Propaganda
by Ch Douglas
The appearance of captain Adams most admiral book real wealth and financial poverty reviewed in last week's new age and the letter of “FHA” in the same number, seem to me to afford a convenient opportunity to express my own views on matters which have been agitating some sections of those interested in social credit.
It is a well-known phenomenon in matters of propaganda that counter propaganda almost invariably starts by an appeal of broad-mindedness. There has been a concrete instance of this sort of thing in Western Canada in connection with the United farmers movement where the effort had been to draw the string of the fairly formidable attack on financial institutions, which has been made by the United farmers of Alberta, and the still more formidable attack which is threatened from the same and similar quarters, by the formation of what is specifically named the Broadening Out movement. It is quite plausible that in some sense the springs of these movements are unconscious. The decision in regard to this is of the same nature as that in regard to the consciousness or unconsciousness of the financial system itself. But the fact remains that this phenomenal recures, and I am told that there is some sign of its appearance in regard to the ideas which have been propagated through the medium of The New Age.
It is an insidious appeal. There is something very attractive about broad-mindedness it does not offend anybody. If you are sufficiently broad-minded you can agree with almost anybody about anything. But it is thoroughly out of place in connection with technology matters in which exactitude is of the first and final importance.
The broad minded engineer who is willing to agree that any sort of steel made into any sort of girder is equally good for any sort of bridge is not likely to build many bridges.
The value, or otherwise, of the ideas which we are considering, depends fundamentally on their exactitude, their relevance to the facts of the world as it is. But one may go further and say that their value is almost equally dependent on their relationship to each other.
The financial system, as it exists at the present time, is an articulated whole, and interference with any one part if it, unless that interference is compensated for by considered action in regard to the remainder of it, can, in the very nature of things, only be mischievous. It is necessary to emphasise this elementary truth because the attack of broad mindedness with which we are threatened seems to suggest that it really does not matter very much what you do with the present financial system, as long as you do something.
From various sources we are asked to strive for unity with other claimants to attention in regard to matters of finance, and in this unity, there seems a very considerable danger of achieving that progress to which Mr Brenton has frequently referred, which consists in progress in every direction at once; a conception more suited to the realms of pure mathematics then to matters involving concrete movement.
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It is fairly safe to say that many of the constructive proposals which are being made at the present time in regards to matters of finance are worse than any of the worst of the schemes which emanate from the bank parlour, and it seems desirable to state quite clearly that while portions of these schemes may be similar to portions of proposals which have appeared in these pages, that in itself is no argument for them when they are separated from their context. For instance, the abolition of the gold standard in itself has nothing to do with Social Credit, though Social Credit demands the abolition of the gold standard.
The unlimited issue of credit by banks has nothing whatsoever to do with social credit, although social credit might greatly increase the issue of credits by banks or otherwise. The denunciation of interest (frequently accompanied by inability to distinguish between interest and dividends) does not in itself materially assist matters.
You are only to a very limited extent assisting the cause of social credit by declaiming against the iniquity of the present Social System, unless you are prepared to refer to a specific remedy for those ills which is technically accurate, just as it is of very little use complaotheining that a motor car engine is misfiring, unless you know how to deal with the ignition problems. Even an engine that is misfiring is a good deal better than one that will not fire at all.
Now the analysis and the general lines of the proposal which I have put forward through the pages of The New Age and elsewhere are perfectly defined and concrete. It is, of course, open to anyone to say that they are unsound. I have, myself, devoted nearly eight years to the study and consideration of objections which have been brought against them, and I am satisfied that the proposals are sound and that such objections proceed from unfamiliarity with the facts of the existing system.
An extraordinary degree of success, far exceeding that, I think, achieved by any other propaganda of the same nature, has been achieved in respect of them in the very short space of time during which they have been available for consideration.In the very nature of things this success rests to some extent on the basis of faith as well as on a basis or understanding; for this reason it seems necessary to say explicitly that no statement, either of aims, philosophy, method or activities to which my signature is not appended, either alone or with that of others, can be said to derive any authority from me. In particular, no appeal for funds, for any purpose whatever, and especially for purposes of propaganda, has at present any authority to use my name.
So far as the technical and financial provisions of the Social Credit Theory, with which I myself and The New Age are identified, are concerned, they may be summarised as follows:-
(a) That the cash credit of the population of any country shall at any moment be collectively equal to the collective cash prices for consumable goods for sale in that country (irrespective of the cost prices of such goods), and such cash credits shall be cancelled or depreciated only on the purchase or depreciation of goods for consumptions
(b) That the credits required to finance production shall be supplied, not from savings, but be new credits relating to new productions, and shall be recalled only in the ratio of general depreciation to general appreciation.
(c) That the distribution of cash credits to individuals shall be progressively less dependent upon employment. That is to say, that the dividend shall progressively displace the wage and salary, as productive capacity increases per man hour.
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