THE DOUGLAS RAID

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 26, 31 January 1934, Page 5

THE DOUGLAS RAID

VISIT TO AUSTRALIA.

VAGUE GENERALITIES

ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORT.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 23. Major Douglas, has come and gone, and except among "the faithful" —-quite a numerous body here—it cannot be said that Jie has made any pronounced impression upon our public and economic life. The most disappointing feature of his visit was that both in Melbourne! and in Sydney he talked little more than vague generalities, such as were certain to secure for him a fair amount of applause from his audiences.

At the Town Hall in Melbourne hcrepeatcd his condemnation of the existing financial system, emphasised the importance of his own views, and predicted that if they were adopted we would speedily find that all our economic trials and tribulations would come to an end. It was. much the same at Sydney. Here his admirers booked the Stadium for him, and our people were invited to come along and hear all about Douglas Credit at real "professional" prices—from "ringside" seats at a guinea down to sixpence for standing

room. "The Greatest Man." According to the newspapers, "several thousands" gathered at the Stadium on Thursday night to listen to the Major, who was introduced at his first meeting by Mr. S. F. Allen (State president of the D.S.C. Association) as "a real man, the greatest man of the age, standing above all the so-called leaders of commerce and finance," and this is the line that his disciple-s always take about him. And why ? Because he assures them that the existing system is all wrong, that he can put it right—if they will only take his word for it —and that the "change over" might be made in a few weeks or months —the great change from poverty to plenty —if only they will accept liis personal guarantee.

It matters nothing to these enthusiasts that Douglas credit has been condemned by all the greatest financial and economic experts of all nations as a hopeless delusion, and that not . one single economist of high standing supports it. And it matters nothing to them apparently, that the fallacies on which the scheme rests have .been exposed times without number. Mr. Spooner the State Minister for Local Government, does not claim to be a great economist, but his criticism of Douglas credit, which has been set forth at length in two or three of our newspapers, should convince all but the hopelessly biased that this "new evangel," to put it colloquially, has not a leg to stand on.

Fundamental Assumption Wrong. The fundamental assumption that there never is, under the present system, enough purchasing power available to take off the supply of goods on profitable terms and prevent the fall in prices is simply untrue — whether we regard it as a statement of fact or an exposition of a theory. And the remedy which Douglas credit would apply is simply inflation, more or less disguised by complicated disquistions. Apparently Major Douglas and his friends take no interest in past human experience of such matters or they might learn something about the problems that they solve so glibly, by studying the history of experiments with paper money from the days of the French revolutionary assignats down to the post-war period within our own reach and knowledge.

Did Not Explain How. However, one cannot undertake to discuss the Douglas system at any length just now, but can only record that in his Sydney speeches Major Douglas was just as vague and inconclusive as he had been at Melbourne. He denounced the banks, of course; he predicted that unless the world's financial system was regulated at once on the lines that he proposes there will be another great war, of which no one can foresee the end; he declared that ,he could provide work for every man ;in Australia within three months —but j he did not explain how; and the un- | believers who listened complained when it was all over that he had not even troubled to tell them what the Douglas social credit system really is. Let us - hope that his New Zealand I audiences will have better luck. J