SOCIAL CREDIT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 257, 27 September 1935, Page 4

SOCIAL CREDIT.

DEBATE IN FEILDING. Supporters of the Douglas Social Credit scheme were present in good numbers at the Drill Hall last night when Colonel Closey, Dominion organiser for the movement, and Rev. H. L. Richards, of Palmerston North, carried out a debate by way of illustrating the stated defects of the existing monetary system and the advantages of the scientifically managed currency. Mr Richards, in taking the negative case, claimed that the whole trouble which the world wa.s suffering from to-day was due to the effects of the Great War, when so much wealth had been destroyed. This, together with the huge debts the war had created, had caused the world-wide economic depression. Further, he claimed that the Social Credit scheme was too good to be true, and in examining the “A” plus “B” theorem argued that the learned Ma.ior Douglas had overlooked the fact that a proportion of the costs in “B” returned to the community in the way of consuming power. He would ask whether his opponent could name upwards of ten of the world’s leading economists who had accorded their support to the scheme. He disagreed that the problem could be solved by thelayman lacking, the scientific training necessary for an adequate appreciation of the very involved, economic transactions of the world. Concluding, he confessed that something wa.s wanting. but was unable to say that the social credit theory was sound in its appreciation of present day world needs.

Taking up the challenge, Colonel

Closey proceeded to offer an effective reply, stating at the outset that the scheme of Major Douglas w r as evolved from the experience gained in his ■work as costing officer for the War Office wherein ho had found that there would arrive a time—and Major Douglas had fixed that time at 1930—when the w'orld would be faced with a severe economic crisis for the reason that there would he created an abundance of goods with a lack of purchasing power. As everybody knew, that situation had arrived, and Major Douglas had been. able to demonstrate that it was due to an inherent defect in our currency system. The speaker quoted the remarks of Professor Gustave Cassels and Professor Soddy, as ivell as those of Governor Eccles. regarding the economic situation which lent support to the theories advanced by the promoter of the scheme. The general run of economists, he said, had been trained upon a system which based its theories on a -world of scarcity, and were therefore not qualified to appreciate the economic theories based on the existing world conditions—a world of plenty. The existing currency mechanism was unable to bring together the goods produced and the consumers, and that was its greatest weakness. Under the Douglas scheme that gap would be bridged under a scientifically controlled monetary system. Many changes had come to pass in various walks of life, such as improved transport, etc., which when presented had been scoffed at as being too good to be true, such as Social Credit now was. Mr E. Fair presided at the meeting and, following the debate, the local branch met .and discussed matters of general procedure. Both speakers were accorded the thanks of the meeting for their debate.