The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1922.

Evening Star, Issue 17977, 25 May 1922, Page 6

The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1922.

hism Ik* in England a new school of j economic. their fad hi ' nrhoorios Of what, is known as the / / CcQftit, ■“ jlocg!;;:- C red id Scheme.” , Tho originator is Major 0. ) jff, Douglas, who ha:; recently )o!lowcd up ( his first hook, 1 Economic I'emocniOT,’ t with tho publication oi ‘Credit Power i and Democracy.’ Whether or not ho has ( any disciples hero who leave studied nr' ( writings arid aro imbued 'with toe prateinability of his spaciously attractive and plausible theory wo do not know, hut during this month proposals suspu’iouMy jescmbling thoeo oi Major Douglas luivo been put before the Dunedin public. Boiled down to have hones, ihc contention Is that capital Jo necessary neither t° hi- 1 augurato nor carry on a business, Ut course, tho advocates of the- now finance . do not state thoir casa rhus crudely, as ■ H|Mk would only bo inviting ridicule. this skeleton idea is tricked out kiudfi of a Urn Mi v» liucry which the dry bones beneath from being For instance, in our issue oi May tho heading ut 'A Pica for la- ’ there api'cnred a letter, eigned 1 suggesting how Dunedin g C t a now town hall in the simplest “ Progress” suggested that if a , tho interest would in twenty-tivo 1 (we make it twenty ycais) aggregate fifatl e amount as the principal—i.e., would have to bo paid for 1

taxi'd double tho amount for employing private individuals’ credit.” “ Progress urged that the municipality should :ssuo its own credit in the form of municipal bonds of small denomination, and exchange these with contractors, workmen, and manufacturers for their labor and material, and that these bonds should ho legal tender for payment of municipal rates. “ Progress" complained that a. lingo proportion of * tho t ity C ouncil s rates •* goes in payment ol interest to the idle rich, thereby injuring trade and industry,” and ho develops his contention—or it loads ! him unwittingly -to advocacy of exactly 1 what Clennauy is now doing and will J surelv have to pay for heavily, ami 01. whnt Itiuvsia, lias done ami is already repeulant of- -viz., tho lavish use of the I printing press for the creation of pa pci ' money. State and municipal. Mr Holland/Si. I’.. urged the same thing in his recent speech in Dunedin. He vvonrd abolish. Capitalism and substitute a. .State bank, with the she right of paper money i-siie, "jn.-t as is done in An,'lndia, bo .-aid. He was wrong, He should, have mid “ just as was done m Hnsma, where ronidn miles have been used to paper the walls, being ehiaper than wall- . pnper. The Comnionwcidln Dunk in Aus- 1 tralia is run mi the .soundest and most eiihodox of baukinprinciples, and hr praising it Mr Holland was unconsciously paving a Inch tniude Its tne eapitahslic svslein he i never tireu of deiioune;ii,g. Why iutlaiion, which Inis led In. economic ami industrial dn-treis. trout widen wo bone il.e v.iird to be now beginning to emerge, because it is applying the painful rent wholesome remedy of deilatinn. ; should have advocates who would see it . pursued (■> bursting point is beyond our comprehension. They are the same men v.dm urge the wiping mit of Capitalyet H ibo war. to which inilntion traces, its;' ui'igin, was in an e 'onmnie sense the wipim; out of a. proportion of the world's , capital. These wonid-bo reformers in the . rdmest pcvsilde "way !o■.ni si inviting the public (•> place it-, Innn! on tin' I dock-- ' and thew renin- a following. To thoao . inclined to listen to them we would lender ; the advise (si re id an analysis of the " [Vandas ('ivdiit S'-iienie ” in tho ‘New Statesman ’ of February IT .1 lie- writer denien.-T rat es that, according 1o Major Douglas's conception of Ins producers' bank, 'he caoital of the bank would lie doubled if the tlcjo.,-ilone- were paid their wages idiTiii ;htly instead "f weekly! Headers oi’Jhe article will agre-e with the writer's "nurluM.'ii ihat the whole of the Douglas s- In me is moonshine, a preposterous’- fraud, which could scarcely have over obtained even a hearing but for I'ne providential olscurily of Major Douglas's alyle.”