UNEMPLOYED  IN  UNORGANISED  TRADES  I  g

fail  to  observe  that  the  trades  which  they  represent  are
in  most  cases  the  highly  skilled  and  well-organised  trades.
It  is  true  that  some  skilled  trades  are  among  the  most
fluctuating,  and  this  is  particularly  true  of  shipbuilding,
which  furnishes  so  high  a  percentage  of  unemployment
in  the  quoted  returns.  It  is  sometimes  stated  that  the
great  fundamental  and  staple  industries  which  are  here
represented  are  more  fluctuating  in  their  employment  than
the  minor  trades.  We  have  here  no  means  of  accurate
comparison,  but  it  does  not  seem  reasonable  to  suppose
that  this  is  the  case.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  more
than  likely  that  the  minor  manufactures,  which  are  concerned ­
  largely  in  the  supply  of  luxuries,  or  at  any  rate
of  “unnecessaries”,  and  are  subject  to  innumerable  freaks
of  fashion,  or  genuine  change  of  natural  taste,  and  which
are,  moreover,  the  first  to  suffer  from  any  depression
which  affects  the  spending  powers  of  the  community,
should  on  an  average  present  an  amount  of  displacement
of  labour  in  excess  of  that  which  occurs  in  the  more
necessary  trades.  That  this  is  certainly  the  case  in  the
present  case  is,  I  think,  clearly  illustrated  from  the
textile  trades.  The  trade  union  returns  refer  only  to  the
Lancashire  cotton  trade.  If  the  minor  textile  industries
m  the  woollen  trade,  and  particularly  in  the  silk,  lace,
and  linen  trades,  had  been  faithfully  recorded,  a  very
large  quantity  of  “  unemployment  ”  would  have  been
registered.
Between  1881  and  1901  the  employment  in  the  lace
trade  as  indicated  by  the  table  of  occupations  in  the
Lensus  fell  off  to  the  extent  of  17  per  cent.,  the  English
linens  trade  fell  off  41.5  per  cent.,  while  the  number
engaged  in  silk  and  kindred  manufactures  was  diminished