UPDATE - NOVEMBER 2006 - PART THREE

THE TRUTH ABOUT BANKS AND THEIR SPIN DOCTORING

The following article was published by the national bank and reprinted in April, 1941, "The facts of war finance," by other leading Banks. This article was subsequently printed and distributed as a leaflet to shareholders and selected citizens, the letter being favoured apparently according to their respective spheres of influence, for example, business executives, clergymen, schoolmasters and the like. This article consists of 21 paragraphs by the national Bank in which each paragraph will have following critical comments by Mr. Bruce Brown.

Paragraph 1:    What work can money do? It cannot fight wars. It cannot produce brave men and women. It cannot grown food or drive machinery. All it can do is to transfer, rights to goods and services. The most it can effect in these times is the provision of a method which enables the Government to pay our forces and purchase the munitions and equipment they require.

Brown's Comment:    It is true that money does not work because it cannot work. It moves only when someone moves it. But though lifeless, worthless, and costless, it never the less controls the "rights" to goods and services, and is the stuff which is used "to pay" for the war. It therefore follows that whoever controls the production of the "RIGHTS TO GOODS AND SERVICES" controls the whole activity of society. That is why Anselm Rothschild said, "Permit me to issued the money the money of the nation and I care not  who makes makes its laws." Money is the means of payment, and the "availability" of the means of payment determines what we may do, what we may have, and whether we shall be in debt or free.

Paragraph 2:    Money is neither food nor shelter nor guns nor ammunition. Its use is limited to the quantity of goods and services it will buy. Money does not add to the number of our effective fighting men or to the weapons and ammunition available for the defence of our country. Printed slips of paper and figures in the columns of ledgers are not men and food and munitions. They are only symbols and records. They cannot fight a war - paper soldiers would be equally effective.

Brown's Comment:    It is true that the use of money is limited to the quantity of goods it will buy, but the bank was careful not to explain that the fluctuations in its buying power are the direct result of bank action in manipulating the "demand" for goods. Note particularly the admission that money is only a system of symbols and records, and then ask yourself why we and our children should be required to pay interest for ever on mere symbols and records.

Paragraph 3:    The soldiers and sailors and airmen and all their assistants must come from the people in Australia, and all their food and everything they use must be taken out of the products of our farms and factories. No monetary theorist can deny these basic facts, and no financial wizard has yet demonstrated means of producing soldiers and munitions out of the air. Of course part of the munitions is imported, but only in exchange for goods produced here.

Brown's Comment:    The first sentence shows how all real values come from the people and confirms that no value comes from finance. All credit therefore comes from, and belongs to society, and this is the meaning of the term "social credit." Not withstanding this, we have been silly enough to allow artificial finance to dictate real "values" instead of requiring values to dictate finance. It is true that soldiers and munitions are not produced out of the air. Neither are they produced out of money. They are produced by the suffering of mothers and the efforts of people at large. But the "rights" to the employment of soldiers and munitions are controlled by money, money is produced out of the inkpot, i.e. the admission in Paragraph 2 that finance is only a system of "symbols and records.

Paragraph 4:    In times of peace, not only the men and women now engaged in industry, but also those now joined up with the military forces, are engaged on farms and in factories producing the goods required to satisfy the daily needs and normal comforts of the community. In fact, before the wartime they have to produce the huge mass of munitions demanded by modern warfore. A great deal of the effort previously engaged in the production of peace-time needs must be transferred to the manufacture of guns, tanks, "planes, ships, shells, uniforms and multitude of other items necessary for our war effort. So the total demand for goods and services is increased by the war while the number of workers in industry is reduced by enlistments and training. Inevitably, there must be less goods available for purchase by the civil population. Hard work can make good much of the shortage, but money cannot.

