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PROSPERITY NEWSLETTER:
For the Promulgation and Establishment of the Douglas Social Credit Proposals.
Vol. 2, No. 4, April 1934
12,000 people hear Douglas!
 |
C.H. Douglas on his yacht
|
The Sydney Stadium was the scene of a unique and
memorable meeting on the night of 25th January, when Major C. H.
Douglas addressed a
great concourse of twelve thousand enthusiastic citizens and
probably a million more through the Broadcast over the length and
breadth of Australia.
Major Douglas proved himself to be a most effective platform speaker
with a complete mastery of his subject, lucid, convincing and
dignified.
Added to his knowledge and his gift of speech he has a delightful
resonant voice and great charm of manner.
He was graciously and effectively introduced by Mr. S. F. Allen,
State President of the D. S. C. A. of N. S. W., and when he appeared on
the platform,
accompanied by Mrs. Douglas (bearing a huge basket of flowers, the
gift of the Association), he received a tremendous ovation from the
audience.
MAJOR DOUGLAS'S SPEECH
In speaking to the hundreds of thousands of Australians that I can
see, and that I cannot see, I come to speak to you as one of a great and
growing band of
brothers, a band growing with terrible rapidity. (Applause). I do
not omit from that band our sisters because we recognise that when our
sisters want
something they generally get it and, therefore, we do not make the
mistake of underrating their importance.
Now, in any matter which has to do with great policies, and we must
realise that we are dealing in this matter with perhaps the greatest
matter of
policy which has affected the world in, at any rate, the past 500
years, there are two aspects to the matter which are important. First of
all, you have to be sure
that what you propose to do is right and sound, but that is not all,
because in these matters you must realise that right and might have to
be brought into line.
Because of the importance of this, I want to devote a short time in
telling you something about the band to which I belong and to convey, as
I think Dr. Streeter
said, the good wishes of these other helpers all over the world.
As I said at lunch today, this is not an Australian question; it is
not even a British question-it is a world question. The financial system
is essentially
the same all over the world. We imagine that we live under national
conditions, national laws, national customs, and matters of that sort.
That may be true in
regard to most things, but it is not true in regard to those things
without which we cannot live at all-I mean bed, board and clothes. These
are governed
substantially by the same system all over the world, and it is that
system, that international system of finance, which we are here tonight
to challenge (Hear,
hear)
Now, let me take you very rapidly over some of the ground covered by
those who are fighting the old ideas. As you would imagine, many are
poor, some are not so poor; we do not worry about that. We do not
make the elementary mistake of assuming that all rich men are knaves, or
even that all
poor men are wise. I am myself rather of the opinion that there is a
little more intelligence and a great deal more courage amongst the poor
than there is
amongst the rich-(cheers)-that is partly because there are certainly
more poor. (Laughter) You cannot generalise in these matters. I once
knew a very
intelligent banker-it was some time ago and he is now dead.
(Laughter)
But let me take you to some of those groups of Social Crediters all
over the world, as I am privileged to move about amongst them. In
London, we
realise that as things are at the present time these changes must be
brought about constitutionally. Now, bringing changes about
constitutionally means
getting the big battalions on your side, and we have in Great
Britain famous regular staff officers; we have permeated most of the
great services of the Crown;
we have on our Council in London officials of the greatest
Federation of employers in the British Empire; we have on the same
Council, helping us-and one of
the most valued members of our Council-a man who five years ago did
not know where his next meal was coming from, but he is now Editor of a
very
successful little Social Credit paper. I can say this that there is
no section of British society which is not represented, from the House
of Lords to the
poorhouse, in the Social Credit movement in Great Britain.
(Applause)
We have an army at the moment, when I last heard it numbered 6,000
men in uniform-the Green Shirts, and I am very proud to say that every
one of
those Green Shirts carries a little piece of Douglas tartan on his
shoulder. The Green Shirts are not the Social Credit Movement; they only
deal with one
particular section of the population, and that is the section which
is commonly called the Unemployed-we might more correctly term them the
Unempayed.
Every one of those 6,000 probably has at least 20 adherents who are
not in uniform, and the number is growing daily.
