SOCIAL CREDIT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22060, 16 September 1933, Page 5

SOCIAL CREDIT

ADDRESS BY MISS KING Miss M. H. M. King gave an interesting address on “ The Dilemma before a large audience at the Theosophical Hall on Tuesday evening. The Rev. P. Paris presided. Miss King said that under the existing system there were two alternatives — inflation or deflation. Even then they could not inflate or deflate too much, and could not have too many tariffs of too few, . The chief cause of the present chaotic conditions was the , perversion of money instead of its being the mechanism of exchange, an instrument of incentive, and an implement of freedom. Money now measured the extent of enslavement. Debt meant slavery and all money was issued as a debt to the hanking system.. The question was whether people were going to continue to base their economic life on money or money on their economic life. Miss King stressed the point that some people were still under the impression that banks lent their depositors’ money in spite of statements by such eminent authorities as Mr M'Kenna {chairman of the Midland Bank), Mr Hawtrey (assistant secretary to the British Treasury) and the EncyclopaMia Britannica —that banks created money. In a public debate between Major Douglas and Mr Hawtrey the former had claimed that there was an inherent fault in the banking system which gave rise to trade depressions, whilst Mr Hawtrey had claimed that trade depressions were, intermittent and were due to.the mismanagement of the banking system. This placed the hanks on the horns of their own special dilemma. They were either guilty of the mismanagement ,of the present financial system or they were insisting on perpetrating an inherently faulty system. Major Douglas stated that the core of the problem lay in «factory costing ” and the perversion which turned the money token into a commodity, thus placing all real power in the hands of the banks, making-money an instrument of insidious tyranny instead of an implement of freedom. - Miss King pointed out that the abundance produced was the result of communal effort, and the fact that machine power was taking the place of man power marked the introduction of the age of leisure. As soon as goods were produced physically they were paid for—production was paid for by consumption. The recognition of credit as communal property demanded the establishment of the national credit office,-the national dividend payable to every individual over and above wages and salaries and the adoption of the price discount. •