We have, in past issues of The Union of Electors, underlined the distressing economic conditions which presently prevail in the province of New Brunswick. The sorry plight of the citizens living in this province is particularly well known to our movement because our workers have been very active in every part of the province for several years now and have become thoroughly acquainted with the living conditions of the people, especially of the poor people in the rural areas.
One of the most oppressive features of the financial regime in this province is the method of collecting taxes and the harsh retribution which can follow failure to pay such taxes. One such case relating to this phase was high-lighted in the November issue of The Union of Electors in an article entitled, "When will they start taking bankers into custody?" Alphonse Smith, the unemployed father of four, was arrested because he was unable to pay his taxes. He was thrown into jail. It made no difference that Smith was penniless and quite unable to pay the taxes. (The bankers create money, not ordinary citizens like Alphonse Smith!) We have given still other examples of such injustices in this province in other issues of this paper.
It was with pleasure, then, that we read of a prominent New Brunswick lawyer and politician, Mr. Paul B. Lordon, speaking out in the newspapers and over the radio against certain proposals which would have made the system of tax collecting even more unbearable.
Mr. Lordon is a member of the provincial Liberal party and has declared that he intends to keep a very sharp eye open on the activities of Premier Robichaud's administration. Mr. Lordon evidently is no mere lackey of the party in New Brunswick. Furthermore, Mr. Lordon did not hesitate to declare publicly through the papers, that the situation was becoming grave in New Brunswick. Singling out Northumberland County, he said:
"A very grave situation prevails in many parts of Northumberland County today... due to a recent decision of the Northumberland County council drastically to curtail aid to the needy under the Social Assistance Act pending the appointment of a new administrator of the act. Many families which were receiving this aid were cut-off: without notice and all day today, I have received one delegation after another describing conditions of desperate need and telling of having nothing to feed their families except a little flour or a few potatoes..."
The depression is a cold hard fact to these poor people in Northumberland and in a multitude of other counties in New Brunswick; just as it is in hundreds of other communities towns and cities across Canada, where people, without work, without a provision of funds or supplies, find themselves facing a bleak winter, although this land of Canada is capable physically of supplying all their needs and more. Unfortunately, the rulers of the existing financial system have made sure that whatever is physically possible should not also be financially possible. As dastardly a perversion of logic and justice as human history knows, since it has led to the impoverishment and subjugation of the major part of the human race.
Mr. Lordon then betook himself to the radio on October 10 to launch a strong attack against certain proposals which would effect a change in the method of collecting taxes in poverty-stricken Northumberland County. We quote the pertinent sections of his discourse:
"There is also an other proposal which in my opinion is not legal and which would be most oppressive to the people of this country; that is a proposal to charge the tax payers of the county for each call by the tax collector after the second call. The suggested rates are as follows: the third call would cost the taxpayer $2.00 and each additional call would cost $1.00, so that in addition to having to pay taxes, the people of the county would also have to pay for the pleasure of the tax collector's company each time they had a call from him."
One would never suspect that a so-called, civilized community could sink to the level of adopting pratices which are pure relics of the barbaric age. Why not just board the tax collector with the poor people (at their expenses, of course) until he collects the taxes? That would be a logical follow-up to the practice recommended by the Northumberland councillors.
Taxing these wretched people who haven't the money to nourish, clothe and house their families as it is, is a great enough crime in itself. But to add to this the obligation of paying the tax collector for visiting them (and who is to regulate the number of visits a callous and ambitious tax collector might take) is cold, premeditated oppression and tyranny!
Taxation as it exists today, is legalized robbery! We have the word of the founder of Social Credit, the great Major Douglas, for that. And, anyone who has bothered to study the financial system in the light of Social Credit principles must arrive at that conclusion from the sheer force of logic. The proposal of the Northumberland councillors is simply compounding such felony.
Mr. Lordon then goes on to discuss the true nature of the situation in Northumberland County:
"In any consideration of the difficulty of collecting taxes in the county, it is important to discover whether such difficulty arises from the fault of the tax collection system on the one hand, or the inability of the people to pay, on the other... If the people cannot pay then there is no point in changing the system of tax collection because no system of tax collection is going to work. To put it in common everyday language, you cannot take blood out of a stone...
