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the building of the Czecho-slovakian Parliament; at the opening sitting a review of social legislation since 1897 will be given by speakers of different nationalities. The first item on the agenda is the eight-hours day; the second the worker's responsibility and his share in the technical, economical and social administration of industry; the third the tasks of society with regard to the prevention of industrial crises, and especially of unemployment.

The executive committee for the Prague Congress, to which representatives of the International Association against Unemployment have been added, are actively preparing for the Prague meeting and for the submission to it of international and national reports. The fee for admission is six shillings for individuals, sixteen shillings for associations. Railways in Czecho-slovakia will charge delegates half of the usual fares; visas for passports will be free of charge to those who present an official card of identity.

It will be remembered that the International Association for Labour Legislation is a non-partisan body supported in the various countries by members of all political parties. Its General Secretary, Prof. Stephen Bauer, F.E.S., is a well-known expert on the subject of Labour Legislation. The International Congress is intended to be equally catholic in aim and constitution. All the speakers who will deliver addresses are authorities on the subjects with which they will deal. These speakers include Mr. Seebohm Rowntree-England; ex-Chancellor Renner— Austria; Professor Mahaim-Belgium; Justin Godart and Albert Thomas France; Cabrini and Angelo Mauri—Italy; Mrs. Kjelsberg and Mr. Jarye-Norway and Sweden; Dr. Andrews and Mr. Dennison-U.S.A.

Economists and friends of social reform in Great Britain intending to visit the Congress are requested to intimate their intention to the Hon. Secretary of the British Committee: Lady IDA S. A. HALL, 21 Hanover House, Regent's Park, London.

AN Indian correspondent writes:

Bombay was the place of meeting in January (22nd to 25th), of the Seventh Indian Economic Conference. This is an Annual Meeting of Economists and those interested in economic problems from all parts of India, including many of the Native States. The members of the Association now total 128, and include representatives from all the University centres throughout India. The attendance was larger this year than it was last.

A number of Indian ladies were in constant attendance and took a deep interest in the proceedings; amongst them was Miss Mitham Tata of the famous Tata family of Bombay, an M.A. of the Bombay University, who has also taken the M.Sc. degree in the London School of Economics, and is qualified as a Barristerat-Law, being the first lady lawyer in Bombay, before whose Courts she has lately secured permission to appear.

The Conference was most fortunate in securing Sir Leslie Wilson, the new Governor of Bombay, within a few days of assuming office, formally to open the proceedings.

In the absence of Prof. V. G. Kale, who is working on the Report of the Tariff Board, Sir M. Visveshvaroya, the former popular and efficient Diwan of Mysore, was voted to the President's chair, and delivered a much appreciated address on the subject of "Ignorance and Poverty and some means of amelioration." His main thesis was expressed in this statement: "The inference must be plain to you all now that a change in the present economic structure, which is old and out of date, is overdue and that in future a permanent union between Great Britain and India should be promoted and maintained on the basis of mutual benefit and healthy common interests."

The papers that called forth the greatest amount of interest and discussion on the first day of the Conference were: British Imperial Economic Relations, by A. J. Saunders, American College, Madura, and The Tariff Board and Indian States, by Sirdar M. V. Kibe, Indore State. The first paper dealt with the thesis that the British Imperial Economic policy has not kept pace with our political policy. There must be worked out an economic relationship that will be able to conserve the interests of both the Empire and the individual nation. The second paper raised the issue of double taxation under which the people of the Native States are suffering. It also emphasised the need of reconsidering the whole question of both political and economic relationships between the Indian Government and the Native States.

The morning session of the second day was devoted to the question of Indian Monetary Problems, and the following papers called forth a lively discussion: The Government of India and its Currency Policy, by Profs. P. A. Wadia and G. N. Joshi, Wilson College, Bombay; A Comparative Study of the Gold Exchange Standard during and after the War, by Prof. B. R. Chatterjee, Khalsa College, Amritsar; and The Gold Exchange Standard of India, by Mr. T. J. Kumaroswami. The debate turned on the

question-is gold really needed for currency, or would it not be better simply to reserve it for financing foreign trade?

In the afternoon "Co-operative Societies" was the subject for consideration. Able papers were presented by Mr. J. A. Madan, I.C.S. Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Bombay Presidency, on Non-Credit Agricultural Co-operation in India; and by Prof. H. L. Kaji, Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics, Bombay, on Distributive Co-operative Societies in India. In the discussion which followed Dr. John Matthai of Madras contributed a fine speech from the view-point of the experiences of the Department in the Madras Presidency, and Prof. Miles called attention to excellent work at Lahore, especially in connection with redistribution of land holdings.

Prof. C. J. Hamilton, of Patna University, opened the proceedings on the third day with a well-thought-out study of The Population Problem in India. He sees a very close relationship between poverty and India's vast and growing population. Indian opinion as expressed at the Conference in the discussion which followed is not inclined to that view. Prof. R. M. Joshi of the Sydenham College of Commerce, Bombay, followed with a paper on Agricultural versus Industrial Development in India. This paper occasioned a very interesting debate. A paper which was highly commended was Agricultural Improvements in India, by P. Basu, of Holkar College, Indore.

The papers on the last day of the Conference were: Excise Policy in South India, by Dr. John Matthai of Madras; Indigenous Banking in the Madras Presidency, by T. K. Duraiswami Aiyar also of Madras, and India's Real Balance of Trade in 1922-23, by G. Findlay Shirras, Director, Labour Office, Bombay. It is needless to say that these papers were well received, and resulted in a helpful discussion. Mr. Shirras' study created great interest not only in the Conference, but also among many of the leading business men in Bombay.

