DOUGLAS CONFIDENT

Evening Post, Issue 51, 28 August 1935, Page 9

DOUGLAS CONFIDENT

"BONUS PRACTICABLE"

SOCIAL CREDIT IN ALBERTA

LONDON, August 27.

Major C. H. Douglas, organiser of the social credit scheme, in an interview, said he was confident it would be implemented in Alberta. He insisted that Mr. Aberhart's promise of 25 dollars a month bonus was practicable, though doubtless it would have to be developed by stages.

"I do not fear the banks," he said. "They are made into,bogies. If there is any difficulty co-operation may have to be enforced. If I again visit Alberta it will be in the capacity of reconstruction adviser."

He admitted that local as distinct from universal adoption of his ideas would not provide ideal conditions for their success, but he insisted that there was a steady world-wide movement in favour of,his proposals.

Alberta stocks in London have been marked down 4 to 5J points, but sales are possible only by negotiation.

The Social Credit Party, led by Mr. William Aberhart, swept the rural ridings at the Alberta elections last week, and the Government was defeated. Mr. Aberhart's plans and aims were a modification of those of Major Douglas/the author of the Douglas credit scheme. The Aberhart plan proposes to pay a basic dividend, tentatively, of 25 dollars a month to every adult, with an allowance for children, from a levy on unearned increment, in non-negotiable certificates issued by the proposed credit office. The "just price" would be fixed by a commission. According to a cable received yesterday Mr. Aberhart declared that the 25 dollars a month social credit bonus will not be paid if it threatens Alberta with bankruptcy. The bonus promise has been described by the Mayor of Vancouver as the most cruel hoax ever perpetrated on a suffering people by a group of visionary and impractical political adventurers. *