are  there  two  questions  of  UNEMPLOYMENT  ?  2  I
serviceable  in  considering  modes  of  relief  or  remedies,
any  deeper  diagnosis  of  industrial  disorder  shows  a  close
organic  connection  constantly  maintained  between  the  two
classes  of  “  unemployed  It  is  true  that,  in  times  of
good  trade,  nearly  all  the  members  of  skilled  trades  find
full  employment,  while  a  close  investigation  among  the
poorest  quarters  of  our  towns  would  show  that  even  at
these  times  there  was  a  large  superabundance  of  lowskilled,
  inefficient  casual  labour.  But  more  minute  examination ­
  would  show  that  this  “  sediment  ”  of  labour  was
the  gradual  accumulation  of  deposits  from  the  various
regular  grades  of  workers,  dislodged  from  their  former
place  in  the  course  of  agricultural  or  manufacturing  disturbances, ­
  weakened  by  irregular  town  life,  and  breeding
weaklings  and  incapables.
That  there  does  exist,  even  in  periods  of  normally
good  trade,  a  large  permanent  over-supply  of  low-skilled
and  casual  labour  in  all  our  large  towns,  there  can  be  no
possible  doubt.  In  East  London  alone  Mr.  Charles  Booth
estimated  the  “waste”  or  “superfluity”  at  100,000  (njper
  cent,  of  the  whole),  not  counting  therein  the  lowest
dregs  of  the  population  :
“  It  may  not  be  too  much  to  say  that  if  the  whole  of
Class  B  (100,000)  were  swept  out  of  existence,  all  the
work  they  do  could  be  done,  together  with  their  own
work,  by  the  men,  women  and  children  of  classes  C  and
that  all  they  earn  and  spend  might  be  earned,  and
could  very  easily  be  spent,  by  the  classes  above  them;
that  these  classes,  and  especially  class  C,  would  be  immensely ­
  better  off,  while  no  class  nor  any  industry  would
suffer  in  the  least.”
This  same  class  B  numbers  no  less  than  317,000  in