"Tick"

Warning the British public against producing "on tick" (credit), selling "on tick" and buying "on tick," the Parliamentary Secretary of the Overseas Trade Department, one Arthur M. Samuel, "ticked off" (reprimanded) a London Chamber of Commerce meeting for countenancing within the United Kingdom "the habit of installment buying," which he called "a trade built upon sand."

According to Mr. Samuel, it was all right for U. S. people, with "wealth to burn," to indulge in the "habit," but he "earnestly" hoped that "the honorable gentlemen whom I am now addressing" would see to it that the practice was limited; for, said he, goods so bought "neither earn their cost nor redeem themselves out of earnings," and sales so made are "a drug to trade."

Within the last two years installment buying in Great Britain has grown to large proportions and at present companies are being organized to finance it. Radios and furniture are the principle articles so sold, but at the largest automobile show ever held in London (at the Olympia) "motor cars" were largely sold on the installment plan.