11 MARCH 1938, Page 38

PROVIDENT INSTITUTION.

Sir Ernest Benn, the chairman of the United Kingdom Provident Institution, is also among the optimists. He thinks that all the known factors point towards continuing prosperity, that employment figures are better than anything thought possible a few years ago, and that Budget prospects are better than was generally expected. But Sir Emest's speech is once again chiefly interesting for the stalwart rearguard action which he continues to fight on behalf of the policy of laisser faire. The battlefield on this occasion is the management of mcney. His argument is that the cheap-money policy favours spenders at the expense of lenders and that the savers can claim to be at least as valuable to the community as the spenders.