14

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED

engineering  and  metal  trades,  shipbuilding  and  printing,
can  the  number  of  trade  unionists,  upon  whose  condition
the  return  is  based,  be  considered  large  enough  to  reflect
with  some  degree  of  accuracy  the  whole  trade  to  which
they  belong.  In  the  other  cases  the  condition  of  certain
small  sections  of  a  trade  or  of  certain  districts  can  alone
be  accurately  reflected  in  the  returns.  These  figures  are
checked  and  rendered  more  serviceable  in  the  Labour
Gazette  by  the  general  reports  of  trades  from  the  several
districts.  We  are  thus  enabled  to  see  that  the  large
percentage  of  unemployed  is  in  shipbuilding,  engineering
and  kindred  trades.  Other  information  leads  us  directly
or  inferentially  to  the  conclusion  that  the  average  for  the
other  groups  of  trade  was  at  the  close  of  1894  comparatively
small,  not  greatly  in  excess  of  what  is  due  to  normal  trade
displacement  and  personal  causes.  Indeed,  if  we  take  out
the  shipbuilding  and  engineering  trades,  the  average  of
“unemployment”  would  seem  to  be  so  small  as  to  furnish
a  contradiction  to  the  general  idea  of  slackness  and  depression ­
  which  prevailed  and  which  was  even  reflected  in
the  descriptive  reports  of  the  several  trades.
§  4.  No  Full  Measure  of  Unemployed  Unionists.
Now  it  seems  to  me  there  is  much  reason  to  believe
that,  so  far  as  the  “making”  industries  are  concerned,
the  figures  of  “unemployment”  furnished  to  the  Board
of  Trade  do  not  adequately  indicate  the  full  measure  of
“  unemployment.”
In  the  first  place,  it  is  certain  that  the  number  of
members  returned  by  the  trade  union  officials  as  in
receipt  of  unemployed  benefit  does  not  fully  represent
the  number  of  trade  unionists  out  of  work.  A  period  of