Social Credit: An Alert People

Genuine Democracy

If anyone pretends that Social Credit is nothing more than a monetary reform, they show that they do not understand the movement. For such was not the idea of Major C. H. Douglas, the formulator of Social Credit.

Major Douglas said: "Social Credit covers and comprehends a great deal more than the money problem. It fundamentally involves a conception, I feel a true conception, of the relationships between individuals and their associations in countries and nations; between individuals and their associations in groups."

Certainly Social Credit involves more than just monetary reform. It also includes political reform. And politics far over-reaches economics, for it encompasses not only the field of material prosperity, but culture as well, and with culture, that which is spiritual and supernatural.

Just what sort of relationships does Social Credit envisage between the individual and the state, and between the individual and other groups? Social Credit envisages decentralization, a condition, a relationship, which favors the full flowering of the individual; a relationship which would place society and its machinery at the service of the individual so that each individual would be able to work out his complete development in that liberty so necessary to the human being.

Such a condition, no doubt, will be realized through legislation. But legislation is only the last step. The philosophy and idealism underlying this concept must first of all impregnate our social institutions; it must have a structure to sustain it; it must become part of our way of thinking and living — whether or not it is expressed formally through legislation.

What do I mean by this? I mean that Social Credit and what it stands for, is a social philosophy, a way of politics, a mentality nurtured in individuals so that those individuals always look to the rights of the individual, always search for a way to make our institutions, schools, administrations, public services, parliaments, governments, laws, justice — in a word, our whole social structure — serve the individual, as they are supposed to.

So you can see that Social Credit is something that can only be realized by degrees, a multitude of degrees, slowly but surely — as with any civilization. For, after all, Social Credit is, as we have implied above, a civilization, a complete way of life.

Consequently, Social Credit will not suddenly appear on the scene one of these days in all its glory. Not at all. Social Credit will come little by little; first in the minds of men, then making itself felt through their acts, through their association in groups, then penetrating into the various grades of administration, thence into public ordinance and then laws. When we see before us a group of men, however small it may be — or even just one man — which thinks Social Credit, which wishes from the very depths of its heart and will that the social order be placed at the service of the individual, and, what is more, makes this desire apparent in word and deed, then we can say that in this group or in this individual we have Social Credit living and breathing. If the numbers of such increase, the impact they make upon society becomes more effective and more final; and if the governments nearest the individual — municipal councils, school commissions, etc. — turn towards the higher forms of government and demand the realization of Social Credit, then indeed Social Credit is truly making progress.

The definition of Social Credit which we have given above is very much different and considerably vaster than any monetary reform which the federal government might legislate into existence. In 1937, the Alberta legislature passed Social Credit laws. These laws made absolutely no contribution to the cause of Social Credit. They were premature. They had nothing to ratify. There was not even a Social Credit mentality for them to ratify. The people of Alberta were not prepared to support their government against the laws' adversaries who had for long been entrenched in the institutions of the province, from the banks to the universities.

If there is anyone who thinks that Social Credit is alive and thriving in Alberta, let them ask themselves why, after 23 years of Social Credit, the doctrine of Social Credit is not taught in the schools or to adults.

There is no Social Credit in Alberta. The party in power may bear the name Social Credit as does, the government; it may already have voted Social Credit laws, or at least legislation conducive to Social Credit; but there is no Social Credit there. Nor are Albertans, Social Crediters.

Here in Quebec, we have not as yet had Social Credit legislation. But there are a great number of men and women who think Social Credit and who act Social Credit. We can say with a certain amount of assurance that Social Credit is much further advanced in Quebec than it is anywhere else. It was in Montreal that the French language Social Credit paper, Vers Demain and the Social Credit Institute of Political Action took rise 20 years ago. These two, with the English-language, paper, The Union of Electors, make up a Social Credit institution; they are the basis of a Social Credit movement numbering tens of thousands of individuals. This movement is animated by a philosophy that is pure Social Credit, and the activity of the movement is fired by a true zeal and enthusiasm which can come only from a deep understanding of principles. That is why the activity of the movement is so efficacious.

This activity, inspired by the true philosophy of Social Credit and the zeal that comes from conviction, is the Social Credit that reflects itself in the relations between individuals and the state, and between individuals and other groups.

At the present time, Vers Demain, and The Union of Electors, backed by the activity of Crediters, constitute one of the most powerful checks to the spread of Socialism here in Canada. For Socialism militates against the freedom of the individual; whereas Social Credit is entirely devoted to achieving the freedom of individual. If the city of Montreal does not fluoridate its drinking water, tens of thousands of people in and about Montreal can thank the Union of Electors and its two papers for the fierce battle they have waged against this contaminating of our water with a violent poison and against this demonstration of Socialism through mass medication.

And the people who have written letters and made telephone calls protesting fluoridation are the people who practice the politics of Social Credit. They have demanded that the rights of the individual be respected; this is the goal of Social Credit. They have worked to this end; this is Social Credit action.

So, this is Social Credit; this is democracy — citizens, who watch, who educate themselves, who are prepared to tell the civil authorities what they want.

The work of Crediters to advance the cause of Social Credit bears no resemblance to an electoral campaign. It is a matter of education, enlightenment, of inspiring the people to act.

Yes, Social Credit goes far beyond mere monetary reform. It comprehends a people who have been aroused to the importance of political action. It is democracy at work.