CREDIT CREATED IN ALBERTA

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21857, 10 August 1936, Page 11

CREDIT CREATED IN ALBERTA

Aberhart “Prosperity

Certificates”

PROTEST TO DOMINION

GOVERNMENT

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(Received August 9, 9.15 p.m.)

EDMONTON, August 8,

The Chamber of Commerce today appealed to the Dominion Government to stop the circulation of the social credit '“prosperity certificates.” The Prime Minister (Mr W. L. Mackenzie King) has referred the protest to the law officers of the Crown.

! The Aberhart Government on Wednesday distributed 250,000 dol- • lars’ worth of the certhioates all lover the province in payment to the unemployed for work on road-s. Some merchants accepted them, but the majority refused. Each certicate must have a one cent Aberhart Government stamp affixed week y for 104 weeks. Then it is redeemable for a dollar. The Chamber of Commerce declares the issue illegal in that only the Dominion has the authority to issue currency. It complains that the issue is creating an intolerable confusion in business. Mr William Aberhart (the Premier), in replying, describes the Chamber cf Commerce as the mouthpiece of those oppressing the people. Business men predict a crisis when those merchants supporting Mr Aberhart by accepting the scrip attempt to recoup their stocks from wholesalers outside the province who have already declared that they will not accept the scrip. [A message from Edmonton on August 5 said: 1 “Mr Aberhart put the first ‘prosperity certificates’ into circulation to-day, issuing 250,000 one-dollar tokens taxable at a cent a week and redeemable in Dominion money within two years. The bulk of the issue is consigned to various road construction projects. Many business bodies declared that they would not accept the certificates, but the Government intimated that, if successful, the scrip would be the forerunner of social credit dividends.]