of attempts at accommodation. The threat of
tariff war had called forth in the United States loud protests against
any such reversion to economic barbarism. President Taft realized that
he had antagonized the growing low-tariff sentiment of the country by
his support of the Payne-Aldrich tariff and was eager to set himself
right. A week before the March negotiations were concluded, a Democratic
candidate had carried a strongly Republican congressional district in
Massachusetts on a platform of reciprocity with Canada. The President,
therefore, proposed a bold stroke. He made a sweeping offer of better
trade relations. Negotiations were begun at Ottawa and concluded
in Washington. In January, 1911, announcement was made that a broad
agreement had been effected. Grain, fruit, and vegetables, dairy and
most farm products, fish, hewn timber and sawn lumber, and several
minerals were put on the free list. A few manufactures were also made
free, and the duties on meats, flour, coal, agricultural implements, and
other products were substantially reduced. The compact was to be carried
out, not by treaty, but by concurrent legislation. Canada was to extend
the same terms to the most favored nations by treaty, and to all parts
of the British Empire by policy.

For fifty years the administrations of the two countries had never been
so nearly at one. More difficulty was met with in the legislatures. In
Congress, farmers and fishermen, standpat Republicans and Progressives
hostile to the Administration, waged war against the bargain. It was
only in a special session, and with the aid of Democratic votes and a
Washington July sun, that the opposition was overcome. In the Canadian
Parliament, after some initial hesitation, the Conservatives attacked
the proposal. The Government had a safe majority, but the Opposition
resorted to obstruction; and late in July, Parliament was suddenly
dissolved and the Government appealed to the country.

When the bargain was first concluded, the Canadian Government had
imagined it would meet little opposition, for it was precisely the type
of agreement that Government after Government, Conservative as well as
Liberal, had sought in vain for over forty years. For a day or two that
expectation was justified. Then the forces of opposition rallied, timid
questioning gave way to violent denunciation, and at last agreement and
Government alike were swept away in a flood of popular antagonism.

One reason