Just before I left for Australia I attended a meeting at the House
of Commons. I have attended a good many meetings at the House of
Commons. I
always judge the progress which has been made in these circles by
the sort of meal they give me at the House of Commons. When I went there
previously I
got a cup of cold tea and a stale scone; the last time they gave me a
very good five-course dinner, and a very good whisky and soda. So you
see we are
getting on even in these sort of places. (Laughter)
I could take you to interesting groups in the North; there is one in
every great city of Great Britain, sometimes three or four. In the
north of Scotland,
where land-owners, professors of the Universities and many others
are members, the very important man is a tailor, and he is the life of
that particular group.
But let us go across to Paris. In that city there are two main
groups, because the French are becoming very vitally interested in this
matter. One of
them is headed by a famous Belgian engineer; the other consisted of
French army officers, Russian refugees, French journalists and at least
one Mayor of a
suburb of Paris. There are also some who had formerly belonged to
the Communist Party.
There is a group in Norway; there is a group in Switzerland; there
are dozens of groups in Ireland. Before I left I spoke in the largest
hall in Ireland,
the Ulster Hall in Belfast, and I am very proud to say there was
hardly room for one more person in that building.
You are making enormous progress in Australia, and I believe even
more progress, if possible, in New Zealand, but even your progress is
hardly
parallel with the progress that is being made in Western Canada.
There are groups on the Western Coast of the United States; there
are groups in New York, very powerful groups, and there are groups in
Washington, and one of these groups is doing what it can to
influence the American situation along the lines we should like to see.
There is a very completely instructed population, or section of the
population, in Japan; I know it because they pirated my books. There is
very
little doubt that the tremendous advance in Japanese export trade
which amounted to an increase of 53 per cent. in one year-such an
increase as has never
been known in the history of industry-is an example of working the
Douglas Scheme upside down, subsidising exports for sale much below the
cost and
making up the difference to the manufacturer out of the national
credit. We know for a fact that the same thing is happening in China. My
books have been
translated into both Chinese and Japanese.
I should at this juncture like particularly to say that I am
speaking to Queensland because we have had such a marvellous address
from your
President.
If anyone supposes for a moment that an idea, a movement and a
programme which have spread practically within 14 years over the whole
of the
civilised and a great deal of the uncivilised world, is going to be
stopped by making me miss the boat for New Zealand, then I can assure
those people that,
in the words of the American 'they have another think coming.'
(Laughter and cheers)
It is not sufficient that an idea should be right, it must be
dynamic, and I have mentioned these little matters to show you that this
idea is dynamic
and has force behind it. What is it that makes the appeal in these
ideas that we are discussing tonight? Of course, in an economic sense,
as we believe from
the bottom of our hearts, they are correct, they are sound, but that
is not enough. They do, we believe, render it possible to solve this
paradox of poverty
amidst plenty, but even that is not enough. There are ways by which
this paradox could be solved otherwise. There are methods that are being
employed in
Russia and elsewhere in attempts to solve this problem along quite
other lines, but the reason that these ideas do make to those who
understand them, an
instant appeal and an urgent desire to get to the truth of the
matter is that they offer an escape from something that I have called
Utopianism.
We all know that at the present time the world is becoming bound up
with one law and one regulation after another. We are brought up in what
is
sometimes called vocational training, as if the object of life was
to earn a living. We are told that we must do this, that we must go
there, that we must not do
that, and there is at the bottom of your mind the feeling that it is
not only not right but that it is not necessary. (Cheers) We may see
the urgent necessity for
subordinating our special wills and our special ideas of life to
some specific urgent necessity such as perhaps arose in 1914. What
humanity does not like
and will not believe for any length of time is that necessity should
be made permanent.
