CREDIT CROTCHETEERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22204, 6 March 1934, Page 10

CREDIT CROTCHETEERS

TO THE EDITOR.

Sm.—The following passage from the great John Stuart Mills’s autobiography, which was first published in 1873, is of considerable interest at the present time: —“ In common, 1 suppose, with all who are known as political economists, I was a recipient of all the shallow theories and absurd proposals by which people are perpetually endeavouring to stmw the way to universal wealth and happiness by some artful reorganisation of the currency.” In .view of the fact that they were written over 60 years ago,. these words have a prophetic ring to-day. What words could one find in the English language which more aptly describe the Douglasite crotchets than these: “ The shallow theories and absurd proposals by which ” Major Douglas and his supporters are “ endeavouring to show the wav to universal wealth and happiness by an “ artful reorganisation of the currency ? What phrase sums up more appropriately the whole machinery of “ Social Credit ’ than this; an “artful reorganisation of the currency ”? The whole of Douglasite literature is permeated with a spirit of intense animosity towards all economists and students of “genuine ' economics as opposed to the bogus “ new variety. Economists are referred to as “conditioned” and as the hireling apologists of “ the Bankers’ Conspiracy. However, it is not necessary to look far for the reason of this abuse. Ft can all be explained in one short sentence taken from page 4 of Professor Murphy’s “ Outlines of Economics ” written long before Douglas propaganda was heard of:—• ‘ Economists are unpopular with extremists of all kinds because they strip the authority from Social quacks.”—l am, etc., Student.