"PLAN HALF RIGHT."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 39, 15 February 1934, Page 10

"PLAN HALF RIGHT."

ROOSEVELT'S REMEDY. VIEW OF MAJOR DOUGLAS. CREATING MORE DEBTS. The plan bv which President Roosevelt is attempting to bring the' United States out of the economic depression is about half right, according to Major C. H. Douglas, founder of the Douglas Social Credit Scheme. He told a "Cliristcliurch Star" interviewer that President Roosevelt was creating enormous quantities of credit which he was distributing through the national life, but at the same time he was piling up debts to a corresponding pxtent. The core of the present difficulty was the debt-creating system. Under the Douglas credit scheme the debts so incurred cancelled themselves out over a period of years. Only as a plan to correct to some extent the mistakes of the past could the speaker agree with the Roosevelt plan, which, however, was not the right policy for the future. Japan's Living Standard. Major Douglas said that Japan was using the results of a study of his books and of his addresses delivered there in 1929, to employ credit to sell goods for export at below cost. The statement that there was a low standard of living in Japan, and that low wages costs were the reason for this ability to undersell other nations in the world's markets, was a myth. The direct labour costs of the articles which were sold at below cost were so small that even if they were halved it would not make much dillerence to the price of the goods. Sweden was now running a managed currency system, which was only a step in the direction of the Douglas Plan. In Norway and Sweden great interest was being taken in the speaker's proposals. The progress of the movement throughout the world in recent years was quite phenomenal. The greatest support for it was coming from the North American Continent and the western provinces of Canada—where there was a large number of small farmers—were generally heartily in accord with it. It was favoured very strongly in Australia, and he had been told that 85 per cent of the people of West Australia endorsed it. Predicted Present Slump. The Major said that it was in 1919 that he had predicted the present slump. He had had a very considerable following of a quietly influential kind before that, but most of the support liad como since the depression, as people had been driven through force of circumstances to lind a remedy for the world's financial chaos. The movement was definitely opposed to Socialism, in that that vague word generally implied the nationalisation of everything. When asked from what quarter most of the opposition to his proposals came Major Douglas said that undoubtedly there had been a great deal of opposition from orthodox economists. The only comment he had to make on that point was that the criticisms offered by those economists had always contradicted each other. There liad been opposition also from banking institutions, and every effort had been made to keep from the people a knowledge of the Douglas Plan. It would not be necessary to nationalise the present banks, but to give effect to his plan the proposed reserve bank for New Zealand would have to have its functions altered. It would be effective for that purpose only if it were free from control by such institutions as the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank.