PLANS AND COSTS
Sta,—Sir Henry Lawrence does well to point out the enormous poten- tialities of our modem productive system—the "real credit" of the nation—and is quite right in placing his finger on financial credit as the key to the situation. Unfortunately, his proposed reforms are a little vague, and might even be used to defeat his purposes. It is not enough for the State merely to take the control of credit into its own hands. We are still, piling up an overwhelming burden of National Debt, and the abolition of interest would do nothing to prevent this process. What is wanted is a complete reorientation of credit policy. Sir Henry Lawrence proposes to "balance production and consumption." The boot is really on the other foot—the proper aim should be to equate consump- tiqn to production.
So far as I am aware, the Social Credit Party is the only political body in this country which has put forward clear-cur proposals for a debt-free money system. These proposals involve, not only the estab- lishment of a National Credit Office, as suggested by Sir Henry Lawrence, but also the bridging of the gap between incomes and prices by a two- fold method—the distribution of. a national dividend to every citizen and the application of the Scientific Price Calculus. Both these reforms would be financed out of new money created for the purpose, which did not pass through the industrial costing system. The Social Credit Party's Three Demands should occupy a high place in our discussions on post- war plans. Compared with the Beveridge Report, they are as wine to
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