The ability of ratepayers in a county to pay taxes depends upon the economic conditions in the county. That is, the amount of employment or unemployment and the amount of business which is going on at a given time... Now, in discussing the economic picture, there is always considerable room for argument, but in this county at the moment there are certain facts which everyone knows and which nobody can deny."
Mr. Lordon then goes on to enumerate the various phases of industry in the county which have suffered severe reverses:
"There has been a steady decline in the pitwood industry and it can now be considered as a thing of the past..
We have also suffered the loss of the Christmas Tree industry...
...the mining industry is with us no longer and the men who were employed there are now out of work.
... the oyster population has been completely destroyed by disease...
...there was a failure in the blueberry crop.
From what I have just said it should be quite clear that this county has suffered a series of economic setbacks during past years which it would be difficult to equal. The loss of all of them (the industries) within a short space of five or six years is enough to be a disaster."
Mr. Lordon then lights into the council for its proposal:
"In spite of the serious unemployment picture in the county; in spite of the loss of a great many of our industries; in spite of the fact that on the 8th day of September of this year, only eleven of the thirty-one councillors had their taxes paid; some members of the council have continued to hammer away on the tax problem as though this county were the richest county in the world... They have failed to realize that the people are already overburdened with taxation like an overloaded horse who cannot be forced to carry a greater load by any amount of whipping or beating."
Mr. Lordon then discusses the change proposed in the method of collecting taxes. He states that the present method of collecting taxes is as efficient as it can be under the circumstances. All the legal machinery for forcing taxes out of people is ready and waiting to be used - jail for those who fail to pay the poll tax, auctioning off of homes for failure to pay taxes, fathers being thrown into jail while the county is forced to feed their dependents. He says that if there has been a drop-off in taxes it might be because the present collectors, knowing the people and being from among the people, do not take advantage of the legal machinery to harras and persecute them, adopting, rather, a moderate attitude, one backed up by certain members of the council. But the new proposal would take tax collecting out of the hands of these more or less moderate men and put it into the hands of "collectors who would be brought in under the new system (and) would be former finance men who are experts in squeezing the last nickel from the people they deal with; who are ruthless in the methods which they use to collect and to whom the words tolerance and mercy are unknown."
"These men would not consider the ability of the ratepayers to pay, but would be concerned only with using the very powerful legal machinery which would be at their disposal. They would undoubtedly travel about the county hounding delinquent taxpayers day and night and be unwelcome guests at many homes in the county at one dollar of two dollars a call. And the property of many of our citizens would end up on the auction block to add to the distress already so widespread in our county."
Mr. Lordon blames the government of the country for not recognizing the true facts of the very gloomy economic situation.
"They are aware or should be aware of the unemployment situation in this county; they are aware, or should be, of the loss of industries; they have indicated that they are aware of the distressed condition in certain areas of the county; and yet the only action they have taken is to complain about the amount of social assistance which they have to pay with the money of the people, and to look for new ways of flogging a near dead horse. There must be an attempt to recognize the situation which exists, rather than a ceaseless search for money which does not exist."
Northumberland County in New Brunswick could very easily be a miniature of conditions across Canada. If there is any difference between conditions as they have been pictured in Northumberland, and conditions in the other parts of the Dominion, it is a difference of degree only, and not of kind. The situation may be worse in Northumberland, the edge of want felt more keenly, the need a little more desperate, for New Brunswick, like its sister Atlantic provinces, has for long been one of the poorer and more neglected members of Canada.
But basically, if you scout conditions across the remaining provinces you will find the same conditions existing: Elliott Lake in Ontario is a prime example. For the economic picture is worsening and no amount of optimistic chatter by leaders of the party in power can possibly gloss over the facts which are emerging in a sharp, clear picture.
Unemployment has become the dread word of the hour. The government of John Diefenbaker, who so pompously announced during the electoral campaign that no Canadian would suffer because of unemployment, has admitted that unemployment is the number one problem in Canada today, and the late Fall session of parliament which has just gotten under way, is sitting primarily to find some way of dealing with this crucial situation. 327,000 people are out of work, 5.1% of the labour force. How are these people to live without a revenue. And the unemployment insurance fund suddenly dried up causing a panic in government circles. Certain experts predict by the middle of Winter, when unemployment is at its peak, over a half a million Canadians will be jobless.
