CASE OF JOHN HOGAN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 66, 17 June 1942, Page 4

CASE OF JOHN HOGAN

not disprove the Social Credit solution to Debt and War. The. "improvement" alleged in the public health bill is—conveniently—not defined. It may mean more or less expenditure on disease, including patent medicines. The Chronicle would find an explanation difficult, and would surely not like to contend that economic security does not contribute to better health and mental balance. Would the dynamic power of a pillaging mob be Social Credit? Well, would it be Democracy? Democracy remains the power of people in association to get what they want despite occasional abuses of that power by minorities. So does Social Credit. Thank you, Chronicle. Yours etc., W. BRADSHAW.

Sir, —in a featured editorial the Wanganui Chronicle of May 23 stated: "Mr John Hogan, of Social Credit activity, has been interdicted by the Attorney-General by the issuance of two orders, one suppressing the Social Credit paper "Democracy," the other prohibiting Mr Hogan from expressing his opinions in print for a period of several months. "Mir Hogan claimed, at a meeting in Auckland recently, that if any article of his Avas seditious he should have been tried before a Court. He had every confidence in the Courts. Mr Hogan has been beating the air for some time past, addressing meetings, and getting very little back-* ing. His propaganda is very similar to that for which Mr Scrimgeour used to be provided with the instrument of a Government monopoly to put over the radio. But what was meritorious in Mr Scrimgeour in his Man-in-the-Street sessions is now undesirable in Mr John Hogan, believer in the shadowy and intang-* ible doctrines of Major Douglas. Mr Scrimgeour, however is wiser than Mr Hogan, for the former has found other things to talk about, whereas Mr Hogan has gone on telling the same old story. The result is that he is now no new evangel, and even though he believes that he can win the war by printing bank notes and distributing them as a bonus to everyone, the public has not found him sufficiently entertaining to pay much attention to him. Why the Government should set in motion the machinery placed at the disposal of the Attorney-General to give this insignificant stump orator the best possible advertisement that he could receive, is hard to understand. The quality of the thought which prompts the Social Credit movement, of which Hogan is the mouthpiece, can be: gauged from the statement: That war and debt are the twin evils of the ages, and that Social Credit is the solution for both. How ignorant of history, these peopile must be not to appreciate that wars were conducted long before debts were incurred. Wars resulting from racial movements, religious antipathies and individual. ambition cculd not be solved by Social Credit or any other kind of credit. Another argument premises that the health of the race is blighted from the start by worry, want, in-* sccurit}" and fear, and states that Social Credit offers a full and abun- " dan't life with security. This statement ignores the convenient fact that the public health bill in Nev» Zealand and practically every other civilised country, has been improving year by year for decades. A movement that can do no better than this can hardly merit powder and shot at a time when all that* the public asks is that the nation ; shall go forward as one united whole to face the dread issues of Avar. As a final sample of Social Credit logic, the following merits notice: "What is Democracy? The dynamic power of people in association to get what they want. This is also Social Credit." Social Credit is therefore the "dynamic power" of "people in association" to get what they want. The dynamic power of a pillaging mob is to riot and to rob. Would this still be Social Credit? It is to be hoped that the process of robbery would at least be a little more refined than the dynamic power of rioters like Hitler to get what they want. Mr Hogan, however, is being provided, despite the poverty of liis views, with an excellent propaganda advantage in being subjected to the two orders of the Attorney-General, an advantage that he will doubtless be as quick to exploit as was Mr Scrimgeour when his broadcast during the 1935 election was jammed.** In commenting on the above may I say that Mr Hogan's "insignificance'" and "little backing" remain to be proved by public opinion, which at present tends to show otherwise. The Chronicle seems to feel otherwise anyway, and has certain-* !y assisted to give the "best possible advertisement." That wars were fought before debts were l incurred merely proves that debts are not necessary and unavoidable, as we are being told by orthodoxy, and does (Continued in previous column)