Page 21 - Michael Journal 2020 March

God or Mammon?

In the last issue of MI- ciency of human labour, and of gradually diminishing
CHAEL we published an article the amount of it required, and of supplementing it by
about Father Charles Cough- labour-saving machinery during the past 150 years,
lin, an American priest who has now reached the stage at which society can make
understood that money rightly available an ample sufficiency of the material neces-
belonged to society, not to pri- sities of life for all with a steadily diminishing amount
vate banks. In this issue, we of human labour.
feature a priest, Doctor of Phil- But this organization has been working defect-
osophy and Professor of Logic ively and has deplorably failed to deliver for use any
and Metaphysics from Ireland, more than a mere fraction of the wealth which it is
Father Peter Coffey (1876- Fr. Peter Coffey equipped to produce. It is true that:
1943), who supported the mon- (1) the public does not yet realize the enormous
etary reforms known as Social Credit, or Economic productive capacity of the industrial system, and
Democracy, developed by Scottish engineer Clifford
Hugh Douglas. Father Coffey responded to Father Ri- (2) still believes that a sufficiency of wealth can be
chard, a Canadian Jesuit priest on March 3, 1932 in produced only by the whole population labouring as
the following letter: long and as hard as people had to work ages ago, be-
”The difficulties raised by your questions can be fore modern labour-saving machinery was invented.
met only by a reform of the financing system of cap- Hence, machinery is blamed as a curse instead of
italism, along the lines suggested by Major Douglas seeking to discover why machinery is left more and
and the Social Credit school of credit reform. The more idle, and what is preventing the distribution and
current financial system is at the root of the evils enjoyment of its products.
of capitalism. The accuracy of the analysis carried People generally are just beginning to realize that
out by Douglas has never been refuted, and his re- the world, under the capitalist industrial and econom-
form proposals, with their famous price-regulation- ic regime, has reached the age of potential plenty.
formula, are THE ONLY reform that will go to the They hear of millions of tons of wheat and coffee
root of the evil. being destroyed; crops being deliberately reduced;
“Personally I am convinced that capitalist fi- wealth in a variety of forms being diverted instead
nance must inevitably breed wars, revolutions and of being distributed for consumption; men willing to
artificial starvation of millions in a world of potential work being kept idle; machines and factories running
plenty. I have studied the whole subject for 15 years, short time in all countries while at the same time mil-
and I believe that such a financial reform as pro- lions of the world’s population are in destitution and
posed by Douglas is essential to the reinstatement their natural right to marriage is frustrated because
of a Christian economic system of widely diffused the system is failing to distribute the ample and in-
ownership, and is therefore the only alternative to creasing wealth which it could produce if it were per-
a revolutionary violent and Godless Communism.” mitted.
In 1940, Father Coffey wrote the following book- While they rightly cry out for a reform of the sys-
let. Its title refers to Jesus’ famous line in the Gospel tem, they are mostly ignorant and in error as to what
of Luke (16:13): “You cannot serve two masters ... is really wrong, and hence advocate futile and unlaw-
God or Mammon.“ ful schemes of reform.
These schemes are communism and socialism
by Father Peter Coffey — unlawful because they deny natural human rights;
Frustrated in the face of plenty futile, because they wrongly diagnose, and would

Though the economic and political ills of society therefore fail to cure, the economic evils from which
are obvious and menacing, their real causes must society is suffering. The Popes have condemned
be accurately diagnosed before a remedy can be ap- both communism and socialism and that is enough
plied. for Catholics.
What is the purpose of the industrial and eco- The purpose of an economic system
nomic organization of society? Is it to provide em- To find the right remedy, we must rightly diag-
ployment — work — for all? Or is it to produce, and nose the disease. The obvious and natural purpose of
make available, material goods and services with all economic and industrial associations is to provide
the least possible amount of work (employment)? material goods and services for use and consump-
The process of increasing the productive effi- tion. To serve this end, there are two processes:

22 MICHAEL March/April 2020 www.michaeljournal.org