SOCIAL CREDIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 78, 29 September 1938, Page 4

SOCIAL CREDIT

ALBERTA EXPERIMENT

GOVERNMENT REPUDIATED

BY FATHER OP THEORY

The declaration in London by Major C. H. Douglas that Alberta has not got a Social Credit Government is plainly a frank repudiation of the administration of Premier Aberhart, in view ot the fact that for more than a .year past the Alberta Government has sought strenuously to follow the directions of the father of Social Credit theory, writes B. T. B.from Edmonton to the "Winnipeg Free Press." It probably foretells1 the second complete severance of relations between 'Alberta . ahd the godfather of the doctrine to .which its , Government is committed.' ■

Nominally the Alberta t Government is still following the advice of Douglas, who is represented here by. -L: D. Byrne. But whether Mr. Byrne's allegiance is to Douglas or to Alfctefta'a Government, which pays him 6000. dollars a year for advice, is difficult to determine. His chief in London} has put him on the spot where he" must decide on continuing to serve a'Gbverament the master declares is not "Social Credit" or returning to the true fold of Douglasism represented in the Lon» don Social Credit Secretariat.

"The Alberta election of 1935,". said Douglas, "was not a Social Credit victory." It was; he said, a judgment upon the U.F.A. and a . personal triumph for Mr. Aberhart. He further disclosed that his own intervention silenced criticism of Mr. Aberhart from true blue Social Crediters in Alberta, which lends support to the vieyr that Major Douglas was primarily interested in the publicity value of Alberta events to his doctrine.

"BACKING A DARK HORSE.** Major. Douglas has made it .clear; after three years of silence on the point, that he does not believe "that electing a Social Credit. Government is the way to get-Social "Credit1 dividends. "Endeavouring to bring about Social Credit by party - politics" he said, "is like backing a" dark".horse - against all entries, including the dark horse, and allowing the bookmaker to fix the handicap." This statement was uttered primarily to knock John: Hargrave, the leader of the British-Social Credit Party, but it applies .to Mr. Aberhart and other political Social Crediters. - ''•''",' •In the opinion of Major.Douglas,' "Anyone who supposes ~ this, present ' financial system can be captured by a frontal attack is either childish, ignorant of its mechanism, Or a dangerous megalomaniac." To Douglas, the frontal attack method is direct political action, and while he seeks to. belabour Mr. Hargrave in this remark, he also, lajids upon Mr. Aberhart and'others. It is impossible, according to Douglas, to establish Social Credit through electing Social Crediters to office, and this may serve as consolation -to: those who failed to win in the Saskatchewan elec* tion. _

:In describing those who would couple Social Credit w^th political or» ganisation ' as dangerous - megalomaniacs, ' Major Douglas .adds another choleric phrase to th 6 bitter battle that is raging among Social' Creditors over Alberta. It is a controversy on methods / that has plagued the movement since the political success of Mr. Aberhart and the political failure vbf the mov»ment "everywhere else^.,}'._";_ ABERHART CONFUSED.

Mr. Aberhart himself has been coo* fused by the attitude Major Dou^> las. Soon after Douglas refused to gome to the aid^of Alberta.in 1936 Premier Aberhart said: ;"I feel satisfied that when the task Is accomplished-to # which we have i'set our hands, he will have-some difficulty in explaining his position to the public;" } Early in his term of office Mr. Aberhart received a letter from Major Douglas, which said: "While I am, of course, deeply concerned with the, success of the first titular Social Credit Government, lam , for my part obliged to. bear constantly in mind the growing . importance ,of Social Credit in other parts of the worjd." To which Mr. Aberhart replied publicly, some time, later: ''When ! we wanted Douglas to come, 'when we .begged him.to.come and put hispriaciples into operation, he found it impossible. " The world movement required all his time. But if they don't get him in a hurry we'll have Social Credit introduced long before he gets here. Bcobably the dear old chappie would like to come at that time, and say: 'We killed the bear.'" - There is a simple test by which to' determine the Aberhart Government's claim to the label of Social, Credit, which Major Douglas would now deny, to it. bpas Alberta followed the advice of Douglas? . - FOLLOWED FOB A YEAR; The record provides an -indisputable case that the Aberhart Government has followed closely for a year at least the advice of Douglas, conveyed through his representatives in Alberta, G. F. Powell and Mr. Byrne. Both are directors of the Douglas Secretariat, and together they have had the inside' track in Alberta since June, 1937, when the insurgents pushed Mr. Aberhart aside and thrust the Douglas "experts" into the driver's seat. Moreover, the str'ate- ■ qic proposals of Douglas and his see» retariat are based upon pressure politics, as compared with party -politics, and the , outpouring of propaganda against persons -and interests deemed to y be "the enemy" in Alberta in the past year is visible evidence that Douglas policy has been followed. In his statement Repudiating, the Aberhart Administration as a "Social Credit" Government, Major Douglas described the chances of success by the Social Credit Party in thfe United Kingdom as no more than those of "the well known celluloid cat in Hades." He leaves no doubt that, at the present at least; he has absolutely no confidence in party politics, as practised by a Hargrave, Aberhart, and others.. What was his opinion at the time of the Social Credit victory in 1935? TWO STATEMENTS. In the London "News Chronicle" of April 2, 1937, about the time of expiry of Mr. Aberhart's eighteen months,' Douglas said in an interview: "I have not the slightest doubt that' a dividend pf 25 dollars a month could have been paid to every citizen within tyro months' of Aberhart's election." Moreover, in his book "The Alberta Experiment,'*' published May, 1937, he said: "I have no doubt whatever that .by suitable methods the "essential promise could and can be validated." Since Alberta has'been following his advice almost since these words were published, the responsibility for "suitable" methods has rested only on 1 Major Douglas. The record of failure in the Douglas-controlled phase of the . Alberta experiment was made by Douglas himself, directing policy, from afar, and whether the results were, any more pleasing than in the previous phase when Mr. Aberhart was in charge without benefit of "experts" is' easily answered in the negative.

Until recently the speed of a train was a matter of considerable speculation among its passengers. But guesswork has been removed for passengers on the new Twentieth Century streamliner in the U.S.A. A speedometer mounted in a panel of the observation car shows at a glance the train's pace, and records the trip milage.