This is the story of the two bridges -- the old bridge and the new bridge, where they lead to and who crosses them.
Both bridges span a chasm, on one side of which lies the condition of needing things, and on the other side lies an abundance of goods and services with which to fill these needs. And they who would cross the chasm from want to plenty are the men and women of society — you, myself, our neighbors and all the millions of men, women and children living upon the face of the earth who must find: food, shelter and clothing if they are to exist as God intended them to...
Of the capacity to produce all the goods and services needed by man, there is no doubt. No one, even among the most rabid supporters of the anti-democratic financial system under which we exist, would deny that nature and man's resourcefulness can produce whatever man needs in the necessary quantities, when they are needed.
And are these goods and services needed? The answer to this question has always been before man, in his mind continually, playing a part in every plan and design of his daily life. For that life is the story of the battle against want, of the struggle for the basic necessities of life -- food, clothing and shelter -- of the scheming planning and slaving to ensure the dream of every individual, the dream of security. The history of man is the story of his fear for tomorrow's dinner, as Maurice Colborne so strikingly put it. So we have man's needs for goods and services on the one side; on the other side are all the goods and services required, in abundance. How is man to lay hands on these needed goods? With money.
The existing monetary system (the old toll bridge) is so arranged that money comes into existence through the working of private groups of men who form organizations known as banks. Banks create money out of nothing more than ink and figures in a ledger book. They lend this money out to those who require it, at a rate of interest. That is, the borrower must return not only the money that has been created, but the money which has not been created and which is known as interest. The result of this weird arrangement is that society has become involved in a debt to the private banks which it can never repay. And it can only have new money to get the new and needed goods and services by going further into debt to the existing financial system.
Money, that vital need of society, is controlled by private individuals for their own profit, and they are abetted in forcing the citizen to cross this bridge by the duly elected representatives of the people, the governments.
This is the ancient and debt-begetting bridge which we see the government and the financier above forcing the citizen to cross... However, there is another bridge, a new bridge, awaiting the citizen's use if only he would realize it was there. This is a free bridge, a wide bridge, a bridge eminently suited to make it possible for men to get all the goods and services they need to fill their wants, without going into debt to other citizens. This bridge is the monetary system as proposed by the principles of Social Credit.
The teachings of Social Credit, as set forth by our movement, the Union of Electors, call for the monetary system to be put back into the hands of the people through their duly elected representatives, the government. It demands that money be created and issued in accordance with the fruits of the production system as regulated by the needs and demands of the individuals making up the people. And one of the first steps that it calls for is the issuance of interest-free credits by the Bank of Canada (the bank of the Canadian people) to meet all the new production required by public bodies such as governments and school commissions, etc, and private enterprise in order that the needs of the people may be met.
This is not giving something for nothing. For after all it is the people who, making use of the natural wealth of the country and their own brains and manpower, produce all the marvellous things which issue forth from the production system.
This new bridge has been planned by Social Credit. It requires only the united effort of the people to realize it. And they can realize it by bringing the necessary pressure to bear on their elected representatives.
This is the difference between the old bridge and the new. The former leads inevitably to financial and economic slavery. The other leads to liberty and independence and the fulfillment of man's rights.