led (1904) to
a reduction of the British preference on woollens and to an
'anti-dumping act'--aimed against slaughter or bargain sales by foreign
producers--providing for a special duty when articles were sold in
Canada for less than the prevailing price in the country of origin. In
the same year Mr Fielding foreshadowed the introduction of a minimum
and maximum tariff, with the existing duties as the minimum, and with
maximum duties to be applied to countries which levied especially high
rates on Canadian products. Only the vigorous opposition set up by the
farmers of Ontario {237} and the West checked the agitation for still
higher duties. The new tariff of 1907 made many careful revisions
upward as well as downward, but on the whole the existing level was
retained. Below the maximum or general rate, but higher than the
British preference, there was set up an intermediate tariff, for
bargaining with foreign states. This compromise tariff of 1907
remained in force with little change or strong agitation for change
until three years later, when negotiations for reciprocity with the
United States once more brought the issue to the front.

The field of social legislation, in which so many radical experiments
have been made by other lands, in Canada falls for the most part to the
provinces. Within its limited jurisdiction the Laurier Government
achieved some notable results. Early in its career it put down
sweating and made compulsory the payment of fair wages by government
contractors. It set up a department of Labour, making it possible to
secure much useful information hitherto inaccessible and to guard
workmen's interests in many relations. Late in the Laurier regime a
commission was appointed to study the question of technical education,
important alike for manufacturer {238} and for artisan. The most
distinctive innovation, however, was the Lemieux Act, drawn up by W. L.
Mackenzie King, the first deputy minister of Labour. This provided for
compulsory investigation into labour disputes in quasi-public
industries. It proved a long step towards industrial peace, and was
one of the few Canadian legislative experiments which have awakened
world-wide interest and investigation.

The growth of the West made it necessary to face the question of
granting full provincial powers to the North-West Territories.
Originally under the direct rule of the Dominion parliament, step by
step they had approached self-gover