3
Canadian Liberal Monthly. He was woefully underemployed--both in terms of financial remuneration and
power. So the call to work for the Rockefellers was deliverance sent from heaven. [4].
By contemporary American standards of his day, King would be described as a Progressive
reformer. [5] While in government service, he was responsible for drafting the Canadian Combines
Investigation Act, which allowed any six citizens to petition a judge to seek an investigation of
monopolistic business practices. [6] He also authored the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act, which
precluded strikes in any mine or industry connected to a public utility unless the dispute first had been
investigated by a three-member board. The findings had to be publicized widely in order to thwart
unnecessary or unpopular labor actions deemed not in the public interest. [7]
As a student at the University of Chicago, King studied socialism under sociologist Thorsten
Veblen, but rejected socialism in favor of industrial capitalism. Yet, King was concerned that private
interests could ignore the common good and saw a role for government regulation and involvement. The
future of architect of Canada’s welfare state believed industrial and political development were
intertwined. However, in his early years, he strongly advocated resolution of industrial problems without
government intervention.
1.1. The Rockefellers’ Call for Help
In June 1914, King received a telegram from Jerome D. Greene, [8] who wanted to know to
whether King would be available to “advise large interests I represent in regard to present labor difficulties
and probable far-reaching studies looking toward the future.” [9]. King did not know that Greene was
secretary of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, until he a received a second telegram from Harvard
University President Charles W. Eliot, a member of the foundation’s board. Eliot urged King to forego his
engagements in Canada and to seize the opportunity. “You might greatly serve all white race industries
and show [the] way to industrial concord in the whole world,” Eliot wrote. [10]
Convention