Brown's Comment:    This paragraph is partly true and partly false. It is not true that the men and women now engaged in industry and also those joined up with the forces were employed in production "in times of peace." Far too many of them were not employed at all, and had it not been for the outbreak of war, the so-called unemployment problem would still be with us. It is also not true to say that before the war the people of Australia consumed nearly all the goods they produced. They did not, and many thousands of them actually went cold and hungry because they were denied the "rights" to the goods, and our leaders were looking for markets elsewhere. Now, entirely because of the greater availability of these money "rights" to goods through war spending, we are able not only to maintain a large army of non-producers but also to produce in greater abundance than ever if we wish. Of course, there must be a transfer of effort from normal production, to war production, but this is a matter for the manpower authorities, not for the bank director. And if it is necessary to curtail the production of certain good for use by the civil population, then this is a matter for government rationing, not for financial manipulation by the money controllers. Rationing means a fair share to all citizens, but price fluctuation means plenty for the financially rich and insufficient for the financially poor.

Paragraph 5:    Australia has about 7 million inhabitants and a certain number of industries in which the working population is normally engaged. There is obviously a limit to the amount of goods that can be produced by the efforts of these workers in their various industries. Working harder and for longer hours, employing men and women previously idle and increasing technical efficiency of industries will enlarge the quantity of goods that can be made available. But when these improvements have been pushed as far as is humanly possible, the practical limits have been reached. No matter what financial plan is followed, no matter what is done to the banking system, further gains to the output of industry, whether for peace or war requirements, are just not possible.

Brown's Comment:    No one has ever suggested otherwise. What is claimed, however, is that there is no justification for financial stringency at a time when the working population is NOT Fully employed, and that the "rights" to goods should always be sufficient to transfer all the goods from the producer to the consumer. The complaint against the system is that wholesome food is even now rotting while people are hungry, and they are hungry because they have no money "rights" to the food. God never fails to supply, but the people are denied adequate access to it through manipulation of finance which controls the "rights" i.e. as the admission in paragraph 1.

Paragraph 6:    Thus, there is a definite limit to the output of industry, which must meet both war requirements and the needs of the civil population. It is clear, therefore, that if we divert as great a part as possible of this output to the war effort, the quantity available for consumption or use by the public will be smaller than before the war.

Brown's Comment:    No one has claimed otherwise, provided we are using our physical resources to full capacity and we are transferring our maximum forces from civil to military needs. So far we have not done this.

Paragraph 7:    We cannot eat our cake and have it too. The Australian "cake" is the total output of its industries. In normal times, all of it is eaten by the people, but at the present time a large slice is being taken for war purposes. We perhaps can make the cake a little larger, but, as already explained only within certain limits. So we must do with less cake: that is, with a smaller supply of commodities than previously. That explains why sacrifice by the  community is inescapable in time of war. This sacrifice by the civil population is made here and now regardless of whether there is inflation or not, whether money for the war is levied by taxation or whether it is borrowed through war loans. Anybody who suggests that we can make a war effort without sacrifice is advocating something contradictory. In so far as the public refuses to make sacrifices the war effort will be correspondingly weakened.

Brown's Comment:    This is another mixture of the true and the false. It is not true that in normal times all the cake produced is eaten by the people. Bank directors know quite well that children have been suffering from malnutrition year after year at the very time when our primary producers could not dispose of their crops. The bankers also know that while we had millions of bushels of so-called "surplus" wheat being eaten by mice and weevils, more than half the people of England were actually living below a satisfactory standard because they lacked the money with which to buy sufficient bread. Official figures issued by the International Labour Bureau give further proof of the falsity of the bankers claim. In one year alone, when fish were being tipped back into the sea, coffee being burned, cattle destroyed, milk poured down drains, and so on, no less than 2,400,000 human beings died of starvation because they had been denied the money "rights" to the food, and another 1,200,000 committed suicide because of economic stress caused by shortage of money. Sacrifice by the community consists in surrender of real things i.e. our sons, our wealth. These are physical things. But if we are to surrender our to surrender our "rights to goods" as well, we because the abject slaves of a tyranny even greater that that which is portrayed as confronting our armed forces on the battlefield. Even after meeting the actual physical costs of the war "here and now," we and those who survive will still be called upon to pay perpetual interest on the "financial cost," mere "symbols and records." Those who fought in the war will come back to pay the banker a perpetual tribute for having been allowed to fight!

