580 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION TF. 
kind, but the change in the price of either all the kinds sold or possibly of the 
cheapest kind sold may be taken as a criterion. 
Commodities such as meat and bacon present special difficulties, as here the 
consumer can purchase a variety of cuts. In this case the most reliable index 
numbers will probably be obtained by studying the change in the price of all 
joints or cuts. 
Finally, the index numbers of the various commodities must be combined to 
form general index numbers, the different commodities being weighted according 
to the extent to which they enter into the consumption of the average working- 
class family, as shown by the investigation of a number of family budgets. 
(ili) The Industrial Credit System and Imprisonment for Debt. 
By W. H. Wuirteocr. 
This paper dealt with the following matters :— 
The various systems on which goods are sold on credit to the working classes 
by industrial traders in Birmingham—provision dealers, general merchants, 
Scotch drapers, furniture dealers. The hire-purchase system and the various 
articles supplied under it. The public misconception about moneylenders. The 
various classes in this trade. The terms on which working men can borrow in 
Birmingham, and the extent of their transactions. The proportion of cases in 
each class of trade which cannot be collected without the assistance of the court. 
Court procedure. The difficulties in the way of effecting service of process. 
The investigation of defendant’s means at the hearing, and the principle of the 
instalment order. The methods of enforcing payment—(1) Execution against 
goods, and its disadvantages; (2) Debtors Act, and the suspended commitment 
order. The causes of working-class insolvency, and the relief given by the 
administration order. Its distinction from the ordinary bankruptcy. The 
results as far as creditors are concerned. The Committee on Imprisonment for 
Debt and its recommendations—their injustice and impracticability. * The 
objection to the abolition of imprisonment. The real grievance of the Debtors 
Act, and its remedy by improved methods of administration. The system 
adopted in Birmingham to this end, and its results as compared with other 
districts. 
(iv) The Economic Value of Foodstuffs. 
By Professor Lronarp Hin, M.B., F.R.S,. 
(v) What an International Conference on the High Cost of Living 
would do. By Professor Invina FisHEr. 
A movement for an International Conference on the High Cost of Living has 
been active for the last two years. It has received the support of the President 
and ex-President of the United States, the President of France, and many high 
officials of other countries, such as England, Canada, Germany, Austria, 
Italy, &c. 
if such a Conference is called it will discuss and formulate the problems 
which need solution and refer them to committees appointed for the purpose 
of investigating them and reporting later to the Conference. These problems 
fall under five heads: problems of fact, of causes, of past evils, of future 
prospects, of remedies. 
Under the first head (facts) will come a study of the most suitable form of 
index numbers and the most suitable list of commodities to be included in these 
index numbers. Such an investigation should enable us to know with con- 
siderable precision the rise of prices in different countries and possibly also the 
relative height of the present price levels of those countries. 
Statistics of price levels are equivalent to statistics of the purchasing power 
of monetary units. But the studies of the Conference should include, besides 
the purchasing power of monetary units, the number of monetary units in our 
incomes—particularly in wages. " 
The second branch of our problem (causes) takes us into a more difficult 
