Franklin D. Roosevelt

Reaffirmation of the Administration's Program for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway Project.

March 11, 1936

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Conference at Detroit is a welcome and significant event. Farm and civic leaders from all sections and official representatives of States and cities are assembling, for a most practical purpose, on the border between Canada and the United States.

The immediate objective of the Conference is the support of constructive measures to utilize the natural resource of the chain of inland seas and connecting rivers which form one of the great frontiers of the world. It has been the historic policy of the two Nations to use this frontier solely as an instrumentality of peace.

Under this policy, an opportunity is now presented to complete a seaway comparable in economic value to the Panama Canal. The public development of St. Lawrence power is inseparably linked with the navigation project.

The improvement of this great resource for the dual purposes of navigation and power is an important part of the program of the present Administration. It will enable us to take the next step to extend to the Northeast benefits already assured from works completed or under construction in the Tennessee Valley in the Southeast, at Boulder Dam in the Southwest, and on the Columbia River in the Northwest.

I wish the Conference at Detroit to be assured not only of continued unremitting effort to complete the seaway and power development, but also of my strong conviction that recent events have helped to clear the way for action, upon the broadest lines of public benefit.

In a message to the United States Senate, I pointed out that the construction of dams and locks in the 120-mile stretch of the 'St. 'Lawrence River, between Lake Ontario and Montreal, is virtually all that is required to complete the seaway from the· head of the lakes to salt water, and that the same works will provide an abundant supply of cheap power in proximity to a great industrial and rural market.

At that time, I stated the belief that this improvement is without any question going to be completed in the near future and that it should be carried forward by both Nations instead of by one. That is my view today.

Such a development as we propose to carry out in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin unquestionably will result in greater activity for all ports and transportation agencies. This has been the history of all new navigation projects and improvements directed to better commercial communication in this country and throughout the world. The fear that the seaway will result in injury on the lower Mississippi or to our Atlantic ports is groundless.

The use of electric energy is gaining so rapidly today that no sane person would dare to assert that after the seven years required for construction of works, St. Lawrence power would provide a surplus above actual needs. As a matter of fact, careful studies have shown that there will be a serious shortage of electric energy in the Northeast before the project can be completed.

The Tennessee Valley project demonstrates the advantage of unified planning to develop the resources of a great river basin. If the whole of the Great Lakes Basin were all in one country, either in the United States or in Canada, its development would surely have been completed years ago. The mere fact that this natural resource is shared by two countries should not be allowed to hold back an improvement promising the same social and economic gains to both countries.

To expedite action, it is necessary and desirable to adapt existing plans for the improvement of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin to the mutual interests and respective needs of the two countries. This is obviously required if we are to secure prompt ratification by both Nations.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Treaty of 1932 has not been ratified in either country. Something further than mere submission of a treaty is called for under these conditions.

We are seeking, therefore, a new approach to the problems involved in the many projects for improvements in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin.

The solid basis of good-will and cooperation which exists between the United States and Canada, their common interest in the development of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin for navigation and power and the present and future needs of the Province of Ontario and the State of New York for dependable sources of cheap power supply will, I am confident, prove helpful factors. As the result of years of study, and with mutual recognition of well-established rights, it should be unnecessary to enter into lengthy negotiations or to discard thoroughly tested engineering plans.

It is inconceivable that either of the two Nations, bound together by such a tradition of international amity, should stand in the way of the other's utilization of its share of such a great common resource when such use becomes desirable or necessary to its economic progress. It is certain that a plan of development is feasible which, while enabling each Nation to meet its requirements, will not demand of the other any undertaking with which it feels itself unprepared to proceed.

Let us be realistic and frankly face the fact that delays have not been due to any failure of negotiations to reach an accord among the four sovereignties involved: the Federal Government of the United States, the Dominion Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and the State of New York. Delay has sprung, rather, from fears of economic harm to special localities or to special interests, which I have always believed are grossly exaggerated, and especially from opposition based upon the fact that the power available in these boundary waters is publicly owned and will be generated and distributed, under existing laws, by public agencies in both Canada and the United States.

Provision for the public use of St. Lawrence power was made under a contract between the Dominion Government and the Province of Ontario in 1932. A similar accord, also contingent 'upon ratification of a treaty, was reached between the United States Corps of Engineers and the Power Authority of the State of New York and upon my recommendation was ratified in 1933 by the United States House of Representatives. Considering all the elements involved, I am more than ever convinced that means can be found to go forward with the development on terms that will serve public requirements.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence project is in keeping with the spirit of the times and with the policy of cooperation now firmly established on this continent.

More than one hundred years ago, the United States and Canada set the first successful example in disarmament by withdrawing ships of war from the Great Lakes. Today these Nations, each respecting the complete sovereignty of the other, share an international border of five thousand miles without a single fort along its entire length. Recently the two Nations took prompt action to effect a reciprocal trade agreement by which prohibitive barriers to mutually beneficial commerce across this frontier have been removed.

In the light of these accomplishments, agreement upon the construction of useful works to serve the needs of both countries should present no insuperable difficulties. This is especially true when we consider that these works will enhance the usefulness of the substantial improvements already made by each country as integral parts of a seaway already complete over most of the distance from Duluth-Superior to the Atlantic. And we must remember that equal navigation rights are guaranteed to both Nations over the entire system under treaties which are in force today.

For the United States and Canada to demonstrate the full value of such a policy on a frontier that spans a continent would contribute immeasurably to security and progress in the Western Hemisphere.

With the will to cooperate present, I feel we may look forward confidently to the early undertaking of this project on terms acceptable to the two great neighboring Nations.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Reaffirmation of the Administration's Program for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway Project. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/208660

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