An Ubiquitous and Voracious Rodent

The existing financial system clips away your purchasing power in two ways. Like a large, voracious rat, it gnaws great holes in your pocketbook and devours its contents through all manners of taxes and levies which never cease growing. Then it inflates prices because it cannot put one dollar into circulation without adding more than one dollar to prices.

Take a salaried man; last year he had to pay $600 income taxes. He had earned this $600 through hard work. But the federal rat dragged them out of his wallet; or rather, since this particular rodent is smart, it chewed them up betwixt employer and pay envelope.

The federal minister of Finance, Donald Fleming, brought down a budget of which more than 600 millions is reserved to that system which has the power to grant, refuse or condition our right to live. And this does not count those other bits which the system gleans from other parts of the budget. But then, Mr. Fleming is not a man of state; he is the servant of this rodent.

Here in Montreal, the rat's particular servant is J.-M. Savignac. The hole that is being gnawed this year in the Montreal pocketbook is the largest ever. The Montreal municipal rodent is going to fatten on more than 26 million dollars, a fifth of the budget. And he will find his dessert in other sections of the budget.

This rat is ubiquitous; you will find him in the budget of each province; in those of municipalities, school commissions, hospitals, religious institutions, industrial, commercial and welfare organisations. You will find him lurking in production for war as well as in production for peace.

In the United States, where this rat does very well, the construction of the great Boulder Dam cost 160 million dollars. The interest on the capital advanced was 182 million dollars. The rat's share was greater than the share given the workers and all those who furnished the materials and services that went into the building of the Boulder Dam. The 160 million was taken from American pockets to pay for a product which was worth, to them, 160 million dollars. And then, out of those same American pockets came another 182 million dollars which gave them nothing and went only to nourrish our large and hungry rat.

The provincial parliament buildings of Manitoba cost $9,379,000 to build. The people got in return, $9,379,000 of real wealth. But in interest charges alone, up to the present time, Manitobans have paid out $13,848,000. The rat's share is one and a half times greater than that of those who built the buildings. And the people are still paying interest!

Twenty seven years ago a railway line was nationalized when the Canadian National Railway was formed. Since that time Canadians have paid, not to those who built the railroad and its equipment, not to those who keep it going, but to the rat which is our financial system, more that one billion dollars. This billion did not add an inch to the length of the railway. It went to fatten the already well-larded financiers.

We are astounded at the concentration of so much wealth into a few hands. This is due to the rat's system. You can't so much as budge without his permission; and for this you must pay, pay more than you ever pay to those who produce real wealth.

Montrealers must pay, this year, the first instalment of the cost of the Metropolitan Boulevard. This slice is made up of two parts: $310,000 which represents cost of work done, and $541,600 in interest for permission to do the work. Production gets $310,000; the rat gets $541,000. And this is only the first slice; there are many others to come.

Those who speak of the inflation of our pocketbooks are spouting nonsense. No one is complaining of this malady; it is very easy to cure those who pretend they are so suffering. The inflation is in the prices.

This inflation, the inflation of prices, is the work of the rat. Likewise, it is he who causes unemployment in demanding too much for the right to produce, or in chewing so much out of our pocketbooks that goods remain on store shelves and in the warehouses, forcing production to halt or slow down because products do not sell.

This rodent must be exterminated. This system must be replaced by a financial system that serves, that is in conformity with the realities of production and the need for goods. That is, by Social Credit.