DOUGLAS CREDIT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 701, 29 November 1933, Page 6

DOUGLAS CREDIT

ROTORUA DOUGLAS . CREDIT ' MOVEMENT.

gir, — [Major Douglas and the financial scheme which he has propounded have so long been quietly but effectively ignored by the press of the world that it comes as a pleasant surprise to see you devote a leader to discussion of that genitlemen and his views. This action contrasts favourably with those of our bigger dailies •who, when they do condescend to mention the- Douglas Credit proposals, do so only per medium of the reported speeches of adverse and partisan critics. However there are one or two points in your editorial on which we would like to comment so may we request a little s-pac-e to d'o so. The claim that the Douglas Credit Systqm has the support of the leading economists is not without foundation though the scheme is not, we admit, viewed favourably by orthodox scho'ols of thought. Among those who are substantially in agreement, however are Professor Soddy, of Oxford University, Professor Irvine, of Sydney University, A. M. Hattersley and Arthur Kitson, all of whom have some reputation in the economic (world. Furthermore the Economic Advisory Council of the Church of England, which is the- only disinterested body which has ever conducted an inquiry into the proposals, furnished an entirely favourable report. So we think we may claim that the Douglas Credit System is not the collection of hallucinations which some critics would have the public helieve. The compai'ison of Major Douglas with Einstein is Got, we think, appropriate. Einstein concerns himself largely with the ahstract. Major Douglas deals principally with the concrete. His A plus B theorem is admittedly not easy to grasp but the facts which it is intended to explain are apparent to all. The A plus B theorem i's merely a mathematical explanation of a self-evident truth and is, we submit, the only explanation of the present crisis which covers all the khown facts. That the doetrine of Douglas Credit gains nothing in clearness when propounded ait second-hand we are quite prepared to admit, But that is not the fault of the system but of its exponents. The literature on the subject, however, is not hard to follow and well repays study; but study is something which the public is not prepared to give "so it remains in ignorance. Furth'er generations m,a.y not regard Major Douglas as a genius, but they will certainly not regard him as a charlatan. 'Wfe think it may safely be prophesied that the men who first taught the doetrine of consumercredit will not be forgotten by posterity. So Douglas and Soddy's place in history would seem. assured. — > Ynurs. etc..