SOCIAL CREDIT LECTURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24403, 14 September 1940, Page 3

SOCIAL CREDIT LECTURE

" CENTRALISED CONTROL OF INDUSTRY " At the last Social Credit meeting, Mr A Lind gave an address on " The Centralised Control of Industry." The dominant financial policy of industry, he said, was such that production for markets became the first consideration rather than production of goods and services for consumption. The word depression was an imposed misnomer, as a real depression could only be the result of natural law, such as a drought or flood, which produced an unavoidable scarcity of goods and services. It was becoming widely recognised that booms 'and slumps were artificially brought about, The question then presented itself. Where did the control reside, and who was ultimately responsible? To maintain efficient production, Mr Lind said, it was necessary to centralise function and process, which meant, in effect, that the technician took on the role of dictatorship in a local sense, but it must be observed that control of func-< tion was not control of objective policy. Generally speaking, the policy of industrial activity was financial profit. The interlocking, world-wide banking system assumed ownership and control of the people's credit-power, and as the rules of this type of institution were framed to meet the requirements of its own peculiar accounting devices rather than the requirements of individual men and women, we saw the tragedy of human beings being forced to obey a set of artificial conventions as distinct from scientifically-inter-preted natural law. The effects of this control might be noticed in New Zealand, where at the present time a subtle reduction of buying power was taking place. In order to combat this hidden power, it was necessary for every electorate to urge its parliamentary representative in the name of real democracy, to fight for the return to the people of their own rightful control over credit-power which might be called the community's life blood.