Appended is the Edmonton Journal hatchet job that you sent, converted to plaintext.
The "fascist-cum-social engineer" is unattributed crap. Douglas and his philosophy was as far from being fascist as it could possibly be. It is fascism's polar opposite.
But I do need your help for the supposed quotation from 1934:
"centralization is being fostered everywhere and from the same source and with the same object--world domination...The swift progress toward state capitalism everywhere has Jewish finance at the apex of the pyramid." To me, it didn't sound like Douglas. It didn't ring true.
One source traces it back to *Radio Priest* recently published by Donald L. Warren, page "79." It's not at page 79 but at page 99, which has this extended version:
"It is my conviction that centralization is being fostered everywhere and from the same source and with the same object - world domination�The swift progress toward state capitalism everywhere has Jewish finance at the apex of the pyramid�Jewry as a whole has a permanent policy which is establishing the individual Jew as a member of the "chosen" superior and dominant ruling class in every country and over the whole world."
Warren's footnote references it back to Finlay's *Social Credit: The English Origins* page 103.
Now, it so happens that I posted page 103 to the social credit list a few days ago--it's not there.
On the chance that I selectively omitted the quote when I copied from Finlay a couple of years ago, I went to the library last night to see for sure.
It's simply not at page 103 or anywhere in Finlay.
Had you seen the quote before and can you identify it a genuinely being attributable to Douglas? If so, where?
I suspect it is pure fabrication.
Also, I know that Douglas criticised Aberhart, but I am unaware that he called him a "lunatic." What is the truth? --
Edmonton Journal, Friday, August 22, 2003
The D�j� View
"It is the duty of the State through its government to organise its economic structure in such a way that no bona fide citizen, man, woman or child shall be allowed to suffer for lack of the bare necessities of food, clothing and shelter, in the midst of plenty or abundance." William Aberhart, Social Credit Manual, 1935
Laura Neilson Bonikowsky For CanWest News Service
With this doctrine, William "Bible Bill" Aberhart's Social Credit Party formed the world's first Social Credit government in Alberta on Aug. 22, 1935.
Aberhart has been described as an energetic, hard- working man of conscience who truly cared about others. He was also deeply religious, a Christian fundamentalist and evangelist who preached fire and brimstone on his Sunday radio program, The Back to the Bible Hour. His proselytizing became as much political as religious.
Aberhart reasoned that, if a thing were morally correct, then the state should do it. But his methods for establishing the Social Credit government that ruled Alberta for 36 years were nothing short of manipulation.
As the 1935 provincial election approached, drought- ravaged and Depression-weary Albertans looked for relief. The economy, still suffering the effects of the 1929 stock market crash, was as arid as the farmers' fields. Both federal and provincial governments seemed incapable of doing anything.
Alberhart deflected blame for the miseries of the Depression away from the drought and the economy and toward the "50 big shots in the East"--the corporate world and seat of government in far-away Ontario. The former he could do nothing about, but the latter he could quell with his Social Credit policies.
People struggling to scrape two nickels together were eager for any glimmer of hope. The charismatic Aberhart seemed to offer them that hope. Or perhaps it was the $25 per person monthly "basic dividend" he offered that appealed. Aberhart's promise brought the party a landslide victory; the Social Credit party took 56 of 63 seats in the election.
During the Depression, as he saw people struggling with poverty, Aberhart was attracted to the economic theories of Major C. H. Douglas, a British engineer described as a "fascist-cum-social engineer." Douglas sought to understand why poverty exists "in the midst of plenty," noting that the total wages paid to individuals who produce the economy's goods would always be less than the total retail cost of those goods. He postulated that all citizens have a right to the wealth jointly produced by their society, but they are robbed of it by the financiers controlling the monetary system.
Douglas suggested that the situation could be corrected through social control of banks, paying people a "cultural dividend"--a social credit--and redistributing the nation's capital among the population.
Aberhart took what he wanted from Douglas' theory, seeing it as an alternative to socialism because it did not advocate state ownership of industry. He ignored the rest, including Douglas' assertion that "centralization is being fostered everywhere and from the same source and with the same object--world domination...The swift progress toward state capitalism everywhere has Jewish finance at the apex of the pyramid."
When Douglas learned of Aberhart's use of social credit theory, he declared Aberhart "a lunatic who had misread" his work. Aberhart responded that it was Douglas who had erred.
Aberhart haad not envisioned a change in government. He formed the Social Credit League to promote economic reform to the United Farmers' of Alberta (UFA), the party in power. When the UFA declined to be advised by Aberhart and his group, Aberhart formed the Social Credit Party whose representatives contested the 1935 election. The party won by a large margin and Aberhart, though he had not presented himself as a candidate but because he was the party leader, was appointed premier by Lietenant- Governor William L. Walsh.
Aberhart made a covenant with Albertans, publishing thousands of contracts promising monthly dividends in exchange for "co-operating most heartily with the government of Alberta" and "working whenever possible." No dividends were ever paid out. Even though Social Credit failed to keep its promises and made no impact on federal economic policies, Albertans loyally continued to elect it until 1971.
(Laura Neilson Bonikowsky is the Associate Editor of The Canadian Encyclopedia. To learn more about Social Credit and William Aberhart, consult The Canadian Encyclopedia at www.histori.ca) --
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