And note the cunning manner in which inflation, taxation, and borrowing are mixed up with war and "sacrifice." "Sacrifice by the community is in escapable in war time, "says the article, implying that these 3 methods are peculiar to war time and that in peace time here is no sacrifice. But the truth is the very reverse of this. Did we not place thousands upon thousands of men on the scrapheap during the wonderful peace time? Did we not have inflation, taxation, and borrowing during peace time? Was it not because of a change in monetary policy in 1928-29 from inflation to deflation that we had the so-called "depression" and the so-called "Premiers Plan?" Was there no sacrifice in the years following 1929, when employment in Australia increased from 9 to 30%, when bankruptcies in a year increased alarmingly, when the marriage rate decreased seriously, and when the community at large suffered unparalleled misery? The fact is that alternate periods of inflation and deflation are the very basis of this so-called "sound finance," and although we were warned by Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, what to expect, lack of intelligent interest in the subject has led to our financial enslavement. Here are the exact words uttered by Jefferson:

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and by deflation, the corporation that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property, until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Unless the people insist upon necessary changes we shall continue to have inflation, taxation, and borrowing in "peace" time and even bigger sacrifices in taxation will be demanded when the war is over than are demanded now. There will be no shortage of things to buy, but the banks will endeavor to impose a shortage of the symbols we buy with. It is part of their propaganda technique to confuse these buying "symbols and records" with the real things-food, clothes, shelter, and empty stomachs. They try to maintain the false impression that there is something sacred about their symbols and records, and that their costless phantom product is more important than the real product of the farmer or manufacturer. They further try to maintain the mesmeric belief that on no account must there be a plentiful supply of symbols and records, and they do this because they know that once the community is supplied with a sufficiency of the "rights to goods" the people would get out of debt. Therefore, whatever else may happen, the people must be kept uninformed on the subject of finance so that they can be kept in debt.

So we have the almost unbelievable position that the production of the stuff which is to be used "to pay for the war," is controlled by the very people who hold most of the Government and private bonds. This makes obvious the reason why such people are fighting so strenuously and so dishonorably to seep in their own hands control of the supply of this vital weapon. Splendid farmers have gone bankrupt for producing fields of life-giving grain, while bank directors who manipulated the "rights" to the grain were honored. A nation in debt and thus in pawn is essential to the continuance of their dishonest system, and yet they have the audacious effrontery to call upon clear-sighted citizens, as a patriotic duty, to fight against their own release from such tyranny.

Paragraph 8:    Why, then, are we concerned about the methods of war finance? Because the transfer of labour and machinery from peace-time production to war-time production is effected by means of money. Because money is the medium through which the government obtains command of the goods and services needed for the war effort. Because money is the instrument whereby the element of sacrifice mentioned in the previous paragraph is distributed over the people as a whole.

Brown's Comment:    war This paragraph is very important. It admits that the use to which labour and machinery may be put is the medium through which the Government obtains command of the goods and services required for our war effort. It makes the further admission that money is used as an instrument for imposing sacrifices. Could anything be plainer than the fact that the activities of society, the conduct of the war, and the welfare of the people are not controlled by our resources and wealth as they ought to be, but by the "availability" of money. Make the "rights" to goods difficult to get and the people then become engaged in a full-time struggle for a larger share of an inadequate supply. They are so busy struggling against one another that they no time to inquire about the fellows who keep them struggling. Is it and wonder that the Southampton Chamber of Commerce declared that "a power nothing less than the control of the entire economies activity of the nation is vested in a private monopoly."

