UNEMPLOYMENT AND PROTECTION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE °SPECTATOR." J SIE,—The allegation that German unemployment is less than English has been repeated ever since 1905, and has become a commonplace of Tariff Reformers in spite of the fact that every three months the Board of Trade, when they give the statistics, print a notice warning the public that they are of no use for the purpose of comparing unemployment in one country with another. Responsible politicians on the Tariff Reform side are continually falling into this error. So also are statistical writers who must know better. They never mention the case of Protectionist France, where the unem- ployment statistics are worse than in England. The French statistics for the purpose of comparison are, of course, vitiated in the same way as the German; but it is not " cricket " to mislead the people by taking the one without the other, and it is especially unfair to suppress the Board of Trade warning.
[Those who desire to go more into detail should consult the excellent leaflet, No. 102, issued by the Unionist Free-Trade Club (38 Victoria Street, S.W.)—En. Spectator.]
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