25 MAY 1934, Page 22

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, —Absence in

Germany has prevented me from answering earlier Mr. Harrison's letter in your issue of May 11th. If he will also study the evidence given before the Committee he will find what he requires. The terms of his letter suggest that he has a professional interest in Industrial Assurance. If so, perhaps he will enlighten your readers as to the trend of profits " earned " by shareholders during the past fourteen years and discuss, more fully than I was able to do, the fundamental question—can insurances on the lives of children and adults and endowment assurances on working-men earning for the most part less than $.4 a week be legitimately regarded as a business to .be run for private profit ? It is not necessary to be a Socialist to ask this question : many who are not Socialists will answer it in the negative.—I am,