Paragraph 9:    The transfer of a great number of men and machines to making arms and other things necessary to the war effort involves a substantial reduction in the quantity and variety of articles available for purchase by the general public. It also involves the transfer from the public to the government of the purchasing power necessary to pay for all the services, munitions and other goods which the Government requires. It automatically follows that the war can be financed only through some method which lessens the purchasing power of the general public. This fundamental fact of war finance is not admitted by monetary heretics and other cranks who advocate "cost free credit." Apparently they believe that we can make a great war effort without reducing the quantity of goods the public can buy. It would be equally sensible to believe that 2+2=5. The two notions are very closely related.

Brown's Comment:    In this paragraph we are told that the Government can only get the can only get the "purchasing power necessary to pay for all the services, munitions, and other goods "though some method which lessons the purchasing power of the general public. This is given as a fundamental fact of war finance, but it is simply not true. The government does not get its purchasing power from the general public. Most of it is secretly produced by the trading banks, whereas in paragraph 504 of the report of the Monetary and Banking Commission it is clearly set out that the Commonwealth Bank can make available, without any charge, whatever finance is required for prices to rise, or for the people's purchasing power to be reduced. Rationing would care for any reduction in the quantity of necessities available for purchase.

Note the kindly reference to "monetary heretics and other cranks. "That is how the "recognised leaders" spoke about Jesus, who was called "a perverter of the people" because He spoke the truth. It is well to remember in this respect that He gave pardon to the thief, was all-forgiving to the adulteress, but gave the whip to the usurers, whose present-day equivalent are the men who demand interest on "symbols and records." University professors and other "recognised leaders" also spoke sneeringly of Galileo, Pasteur, and all the other men who saw through the fog of their abracadabra and did something worth-while for humanity. Even today we have "recognised leaders" of the same type refusing to acknowledge facts but still employed as "advisers" to our Governments. We find such men "selected" for positions such as Member of Commonwealth Bank Board, Prices Commissioner re-construction advisers, radio commentators, and the like.

Note also the further cunning use of words in the sentence "apparently they believe we can make a great war effort without reducing the quantity of goods the public can buy. "It would be far more convincing, and certainly more straightforward, it these paid apologists of the present system gave the names of the "heretics and other cranks" who have expressed such a belief. As to whether 2+2=5, it is fitting that the illustration should have been used by a bank, because it works on the basis that it should get five back when it makes only four available. Money cannot reproduce itself, and individual citizens are not allowed to produce their own, but when the bank permits an overdraft of 100 pounds (200 dollars) it requires the return of 110 pounds (220 dollars).

Paragraph 10:    Let us consider now the ways in which the Government can transfer to itself the purchasing power it must obtain. There are four ways of doing this:

1.    Confiscation

2.    Taxation

3.    Borrowing

4.    Inflation

Brown's Comment:    This quotes four ways in which, the Government can transfer purchasing power to itself. Note the inference. The Government must always get what it needs by "transfer>" On no account must it produce some of its own. The volume of purchasing power or "rights to goods" must be determined by a private monopoly and then the supposedly sovereign Government must get what it can out of that volume. So we have government by the banker for the banker, but are asked to believe that it is government by the people for the people! On 19/11/1932, the Hon.

B.S.B. Stevens the Premier of New South Wales (NSW) said this: "We are prepared, as courageously as our bankers will allow, to get out into the field of development to assist in arresting the drift from the country to the city." Here was the admission that Government do what bankers allow them to do.

There is reason to believe that it was because Abraham Lincoln had discovered the trick and had taken steps to release his people from financial bondage that he was assassinated. He supplied purchasing power without the aid of financial institutions. This proved so beneficial to the nation and so disturbing to the usurers that the London Times Cone of their leading mouthpieces) wrote editorially as follows:

If that mischievous financial policy which had its origins in the North American Republic during the late war in that country should become indurate down to a fixture, then that government will furnish its debt and be without a debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized government of the world. That  Government must be destroyed." And it is on public record that two years before the death of Lincoln a secret society for his assassination had been financed in Richmond by wealthy persons.

The whole purchase of the Bankers campaign is to prevent the Government from providing the people with money, because, as the American Bankers Association wrote in 1887, such a course "would seriously affect our individual profits as bankers and lenders.

