r industrial Company. It can
press upon retail purchasers the obligation to consider not only the
cheapness of the goods supplied to them, but also the probable
conditions of their production. It can speak plainly of evils which
attach to the economic system under which we live, such as certain
forms of luxurious extravagance, the widespread pursuit of money by
financial gambling, the dishonesties of trade into which men are driven
by feverish competition, and the violences and reprisals of industrial
warfare.

'It is plain that in these matters disapproval must take every
different shade, from plain condemnation of undoubted wrong to
tentative opinions about better and worse. Accordingly any organic
action of the Church, or any action of the Church's officers, as such,
should be very carefully restricted to cases where the rule of right is
practically clear, and much the larger part of the matter {278} should
be left to the free and flexible agency of the awakened Christian
conscience of the community at large, and of its individual members.

'If the Christian conscience be thus awakened and active, it will
secure the best administration of particular systems, while they exist,
and the modification or change of them, when this is required by the
progress of knowledge, thought, and life.

'It appears to follow from what precedes that the great need of the
Church, in this connexion, is the growth and extension of a serious,
intelligent, and sympathetic opinion on these subjects, to which
numberless Christians have as yet never thought of applying Christian
principles. There has been of late no little improvement in this
respect, but much remains to be done, and with this view the Committee
desire to make the following definite recommendation.

'They suggest that, wherever possible, there should be formed, as a
part of local Church organization, Committees consisting chiefly of
laymen, whose work should be to study social and industrial problems
from the Christian point of view, and to assist in creating and
strengthening an enlightened public opinion in regard to such problems,
and promoting a more active spirit of social service, as a part of
Christian duty.

'Such Committees, or bodies of Church workers in the way of social
service, while representing no one class of society, and abstaining
from taking sides in any disputes between classes, should fearlessly
draw attention to the various causes in our economi