working classes themselves and give a bad impression to the outside world. Relation to the Labour Movement. The co-operative society is not so pronounced a class organisation as the trade union, and cannot by its nature be so aggressive. It is more concerned with a worker's interests as a consumer than as a producer. From the material standpoint it cannot hope to raise the real income and status of the member by any appreciable degree. The trade union, on the other hand, is usually regarded by the workers as serving a more valuable purpose. It not merely helps to raise wages and improve the working conditions, but is intended by many of its adherents to play an important rôle in supplanting the capitalist system; for this end it is claimed to be a more potent force than the co-operative society can ever hope to be. Only during the last decade or so has the co-operative movement frankly thrown off its guise of neutrality. Different from the co-operative organisations on the Continent, the British societies until recently took no active part in the political and industrial labour movement. It was claimed to be no function of the movement to participate in disputes, but probably the main reason was the fear that a large proportion of the co-operators would cancel their membership if the societies played a direct part in the agitation for the improvement of labour conditions. But this independent attitude was already weakening before the war. In 1913 the C.W.S. gave valuable assistance in the way of food supplies to the dockers on strike in Dublin. Similar help was given during the national railway strike of 1919. Another link between the two movements was provided by the C.W.S. Bank, which now manages the greater part of trade union accounts. There is also an exchange of fraternal delegates at the annual Congresses. But the most significant step taken during the last few years was the entry of the movement into politics, and the establishment of the Co-operative Party. The agitation over the liability to the income tax was a large factor in bringing about this action. The Cooperative Party has a working agreement with the Labour Party, though so far there has been no actual amalgamation. The programme of the Co-operative Party lays down ambitious claims for international co-operation and the abolition of secret diplomacy; it advocates a capital levy and an increased income-tax on large incomes; it aims at the establishment of national credit banks and supports the nationalisation of the land; and it makes sundry recommendations for the prevention and relief of unemployment, the control of monopolies and trusts, the reform of the electoral system, etc. The benevolent neutrality of the co-operative societies in the labour movement is therefore a thing of the past. All the signs point to a growing unity of purpose and action on the part of the two main organisations. The twentieth century has witnessed considerable progress towards the stage when every trade unionist will be a cooperator, and every co-operator a trade unionist. 15 SOC. ECON. CHAPTER X. Causes of THE CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT. The study of unemployment is very complex for it involves inquiry into the workings of the whole Economic economic system. Suggested remedies for Unemployment, the evil are legion, but the more one investigates the causes of unemployment, the more one doubts the chances of success of any single panacea working alone. Some unemployment is, as it were, a surface complaint, and can be treated with a simple remedy. But most unemployment has its roots much deeper in the economic system, and treatment must necessarily be more thorough and fundamental. In this chapter the nature, causes and effects of unemployment are considered; in the later chapters will be examined the steps that have been and that might be taken to cope with the problem. For convenience, the causes of unemployment may be classified under the several headings, (1) economic, (2) personal, and (3) war. But it must be emphasised at the outset that these categories are by no means exclusive of each other, that influences so act and react that it is frequently difficult to say which is cause and which is effect. The first set of causes, the economic, comprises some of the principal factors in the problem, and for purposes of analysis it is necessary to study them in two sub-sections, (a) primary causes of unemployment, affecting the whole of industry and (b) less fundamental causes of unemployment, affecting only particular trades. Primary Economic Causes : In the past, production was usually for a known market. The order was given first, then the producer set to work to fulfil the order. Conditions have changed, and the growing practice is to produce first and find a market afterwards. In the aggregate, the demand may be roughly estimated, and, provided that the total production of a given article is not in excess of the effective requirements (though the extent of effective supply and demand will, of course, be largely determined by the price at which the article in question sells), there is no objection to production in advance of demand. Indeed, the practice is generally advantageous, in that it permits of continuity in production, with its attendant economies. Further, it makes employment more regular; it is better to employ labour, during what would otherwise be slack periods, in making goods "for stock," than to dismiss a number when trade is temporarily quiescent, and then feverishly take on labour and indulge in overtime, when the market becomes active again. But, despite the merits of competitive enterprise, there is a certain danger in the system, namely, ignorance on the part of one producer of the extent of another producer's output. Competitive producers, in order to secure as large a share of the demand as possible for themselves, may turn out between them a greater quantity of goods than can profitably be sold in the market.* The result may be temporary curtailment if not actual cessation of output over-production" of an article cannot take place if some wants for that article remain unsatisfied. General overproduction, i.e. the condition when every want has been met, is inconceivable. But we are here, for simplicity, interpreting the term in the customary manner. A commodity is said to be overproduced if the price brought about by the relatively large supply is too low to cover the normal expenses of production. *In a sense, and a corresponding dismissal of workers. The firms mark time until trade improves again, and in the meantime the percentage of the unemployed remains very high. Thus, the lack of co-ordination among producers may be cited as a prominent cause of unemployment. Another instance of imperfect co-operation is afforded when one set of producers, engaged in turning out a part of a certain article, do not keep proper pace with those engaged on the other parts. They may run ahead" and then have to go slow" until they are caught up. If this occurs in different departments of a single firm, the management is directly to blame. But sometimes it happens among different sections of an entire industry, and is the fault of nobody in particular. An invention, for instance, may speed up the production of an article which is but a component part in the making of something esle. Until there is another invention causing a correspondingly increased output of the other parts involved, there will be dislocation. Thus when the spinning jenny was introduced, yarn was turned out at a faster rate than that at which the hand-weavers could convert it into cloth, and consequently there was periodical unemployment among the spinners while the weavers caught them up. When the power loom was invented, the situation improved, for now the weaver could use up all the yarn that the spinners offered them. Statistics of unemployment show that in the unskilled (b) The Labour trades there seems to be a permanent oversupply of casual labour, while even in the skilled trades the percentage of unemployed never drops to zero. There appears to be in all trades an "irreducible minimum" of unemployment, due, not to the chronic idleness of a few, but to the loss of time by the Reserve and Underemployment. |