Paragraph 11:    Confiscation means taking goods or purchasing power and giving nothing in exchange.

Brown's Comment:     As to the four ways quoted in the article, i.e. Confiscation, Taxation, Borrowing, and Inflation, these are all integral parts of the present fraudulent system. During the past 25 years the banks of Australia have been obtaining possession of community assets at the rate of a million pounds (2 million dollars) a month and giving nothing whatever in exchange. Since the commencement of the war their assets have increased by 200 million pounds (400 million dollars), and yet they have produced not a scrap of food or one item of munitions. That is confiscation par excellence. Everything for nothing.

Paragraph 12:    Taxation is the constitutional method of transferring purchasing power from the people to the Government.

Brown's Comment:    Most of the taxation collected from the community is earmarked for the payment of interest on the National Debt and approximately 80% of this debt is held by the banks and their associated organisations. In the main, therefore taxation is another is another bankers instrument for extracting interest from the community on costless "symbols and records." In reality, taxation is more confiscation under a different name. Something for nothing! In south Australia, intersection the Government Debt absorbs all state taxation Plus 400,000 pounds, (800,000 dollars), and as this alleged debt is owing mainly to institutions which form part of the private banking system, it is clear that taxation is imposed for the benefit of the banker.

Paragraph 13:    Borrowing is the recognised legal method of transferring further purchasing power to the Government from people who do not require to use that purchasing power immediately.

Brown's Comment:    The definition of "borrowing" as given in the article is dishonorable misrepresentation most of the borrowing is from financial institutions, and the small balance comes from only 1 out of every 250 of the population (all the others get so little money that they have none to spare for loans). Loans to the government consist almost entirely of bank deposit money, and bank deposits are created by the banks "out of the air," a phrase which they themselves are so fond of using. This is not opinion, it is fact, as the following recognised authorities confirm:

Encyclopedia Britannica:

"Banks create credit. It is a mistake to suppose that bank credit is created to any important extent by the payment of money into the banks. A loan made by a bank is a clear addition to the amount of money in the community."

Mr.R.G.Hawtrey, M.A., in the text book, "The Theory and Practice of Banking:"

"The essential and distinctive feature of a bank and a banker is to create and issue credit payable on demand, and this credit is intended to be put into circulation and serve all the purpose of money. A bank therefore is not an office for the borrowing and lending of money, but is a manufactory of credit." In the light of all this, the admission of the Arch bishop of York is significant. He said: "I was taught some political economy at oxford, including certain propositions about money. What is perfectly plain is that money is not what they told me it was."

Paragraph 14:    Inflation consists of excessive issues of currency notes, or of excessive resort to credit expansion through the banking system, or of both. Inflation forces prices upward and thus reduces the purchasing power of the people.

Brown's Comment:    As to inflation, here again the bank definition is dishonorable misrepresentation. Even if every one of us had our income doubled tomorrow there would be no inflation unless it were accompanied by a corresponding increase in prices. Inflation does not commence until prices are raised, and prices do not raise themselves. They are put up.

Under the bankers control, money is allowed to come into existence only as more debt carrying interest charges, thus increasing costs, all round. It is, therefore, the banker who causes prices to rise. (If in doubt on this point, read paragraph 93 of the Report of the Monetary and Banking Commission). But if money for Government purposes were brought into existence as a credit to the nation instead of a debt to the banker, it not carry the burden of interest at all and could be distributed to the community without causing any increase in costs. In this event, the people would gradually have access to more money without any increase in prices, and with an increasing demand assured, producers would have no fear of going bankrupt because they produced plenty of goods. Living standards would improve according to the productive ability of the community and not according to the number of "rights to goods" which the banker saw fit to make "available." The word "inflation" is used only to frighten people. If we increase the supply of butter, or honey, or milk, or anything else of real value, we never think of referring to it as inflation, but if we suggest that the "rights" to these real things, should be equal to such things, the banker, for his own purposes yells "inflation!" and the people go all nervous. That atmosphere is necessary for the financial interests, as it helps them to persuade people not to support necessary alterations in the financial system which would be of great benefit to the public, but would divest the financial interests of power and privileges in which they have no right whatever.

