THE ALBERTA BONDS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21865, 19 August 1936, Page 7

THE ALBERTA BONDS

TO THE EDITOB OT THE FKBSB. Sir,—l agrees with your correspondent “Analyst” when he says that we are still a long way from understanding the nature and purpose of social credit. Unfortunately for the advocates of social credit, the Alberta fiasco makes confusion worse confounded and will no doubt be used effectively against those of us who are doing our best to explain and advocate the use of it. The Alberta Government is called the social credit government because it won the election on a demand for social credit. Mr Aberhart has not, so far, passed ope measure that even remotely resembles the use of social credit, but, on the contrary, has, with the help of Mr Magor, a New York banker’s actuary, proceeded by fneans of heavy taxation, which is the negation of social credit principles. Major Douglas has long since broken with the Alberta Government and Mr Aberhart, and the correspondence covering the reasons for this break has been published as widely as possible. There is, however, nothing to/stop Mr Aberhart from announcing to the world that he is the’ leader of a government, and when he falls, as he is bound to do, he will inevitably have done yeoman service in discrediting the social credit idea. The Alberta bonds are, of course, merely a medium of exacting the heaviest taxation ever levied on any community, that and nothing more. “Analyst’s” explanations about real money and some form of social credit that might be used for services, are, too, about , as far from the idea of social credit as it is possible to get. Any money that is, issued under the laws of a sovereign State with the full confidence of the , people behind it, is “real money,” irre-

spective of whether it is issued *as a banker’s loan or issued by government decree as public credit. For the pur* pose of implementing social credit, it is absolutely essential that , the money issued should be accepted by the banks in repayment of loans and overdrafts; as these repayments provide the,', avenue through which the money is cancelled.. I am not, of course, asking “Analyst” to accept the idea, but I hope it is not too much to askthat, without accepting social credit himself, he will try to understand what it means, and thereby put himself in a better position to oppose it should he wish to do so.

The issue may be briefly stated thus; We may pursue a borrowing policy and levy taxation for the purpose of repayments, and a glance at ,any year book will show that the debts double and redouble decade after decade. The taxation that is levied always, and without exception, increases in direct ratio with the borrowing. Or we may pursue a social credit policy for the purpose of reducing debt and taxation. It should be steadily borne in mind that it is only possible to get money by one of these methods, that is to say, money does not arise out of industry. —Yours, etc., D. C. DAVIE.' August 17, 1936,