15 FEBRUARY 1946, Page 4

Nothing, the romantic and even some of the unromantic, would

say, is duller than statistics. Possibly enough ; but nothing is more necessary. Arguments without facts are mere puff-balls, and the best facts are often figures. Certainly, anyone who writes, or talks in public or in private, about current politics finds that solid founda- tion imperative. For that reason, the new Monthly Digest of Statistics, which the Stationery Office is publishing at 2s. 6d.; ought to be, and no doubt will be, widely welcomed. Its range is wide and its information detailed. Employment in various industries in different months ; production, consumption and stocks of coal ; all about agriculture and food production ; more about houses than Mr. Bevan has let most people know as yet ; railway traffic and motor licences—all this, and much more, is here for who will delve. And it is all to kept up to date month by month. If knowledge is power, almost atomic energy is now purchasable for 3os. a year.