UNEMPLOYMENT. A term applied in re cent years to that condition of industrial life in which there is a considerable number of workmen out of work. In its widest application it de scribes the condition of several classes. In a report by the Labor Department of the English Board of Trade. in 1S93, the term is used of four distinct classes: (I) Those who, ments being for short periods, have terminated their last engagement on the conclusion of a job, and have not yet entered on another; (2) those who belong to trades in which the volume of work fluctuates, and though they may obtain a full share during each year of the work afforded by their industry, are not at the given time able to get work at their trade; (3) those who are economically suffering because there is not enough work in those trades to furnish a fair amount to all who try to earn a livelihood at them; (4) those who cannot get work because they are below the standard of efficiency usual in their trades, or because their personal defects are such that no one will employ them. Another classification divides the unem ployed more briefly into three classes: (1) Mem bers of season trades; (2) members of decaying trades; (3) the 'fringe' or least competent mem bers of every trade. These are broad definitions, including two separate groups, those who for one reason or another, as feebleness, illness, old age, criminal characteristics, or mental deficiency, are incapable, and, secondly, those who arc able and willing to work but cannot find it. The first class has always existed. and its presence occa sions different phases of the problems of poverty and pauperism. The existence of the second class constitutes more strictly the problem of unem ployment. Irregularity of employment even for competent workmen is not a modern phenomenon. It has been characteristic of every stage of eco nomic development : but, on account of the growth of industrial democracy and the development of humanitarian interest, the evil assumes new im portance. On this point Professor Marshall writes: "When a large factory goes on half time, rumor bruits the news over the whole neighbor hood, and perhaps the newspapers spread it all over the country. But few people know when an independent workman, or even a small employer, gets only a few (lays' work in a month; and in consequence whatever suspensions of industry there are in modern times are apt to seem more important than they are relatively to those of earlier times. In earlier times some laborers were hired by the year, but they were not free, and were kept to their work by personal chastise ment. There is no good cause for thinking that medhuval artisans had constant employment. And the most persistently inconstant employment now to be found in Europe is in those non-agri cultural industries of the West which are most nearly mediaeval in their methods and in those industries of Eastern and Southern Europe in which mediaeval traditions are strongest. Though the rapidity of invent ion, the fickleness of fashion, and, above all, the instabikity of credit, do cer tainly introduce disturbing elements into modern industry, yet other influences are working strongly in the opposite direction." (Vol. i.,
p. 775). Professor Cunningham in his exhaus tive study, of the History of Commerce and In dustry in England, presents abundant evidence on this point, and concludes that the artisan of one hundred years ago was less regular in his work and less steady in character than the skilled artisan of to-day. (Vol. ii.. p. 474.) The immediate causes of unemployment are many. Chief among them are: (1) Fluctuations due to change of season, as in the building trades, in dock labor in London, or in the tea, wool, and timber industries; (2) introduction of new machinery and transformation of pro cesses; (3) migration of labor from rural dis tricts, to the city, or from one country to another: (4) digplacement of adult males by women or children; (5) shifting of the scat of an industry from one place to another: (6) change in fash ion; (7) industrial depression or the operation of some extraordinary occurrence, as war. Scone of these causes have been in operation with in crewAing, force since the revolutionary inventions of the eighteenth century, and the introduction of new methods of transportation in the first half of the nineteenth century. The influence of the causes mentioned has been accentuated during the past century by the periodic appearance of crises which profoundly affect the entire organ ization of trade and industry. Under the strain of international competition markets become more and more sensitive to remote disturbing in fluences; production may unexpectedly cease and entire classes of workmen for weeks together be thrown out of work. In addition to these causes, which are clearly recognizable, various theories, involving a discussion of the fundamental prin ciples of political economy, have been advanced to explain the phenomena of unemployment. Only a reference can be made to these. Eir,d, the theory of overproduction: under the present system of production, with its enormous eapacity for manufaeture, more goods are created than :ire required to satisfy the market needs: conse quently there must be cessation at regular inter vals until the excess supply has been taken up. Second, the theory of under-consumption: the rich hoard and invest too much in fixed capital, while the poor have not the power of wholesome eonsumption. Third, the theory of inflated credit: the extensive organization of business, the promotion of new enterprises, the growth of banking institutions for the sale of credit have all stimulated the growth of the credit system; the settlement of contracts is thus made contingent upon future success; this development goes beyond the limits of safety, and periodically necessitates CI )11i raCtiOn ; this in turn depresses industiy, and men arc thrown out of work. Fourth, the Socialist theory, which attributes unemployment to the institution of private prop erty and the practice of individual competition: these necessarily cause a never-ending fluctuation of supply and demand, and prevent a harmony of industrial interests.