Page 5 - Michael 2024 January

them have to do with money: public and private sec- I’ll leave it to others to make it known.” No, Mr. Even
tor employees demanding pay rises, governments also had the heart of an apostle and a great love for
trying to reduce their deficits and debts by cutting the poor. It was his Catholic faith, and his great love
services and raising taxes, companies laying off for the Blessed Virgin, that made him say: “Social
employees to cut costs, families struggling to make Credit is a light on my path; everyone must know
ends meet, and so on. that.” And he went so far as to leave his job in the
It was for these reasons that Louis Even decided middle of an economic crisis (with a wife and chil-
to propagate Douglas’s doctrine. What’s more, the dren) to give himself totally to the cause of Social
words ‘social credit’ don’t just refer to a monetary re- Credit, trusting in Divine Providence, which was not
form, they also refer to the bond of trust that makes it lacking.
possible to live in society, that there is a minimum of What’s more, Mr. Even understood from the
order that allows us to exchange products and move outset that he was attacking not just bankers, but a
around freely without the risk of being attacked in the satanic power. Money is Satan’s main instrument
street or robbed by your neighbour. Without respect for corrupting souls. Saint Paul wrote: “The love of
for moral order—without religion—life in society is money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). The
impossible: it’s disorder, revolution and anarchy. devil uses today’s money system to enslave the
As we shall see in the next issue, Mr Even was whole world, so that people idolize money instead of
a religious, a Brother of Christian Instruction, and worshiping the good Lord.
therefore an educator, who also had a great devo- Social Credit is a means (ensuring that goods
tion to the Blessed Virgin: the good Lord used all this reach those who need them), but the salvation of souls
in Louis Even to help him found his great work of is the ultimate end. Mr. Even has also understood this.
MICHAEL. We’ll look at this in more detail in the next issue, when
Mr. Even understood Social Credit straight away, we examine the spirituality of his Work. v
but he could well have said “That’s all very well, but Alain Pilote

Historical notes on Social Credit

The origins of the Movement founded by Louis Even

It is Louis Even who wrote the following article, in establishment met together every Friday night in the
1964. He did not sign it, and he speaks of himself in hall of the City Hall for a lesson of which Louis Even
the third person. was the teacher.
It is in the last
months of 1934 that From electricity to money
Louis Even read for the For the lessons of the 1934-35 winter, the topic
first time a book on So- studied was electricity: what everyone should know in
cial Credit. matters of electricity. A proper book written by Dr. W. L.
Mr. Even was then Goodwin, and translated by Louis, Even had been printed
working at Garden City the preceeding summer especially for this winter course.
Press, printing shops Much was being said at that time about the mon-
of the Industrial and opoly of electricity and of its relations with the Royal
Educational Publishing Bank of Canada, then the largest bank of the country.
Company, at Ste-Anne And the study of the monopoly of electricity soon led
de Bellevue, near Mont- to the discovery of the existence of the powerful mon-
real. The president of opoly of money and credit.
the company, J. J. Har- Besides, Mr. Harpell had already been set on the
pell, was more than a track by the honorable Fielding, minister of Finances
Mr. Even at Garden City Press businessman: he want- of the liberal government in Ottawa. Until his entry to
ed to promote the intel- the ministry, Mr. Fielding had been editor of the Jour-
lectual development, the general knowledge, of his nal of Commerce, printed at Garden City Press. Rela-
employees. To this end, he had established the Study tions between Mr. Harpell and Mr. Fielding were close.
Circle of Gardenvale (by the name of the post office And one day, Mr. Fielding, then minister of Finances,
located in the same printing shop). Each week, during had told Mr. Harpell: “If you want to know where the
the winter months, the 120 or so employees of the financial power resides in Canada, look towards the u

www.michaeljournal.org MICHAEL January/February 2024 5