Now, the Social Credit idea is exactly the reverse of that
regimentation to which I have referred. It says first of all that
because of the genius of
inventors, because of the work of engineers, organisers,
agriculturalists and others, great chemists and so forth, we have now
ready an age of abundance
and fundamentally economic security and it will not, in my opinion,
for very long tolerate that terms should be made for that abundance or
that economic
security. (Applause)
You will remember it was said about certain forward people that they
took too much upon themselves. Now, I think that in dictating to all of
us the
way in which we shall get these good things which either we
ourselves or our immediate ancestors have provided for us, any
self-appointed body of
persons, whether they be called financiers or otherwise, are taking
much too much upon themselves. It is from this world of bargaining, this
world of rule and
regulation, which exists not because of the necessities of the case,
but because of the necessities of the system, it is from this that
social credit offers an
escape. (Hear, hear)
It does not say, there is one perfect world and we will impose it
upon you others, making it a Utopia, but it does say that we are in
possession of all
the necessary materials to enable you to make a perfect world for
yourselves. We do not know what sort of a world you would like to make,
but we will help
you to make it, and that is what we call the escape from Utopia. It
is the thing that the human mind, and particularly the Anglo-Saxon mind,
has always been
determined to achieve right through History, and sometimes we call
it Freedom, and we are determined, all of us, to achieve Freedom. (Loud
applause)
There are, of course, a number of technical considerations in the
achievement of any system of distributing goods and services. An
examination
of the exact details of proposals of that kind is always, in my
opinion, better conducted by perusing the writings or discussing it with
others who are equally
interested, but the principles which are necessary to achieve this
economic freedom are really very simple indeed, and do not let anybody
tell you that they
are complicated.
The first of these principles is that your accounting
system-and you must have an accounting system in this economic world in
which we live
because it is a complex system dependent to some extent on what we
call the division of labour and process, you must have an accounting
system in order
to keep these processes regulated-but the first thing that an
accounting system should do is to REFLECT FACTS. (Hear, hear!)
Now, how can it be said that the accounting system of the world
reflects facts when you see such a simple little thing as this-and this
is only one of
thousands of instances. Take a bale of wool and put it in storage
and do nothing whatever to it. One day this wool may be worth, let us
say, £1 (I don't know
the exact price, but let this serve for illustration) and in one or
two weeks exactly the same bale of wool is said to be represented by £3
or £4. How can you
possibly have a system which represents facts when the figures can
change at any moment without any of the facts changing? That is one of
the elementary
aspects of the matter, but I simply use it to emphasise that you
cannot begin to grapple with this problem until you are quite reasonably
sure that you have
some sort of relation which you understand between the facts and the
figures. If you had a genuine relation between the facts and the
figures at the present
time, you could not possibly have poverty amidst plenty. (Applause)
It is only a very short time since over the wireless in Great
Britain we were assured that we were a poor, poor country, and that the
only thing to do
was to economise. Suddenly, with no change whatever in the physical
facts, they seemingly discovered that that would not work, and within
two or three
months of its being broadcast that we should economise we were told
that the only thing to save us was to spend. (Laughter)
Now, having got some sort of relationship that you understand
between the facts and the figures, then you have as a question of policy
to deal with
both facts and the figures. This is where genuine politics-I do not
mean the sort of stuff that is called politics, but genuine politics-may
reasonably come in.
You may take, for instance, a country like Australia [or Scotland],
and you may say, well, a very wealthy country potentially, and we should
like to develop it
very much along Western European lines, and in order to do that it
would require that the whole of the population shall be employed. There
is no difficulty
about that whatever. I WOULD GUARANTEE WITH A FREE HAND TO PUT EVERY
MAN AND WOMAN WHO WANTED TO WORK IN AUSTRALIA, INTO
WORK WITHIN THREE MONTHS. (Applause)
But it is not necessary. You might quite reasonably say 'There is
plenty of time for posterity. There is no reason why we should do the
whole of
posterity's work; posterity never did anything for us. Let us enjoy a
certain amount of this glorious sunshine and this wonderful land in
which we live'. That
could be achieved; there is no difficulty whatever in providing,
with a very much shorter working week, or, alternately, with a
comparatively large leisure
population, a very high standard of living for everyone.
These are matters of policy, genuine matters of policy, which you
might reasonably be supposed to be allowed to settle for yourselves, but
when
anyone says that it is impossible that this country can be in a
state of full employment, or, alternatively, that it is impossible that
those who are not employed
shall be reasonably maintained, then I say that he simply does not
know what he is talking about. (Hear, hear.)
