DOUGLAS CREDIT FOR ALBERTA.

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 24 August 1935, Page 4

DOUGLAS CREDIT FOR ALBERTA.

The news that a majority is assured for the Douglas Social Credit Party in the Alberta elections will interest many people in New Zealand, for this country has provided a large number of recruits to the army of students — and near-students —of monetary reform which has sprung into existence in many parts of the world as a direct outcome of the economic depression. Though he has paid a brief visit to New Zealand, . Major Douglas remains something of a mystery man to that section of the public which neither idolises him as a prospective rescuer of a tottering civilisation, nor condemns him as a crank. Is he a genius or merely an eccentric visionary? . Was his New Zealand visit a triumph or a ghastly failure? These are questions which impartial inquirers find it difficult to obtain a satisfactory answer. (We hasten to add, however, that we are not opening our correspondence columns to those who may desire to assure us one way or the other.) Some time ago Major Douglas was appointed Chief Reconstruction Adviser to the Government of the Province of Alberta. This announcement was received with a certain amount of mild satisfaction by many non-Douglasites in New Zealand, w r ho hoped that this appointment would give them an opportunity of seeing for themselves “just what is in this Social Credit business” without involving anyone outside Alberta in any risks. This hope has been reduced by the contention of New Zealand Douglas supporters that the founder has had the cards stacked against him in some way in Alberta and that any monetary reforms brought into operation there would not provide a fair test of the system. Now, it appears, the Canadian province has “gone Douglas” and that a Government is to come into power pledged to implement the principles of monetary reform. The leader of this political movement appears to be, however, not Major Douglas, but a Mr Aberhart, whose plans and aims are not favoured by Major Douglas. The founder of Douglasism is, however, to be invited to assist in the initial administration of the new Government now bound on a voyage of discovery into the mysterious regions of monetary reform. Whether the Alberta experiment w r ill settle all doubts on the efficacy of the Douglas plan is something that only time will reveal; the story to be unfolded will be read with gi’eat interest here and in many other places outside of Canada.