The Social Crediters of our movement, the Union of Electors, know something about poverty. The zeal and enthusiasm which is the outstanding trait of a typical Crediter has been sparked by the knowledge of so much want and misery in the midst of such an abundance of production. Some of our most active members have known complete and utter destitution — the Daigles of New Brunswick of whom we have written in a previous issue, are an example. Our full-time workers in their journeying about the land meet it time and time again until it has become an all too familiar tale. And individual members in their canvassing from door to door taking subscriptions have come to know and recognize the face of want.
The movement as a whole, however, didn't really get a shock, until it began to spread into New Brunswick. It was like jumping into a pond of icy cold water. Slums and poor villages here and there were common enough sights to individual workers or groups of members. But when the congress was held in New Brunswick the entire movement realized that here was poverty and want on a province-wide scale. In the Fall of 1959, the Union of Electors held a congress at Allardville, New Brunswick, October 10, 11, 12. The theme of this congress was the fight against poverty. As Mrs. Côté-Mercier said at the congress:
"The Union of Electors has undertaken a crusade against poverty. Physically speaking there is no reason for poverty; it has been vanquished. Socially speaking it has not been overcome. The stores and the warehouses are full. Yet at the same time, even here in the district of Gloucester, there are hundreds of families which are suffering terribly from cold and hunger."
Suiting their words to action at that congress, the Crediters distributed a truckload of clothing to the poor of the district.
Since that time the movement has devoted special attention to alleviating the immediate difficulties of the poor. It has felt that a concern for the existing needs of those who suffer must go hand in hand with the major work of the Crediters' movement to root out the causes of this misery and to establish a regime where insecurity and want will be impossible.
Thus it was that the directors of the movement called upon the Crediters of Montreal and the surrounding district to pass Easter Sunday in a special assembly in one of the slum districts of Montreal, that of Point St. Charles, also commonly known as Griffintown.
The directors felt that since Easter was the great triumphal feast of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and since Christ had a very special place in His Heart for the poor, it was only fitting that this feast should be passed with His poor.
The members of the movement responded nobly. They poured in from all over the province of Quebec; from as far away as the Abitibi region 400 miles to the north. They brought with them clothing and food. The women cooked a multitude of main-course dishes along with preparing sandwiches, coffee, cakes, salads, etc., etc.
At 2:30 Easter Sunday afternoon, some 500 Crediters assembled on the third floor auditorium of the old St. Anne's Hall. After receiving the necessary instructions from the directors of the movement they split into two's, and proceeded to visit the houses of this district, the purpose being to invite one and all of the residents to attend the play to be held that evening at 8:00 p.m. and to invite the obviously poor people to attend the supper to begin at 5:30 p.m. Those who have never taken the opportunity to visit the poverty-stricken, can never know from mere description what effect such a visit can have on the visitant. The reactions of most who have made their first visit to a slum area, is, first, "I never realized that such living conditions existed!" and secondly, "How is it that in this day and age with so much food and so many other things being produced people can still live in such want?"
And that just about sums up the whole paradox of misery and want in the midst of plenty. Why should people be forced to live like animals in stables with less care from their fellow men than animals get from their owners — when our production system is capable of producing such embarrassing surpluses of all sorts of goods even with a large, percentage of the population unemployed?
When the Crediters returned at 5:00 from their visit to the poor, they found that the ladies and other volunteers had laid out long tables and set them appropriately for the dinner.
At 5:30 p.m., the call to dinner was sounded. Since the job of cooking the meals had been confided to a large number of the ladies, the result was a great variety of meat and vegetable dishes, salads, pickles, etc. There was coffee and soft drinks, there were many kinds of desserts, biscuits, etc.
All of this was provided by Crediters at no cost to the movement. The dishes were prepared by our members or the drinks and biscuits were begged from sympathetic grocers. There was more than enough for everyone and the dinner was eaten in a spirit of gaiety and good-fellowship.
A large number of the residents of the area who had been invited came. One mother was present with her ten children. Another couple came with eight. Young folks were in the majority. It was a bit of a puzzle to them. Here they were being treated to a fine banquet gratis and they weren't even being asked to give their vote for it! Some children remarked almost pathetically, "We had not only one apple but we had several apples!"
After the dinner, the tables were cleared away, the floor swept, chairs put back in place, and the play began.
It was, quite simply, a religious play, almost a pantomine, more or less along the lines of the old medieval "morality plays", except that this play was biblical. It depicted the passion and death, and the resurrection of Christ. No formal script had been prepared the words of the gospel being used for the most part.
The actors, comprising full-time and part-time workers, had had only two rehersals. The brilliant and really professional costuming was the work of the movement's very capable and decisive secretary, Miss Therese Tardif! In spite of what might seem to the professionals like somewhat meager preparations, the play rolled out smoothly without a hitch, and what ever skill and experience the actors may have lacked was more than compensated for by the love and zeal they brought to the subject they were enacting.
No one left before the end — and I think that is about the best comment that can be made for any form of entertainment.
The Griffintown visit was more or less along the lines of an experiment. It was definitely a success both for the members of our movement who participated in a great and true act of charity, and whose determination to continue to work for the eradication of such social injustice as they witnessed, through the formula of Social Credit, was strengthened and deepened; and likewise, for the poor who accepted the organization's invitation to participate in this celebration of the most glorious day of the year. For we have no doubt that they will open their hearts and minds all the more readily to the message of Social Credit when the time comes.
For this is the one true message which can deliver them from the temporal and social purgatory to which they have been condemned by the canons of an outmoded and unjust system of finance.
EARL MASSECAR
Nothing in monetary practice is more certain than that contraction of the volume of money, or even failure to secure an adequate increase, tends both directly and indirectly to put a brake on business of every kind and to produce the very troubles — unemployment, unremunerative commodity prices, unbalanced budgets and general depression — which have been apparent in almost every country of the world in the past four years." (Hon. Reg. McKenna of the British Midland Bank, January, 1934).
Latest taxation figures reported from News York reveal that out of his eight-hour day, the average American worker spends 2¼ hours earning the money to pay this income tax.
One hour and 28 minutes of his day goes to paying for food and tobacco, and what does he spend on fun and games? Less than you'd think the earnings from only 15 minutes of his working day.
It is astonishing that the labour stint given by the American worker to the taxman is nine times bigger than that allowed for his own fun and games. But it is well known that the British are even more heavily taxed than anybody else in the world, and if the daily tax-labour ratios were truthfully analyzed, it would certainly show that the average Britisher works more hours for the tax collector than does the American. One of the marvels of these days is that millions of workers seem to prefer taxes to the dividends they could have under a Social Credit policy.
Credit Notes, April 1960.