged away, no more returning, Winged away from New York City, To the Islands of the Blessed, To the Land of the Hereafter. Ronald L. Meek x PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 15, 1954 — PAGE 10 .