Paragraph 15:    The reasons, in short and simple form are:

(a)    The supply of goods is limited.

(b)    The Government can maintain its own purchasing power by printing additional notes or further expanding credit.

(c)    Consequently the Government has all the advantage when competing with the general public for the purchase of goods, and obtains what it requires.

(d)    The general public competes among its own members for the remainder of the goods.

(e)    Prices move upward in the ever-rising "vicious spiral" of inflation.

Brown's Comment: The "reasons" given are not reasons at all. They are efforts. The supply of goods is limited only because demand falls away, and demand falls away only because the people are denied the money "rights" to what they need. The Government can maintain its own purchasing power by printing additional notes or further expanding bank deposits, but it does not do so. Expansions of credit money are made only through the bankers, and they are made not as credit but as debt. moreover, all such debt carries liability for interest, the banker thus trying to make 2+2=5! The government has fixed an artificial limit to the issue of notes and has done it on the advice of the banker! This limit has no relation whatever, to the volume of goods and services, to the productive ability of the people, or to the resources of policy of Governments, and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people." to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of the consumers. The "liquidity" and is one of his excuses for changing prosperity into depression. Privilage of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of government, but is the Government's greatest creative opportunity."

BANK OF ENGLAND PROSPECTUS, 1964:

"The bank shall have benefit of interest on all moneys which it shall invent out of nothing."

UNITED STATES BANKERS MAGAZINE, 26/8/1924:

"Capital must protect itself in every possible manner by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people lose their holms, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers. This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capital to govern the world."

THE ROTHSCHILDS:

"The few who can understand the system will be either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on its favours, that there will be no opposition from that class, while, on the other hand, that great body of people, mentally in capable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system, will bear its burden without complaining, and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests."

MR. REGINALD MCKENNA, CHAIRMAN, MIDLAND BANK, LONDON:

1.    "I am afraid the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can, and do create and destroy money."

2.    "And they who control the credit it of the nation direct the Commonwealth. It is how the banker wants it for purposes of 

3. "The Bank of England, and no other power in heaven above or Earth beneath, is the ultimate arbiter of what our supply of money shall be. The regular expansion of money supplies which must be undertaken if trade is to be active and the price level stable, has not been permitted."

PHILIP A. BENSON, PRESIDENT AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION,

8/6/1939:

"There is no more direct way to capture control of a nation than through its credit system."

LLOYD GEORGE, SPEAKING OF THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS:

"The international bankers swept statesmen, politicians, jurists, and journalists, all on oneside, and issued their orders with the imperiousness of absolute monarchs who knew that there was no appeal from their ruthless decrees."

LATE ARTHUR KITSON, ENGINEER AND INVENTOR:

"The money question is the greatest moral and social question which mankind has ever had to consider. It concerns the lives, fortunes, and happiness of every human being in society, and of generations yet unborn. All other questions sink into insignificance compared with this one." "Money is the life-blood of trade is depressed, and the public is unable to secure and to enjoy the abundance of the necessities and good things of life, which inventors and scientists have been able to provide."

SPEECH BY MR. RANDOLPH BEDFORD, M.L.A, QUEENSLAND 12/9/1940:

"The bank of England, a privately owned-bank, which has been helped by Government stupidity to its tremendous control of British credit and its large share of international finance, sponsored a loan of 50 million pounds (100 million dollars) to Hitler's Germany was: "We will have to give Germany a loan of (100 million dollars). We may never be paid back, but it will be a less loss than the fall of Nazi-ism.

If the Government did what the banker says it does, i.e., provide its own purchasing, power, it certainly would be in the position to obtain what it requires for a maximum war effort or for better social conditions but the truth is that owing to the manner in which buying power is manipulated by the banker through costs and prices Government and people are forced into competition instead of working in co-operation.