This is a depression, good readers!
Since the beginning of the year 1960, businesses have been failing at an average rate of 152 a month. Credit has been restricted by the chartered banks to a point now where it is practically impossible for an individual or a small company to get a loan or to have any respectable line of credit. The wages of those fortunate enough to work and who belong to the powerful body of unions, are going up every year. Sometimes these increases are won through strikes which cost the country, the workers and the companies literally millions of dollars in production and money millions which can never be made up for, regardless of what increases the workers might win.
Prices of commodities and services continue to mount, wiping out any rise in wages or salaries.
The masses of the people who are unemployed or live off salaries and wages which are mere pittances, are faced with an agonizing struggle to feed, clothe and house themselves and their dependants. And the multitude of those who simply can't win this struggle is shown by the enormous sums of money which organized charity begs from the population all across the land every year.
No, Northumberland is not a singular and tragic example of a community facing economic disaster. The people there are simply one section of the population which has arrived at the point to which the great mass of Canadians is heading if the present trend continues.
Is there a solution to this problem, an escape from the fate which has overtaken the people of Northumberland County? There is, but as yet nothing indicates that any responsible body in the country is likely to adopt it.
Of course, Mr. Diefenbaker with his customary flair for showmanship, called for an extraordinary conference on unemployment - eight cabinet members and 21 top representatives of Canadian industry, labour and agriculture. They come up with quite an assortment of recommendations;
Mr. Coyne, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, has been exhorting Canadians for a long time now to save their money instead of spending it. That's his remedy for the economic mess for which his institution is responsible to a large extent by its sins of omission. Of course, the fact that most Canadians have barely enough money to feed, clothe and house themselves, has made no impression on this man in the ivory tower. Save money, he commands, as he cuts off the flow of credit.
Mr. Diefenbaker, for his part, is going to set up another government agency we haven't enough as it is, you know. This would be grandly termed the National Productivity Council, whose function would be, in short, to advise the government on how to increase national production and provide more jobs. (Businesses are failing at the rate of 152 a month, Mr. Diefenbaker, largely because they can get no credit from the country's banks.) Tell the Bank of Canada to issue credit, free of interest rates, to finance all possible and needed production; see to it that there is sufficient purchasing power to meet the needs of each and every Canadian, purchasing power in the form of a universal dividend based on the actual and potential productivity of the land. Do these things, Mr. Dienfenbaker, and the country's economy will respond instantly and marvellously, not only to meet the call for more jobs, which is in fact an artificial evil and easily solved, but what is more important, to provide for the people of Northumberland and all the needy people of Canada, easy access to such a share of the vast Canadian wealth as will insure to all a decent living.)
Any solution proposed, regardless of how august may be the body proposing, is vain and empty, as long as it does not take into consideration the basic evil which lies within our financial system.
The power to issue credit, without which the wheels of the production system come to a halt, lies in the hand of private individuals or groups of individuals who are known as financiers and who operate through financial houses and banks. Not even the government, the sovereign body of the land, may partake of this credit without the permission of these financiers and without paying more for this credit than they can possibly pay since interest is money which has not yet been created by the banks.
Consequently, any resolution to the depression which is upon us invariably turns upon pumping more credit, more money into the economy (public works, etc.). But this credit only creates additional debt, which in turn further depresses the economy, if not immediately, then certainly in the long run.
Thus it is that those who propound the economic principles of Social Credit as laid down by the creator of this school, Major C. H. Douglas, state that before any improvement can be made, the power to create and issue credit must be returned to the sovereign body of the land, the people as represented by their parliament or whatsoever form of government they may choose. Then, and only then, can the proper issuance of credit, free of paralyzing interest rates, make possible the physical realization of all production which is needed and which, after all, is the fruit of the peoples' labour and not of the work of financiers. This issuance of credit, along with the dividend to each citizen, a dividend representing each citizen's right to a share in production which is the result, not of the work of a few, but which is the cultural heritage of all generations, will make it possible for the people of New Brunswick, and the people of Africa, and the under-nourished of India and China, to live like human beings and more completely fulfill the natural and supernatural destiny which the Father of all has set for all.