Thanks again to Wally for delivering the goods. I add, for general
interest, that the Omni publisher (sometimes identified as Omni Christian Books)
in California also reprinted an important but apparently
little-read book on this general subject by a Canadian politician.
The Conquest of Poverty was first published in Quebec in 1935.
Omni reprinted it, in 1967 as I recall. (I have seen a copy of the
reprint; it is a faithful facsimile, not a "second edition" as the publisher
says.) The author was G.G. McGeer, a flamboyant politician from
Vancouver, B.C. who was linked in the minds of journalists and adversaries with
Social Credit. He was in fact a very partisan Liberal who had the ear
of John Maynard Keynes as well as that of MacKenzie King, Canada's
longest-serving Prime Minister. McGeer took his lead in money reform ideas
from Abraham Lincoln who he described as the most effective and practical of all
monetary reformers. One of his biographers said that when McGeer died it
was found that he had a very large personal library and that half of the books
and other material were by or about Lincoln. McGeer notes that Lincoln
emerged as a politician at the age of 21 with money and banking reform already
on his lips, and that by the age of 30 he had demonstrated a very firm grasp of
the issues--and equally firm opposition to prevailing ideology. He claims
that Lincoln was well read on the history of banking, including in particular
the unsavory details described in Zarlenga's Lost Science of
Money (see my summary-review in the COG Library) as they
impacted the American colonies and the early history of the United States.
McGeer suggests that Lincoln was well acquainted with the Guernsey experiment,
for many of his his words and phrases seem to have been picked up from Daniel
DeLisle Brock, author of the Guernsey system. McGeer dates the experiment
from 1818 and suggests that it may have expired in 1837 under pressure from the
bankers' lobby. Thanks again to Wally for clearing up my undertainty on
that point.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2004 11:19
PM
Subject: Re: MONETARY: Social Credit
Experiments: Wally responds
Dear Alan,
The Government of Alberta was a nominal "Social Credit" Government from
the landslide defeat of the Provincial United Farmers
(U.F.A.) Administration in 1935 until its electoral defeat by the
Conservative Party led by a Calgary lawyer, namely, Peter Lougheed in
1971. William Aberhart, who let the Social Crediters to victory
in 1935, died under somewhat unusual and suspect circumstances in
1943. He was succeeded by the late Ernest C. Manning who held the
Premiership until announcing his intention to resign in 1968. The
Manning era began with an almost immediate abandonment and degradation
of genuine Social Credit policy--a trend which continued until his
departure. His successor, Harry Strom, was a pleasant man but
uninspiring and unknowledgable regarding Social Credit. He fell easy
victim to the Lougheed Conseratives. Social Credit was never implemented
during the reign of the Party--although for two or three years meagre
Citizens' Dividends were paid from oil royalties ("Cinderella Alaska
Dividends"). Being derived from money which had registered a cost by
passing through the price-system, even these were not genuine Social
Credit. Alf Hooke who at one time or another held nearly every
Ministerial portfolio in the Government outlines the story in his book "30 +
5: I know, I was there." He notes the surprise and shock of many
when ex-Premier Manning accepted shortly after retiring a directorship with
the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce! This was no shock to those who
had an inside knowledge of the circumstances as they existed from Aberhart's
death in 1943. Major (Clifford Hugh) Douglas, British founder of Social
Credit, described the Alberta Provincial Government under Manning as
little more than a form of state socialism.
No genuine Social Credit government has ever existed. However,
there are examples of a number of monetary experiments. During
the inter-War period the government of Austria issued credit by way of
deficits to directly subsidize lower consumer prices, and I understand that
during this period Austria experienced the most rapid economic growth in
the world. The League of Nations was not pleased and put an end to this
policy, throwing the country into the throes of depression. (See Gorham
Munson's "Aladdins Lamp: The Wealth of the American People," New York,
Creative Age Press, 1945.) Perhaps the most documented case is that of
the Island of Guernsey which, under great economic duress, instituted in 1815
the judicious issue of Guernsey States notes, for financing of state projects,
to emanicpate themselves from the bondage of bank debt and interest and has
continued the practice with great success in promoting prosperity, eliminating
state debt, achieving low levels of taxation and maintaining lower
prices. (See "The Guernsey Experiment" by Olive and Jan Grubiak, Omni
Publications of California.) This and monetary experiments in Bavaria
and Austria, etc. are discussed in "Money: The Decisive Factor" by
Allhusen and Holloway with a foreword by Sir Arthur Bryant (London:
Christopher Johnson, 1961). These monetary experiments, although
educative, were not Social Credit, per se, and they had their
inadequacies. Guernsey seems to be the only one which has been permitted
to continue, although their monetary policy did experience a brief
interruption in the early years as a result of pressure brought to
bear by the banks.
I recommend, especially to you as an American, in addition of course to
the works of Douglas and his most qualified colleagues, Prof. Gorham Munson's
book cited above.
I hope that these brief comments may be of some interest and
assistance.
Sincerely
Wally Klinck
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2004 10:46
AM
Subject: MONETARY: Social Credit
Experiments
This is something I believe Dan Parker or Keith Wilde can help me with
before I get too deeply into a Yahoo! search of unknown duration: Is there
now, or has there ever been a national or regional government (other than
Alberta) where the greater part of the Social Credit program has been
adoped?
Alan Avans
Prairie Village KS