SOCIAL CREDIT IN ALBERTA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22720, 5 November 1935, Page 4

SOCIAL CREDIT IN ALBERTA

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— ln the issue of your paper of November 1, .under the above heading, you gave the opinions of two gentlemen —Mr D. A. Ewan (a director of the New Zealand Reserve Bank) and Mr J. M. Cunningham (New South Wales Minister of Labour and Industry), who had returned with unfavourable opinions as to the probable success of the Albertan Government in implementing a new monetary system based on social erhdit prin ciples. I would like to draw attention to another opinion, that of an employee of the Albertan Government, written for the Sunday Express of September 1. He says:

In Alberta you have a vigorous people and a land with Immense natural resources almost wholly unexplolted. Sixty per cent, of the production of the State is agricultural, chiefly wheat. Twentyfive per cent, consists of manufactures, and 15 per cent, of minerals. You have, therefore, already a reasonably balanced economy. Mr Aberhart, the new Prime Minister, Is ,a man of magnetic personality, a leader of great force of character and sincerity, and has the" population of the province behind him to an extent which, so far as I am aware, is without parallel. So the psychological atmosphere is favourable to the new Government, and I should say that more than 90 per cent, of the population is on Us side. Fiftysix out of a total of 63 seats in the Legislature have been won by the Social Credit Party, who are men with a high level of education, not. on the whole, Inferior to the men they have defeated. - Politics in Alberta, and, Indeed, In the whole of Western Canada, is a deadly serious business. The condition of affairs is bad, and is getting worse. Properties are being abandoned from sheer inability to pay the tax upon them. Every prediction of post-war Canadian Governments has been falsified, and practically no promises affecting the security and pros-

perity of the individual have been kept. The successful Inauguration of even the early stages of a reformed financial regime, effective it abolishing the absurditv of scarcity amidst riches, will, beyond question, provide an object lesson capable of modifying world politics. * In 15 months from now I believe that Alberta will be a blessed land. Unemployment will no longer be a menace to_ its citizens, no wheat will, rot in its elevators, and fine new roads will enable tourists to appreciate its magnificent scenery, and bring further wealth to its people. It will become one of the show places of the

world. This,'the opinion of an Albertan Government employee, is in marked contrast to that of your authorities, whose opinions were formed when on a hurried journey through that province.—l am, etc~ O. Hi, M. [The Albertan, whose opinion is quoted in the above letter, states that Mr Aberhart has the population of the province behind him in an unparalleled degree. Actually, the social credit \mtes at the general election and the Liberal votes were in the proportion of 3 to 1. — Ed. O.D.T.]