Tolls Exemption Act, an act of Congress, 24 August 1912, exempting American vessels in coast-wise traffic from the payment of tolls on the Panama Canal. The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 had provided that the canal should be free and open to the ships of all nations without discrimination, so the act raised a serious moral and legal question. President Woodrow Wilson, on 5 March 1914, eloquently requested repeal as a matter of sound diplomacy and international good faith. Prominent Republicans seconded his efforts, and the act was repealed a few weeks later. Congress, however, expressly denied any relinquishment of the right to grant exemptions to coastwise shipping.
Bibliography
Collin, Richard H. Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean: The Panama Canal, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Latin American Context. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990.
