MONETARY SYSTEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 66, 15 September 1943, Page 7

MONETARY SYSTEM

MR. CARMAN'S CRITICISM

It had been said that what was physically possible to mankind must be financially possible, said Mr. A. H. Carman (Independent, Wellington North) at his meeting in St. Peter's Church Hall last evening. Money was not the prime issue in the election. It was a question of human needs and how to meet them.

"I believe it is absolutely wrong and contrary to the interests of any people that control of the amount of credit available to them should be in private hands," said the candidate. "I believe that that is a function that should not be exercised even by a Government but by a national board of experts set up to ensure as nearly as possible that there is sufficient of the means of exchange in circulation. If the manpower and material are there, the money must be there. Money is worth nothing of itself. It is simply a means of making use of man-power and material and bringing them into circulation." v

Discussing the war loans, Mr. Carman said that very little of the many millions raised had come out of the pockets of the people. The greater part had been created by the banks, simply a book entry. All that that huge amount of money did was to bring into circulation a certain amount more of man-power and material which the Government could not raise enough in taxation to pay for. The honest way would have been by way of taxation, but the burden would have been too heavy. \

The thing to bear in mind was that every penny of the millions of pounds in the war loans went into immediate circulation to pay for something that was produced and used at once. The resources of the country were there to meet human needs, and no matter how difficult it might be, the people must control the internal economy of the country.

"I disagree with a system which says that we must deprive ourselves of the things we need in order to meet debts that should have been paid off a dozen times," said the candidate. "Unless these things are faced, the mountain of debt will fall on us and crush us. If we are to rebuild the world, to feed and clothe people who are hungry and cold and give human beings everywhere a chance to live, we cannot afford to pay for past debts and destruction."