On Monday there was a full discussion on prices and
the cost of living in the Economics section. Dr. Bowley main- tained that there was no uniformity between wholesale and retail prices, and suggested that until the changes in the retail prices at 10 p.m. on Saturday night were known we could not say what the increase of the cost of living of the working class was. Mr. Whitelock, of the Birmingham County Court, read an interesting paper on the industrial credit system and imprisonment for debt. In his view the small credit-giver was getting squeezed out, the bulk of the credit trade with working men being done in clothing and household requisites. The spread of the hire-purchase system was admitted on all sides. The closing discussions of the Association renewed the disputes of the vitalists and mechanists, and Mr. Soddy, one of the greatest authorities on radioactivity, showed bow the dream of the philosopher's stone was now within measurable distance of realisation.
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