Industrial disputes in the long run must be decided by the force of public opinion. In the past there has been far too great an inclination on the part of the public to dissociate themselves from industrial controversy as though it concerned them not. Apart from the direct economic effect of any great strike upon the consuming public, the community is under a definite moral obligation to try and reach a right conclusion on the issue and to use the weight of its opinion to secure a fair and equitable settlement. In the course of any strike of importance immediate tribute is paid by both sides to the power of the public. This is evidenced by the various statements of their respective cases which emanate from each side. Labour is specially sensitive to the control of public opinion, and is the first to realize the hopelessness of protracting any strike against which public opinion is hardening. Therefore, both in regard to ascertainment of facts and an intelligent determination of the merits of each industrial controversy, the public is laid under great obligations. It is one of labour’s chief complaints that the average shareholder makes no effort whatever at general meetings of his company to ascertain the facts in regard to strikes or lock-outs, or to regulate his investments with some regard to his company’s treatment of its workers. This complaint is justified. The Responsibility of the Consumer Every consumer has definite responsibilities. In the middle of last century he was almost omnipotent, and industry’s chief object was to meet, indeed to anticipate, his desires. His power to-day is not so unrestricted by reason of the competition between consumers in different nations for limited world supplies, and because of the better organization of employers and employed. But still the consumer has immense power, and in the interests of industry, society, and, indeed, of the nation, he ought to realize his duties. The day has long gone past when it was thought that all expenditure by a consumer, whether in necessaries or luxuries, conduced alike to the benefit of trade and the increase of the national wealth. It is now recognized that at all times the supply of labour and raw material and capital—“the wealth heap,” as Mr. Hartley Withers graphically describes it in his _Poverty and Waste_—is limited. If, therefore, any consumer demands that more luxuries be produced than necessaries, there must be fewer necessaries for those who want them, and those at higher prices because we are expending on luxuries capital and labour and raw materials otherwise available for the production of necessaries. Even if at any time the supply of necessaries exceeds the demand, that does not justify the production of luxuries. If luxuries are demanded, capital and labour and raw materials must be more or less permanently hypothecated for their production. If, on the other hand, luxuries are dispensed with, then capital and labour will