No observation is taken of this grain until its arrival in Canada, where only the amount and grade are noted by a Treasury agent, and a like amount in grade and quantity (though it may be not the identical grain) is by such agent billed and sealed in cars for carriage to the United States.  I do not find any statute authorizing this practice.  Section 3006, which authorizes this interstate trade through Canada, is limited to merchandise passing from “port” to “port” of the United States, and plainly means that such merchandise shall be taken up by our revenue officers at a “port” of the United States as a starting point.

The following are the conclusions at which I have arrived: 

First.  That Article XXIX of the treaty of Washington has been abrogated.

Second.  That even if this article were in force there is no law in force to execute it.

Third.  That when in force the treaty imposed no obligation upon the United States to use the concessions as to transit made by Canada, and no limitation upon the powers of the United States in dealing with merchandise imported for the use of our citizens through Canadian ports or passing from one place in the United States to another through Canada, upon the arrival of such merchandise at our border.

Fourth.  That therefore, treaty or no treaty, the question of sealing cars containing such merchandise and the treatment of such sealed cars when they cross our border is and always has been one to be settled by our laws, according to our convenience and our interests as we may see them.

Fifth.  That the law authorizing the sealing of cars in Canada containing foreign merchandise imported from a contiguous country does not apply to merchandise imported by our own people from countries not contiguous and carried through Canada for delivery to such owners.

Sixth.  That the law did not contemplate the passing of sealed cars to any place not a “port,” nor the delivery of such cars to the owner or consignee, to be opened by him without the supervision of a revenue officer.

Seventh.  That such a practice is inconsistent with the safety of the revenue.

The statutes relating to the transportation of merchandise between the United States and the British possessions should be the subject of revision.  The Treasury regulations have given to these laws a construction and a scope that I do not think was contemplated by Congress.  A policy adapted to the new conditions, growing in part out of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, should be declared, and the business placed upon a basis more just to our people and to our transportation companies.

If we continue the policy of supervising rates and requiring that they shall be equal and reasonable upon the railroads of the United States, we can not in fairness at the same time give these unusual facilities for competition to Canadian roads that are free to pursue the practices as to cut rates and favored rates that we condemn and punish if practiced by our own railroads.