18  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED
efficiency  and  by  the  strength  of  his  union,  is  more
likely  to  retain  employment  than  the  outsider.  The  less
efficient  members  of  a  union,  whose  employment  is  less
secure,  fail,  in  slack  times,  to  keep  up  their  weekly
subscriptions,  and  drop  out  of  the  union,  whose  official
report  takes  no  account  of  them  as  “unemployed.”  It
is  true  that  against  this  we  must  set  the  ability  of  the
non-unionist  to  hold  his  work  by  a  readier  acceptance
of  lower  wages.  Moreover,  as  he  has  no  “unemployed
benefit”  to  fall  back  upon,  he  will  often  be  driven  to
take  what  casual  labour  of  any  sort  he  can  get.  In
measuring  the  chances  of  “unemployment,”  these  probabilities ­
  must  be  set  against  the  superior  position  of  the
union  man;  but  taking  the  term  “unemployed”  as  commonly ­
  applied  to  members  of  a  skilled  trade,  we  must
without  doubt  expect  to  find  a  larger  percentage  of
“unemployed”  among  non-unionists  than  among  union
members.
§  y.  Unemployed  in  Unorganised  Trades.
Since  the  unions  which  effectively  maintain  out-of-work
funds  and  keep  books  with  sufficient  care  to  be  utilised
in  Board  of  Trade  Reports,  are  generally  the  strongest
unions,  competent  to  secure  for  their  members  the  largest
share  of  whatever  work  is  going,  the  advantage  of  unionists ­
  compared  with  non-union  members  as  regards
employment  will  be  greatest  in  those  trades.  This  fact
impairs  still  further  the  validity  of  the  Board  of  Trade
returns,  as  indicative  of  the  state  of  employment  in
whole  trades.
Again,  in  regarding  the  trade  unions  which  make  returns
as  a  general  index  of  the  condition  of  trade,  we  cannot