You cannot possibly have at one and the
same time a large unemployed population, which is the same thing as
assuming a large potential production, together with large unused spaces
of land and
a large mass of unused machinery, you cannot have these things at
one and the same time, and have poverty without there being some reason
which
prevents these people from becoming rich. (Applause)
There is one aspect of the matter which I think is probably
more important in Australia very largely because of your trend of
thought, as I
understand it, and that is the question of the form of
administration that you give to your various industries and to your
finance. It is one of the most unfortunate
mistakes which has affected the general move in the world for better
conditions for everybody, that it has generally confused what we call
administration with
policy. People think, when they see a man giving orders, that that
is the man who is formulating the policy which is being followed in that
particular case. This
is very probably not the case. When you see a foreman stevedore down
in the docks unloading a ship with the aid of a large number of men to
whom he is
giving picturesque orders, that man has no control whatever over
policy. He is in a certain amount of control of administration. He is
administering a certain
mass of men in accordance with a policy which is imposed upon him.
Now, there is one danger which I see at the present time, apart from
the intervention of a world-wide catastrophe, and that is, in regard to
this
question of change in the financial structure of the world. We know
quite well that Governments are supposed to be supreme over the people
governed. On
paper, at any rate, the Government of Australia is the supreme
authority in Australia, I presume. But I refer to a country I know
better, Great Britain. On paper
the supreme authority in Great Britain is the House of Commons; but
it is extremely doubtful if this is so at all. It is much more likely
that the supreme authority is
the Bank of England. But the point I want to make is this, that
there is a sort of paper condition of these governments of ours which
does make them a power,
though they may not be the supreme power, but they are the second
power in the State. What I am so much afraid of is that, by undue haste
in combining
these two powers through the nationalisation of the financial system
and its combination with the government system, you might make only one
supreme
power which you cannot handle and you cannot control. That is a very
real danger, and I would like to impress it on you. I do not think that
it may not
eventually be necessary to make banking a State service, but what I
am convinced of is that, before you do that, YOU MUST BE ABSOLUTELY
CERTAIN
THAT YOU HAVE THE POLICY OF THE BANKING SYSTEM CHANGED. (Loud
applause)
Now, what is that policy? It is concerned with the facts, and the
outstanding facts so far as Western Europe and the United States of
America are
concerned, are first of all this tremendous potential abundance,
and, secondly, that this abundance is obtained by a decreasing amount of
what we call
employment. One of my colleagues in Great Britain, working along
quite separate lines, and using somewhat different data, arrived at the
same conclusion
that I did, and that was the result which was confirmed by the more
responsible side of what is called the Technocracy Movement in the
United States which is
also studying the matter, and the three groups came to the same
conclusion, which amounted to this: It was obvious so far as Great
Britain was concerned,
that by 1942, if there was no tremendous jump forward in invention
or innovation, if matters actually took their normal course, it would be
possible to supply all
the goods and services that Great Britain could possibly use for a
very much higher standard of living than anything we have conceived up
to the present,
with an unemployed population of over 8,000,000 in Great Britain.
The total employable population in that country at the present time
is somewhere between 12,000,000 and 13,000,000, so that the normal
progress
of actual production would force us to contemplate a state of
affairs within 10 years' time that only one-third of what we would now
call our employable
population would be employed. The wages system as we know it is
progressively and increasingly incapable of dealing with the form of
society in which
two-thirds are unemployed. We know exactly how to deal with that
situation, and that is by the method of NATIONAL DIVIDENDS. (Cheers)
I want you to realise that, owing to the fact that we are brought up
under the hypnotism of money, these very simple things are sometimes
very
difficult to realise. There is really no such thing as economic
insecurity at the present time. There is no reason why any single person
in Australia should give
one moment's thought as to where their next meal is coming from. To
say that it is necessary to have a succession of 'booms' and 'slumps' is
an admission
of complete administrative incompetence.
