28 THE STORY OF THE U.F.O. 



meant dollars, in hundreds of thousands, every 

 year to Ontario shippers. 



It was largely, too, as a result of the educa- 

 tional work carried on by the Farmers' Associ- 

 ation, that bounties to iron industries were 

 abolished, and that subsidies to railway pro- 

 moters became a thing of the past. 



Despite all these other activities the Associa- 

 tion continued its agitation against the demand 

 for tariff increase as well. The Laurier Govern- 

 ment, faced by two opposing forces, manufac- 

 turers demanding an increase, and Ontario 

 farmers joining with their Western brethern 

 (although there was no Canadian Council of 

 Agriculture then) in opposing this demand, 

 resorted to the now familiar practice of appoint- 

 ing a Commission of Enquiry. No sooner had 

 this Commission been appointed than the 

 Farmers' Association made preparations for the 

 presentation before it of a case on behalf of 

 Ontario agriculture. In the meantime E. C. 

 Drury had become a member of the organization, 

 and when the Fielding Tariff Commission sat in 

 Toronto, in 1906, the farmers' side of the cause 

 was presented by James McEwing, then Pre- 

 sident of the Association, E. C. Drury and W. L. 

 Smith. The Toronto hearing was followed by 

 hearings at London, Guelph, Brantford, and 

 Peterboro, and at all these places the stand taken 



