Editing William Lyon Mackenzie King (section)

== Out of politics (1911–1919) ==
=== Industrial consultant ===
After his defeat, King went on the lecture circuit on behalf of the Liberal Party. In June 1914 [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]] hired him at the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] in New York City, to head its new Department of Industrial Research. It paid $12,000 per year, compared to the meagre $2,500 per year the Liberal Party was paying.{{sfn|Dawson|1958|pp=227–231}} He worked for the Foundation until 1918, forming a close working association and friendship with Rockefeller, advising him through the turbulent period of the 1913–1914 Strike and [[Ludlow Massacre]]–in what is known as the [[Colorado Coalfield War]]–at a family-owned coal company in [[Colorado]], which subsequently set the stage for a new era in labour management in America.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chernow |first=Ron |date=1998 |title=Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. |publisher=Random House |isbn=0-679-43808-4 |pages=–571–586}}</ref> King became one of the earliest expert practitioners in the emerging field of [[industrial relations]].
[[File:KingLaurier1912.jpg|150px|thumb|King standing behind former Prime Minister [[Wilfrid Laurier]], 1912]]
[[File:KingWriting.jpg|left|thumb|King, while writing ''Industry and Humanity'', 1917]]
King was not a pacifist, but he showed little enthusiasm for the [[World War I|Great War]]; he faced criticism for not serving in Canada's military and instead working for the Rockefellers. However, he was nearly 40 years old when the war began, and was not in good physical condition. He never gave up his Ottawa home, and travelled to the United States on an as-needed basis, performing service to the war effort by helping to keep war-related industries running smoothly.{{sfn|Dawson|1958|loc=ch. 10}}

In 1918, King, assisted by his friend F. A. McGregor, published ''Industry and Humanity: A Study in the Principles Underlying Industrial Reconstruction'', a dense, abstract book he wrote in response to the [[Ludlow massacre]]. It went over the heads of most readers, but revealed the practical idealism behind King's political thinking. He argued that capital and labour were natural allies, not foes, and that the community at large (represented by the government) should be the third and decisive party in industrial disputes.{{sfn|Dawson|1958|pp=248–251}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cooper |first=Barry |title=On Reading Industry and Humanity: a Study in the Rhetoric Underlying Liberal Management |journal=Journal of Canadian Studies |year=1978–1979 |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=28–39 |doi=10.3138/jcs.13.4.28 |s2cid=151462556 |issn= 0021-9495}}</ref> He expressed derision for syndicates and trades unions, chastising them for aiming at the "destruction by force of existing organization, and the transfer of industrial capital from the present possessors" to themselves.<ref name="Industry and Humanity">{{cite book |first=William Lyon Mackenzie |last=King |title=Industry and Humanity: A Study in The Principles Underlying Industrial Reconstruction |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.42178 |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |date=1918 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.42178/page/n520 494]–495}}</ref>

Quitting the Rockefeller Foundation in February 1918, King became an independent consultant on labour issues for the next two years, earning $1,000 per week from leading American corporations. Even so, he kept his official residence in Ottawa, hoping for a call to duty.{{sfn|Dawson|1958|pp=255–265}}

=== Wartime politics ===
In 1917, Canada was in crisis; King supported Liberal leader Wilfrid Laurier in his opposition to [[conscription]], which was violently opposed in the province of [[Quebec]]. The Liberal party became deeply split, with several [[Anglophone]]s joining the pro-conscription [[Unionist Party (Canada)|Union]] government, a coalition controlled by the Conservatives under Prime Minister [[Robert Borden]]. King returned to Canada to run in the [[1917 Canadian federal election|1917 election]], which focused almost entirely on the conscription issue. Unable to overcome a landslide against Laurier, King lost in the constituency of [[York North]], which his grandfather had once represented.<ref name="Neatby" />