MONETARY REFORM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19138, 6 October 1936, Page 4

MONETARY REFORM

“A CHANGE IS COMING” SOCIAL CUE Dll' MOVEMENT EXPERT INTERVIEWED "It is generally recognised that a change in the economic structure, is coming, whether it is wanted or not, and the only question is what sort of change it will be,” remarked Mr. D. M. Sherwood, a London accountant, who is on a, year’s holiday tour of New Zealand, in an interview in Gisborne to-day. The Douglas Credit movement, of which he was a staunch advocate, had made great headway in England during the past two years, declared Mr. Sherwood, especially among the business and professional classes. .In New- Zealand he had found, on the other hand, that the movement was run very, largely by working men and farmers, and he was at a loss to understand why the other sections of the community had not come into it as in the Old Country. Although the Social Credit movement was not very strong in America, the visitor declared that a large body of opinion in the United States was in favour of drastic monetary reform, the leaders of which were Messrs. Henry Ford, J. Crate Larkin and other prominent industrialists. It was . unlikely that the President, Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, would embark upon any drastic changes in the monetary system before the Presidential election, hut if he were re-elected he would be forced to do so, the -speaker believed. RETURNING PROSPERITY In New Zealand there seemed to be a general impression that prosperity had returned to Britain, remarked Mr. Sherwood. That was lie added, for industrial activity was greater, with a consequent decrease in unemployment last year, but this was due to the increase in the manufacture of armaments. This was the case with practically every other European country. “If Europe goes on at present war must inevitably be the outcome,” lie remarked. “If, on the other hand, Europe stops its preparations for war, we must have a depression, worse than before, unless the economic structure is changed. The League of. Nations’ Statistical Bureau estimates that when the present armament boom is over the unemployed in Europe will be nearly twice the number of to-day.” ALTERNATIVE TO TAXATION Dealing with the present position in New Zealand, Mr. Sherwood said he did not think it essential that in this country national dividends should be instituted at tlie inception of any reform on Social Credit lines. The vital point was to have the deficiency of purchasing power carefully: ascertained. Then it could he made good by direct payments to consumers as the Government of the ' day thought fit. It could be utilised to pay guaranteed prices to farmers, to increase pensions, to reduce taxation, and to construct necessary public works. POSITION IN ALBERTA The position in Alberta was referred to by the visitor, who said that so far none oi’ its principles had been introduced by the “Social Credit Government.” At the time of the Provincial elections in August, 1935 j there was no radical difference between Mr. Aberhart ’ and Major Douglas, explained Mr. Sherwood. However, from then onwards Mr. Abcrhart’s utterances and actions drifted further and further from Douglas Social Credit, until, as was stated in an impartial review of the position in Alberta by the Otago Daily Times on May 20 last, “the Premier caused those who believe in Social Credit to gasp. He hired as special financial adviser Mr. R. J. Magor, an efficiency expert who had put the Newfoundland Government in a, banker’s straitjacket, with the strings held in London. Deflation in Newfoundin nd was said to be the very opposite of the liberating and expansive formula of Social Credit.”

The question as to whe’thcr Social Credit could be successfully introduced into Alberta, which was a mere province, not a monetary unit, said Mr. Sherwood in conclusion,, was a moot point, but at the moment it had neither failed nor succeeded because it- had not been tried.