Page 8 - Reflexions of African Bishops and Priests

have to be bought, and no one would accept a ticket from Montreal to my job in Sainte Anne de Bellevue.
that would not be stamped to date. ‘At the end of two I was privileged to read a 96-page pamphlet that ex-
years, the bill would be taken out of circulation, since plained Social Credit to me (J. Crate Larkin’s booklet,
there would be no more place for the stamps, but the From Debt to Prosperity.) I was not looking for Social
sum of these stamps’ would have given the govern- Credit on that particular day. However, I was looking
ment the price of the bill: the new bill was thus pre- for something that would put an end to the stupid
paid. Louis Even did not like this theory too much: it financial crisis with which we were all struggling dur-
would force the individual to spend his money rapidly, ing that time.
so as not to see his money melt gradually between his “I had read many things that day besides having
hands. It is contrary to the freedom of choice of the worked at my regular job. I was a professor for the
individual. workers of our printing house, of which there were
Stroke of light more than 100 workers. Every week we held a study-

One day, the mail brought session with the workers. We had chosen for that par-
ticular day a session on the question of money and
a simple pamphlet of 96 pages credit. Therefore, we were looking for documentaries
entitled From Debt to Prosper- on the subject. I had read many manuscripts, a few
ity by J. Crate Larkin, of Buf- small pamphlets and different books that had been
falo. It was a summary of the sent to us. In all of these documentaries, I found that
monetary doctrine of Douglas. efforts were made to improve the situation. But there
Louis Even began reading it were things that were ridiculous; there were problems
on the train he took daily be- in all of them. They were saying that one could come
tween Montreal and Ste-Anne to the help of the people but not without requiring
de Bellevue. He was immedi- something. Not without the condition that programs
ately conquered. were put together, or that a dictatorship was installed,
He recognized there a group of principles which, or that socialism was established in order to come to
once applied, would make a “perfect” monetary sys- the help of the people.
tem: a system of finance flexible enough to answer to “When I came upon Social Credit, I said: ‘This is
all the situations of economics, bending itself to the fantastic!’ It hit me straight between the eyes like
economical facts instead of dictating to them or con- a thunderbolt, and I made up my mind immediately
tradicting them, respecting absolutely the freedom of that I had just discovered a “truth” on my path. The
choice of the individuals, serving faithfully the produc- other books all had shadows in their overall portray-
tion and consumption, answering to the demands of al of the problems with the financial system at that
the social sector as well as to those of economics. particular time. There were no grey areas in Social
And immediately, also, Louis Even thought to him- Credit’s overall picture of the exact problem with the
self: “Everyone must be made aware of this!” From financial system. A very great truth had fallen onto
then on all his thoughts would go to the means for my path.
realizing this wish. “After reading a few pages on Social Credit, even
Two more books, more developed than Larkin’s before I completed the entire book, when I saw what
pamphlet, were also received about Social Credit: So- Social Credit was all about, I said to myself: ‘This is so
cial Credit for Canada by W. A. Tutte, and Economic wonderful that all people have to come to know what
Nationalism by Maurice Colbourne. Afterwards Louis Social Credit is. It came upon my path; it has to be
Even acquired other works by Douglas himself and put onto the path of all people.’ It is Providence who
others on the same topic. All in English. put Social Credit onto my path, and even though I was
At the request of Louis Even, Mr. Harpell had a not very wealthy at that particular time in my life and I
French translation printed of Larkin’s pamphlet From did not know how to go about making this great truth
Debt to Prosperity. It was a beginning of French litera- known to everyone, I had the desire to do so. I was
ture printed about Social Credit. Louis Even had made practically vowing that I would start to make this great
the translation from English. truth known to everyone as soon as possible. I kept
In 1959, our Movement held a congress in Al- working at my regular job, and I could only give time to
lardville, New Brunswick, Canada. On that occasion, the cause of Social Credit on weekends. Then one day,
Mr. Even explained how he came across Social Credit: thanks to the initiative and support of Mrs. Gilberte
Cote-Mercier, I was able to leave my regular job at the
“As far as I am concerned, every day of my life printing house (Sept. 4, 1938) , and become a Full-time
(and I am sure it will be the same for me on the other Pilgrim for the great Social Credit cause.”
side of the veil as well) I will be blessing the Good During the winter of 1935-36, all the employees at
Lord for putting Social Credit upon my path in this Garden City Press were made aware of Douglas’ doc-
life. I will always remember that fateful day in 1934 trine during the weekly courses on money and credit.
when I was riding on the train that was taking me
Louis Even

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