I am always very anxious at all times to make this matter as
impersonal as possible. I do not honestly believe that every banker is a
rogue; I think
that many of them are very sincere indeed, and, of course, I realise
the immense power that their position has placed in their hands. Where I
do think that they
begin to be seriously blameworthy and liable to public reprobation
is that when these matters are presented THEY WILL NOT CONSIDER THEM. I
do not
myself mind in the least if better ways are found of doing things
than the ways that we propose. There may be; nothing is perfect. What I
do object to is for
people to say: No, we will persist in the old ways which have
produced these catastrophes.
It is a very strange thing that those who consent to be the
upholders of the financial system are not particularly perturbed by the
accusation that
they have made mistakes. They have made mistakes even in their own
system to an extent which would have been certain to secure the
dismissal of any
functionary in any other profession than that of banking. I think
that if the designers and constructors of the Bridge had failed in their
work five times, and the
Bridge had fallen down about five times, and was not up yet, you
would be likely to say it was about time that new designers and new
contractors should be
given the work; yet this financial system which is alleged to be the
only financial system breaks down on every occasion that any strain is
put upon it.
Somebody has defined a bank as being an organisation which lends you
an umbrella when it is fine and asks for it back when it rains
(laughter), and, of
course, when it rains you get wet. But, as I was saying, the
accusation of having made continual mistakes and having continual
catastrophes does not perturb
the orthodox banker or economist at all.
What does perturb them is to say that the system is a bad one and
must be changed. That is why it is very important to point out that a
cohort of
angels from Heaven could not make this system work satisfactorily.
We have been saying that for the last 14 years, and, in my opinion, most
of the
reasonable arguments which could be brought against the things that
we have stated have been said and are practically silenced. There is no
argument
which is brought forward now in Great Britain with which we as an
organisation have not dealt and have not answered, but it is necessary
to realise that you
can go on along these lines practically for ever so long as you do
not move any further. You have got to bring pressure to bear. (Hear,
hear)
In Great Britain we have devoted during the last few years much more
attention to this question of bringing pressure to bear than we have to
the
technique of Social Credit. We are quite satisfied that we have a
technical basis for what we want to do, and we are now concerned with
getting it done, and in
general we have pursued this course. We have contacted an increasing
number of men in responsible positions. It is a very cheap thing, and
one quite out of
drawing with the gravity of this Movement, to suppose that all men
in responsible positions are incompetent and are fools. They are not.
What I am perfectly
convinced of is that these men will never move unless pressure is
brought to bear on them. You must first of all get the people to
understand what it is that you
are trying to do, and what you want, and then you must say in no
uncertain terms that you intend to have that thing done, and I am
absolutely confident that you
will get it done. (Cheers)
I notice that when I talk now to those people in responsible
positions, they do not ask me very much about the technical aspects of
Social Credit;
they say, "How many followers have you got?" (Laughter) That is the
thing that interests them. If you get a sufficient number of people and
set your course
properly, I do not believe that there is anything that can withstand
you. But both of these things are necessary, and, in a rapid passage
through Sydney, I give
you some practical advice as you go.
Don't waste too much time in lambasting the man who is carrying on
the situation. Go to him and say, "Look here, we don't like your system,
it isn't
necessary, and we would like you to change it. You are close to the
machinery, you are in charge of it, you are familiar with it, and it
won't answer any special
purpose in putting you out. What we are determined to do is to have
this thing done. Now, if you do it, everybody will be happy, but if you
won't do it, we will put
you out." (Applause)
Following that, I must say that I am not very much impressed with
the idea of forming a special Social Credit Parliamentary Party. I have
always
opposed the idea in Great Britain, and I think my position has been
justified. Get hold of the existing people whether they are politicians
or whoever they may
be in position, and apply your pressure to them and make their lives
a misery to them until they do what you want. (Hear, hear)
Before concluding, I am forced by my conscience to end upon a
graver note. I THINK IT WILL BE A MIRACLE IF WE GET THROUGH THE
COMING YEAR WITHOUT THE BEGINNING OF ANOTHER GREAT WAR. What the
outcome of this may be I do not know. If it is possible by that miracle
to
avert that comparatively imminent catastrophe, it can only be done
by getting complete control of the financial system within that time. I
say that not to frighten
you. I do not believe that the Anglo-Saxon ever really is urged
along any course by fright. I am simply telling you as a reason for
knowing that it is vitally
necessary that you don't waste too much time about discussing the
fine technical details of a new economic system. That can be adjusted by
your experts.
