No one expects to get something for nothing. When a city or a school commission undertakes a project designed to improve in some way the community, it is only just and right that the community pay the cost of this project.
But what is not just and right is that the community should pay more than the cost of the work. As Alphée Vachon of Thetford Mines said recently "Borrowing with interest rates obliges us to pay double the cost of the work. Here in Thetford Mines we are crushed under a burden of debt. We must pay annually, for interest charges alone, the pretty sum of $133,400. That is why we are demanding that the Bank of Canada, our property, finance all our public works by the issuance of new credits free of interest rates. In this way we shall have to pay only the real cost of the developments in our municipality !
When Mr. Vachon uttered these words he was speaking before the town council of Thetford Mines. He was heartily applauded by this body which afterwards unanimously adopted the proposal — that new production be financed by new credits, interests free, issued by the Bank of Canada. Incidentally, Mr. Vachon is the assistant director of the Institute of Political Action at Thetford Mines. As such, he is one of the guiding lights of the Social Credit movement there.
Crediters in other communities, like St. Malo d'Auckland, Varennes, St. Leander and others, having been moving forces behind having this resolution adopted by their own municipal councils.
In the last issue of the Union of Electors (February) we mentioned four municipalities which had adopted this resolution. Here are other communities which have done likewise. Ville St. Michel, St. Joseph d'Alma, Jonquière, Pointe-aux-Trembles, Kenogami, Hebertville Station, Hawkesbury (Ontario); Chenneville, St-Martin de Laval, St. Remi de Napierville, Embrun (Ont.), Ville Marie, Lac Noir and the school commission of St. Remi de Napierville. Add to these the four we mentioned at the beginning of this report.
It's spreading. And well it might. The municipalities have reached the point where they can no longer endure the frightful task of trying to find money to keep themselves alive, and not being able to find the money without adding to the mountain of debt already resting upon their shoulders. If this situation continues we shall not be able to find money even to finance our debt let alone, finance, essential service and those developments which any normal community might reasonably expect.
And ridiculous it is that citizens who have grouped themselves into communities, big and little, precisely so that they more easily find the necessities and conveniences of life, should find themselves producing all these wonderful things and then being forced to pay for them over and over again — three, four, five times their original value — simply to fatten the wallets of financiers and bankers. The financiers and bankers shed not a single drop of sweat, contribute not one single idea towards the completion of any of these projects. Yet the people are sheared right down to the skin to pay them for permission to execute these works; then they are turned out like sheep to produce more, so that they can be clipped again!
Let the Bank of Canada finance public bodies! This may not be the complete fulfillment of Social Credit, but it is a long stride in the right direction. Every citizen can and should help in this work — by talking about it to others, by getting others to read this paper, by getting others to subscribe to it; by informing themselves on the financial state of their community, by speaking to their representative on the municipal council. Yes, speak to your representative on the municipal council! Don't be afraid! He's not a god. He's the man who was around last election time, humbly begging for your vote, promising all sorts of things, especially to represent well and faithfully your interests. Now it's your turn; not to beg him but to tell him what you want. He's your representative. He's there to submit to pressure from you. If you don't exercise that pressure he is going to submit to pressure exercised by interests inimical to your welfare.
So exercise the political action subscribed to by Social Credit! Put pressure on your representative on the town council — by letter, by phone, by face-to-face conversation. Have your municipal council vote for the resolution that the Bank of Canada finance all new production, public and private, by the advance of new credits free of interest charges.
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