Page 11 - Michael 2024 January

God or Mammon

From 1920 onwards, C.H. ciency of the material necessities of life for all with a
Douglas's writings became ex- steadily diminishing amount of human labour.
tremely popular, and were the But this organization has been working so de-
subject of study circles through- fectively—has so deplorably failed to deliver for use
out the British Empire, and even any more than a mere fraction of the wealth which
in Japan and the United States. it is equipped to produce—that:
In Ireland, Father Peter Coffey
(1876-1943), Doctor of Philoso- (1) the public does not yet realize the enormous
phy and Professor of Metaphys- productive capacity of the industrial system, and
ics at the famous Maynooth (2) it still believes that a sufficiency of wealth can
College, also supported Doug- Fr. Peter Coffey be produced only by the whole population labour-
las's Social Credit reform, or ing as long and as hard as people had to work ages
Economic Democracy, with its compensated dividend ago, before modern labour-saving machinery was
and discount. Here is what he wrote on March 3, invented.
1932, in a letter to a Canadian Jesuit, Father Richard: Hence, machinery is blamed as a curse instead
"The difficulties raised by your questions can of seeking to discover why machinery is being more
be met only by the reform of the financial system and more held up idle, and what is preventing the
of capitalism along the lines suggested by Major distribution and enjoyment of its products.
Douglas and the Social Credit school of credit re-
form. It is the accepted financing system that is at People generally are just beginning to realize
the root of the evils of capitalism. The accuracy of that the world, under the capitalist industrial and
the analysis carried out by Douglas has never been economic regime, has reached the age of potential
refuted. I believe that, with their famous price-regu- plenty. They hear of millions of tons of wheat and
lation formula, the Douglas reform proposals are coffee being destroyed; crops being deliberately re-
the only reform that will go to the root of the evil... duced; wealth in a variety of forms being destroyed
“I have studied the whole subject for fifteen instead of being distributed for consumption; men
willing to work being kept idle; machines and fac-
years, and I am honestly convinced that the Doug- tories running only for a short time in all countries;
las reform proposals do not run counter to Catholic
teaching on private property, and are not socialis- while at the same time millions of the world’s popu-
tic… Only — as I see it — the alternative to their lation are in destitution, and their natural right to
adoption is the chaos of Communism.” marriage frustrated because the system is failing to
distribute the ample and increasing wealth which it
In 1940, Fr. Coffey wrote the following brochure, could produce if it were permitted.
the title of which refers to the famous phrase of Jesus
in the Gospel (Lk 16:13): "You cannot serve two mas- But while they rightly cry out for a reform of the
ters... God or Mammon (God or money)." system, they are mostly ignorant and in error as to
what is really wrong, and hence espouse futile and
by Fr. Peter Coffey unlawful schemes of reform.
Frustrated in front of plenty These schemes are Communism and Social-

Though the ills of society, economic and polit- ism—unlawful because they deny natural human
ical, are obvious and menacing, their real causation rights; futile, because they wrongly diagnose, and
must be discovered by accurate diagnosis before would therefore fail to cure the economic evils from
they can be remedied... which society is suffering. The Popes have con-
demned them, and that is enough for Catholics.
What is the purpose of the industrial and eco-
nomic organization of society? Is it to provide em- The purpose of an economic system
ployment—work—for all? Or is it to produce, and To find the right remedy, we must diagnose the
make available, material goods and services with disease aright. The obvious and natural purpose of
the least possible amount of work (employment)? all economic and industrial association is to provide
The process of increasing the productive effi- material goods and services for use and consump-
ciency of human labour, and of gradually diminish- tion. To serve this end, there are two processes:
ing the amount of it required—and of supplementing (a) production (including transport) and
it by labour-saving machinery during the past 150 (b) distribution of products among consumers
years, has now reached the stage at which society, by exchange (trade, commerce).
so organized, can make available an ample suffi- u

www.michaeljournal.org MICHAEL January/February 2024 11