Fifty years ago, in 1959, our Movement held a congress in Allardville, New Brunswick, Canada. Our founder, Louis Even (who died in 1974 at the age of 89) gave an inspiring lecture on Social Credit on that occasion, and explained how he came across this great light. Here is the first part of the talk by Louis Even:
Before I begin my conference, I will tell you a little story. You are asking why, it is because will be easier for you to understand the conference that will follow. There is a beautiful lesson to be learned in this story, and it is a true story. It is told by a nun from Quebec City, a Religious Sister of the Immaculate Conception. She had been on a Mission in the Philippines for the last twenty years. She recounts that when she used to go to the parish church in the morning, she would notice an old man walking into the church. He was very poorly dressed, his clothes were in tatters, but he would sit down close to a column at the back of the church and pray God very piously.
One thing she noticed also is that he never went to receive Holy Communion. The sister found that a little strange, but she could not make out why. However, since she did not know him personally, she did not dare ask him any questions regarding this. Instead, she started to pray for him. She thought that in any case, she did not want to make any rash judgments in his regard. One fine day as she was standing outside close to the church, and she saw the old man coming her way. She took advantage of the situation and started talking to him wearing a beautiful smile on her face and offering him a beautifully prepared bunch of flowers. The old man looked at her in total amazement, he did not expect this bouquet.
She said to him: "Where do you live, Grandfather?" He replied: "I live over there by the water." "Do you live alone?" she asked. "Yes I live alone." "Ah, dear sir, you are a very godly and pious man to come to church every morning as you do to pray to the Good Lord, seeing that you live by the water and have your age to hinder you." He in turn started to smile, and for the moment, she did not pursue the conversation any further.
A few days later, she went down by the water with a friend of hers, who studied piano, they wanted specifically to see the old man. His living quarters were under a house. Near the water, the houses were built on piles, stakes, and posts. His house was situated underneath these and between the pillars that were erected there. In that country, they customarily put animals under their houses for shelter. That is where the old man had his living quarters. The only piece of furniture he owned was an old, straw bed where he slept. That is how poorly this old man lived.
The sister came prepared. She drew close to him with her friend and this time, she gave him some fruit and a Miraculous Medal. The old man took a good look at the Miraculous Medal, he was obviously very happy to get it, and he said to them: "Could you possibly bring me a Rosary and a Scapular, as well?" The sister replied: "Most certainly, I will bring them to you the next time I come." She saw an opportunity to speak to him at a later date, so she took advantage of the situation to ask him about Holy Communion.
He said to her: "What can I say, dear sister? I need to go to confession, and look." He had a speech impediment, his tongue was somewhat paralyzed. "Nobody can understand me. The priest in the confessional will not be able to understand what I say. Moreover, I cannot possibly go to confession clothed the way I am and with the problems with my legs, I cannot kneel down." His poverty became fathomless by the minute; his self-abnegation had rendered him so meek that he could not even approach the Communion rail. Then the good sister said to him: "There is no problem, my dear sir." The following day after Mass she arranged everything with the priest.
The she took him to the rectory to see the priest, the old man was extremely happy. He went to church every morning and after the Elevation, he would walk slowly down to the Communion Rail where he would receive Holy Communion. He tried to kneel as best he could. Ah! He was so very happy. It was a tremendous joy for him to receive Holy Communion. From that day forward he came to Mass every single day in spite of having much trouble walking. His walking handicap was so serious that once he tripped and fell into the water. He was chilled to the bone, but he did not die from it. Nevertheless, it was quite a trial for him to go through, especially with his handicap.
Three weeks later, the good sister went to tell him: "I am leaving for a visit to my country of Canada. It has been twenty years since I left my home, you see. I am going to see my family, so I am here today to tell you goodbye." The old man, whose name was Barbato, said to the sister: "So I will be alone again, I will not have any friends anymore." The good sister was saddened by what he said to her. But what could she do? It was her duty to take the trip. So she prepared to leave.
The very day of her departure, as she was packing up her suitcases, she heard the bells ringing at the church. She was somewhat taken aback because the bells were not supposed to ring at that hour. The priest came to tell her: "My dear sister, your protege Barbato is dead. I was called just in time to give him the Extreme Unction. He passed away as a saint, as a very good Christian." So the sister before leaving for Canada, went to see her protege, Barbato, at his place of residence. She found him on the floor below the house, dressed up with the white cotton garment that she had given him. She knew that she had a good protector from this day forward, and that Barbato would be looking after her from Heaven.
Why do you think that I am telling you this true story before beginning my conference? Because, there are many lessons to be drawn from it and they will inspire you. I am telling you this while referring to your door-to-door apostolate, for example. Which one of the two was the most rewarded in this story? Was it Barbato, or the good sister? They both received a great reward. Barbato was given what he was missing and the good sister received as well – in both their corporeal and spiritual lives. She was fully enriched by the fact that she then had a very good protector working and praying on her behalf in Heaven.