Keep hold of the situation, say that you are going to have certain
radical changes made in this financial system along lines which are
perfectly simple and
which will permanently avoid the necessity of undue competition for
foreign markets. That is the tinder against the flint at the present
time, and there is only
one possible way of dealing with that-by increasing your internal
purchasing power so that you do not have to press for export markets
because you can
consume your own production. (Applause)
Finally, it is very frequently asked of me whether it is possible
for a real financial system to be instituted in one country at a time.
There are two
answers to this. The technical answer is: "Yes, certainly, there is
no difficulty at all," but what you might call the worldly wise answer
is: "Yes, certainly, but such
a country would immediately have all the pressure of international
finance brought against it." That is a true objection, but it has this
important qualification,
and that qualification was one of the reasons why I sketched the
growth of these ideas in the different countries of the world. I do not
believe that if you
instituted Social Credit in Australia, and financial pressure were
brought upon you from London, as it would be, I do not think that it
would be tolerated by
Canada.
There is all over the world a growing appreciation of this
situation, which spreads even amongst bankers themselves. There is no
doubt at all
about it that all the lower strata of banking-and I think it is not
an exaggeration to say, certainly in Great Britain, 80 per cent. of bank
officers-absolutely agree
with me. For that reason I would ask you to take heart and at the
same time realise that by making the change in the present financial
system you are not
running anything like the risks that you are running by allowing
things to drift. So get on with it and get busy. (Loud and continued
applause)
Reprinted from
The New Era (Sydney, Australia)
The Critical Moment
"The outstanding fact in regard to the existing situation in the
world at the present time, is that it is unstable....the break-up of the
present financial and social system is certain....A comparatively short
period will probably serve to decide whether we are to master the
mighty economic and social machine that we have created, or whether it
is to master us; and during that period a small impetus from a body of
men who know what to do and how to do it, may make the difference
between yet one more retreat into the Dark Ages, or the emergence into
the full light of a day of such splendour as we can at present only
envisage dimly.
It is this necessity for the recognition of the psychological
moment, and the fitting to that moment of appropriate action, which
should be present in the minds of that small minority which is seized of
the gravity of the present times. To have a clear understanding of the
principles which underlie the problem is essential to those who may hope
to play a part in its solution; it is even desirable that skeleton
plans should be in existence to meet the situation as it can be seen to
exist; but nothing can be more fatal to a successful issue than the
premature publication of cut-and-dried arrangements which are likely to
be out of date before their adoption can be secured. As the world is
constituted today, effective action is only possible through certain
centres of influence; that is to say, short of complete social anarchy
as a preliminary to a new world, it is necessary to work through the
arrangements which have grown up in the system with which we are all
familiar.
It hardly needs emphasis that a constant binding back of proposals
for reform, to the moving events of the world, is of the utmost value;
in fact, if it be possible to clarify the relation between the analysis
of the financial system, the foci of discontent, and the logical remedy,
with sufficient emphasis and over a sufficiently wide area, then the
stage will be set for the greatest victory which the human individual
has, within history, achieved over the forces which beset him to his
fall." (C.H. Douglas,
Social Credit, 1924)
"The problem of Social Credit
is: How do we bring existing
institutions under control? The objective is that they shall be free
within their function and powerless outside it." -
C.H. Douglas (PDF)
"One of the men who profoundly interested me was Major Clifford Hugh
Douglas, originator of the Social Credit Scheme....Douglas's death at
his home at Fearnan, Perthshire, on 29th September 1952, removed from
our midst one of the greatest Scotsmen of the past hundred years, and,
in relation to his own subject, the greatest of all time....Douglas was
disappointed that his own country of Scotland was not the first to give
his system a trial. He recognised, of course, that
Scotland could not do so until it reaquired independence and a Parliament of its own." - Hugh McDiarmid (C.M. Grieve)
The Company I've Kept, 1966
International Banking and human sabotage
Scotland and its Money
Finance
& the Environment
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