1916] INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN CANADA 167 
to single out these vital industries as being for the common good, worthy 
of very special support and encouragement. It seems to me that if it 
be necessary to continue a policy of ‘“‘protection”’ in this country—and I 
may add that it seems to be both desirable and necessary—we should 
see to it that it is first of all applied to those industries which are basic 
and of vital importance to the community rather than to those for 
example which have to do with the preparation of foodstuffs and clothing 
material, and the production of books, periodicals and printed matter 
generally. In the past the application of the principle of “protection” 
has in some cases worked out as the imposition of a special tax upon the 
consumer for the benefit of the manufacturer without producing any 
compensating general advantages in the way of a commensurate or 
even substantial contribution to the wealth of the nation. I venture to 
present a special plea at this time, for a scientific revision of our tariffs. 
Let us take stock of our economic position in a broad way, and adopt 
such measures as will tend to lower the cost of living and as will ensure 
the production and manufacture in our own country of such articles as 
are of vita! and fundamental importance to the nation. We are fre- 
quently told that the manufacture of machine tools and other articles 
belonging to the category I have mentioned will require a class of skilled 
labour which has not in the past been available. In the future this 
argument cannot be put forward for as a result of the war we shall have 
hundreds and thousands of men and women in the empire who have 
had a training not only in machine and tool work of the highest pre- 
cision but also in machine construction and machine design. The higher 
positions in such manufacturing industries will afford openings for the 
trained technical experts being turned out by our Universities. Let us 
see to it that in Canada we are ready to use to the full the magnificent 
contribution to our national capabilities which the stress of war has 
made. 
THE HOUSING PROBLEM. 
One more point and then I have done. In a previous part of the 
paper I have referred to the prospective development of the Western 
part of Ontario and particularly the Niagara Peninsula into a region of 
intense industrial activity. This means that unless care is taken in 
advance we shall have in this district a repetition of the wretched con- 
ditions which prevail in the neighbourhood of such places as Sheffield, 
Leeds, Glasgow, and other manufacturing cities in the Old Country. 
In fact the evil is to a certain extent already with us for if one visits 
certain towns in Ontario and other parts of Canada at the present time 
one will find that the workmen are housed in buildings entirely lacking 
