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The Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association has placed many boulders and bronze markers along this Frontier,, but always to recall an event or to honor a person; and so it is throughout the world. The towering and beautiful monument on Queenston Heights was not erected to commemorate the time and place of the battle which occurred there, but as a memorial to Major General Sir Isaac Brock, K. B., the first Governors General of Upper Canada, who died there when defending his country. Some great events cannot be commemorated by conspicuous markers. For about 3500 years the descendants of the Children of Israel have annually celebrated the Passover in accordance with the instructions of Moses, just as for over 1900 years the Lord's Supper has been observed by Christians in accordance with their Master's last command, "This do in remembrance of me." I was in London on the sixtieth anniversary of the accession to the throne of Queen Victoria, an ideal mother, wife and monarch. The great of the world were gathered there that day to do her honor on her Diamond Jubilee. As I came from my room that morning I bought a copy of the London Times. On its first page was a poem by Rudyard Kipling, which so impressed me that I cut it out and mailed it to my mother before breakfasting. That poem was entitled "Lest We Forget;" and its dominant thought accounts for every such address as this. Recorded history begins with the greatest of all inventions, the alphabet whereby sight was substituted for sound and visible signs took the place of spoken words. Thus, the transmission of intelligence, the greatest stimulant toward civilization and the most highly financed of all industries, became possible. The invention of movable type for use in the printing press was the next great forward step in the transmission of intelligence, to be followed at shorter and shorter intervals by the electric transmission of signs, by the telegraph and cable lines, by the transmission of spoken words by the telephone systems, and now by the broadcasting of any and all sounds by the radio and of any and all sights by television. The largest aggregate of capital in the world is now invested in the printing business; and the most highly capitalized corporation in the world is the American Tel. & Tel. Company. In the advance of civilization, next to the transmission of intelligence, come the development of the means of transportation of people and their goods; first by human carriers or man propelled boats, then by domestic animals, then by wheeled vehicles drawn by animals or by boats moved by the pressure of winds or sails, then by steam power, and now by the internal combustion engine or by jet propulsion in self-propelled automobiles, submarines and airplanes, distances by land, sea and air have all been conquered. This address, however, will be devoted to the consideration of the development of a short link in the American transportation system, which was of paramount importance for over 200 years and which during that period was the cause of wars of Indians with Indians, of Indians with French, of Indians with British, of British with French, and of British with American Colonists and later with the United States. A great inland water-way extends half-way across this continent. Through transportation thereon is interrupted by the mighty Cataracts of Niagara; and the control of the Portage of St. Louis from the lower Niagara River to navigable water above the Cataracts became the dominant factor in determining whether this continent should be occupied, governed and developed by English speaking or French speaking people. Fifteen years ago the State of New York placed three markers in the Town of Lewiston to commemorate events connected with the maintenance of the Portage; the Joncairre Cabin of 1719, the Devil's Hole Massacre of 1763 and the Montressor tramway of 1763. All three are so inter-connected with its history that they cannot be considered separately, but rather as parts of a great panorama of diplomatic intrigue, of savage warfare and of international competition for inland trade, in which all combined to bring about the conquest of the West and the ultimate inclusion in the United States and Canada of its vast and fertile territory. By virtue of their discovery, conquest and settlement of the St. Lawrence valley, the French claimed the lands adjacent to the Great Lakes and their tributary streams; and by reason of their establishment of the Colony of Louisiana, the French also claimed the valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries, extending up the Ohio to Pittsburgh and thence up the Allegheny to Chautauqua Lake. Thus, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico the French placed a western limit at the Appalachian Mountain Range on expansion of the English speaking colonies which bordered the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to Georgia.