As for myself, the lesson I benefited from in this story is that the Good Lord was so very good and merciful in putting the sister on the path of Barbato, just days before he died. This shows that the Good Lord in His Providence is always looking after us. He looks after the paupers and the people with needs. He watches over all of us, and when the time comes for Him to intervene in our lives, even if He had to send us an angel He would do so. Saint Thomas of Aquinas said this himself. As far as spirituality is concerned, for example, if one is well disposed, the Good Lord will send forth an angel if He cannot send a missionary, in order to help save his soul.
In our country (Canada) and in all countries of the world, we know that there are people who are suffering. It seems that now is the time for God to intervene, because He put Social Credit upon our path. On Barbato’s path, Our Lord put the Canadian nun. So the Good Lord put Social Credit upon our path for our times. As far as I am concerned, everyday of my life (and I am sure it will be the same for me on the other side of the veil as well) I will be blessing the Good Lord for putting Social Credit upon my path in this life.
I will be forever grateful, and it will remain in my mind always. On that fateful day in 1934, when I was riding on the train that was taking me from Montreal to my job in Sainte Anne de Bellevue, I was privileged to read a 96-page pamphlet that explained Social Credit to me (Editor’s note: J. Crate Larkin’s booklet, From Debt to Prosperity.) I was not looking for Social Credit on that particular day. However, I was looking for something that would put an end to the stupid financial crisis with which we were all struggling during that time.
I had read many things that day besides having worked at my regular job. I was a professor for the workers of our printing house, of which there were more than 100 workers. Every week we held a study-session with the workers. We had chosen for that particular day, a session on the question of money and credit. Therefore, we were looking for documentaries on the subject. I had read many manuscripts, a few-small pamphlets and different books that had been sent to us. In all of these documentaries I found that efforts were made to improve the situation. But there were things that were ridiculous; there were problems in all of them. They were saying that one could come to the help of the people but not without requiring something. Not without the condition that programs were put together, or that a dictatorship was installed, or socialism was established in order to come to the help of the people.
When I came upon Social Credit, I said: "This is marvelous." It hit me straight between the eyes like a thunderbolt, and I made up my mind immediately that I had just discovered a "truth" on my path. The other books all had shadows in their overall portrayal of the problems with the financial system, at that particular time. There were no grey areas in Social Credit’s overall picture of the exact problem with the financial system. A very great truth had fallen onto my path.
After reading a few pages on Social Credit, even before I completed the entire book, when I saw what Social Credit was all about, I said to myself: "This is so wonderful that all people have to come to know what Social Credit is. It came upon my path; it has to be put onto the path of all people." It is Providence who put Social Credit onto my path and even though I was not very wealthy at that particular time in my life and I did not know how to go about making this great truth known to everyone, I had the desire to do so. I was practically vowing that I would start to make this great truth known to everyone as soon as possible. I kept working at my regular job, and I could not only give time to the cause of Social Credit on weekends. Then, one day, thanks to the initiative and support of Mrs. Gilberte Cote-Mercier, I was able to leave my regular job at the printing house, and to become a Full-Time Pilgrim for the great Social Credit cause.
What does Social Credit propose that will solve our financial problem today? Social Credit would put an end to this ludicrous financial situation, a problem that has no reason to exist in the first place, a problem of which its very existence is an affront to human logic and condemns all those who are in control and direct all civilized countries today.
What exactly is the problem we are talking about? It is a common problem affecting all people today. It affects the families, municipal councils, and school boards everywhere! The same monetary problem affects everybody today and it is the primary problem that affects all of us in our modern world! Therefore, the existence of this money problem is direct proof that all of humanity is completely plunged into darkness just like the idolaters were when they adored the false gods! They are all in the same boat, all kneeling, worshiping, and adoring the false god of this world – money! They do not seem to be able, or they think they are unable, or they do not want to resolve a problem that could be so easily reconstructed.
Now, what do we mean by a problem of money? By a problem of money, we mean that there is a lack of money in circulation in our present times; that is the only problem we have now. There are people who are trying to make us swallow the lie that there is too much money in circulation today; and they call that problem "inflation." I am calling out to all people present in the hall here today, those among you who have too much money in their pockets come and lay it down on my desk here, and I assure you that I will find good use for it immediately!
This money problem affects people everywhere! I talked about the municipal councils a while ago who also have needs and want to build roads and aqueducts. They build if they have money; if they do not have money, they do not build. Moreover, they still have all of the materials necessary to build in front of them – all the materials are there, the work force is there; the need is there.
Therefore, what actually dictates the decision-making process of the municipal councils? The work force is there and available; it is not natural elements that are dictating the decision-making process of the councils. What is it exactly that dictates to the municipal councils? It is the people who control the absence and presence of money. Those people are the ones who really and truly are running the world! They do not need a complete army at their service to do this, they do not need any atomic or nuclear bombs to achieve their goals, simply by controlling credit, by restraining credit, by causing money to disappear or by making it scarce in the country, they are controlling all humanity behind the scenes. They unjustly penalize people everywhere, regardless if one is at the top or the bottom of the ladder, but especially those who are at the bottom.
