A  LARGER  FIGURE  FOR  NON-UNIONISTS  I  7

number  employed.  One  of  the  chief  objects  in  the
practical  programme  of  many  trade  unions  is  the  arrangement ­
  with  employers  to  work  short  time  so  as  to  avoid
unemployment.  This,  of  course,  introduces  an  element
of  genuine  “  unemployment”  as  measured  in  superfluity
or  waste  of  labour-power,  which  is  not  returned  in  the  statistics
of  “unemployed.”  If  all  the  members  of  a  trade  work
half  time  for  a  period,  in  any  scientific  measurement
this  must  reckon  at  50  per  cent,  unemployed.  The  proportion ­
  of  economic  “  unemployment  ”  due  to  this  cause
1S  growing  all  the  time  as  trade  organisations  become
stronger  and  are  able  to  bring  pressure  on  the  employers
to  distribute  a  spell  of  bad  trade  so  as  to  inflict  least
injury  to  the  body  of  workers.
It  is  then  certain  that,  even  among  the  trade  unions
whose  figures  form  our  basis  of  calculation,  the  actual
amount  of  unemployment  is  greater  than  is  reported.

^  A  Larger  Figure  for  Non-unionists.
If  we  turn  to  the  further  question,  how  far  the  condition
of  the  trade  union  is  a  just  indication  of  the  condition  of
the  whole  trade,  we  shall,  I  think,  be  driven  to  conclude
that  unemployment  is  greater  among  non-unionists  than
among  unionists.
In  most  cases,  the  members  of  trade  unions  must  be
regarded  as  the  pick  of  their  trade  in  skill,  strength,
character  and  intelligence  ;  and  one  chief  economic  object
°f  trade  unionism  is  to  secure  as  far  as  possible  a  monopoly ­
  of  regular  well-paid  employment  for  its  members,
uniting  membership  by  the  test  of  capacity  to  earn  a
standard  wage.  In  a  period  of  slack  or  depressed
hade  the  trade  unionist,  both  by  virtue  of  personal