THE HUNDRED CENT DOLLAR

The announcement by the Business School that the Leatherbee lectures this year will be given by Professor Oliver M. W. Sprague on Monetary Policies and Problems has been met with no little enthusiasm by local business and professional men. The Business School has subsequently announced that more than 700 men have applied for admission.

With the recent resignation of Budget Administrator Douglas the public is reminded of the dire prophesies of Professor Sprague and the anxiety felt by businessmen everywhere, especially in New England, when the Harvard professor resigned last year. Now, as then, the businessmen are having qualms about the soundness of the government's monetary policy.

It seems quite certain that the men from New England who have enrolled in Professor Sprague's new, series of lectures expect to hear what they want to hear--that the government has taken the wrong step in its controlled inflation. But at the same time there can be no doubt but that the words of one so close to the affairs of that hectic week that followed on President Roosevelt's inauguration will be of much value to businessmen everywhere. He knows the inside story. Whether he will tell it is another thing.

In any event there will always be the feeling that Professor Sprague's lectures may be tinged with the odor of sour grapes and that the emphasis of his remarks, however timely, pertinent and penetrating will reflect the disappointment of the man who was forgotten by the advocate of the "forgotten man." It is likely to develop into a course in the value of a "sound currency" rather than an unbiased appreciation of monetary policies and problems.