Within your families, many members have been unjustly penalized by this fraudulent financial system! If you were to put ten or twenty dollars into the pockets of each of your family members tomorrow morning, would that cause these recipients any amount of suffering? It would not cause suffering to any of them. The stores who are eager to sell their products most certainly would not suffer from such a charitable gesture on your part!
The stores are quite capable of supplying the population with products, and those who produce these products are quite capable and happy, (very happy I might add) to produce more. Who will suffer from it, then? No one. Who will benefit from it? Firstly, the families will benefit from it. Moreover, all of the producers, wholesalers and retailers whose job it is to distribute the production will also benefit. All of the citizens in all countries would benefit from it. The penalizing of so many people because of this ludicrous and criminal lack of money is intolerable. After all, money is an object that was invented by man and if its flow is defective in the circulation process, than it can be corrected by man.
The total quantity of money circulating in the country is not something that is immutable like the laws of God; and furthermore it is most ludicrous that some people think that we have to submit ourselves to a set quantity of money from now until the end of the world. It is a direct insult to God if one would say: "Ah well! If there is not enough money in circulation, then God is responsible." It is not Heaven’s fault! Divine Providence created all things that we need to sustain our lives while we are on earth. God did not create money. That is man’s invention! An invention of man can be made, or unmade, as man sees fit. It is God who created the materials to make clothing; for example, we have learned how to make clothes from the raw materials made available to us by God. God did not create a suit as a finished product; He created the materials for us to transform them into the finished product. Money is even simpler to make than suits: a piece of paper with figures stamped on it, and you have money. Take a one-dollar bill (the dollar at that time in Canada –1959 – was made of paper, not a coin like today), take any piece of paper that you may have in your pocket that is legal tender – money.
Here is one for example: You have a piece of paper with both sides and in each corner of this rectangular piece of paper the figure "twenty" has been stamped. This means that with this twenty-dollar bill, I can go to the store and purchase twenty dollars’ worth of products. If you have several twenty-dollar bills in your wallet, you could purchase products for as many twenty-dollar bills as you have.
What is this money made of? It is made out of paper. With what stamped on it? Funny faces or grimaces, with drawings, and on the four corners of the bill the figure twenty, twenty, twenty, twenty is stamped. I’ll bet that there are not too many among you who are amused and pay attention to the drawings, eh? No, you do not pay any particular attention to the drawings on the bill. What is it about the bill that is of particular interest to each one of us? Is it a house that you are looking at when you look at the bill? Is it trees that you are looking at? The portrait of the Queen of England is stamped on the bill. When she dies, the twenty-dollar bills will remain and more will be printed. The dollar bills will not be done away with just because she dies and her picture is on those bills.
So, what is it that is most important to all of us on those bills, which catchs our eye? That is the stamped figure twenty, the figure twenty. When you make a purchase you add up the twenties, ones, fives and tens, and the same goes for the small round disks made up of metal. Some are made up of nickel; others are made up of silver metal. We do not have any made up of gold any more; they stopped making those because gold was removed from circulation. Then it is a matter of adding up the figures, and that is all that matters.
Take a five-dollar bill. A printer made it. I know all about the art of printing, my profession has been to work as a printer in a printing house. If I were to start printing some of these five-dollar bills, for example, that is against the law. If I or anyone else did that, we would be thrown into jail as a forger. Nevertheless, when a printing house in Ottawa, which is called the "Canadian Bank Note Company," receives the order from the Bank of Canada to print out some of these five-dollar bills, it prints them as the bank commands. If the Bank of Canada says: "Insert a zero after the five for it to go faster. Print out fifty-dollar bills instead of just five-dollar bills. Print out so many two-dollar bills, this amount of twenty-dollar bills, and a certain amount of ten-dollar bills." The Canadian Bank Note Company obeys the command of the Bank of Canada and prints them out as ordered. It is that simple. When they add a zero to the two-dollar bill, it does not require an increase in the volume of paper. It would not increase the amount of work required, but you would be able to purchase ten times more goods rather than a two-dollar bill you would have a twenty-dollar bill. As you can see, the creation of money is a very simple and easy thing to carry out.
We have just discussed the paper and coined monies, which are legal tender in Canada. There is another kind of money, which is also legal tender in Canada, and I would like to discuss it with you right now. This other money that I am talking about here is very simple to make compared to the other kinds; meaning the paper and coin monies. When I think that people have to work hard to make a living and are unjustly penalized because of the lack of pieces of paper like that, I believe that this is a criminal act of the highest degree, by those few people who are responsible for such a ludicrous state of affairs!
If I was the sovereign in the country and I would realize today there is a shortage of money in circulation in the country, what would I do? I would contact the printing house in Ottawa and I would say: "Print me out some money!" And I would distribute this money to the families in the country.
Someone may retort: "That will cause inflation." I will retort: "Be quiet!!! As long as there are products available in the stores, the products will go into the families with these twenty-dollar bills that I just distributed to them." I’ll bet you did not know that this has actually happened before in Canada. There was a man who was not the sovereign in the country, but he was the Prime Minister of Canada in 1939, MacKenzie King. What did he do? He ordered the printing house to print out money.
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