Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

To the Congress of the United States:

It is my pleasure to submit to Congress the 1967 Annual Report of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

The Seaway had its second best year in nine years of operations--registering a total of 44 million tons of cargo. The record season for Seaway tonnage was 1966 when 49.2 million tons were moved through the Montreal-Lake Ontario waterway. We hoped that the Seaway would reach the 50-million ton mark in 1967, but a strike plus some slackening in demand for grain, resulted in reduced traffic.

While overall tonnage was somewhat disappointing, there are many bright spots in the report. General cargo, for example, increased to six million tons from 5.5 million. Iron ore shipments also were higher with 16.4 million tons moving through the Seaway locks to the steel mills of the Midwest. These increases indicate the growing appreciation of the waterway's advantages as a means of reducing transportation costs.

The Seaway has truly placed Midwest ports on the sea-lanes of the world. More than 600 salt-water vessels made 1,284 trips into the Lakes in 1967.

However, reduced traffic, along with an adjustment in the division of toll revenue between Canada and the United States caused income to fall from $7.1 million to $6.1 million.

Despite this loss, $4 million was returned to the U.S. Treasury. This makes a total repayment of $28.9 million since the Seaway opened in 1959.

A major concern of the Corporation is the need to repair Eisenhower Lock. The Corporation retained the Corps of Engineers to direct the work which will continue until 1971. Fortunately, it will not interfere with the navigation seasons. In my budget for fiscal year 1969, I requested that funds be made available to cover the cost of repair.

I commend this report to your attention.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

May 16, 1968