St. Isidore de Bellevue, Saskatchewan, June 24
"Yesterday we had a Social Credit day here. There was an assembly at which some 80 people were present. All were attentive and deeply interested. This is a good-sized gathering for a small town on a weekday."
Mrs. Gilberte Côté-Mercier
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Lafleche, Saskatchewan, June 26
"We took here some fifteen subscriptions in the space of a few hours. My friend Dollard is taking his 10 subscriptions a day. He is going to work for the movement full-time."
Elie Ange Fortin
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British Columbia
"Louis-Philippe Bouchard, who is working the field in this province took fifteen subscriptions on his first day there."
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June 29
"Yesterday we held our first congress in Alberta, at Falher. 400 people attended. 40 subscriptions were taken in the hall. More than 100 engaged themselves to take subscriptions. Friday we held an assembly at Edmonton. It was organized by Jos. Gugeon. 40 people attended. The meeting was under the chairmanship of Patrick Gillen, formerly editor of the Canadian Social Crediter."
Mrs. Gilberte Côté-Mercier
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June 26
We held an assembly in the town of Morinville last evening. 45 people turned out, all of them very enthusiastic. Most of them subscribed to the paper for 3 or 4 years, and a number of them have engaged themselve to spend time getting other to subscribe to the paper.
Bernard Gaouette
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St. Paul, Alberta
"I personally have taken 100 subscriptions this week. The folks here are saying, "Your paper is right to the point; it tells the truth." They deeply appreciate and like the formula of the Union of Electors."
Bernard Gaouette
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Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
"We have had very good results here. We ended our week with 100 subscriptions. The people around here are keenly aware of the infiltration of Socialism and Communism."
Elie Ange Fortin
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Tangent, Alberta
Camille St. Cyr and R. Lussier took 11 subscriptions in Tangent on Saturday, going from door to door. Sunday evening they held a meeting which was attended by 40 people.
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The excerpts above from letters and preliminary reports coming in from our directors on their tour of the West (at the time of this writing) and from the full-time workers there, are strong indications that the sparks are being struck which will eventually kindle into the strong flame of Social Credit action in the western provinces of our country. These reports, are as yet sketchy, since the workers have scarcely time to write voluminous reports, so earnestly are they pressing on with the work of propagating Social Credit in this vast land.
But how clearly they point up the formula used by our movement for the sure and steady spread of the doctrine of Social Credit. By this formula, instead of forming political parties with no other result except to pit citizen against citizen and bring to power not the people but a small clique of power-hungry politicians, individuals are infused with the doctrine and the culture of Social Credit; they become alive to the true power which resides within the individual, they become informed, alert, aggressive citizens who know how to evaluate the events and situations of the day and how to meet them; how to exert the influence which the citizen should exert upon his elected representatives and upon the men who are supposed to be public servants, in order to get those results which are most beneficial to the individual and hence most beneficial to the common wealth.
The most powerful instrument for performing this task of forming the true Social Crediter is the written word as embodied in our two papers, the English-language The Union of Electors and the French-language Vers Demain.
The directors of our movement and the full-time workers are not primarily concerned in holding mass rallies, such as are beloved by the professional politician. There is not too much profit to be gained from such assemblies while the people are as yet totally unacquainted with the meaning of Social Credit. They strive to reach the individual. You cannot reach the innermost heart and mind of the individual in a crowd.
Twenty years of working in the cause of Social Credit have taught the directors of our movement that the sparks so struck within the individual are more likely to be fanned into the consuming fire which will spread to every corner of the land. Such has been the experience in Eastern Canada.
The taking of subscriptions to our papers is considered to be the most vital work of our movement, for it is through these channels that the doctrine of Social Credit is brought to the people. It is through these organs that the people are taught political awareness. It is through the pages of these journals that all the years of experience in spreading the movement is brought to bear to teach others how to act politically so that the rights of the individual citizen may always be safeguarded.
That is why we say that the reports we have quoted above indicate a good beginning. Subscriptions are being taken. The people are being met individually and in small groups and introduced to the movement by the selfless and devoted men who make up the little band of full-time workers. How can the people not be impressed by the devotion and sacrifice of these young men who have given up certain successful careers in other professions in order to toil for the welfare of their fellow-citizens! Thus did the apostles lay the foundations of Christianity. Here are being struck the sparks of a Social Credit movement which will not be at the mercy of the vagaries of electioneering, but will endure because its foundation is deep in the hearts and minds of individual men and women,
E. M.