Nutshell Knowledge

IV.—Douglas Social Credit.

Once upon a time there was an engineer and his name was Douglas. We owe him a deep debt of gratitude, for it was he who debunked the proverb: "Every man to his own trade." To prove that the proverb was fallacious, he formulated an economic theory and almost gave up the practice of his own profession. He saw that there are lots of goods to be bought, and that lots of people haven't enough money to buy them, and consequently his theory was that the state should give money to everybody. That is Douglas Social Credit.

But Douglas was amazed to find that the trained economists of the world didn't agree with him. Their failure to appreciate the most obvious economic fact in the modern world furnishes further disproof of the proverb: "Every man to his own trade." Although they all knew lots and lots of economic facts, they apparently didn't have any real understanding of their subject, for literally thousands of professors of economics and lecturers in economics believed that the only solution of the world's economic difficulties lay in communism. Thousands of them, in spite of Douglas's theory, still believe incommunism. Another Douglas creditor was telling me the other day that in the twenty years A.D. (Anno Douglasi) six academic economists have supported Douglas's sterling reforms.

One of the delightful things about Douglas Social Credit is that it is so easy to introduce. Once a Douglas government is elected, all it has to do is issue money. What I can't make out is why Mr. Aberhart doesn't do it. Perhaps he's acongenital idiot, for it all seems so simple.

And it's so easy to become a disciple of the movement. You don't need to change your ideas on any subject at all. You don't need to upset your mental stereo-types or alter your system of pigeon-holing. Although you know that capitalism leads to industrial strife and to world war, although you know that, if necessary, capitalism defends itself by the violence of fascism, you nevertheless have enough faith in human nature to hope that the rulers of the world will allow reform peacefuly and consequenty you can sneer at the communists because their programme, though peaceful in itself, may lead to a bloody counter-revolution as it did in Russia.

In fact, Douglas Social Credit is just the right sort of political creed. It recognises that something is wrong with the world, and that shows how advanced the creed is, and how clever you are to embrace it. Douglas himself often points out that we have poverty in the midst of plenty.

In case I have failed to convince you of the intrinsic desirability of Douglas Social Credit, I must recomment it to you for an intriasic reason. Communism can best be combated by dispersing reformist energy in all sorts of different directions. That's why Douglas Social Credit gets so much publicity; that's why lots of other nice people encourage it and finance it.—"Spectator."