The Dominion. TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1934. SAVAGE SOCIAL CREDIT

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 148, 20 March 1934, Page 8

The Dominion. TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1934. SAVAGE SOCIAL CREDIT

Building castles in the air is always a glamorous highly satisfying occupation. The regular business of building is beset by such a host of practical difficulties and opportunities for doing the wrong thing that it will never be popular with amateurs. But a Sin- in the air amateurs excel. There is no need, in that ente - prise, to bother overmuch about materials, or plans, or annoying details like sound foundations. . ... , - tl Many excellent and well-intentioned people build castles the air Mr. M. J. Savage, M.P., for example, is delighting the people of the South Island with his skill in the political branch of the ci aft. There is no resisting the fascination of Castle What-Labour-Is-Going-To-Do as it takes'shape in the mists of Mr. Savages eloquence. “By systematic national control of credit and currency, guaranteed prices for products, and the payment of wages and salaries sufficient to enable all citizens to purchase their contribution to national production, an internal price level could be established and maintained This was the frontage revealed to the citizens of Dunedin. Hig i prices, high wages, high salaries: boom all round, in fact.. An alluring prospect—were it not that Dunedin folk are by nature inclined to be suspicious of gold bricks and their ethereal substitutes. The history of the war, says Mr. Savage, furnishes an unanswerable reply to those in high places who say we cannot help ourselves out of the tragic position into which we .have allowed ourselves to be forced. . . . War services were organised and paid for by the use of the printing press.’’ The “unanswerable reply to this is that war services generally were nothing of the sort: many of them have not yet been paid .for. Such as were financed by the use of the printing press” brought national financial systems to ruin, swept away all private savings, and condemned the countries concerned —notably Germany—to a decade and a half of heartrending poverty. Yet it is clearly this absolute inflation that has captured Mr. Savage s mind. “The mistake that was made in raising money for war purposes,” he told Dunedin, ‘‘was to incur a debt for the use of credit that belonged to the people.” The Savage Social Credit method of harnessing this unused possession is “as goods and -services are produced their monetary equivalent will be made available to the people.” Which, although rather vague for practical purposes,, will please. Major Douglas. Since Labour opposes Douglasism, it is something for Douglas to have converted 'Labour’s leader.