A number of very interesting and much appreciated social functions were organised in connection with the Conference by the Reception Committee. Visits of inspection were made to the Sir Currimbhoy Ebrahim Workmen's Institute, and the Bombay Workingmen's Institute, under the direction of the Social Service League. There was an At Home at the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics. And a trip was made down the Harbour and a visit to the Cotton Green, Sewri, by steam launch from the Ballard Pier.

No. 134.-VOL. XXXIV.

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Economica.

FEBRUARY, 1924. Mr. Keynes' Evidence for Over-population. SIR WILLIAM BEVERIDGE. "There is no positive evidence at all to support Mr. Keynes' views . . . there is strong, if not conclusive, evidence negating them; so far as can be seen, material progress in Europe continued to the eve of war at a hardly diminished rate." "Total Utility" and "Consumer's Surplus." Marshall's conception of "Consumer's Surplus" is severely criticised. It does not apply to satisfactions afforded by compliance with fashion; nor to the use of substitutes, as of a neighbouring bridge which dispenses with the necessity of recourse to one at a distance-" if the further bridge falls down the total utility of the nearer bridge and the consumer's surplus of satisfaction which he derives from it must suddenly rise." People have been confused by misleading space representations." The Entrepreneur Myth. M. H. DOBB. Referring to Usher's Industrial History of England and to the Cambridge "NeoClassicists," the writer argues that "the entrepreneur of the pure theory. . . is merely an algebraic symbol." There is no reason to suppose that the needs of a differentiated society for an integrating force could not be satisfied in other ways, were social conditions different.

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.

JANUARY, 1924. The International Statistical Institute and its Fifteenth Session. SIR J. A. BAINES. Agricultural Production in Denmark. HARALD FABER. The production of food is set forth under several heads, milk, eggs, wheat, etc.; the number of persons fed on 100 acres of cultivated land in Denmark is calculated to be 54; and an estimate is made of the proportion of the production due to the importation of food for live-stock. Sir Henry Rew remarked that the main causes of Denmark's success were an enlightened system of education and organisation for export trade. Some Experiments on the Goodness of Fit. J. BROWNLEE, M.D., D.Sc.

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Edinburgh Review.

APRIL, 1924. Food Resources of the World. SIR HENRY REID. "A small collection of disjointed facts and a large collection of more or less plausible fancies" having been lucidly exhibited, it is concluded that a calm survey of the facts and probabilities is reassuring to the present generation for such time as immediately concerns it. The exhaustion of the world's resources is very far distant.'

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International Labour Review (Geneva).

FEBRUARY, 1924. Family Allowances in French Industry. R. PICARD. A description of the constitution and working of

the compensation funds from which family allowances are paid. The private system may lead to a national system of social insurance. Social Insurance in Sweden. DR. E. LIEDSTRAND. An account of existing legislation and proposed schemes. MARCH. The International Conference of Labour Statisticians. The fifty experts of thirty different nationalities who met for the first time last October passed a series of resolutions on industrial accidents, statistics of wages, etc. Labour Organisations in Roumania. N. GHIULEA. The Professor of Social Economics in Clug University traces the ups and downs of the Trade Union Movement and the spread of Socialist ideas.

Journal of the Institute of Bankers.

FEBRUARY, 1924. British Government Finance. HENRY HIGGS. In his fourth lecture Mr. Higgs as usual tempers severe truth and sharp criticism with apt anecdotes and humorous remarks.

The Quarterly Journal of Economics (Cambridge, Mass.). FEBRUARY, 1924. The Agricultural Depression. G. F. WARREN. Agriculture is injured by declining prices more than are urban industries. The depression in America may last for a decade; by which time perhaps the pre-war level of prices will be reached. Financial and Monetary Policy of Great Britain during the Napoleonic Wars. N. J. SILBERLING. A contribution to economic history, as to the great value of which see Clapham, ECONOMIC JOURNAL. Denominations of the Currency in Relation to the Gold Problem. O. C. LOCKHART. The withdrawal of the $10 and $20 reserve notes is advocated as securing a broader basis of gold currency, like that of England before the war. Family Allowances and Clearing Funds in France. PAUL H. DOUGLAS. A detailed description of various forms of subvention for the support of children. The allowances are mostly paid to the male head of the family. The motive of the employers is generally to obviate the increase of wages. Earlier Theories of Crises and Cycles in the United States. H. E. MILLER.

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The American Economic Review (Cambridge, Mass.). MARCH, 1924. Income as Recurrent Consumable Receipts. C. C. PLEHN. Demand in Relation to the Business Cycle. A. H. HANSEN. The Emancipation of Economics. L. K. FRANK. Inquiring" where in the scale of scientific evolution economics at present stands," the writer finds that economics is in that speculative stage which precedes the development of a science, when men are engaged in explaining or accounting for events by verbal symbols.' In developing a science experiments are essential. . . . There are numerous experiments on group behaviour now under way." "Business cycles also present unrivalled sequence of price behaviour." Economics is the study of price behaviour. A Recommendatory Minimum Wage Law. A. F. LUCAS. The Massachusetts State, 1912, which does not enforce the established minimum rates by fines or imprisonment has yet effected an improvement in the condition of unskilled, unorganised female labour. British Preferential Export Taxes. GORDON JAMES. The facts, that for sixty years Great Britain

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