524

It  is  evident  that  in  such,  circumstances  the  length  of  this  qualifying  period  is  of
no  small  importance.  In  1906,  the  large  union  of  metal  workers  of  Stuttgart  showed  an
increase  of  over  42  per  cent,  over  the  previous  year.  Thus  30  per  cent,  certainly,
and  probably  a  larger  proportion,  had  been  members  for  less  than  a  year,  which  is,
in  this  case,  the  qualifying  period  ;  and  other  unions  show  similarly  large  figures  of
members  whose  claim  to  benefit  has  not  yet  matured.  During  the  period  of  rapid  growth
through  which  the  German  unions  have  recently  been  passing,  a  large  proportion  of  their
members  will  have  had  but  little  interest  in  recording  unemployment  on  their  part.  The
fact,  too,  that  there  has,  in  some  cases,  been,  not  only  a  large  accession  of  members,  but
large  losses,  and  losses  largely  of  recently  joined  members,  means  that  a  considerable
number  of  the  nominal  membership  have  not  been  at  any  time  qualified  to  claim
unemployed  benefit.
All  these  considerations  suggest  doubt  as  to  the  completeness  of  the  data  from  which
the  German  records  of  unemployment  have  been  computed  at  all  events  in  the  past.
Even  were  they  complete,  it  has  been  shown  above  that  they  could  not  be  brought  into
direct  comparison  with  the  British  figures.  The  movements  of  each  set  of  figures  over  a
period  of  time  furnish  an  index,  more  or  less  complete,  to  the  fluctuations  of  employment
within  the  country  concerned,  but,  however  useful  the  comparison  of  the  figures  for  each
country  at  different  times  may  be,  the  comparison  of  the  figures  for  the  two  countries
at  the  same  time  cannot,  unfortunately,  yield  any  trustworthy  basis  for  comparing  or
contrasting  the  degrees  of  continuity  of  employment  prevailing  in  these  countries.