THE  PROBLEM
OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED
an  enquiry  and  an  economic  policy
CHAPTER  I
THE  MEANING  OF  “UNEMPLOYMENT”
§  /.  Unemployment  as  Waste  of  Labour-Power
“  Unemployment”  is  perhaps  the  most  illusive  term  which
confronts  the  student  of  modern  industrial  society.  This
illusiveness  exposes  the  subject  to  grave  abuses.  Wellmeaning
  but  somewhat  hasty  social  reformers  stretch  the
term  and  bloat  it  out  to  gigantic  proportions;  professional
economists  and  statisticians,  provoked  by  this  unwarranted
exaggeration,  are  tempted  to  a  corresponding  excess  of
extenuation,  and  are  almost  driven  to  deny  the  reality
°f  any  “unemployed”  question,  over  and  above  that  of
the  mere  temporary  leakages  and  displacements  due  to
the  character  of  certain  trades,  and  to  the  changes  of
industrial  methods.
In  order  to  get  some  clear  understanding  of  the  nature
an d  size  of  the  industrial  malady  of  unemployment,  we
must,  I  think,  set  aside  for  the  present  the  personal
as Pects  of  the  subject  which  appeal  most  powerfully  to
human  interest,  and  try  to  relate  “unemployment”  to
*  I