Prices move upwards "in the ever-rising vicious spiral of inflation "only because money is produced by private bankers as interest-bearing debt instead  of interest-free credit. As all credit comes from community effort, monetisation of that credit should be the function and prerogative of the Commonwealth Government as the executive of the Federal Parliament and such monetisation should be credited to the people not debited against them. If this were done, all talk of an "ever-rising vicious spiral of inflation," and other similar hocus pocus, would be ended for ever.

Paragraph 16:    The great monetary inflations indulged in by various European countries some 20 years ago have been described so often that there is no need to present here a detailed account of  those experiments. From them, as from similar attempts in other lands, we learn that profiteering becomes rife and impossible to restrain. Industrial unrest is unavoidable, as prices run away from wage rates, and higher wages fail to reduce the gap. Business confidence is undermined topple over. Production of goods shrinks, and all saving, such as assurance policies, deposits in trading and savings banks, money advanced on securities, Government and municipal bonds, debentures and stocks as well as cash in hand, lose real value. In conditions of extreme inflation they become worthless.

Brown's Comment:    The "great monetary inflations" referred to have not been truthfully described. They were swindles, and when the middle classes had been effectively ruined the "inflation" was ended almost overnight. Not only so, it was done to achieve certain results in connection with the financial liabilities under the Versailles Treaty, and it was not unsuccessful in this design either. All the dire effects mentioned in this paragraph came about because there was no control or prices, which were so manipulated as to have no reasonable relation to actual costs. With Government money being free of interest and prices based on a fair margin over cost, inflation as described by the bank would be a physical impossibility.

Paragraph 17:    The above are the main facts of war finance, and the reasons why all people should be concerned about the methods adopted by the Government to cover its expenditures. So far in Australia, reliance has been placed mainly on taxation and borrowing, through limited recourse has been made to credit expansion in order to bring unused labour and other resources into useful service. At the stage and for the purpose it had real utility, but to rely on credit expansion as a major factor in war finance would be the height of folly.

Brown's Comment:    The claim in this paragraph that the article gave the main facts of war finance has been shown to be impudent and unfounded. The basic and controlling fact, i.e., the PRODUCTION of war finance, was not even mentioned. And not withstanding the solemn warning that" to rely on credit expansion as a major factor in war finance would be the height of folly," the truth is that unless we do alter our method of producing money for war purposes, our munitions production will be hampered, the morale of the people will weaken, and the peace when it comes will be of a kind that was not worth fighting for:

Paragraph 18:    The force and persistence with which "credit expansion and "cost-free credit" notions are being pressed upon the public, give ample grounds for suspicion regarding the real objectives of the organisers of the movement. The "moral enthusiast," peddling his currency no strums, is, like the poor, always with us. He is unable to distinguish between fact and fancy, truth and fiction, and, in ordinary conditions, can do little harm. But when made the dupe and catspaw of determined men, whose real objective is the destruction of our whole system of industry and trade, he becomes a danger to the general well-being or our people and, in particular, to the vigorous and sustained conduct of our war effort.

Browns Comment:    It has always been the practice of thieves to try to thro dust in the eyes of their pursuers, and the attempt to create suspicion against those who oppose the private monopoly of the public credit comes within the same category. Note again the cunning way in which "moral enthusiasts," "currency nostrums" and "the poor always with us" have been linked together. Any moral enthusiast who excuses fraud is himself a fraud, and as the present financial system is demonstrably fraudulent, it follows that every genuine moral enthusiast must must fight against this so-called "sound finance." As already shown, the question is not one of currency at all. It is one of CREDIT. And as to the poor, it is a fact that they shall not be always with us if they are given "rights" to the bounty of god as He intends. They will get these "rights" to goods when honest finance is substituted for the so-called "sound" finance. To refer to "determined men whose real objective is the destruction of our whole system of industry and trade "without naming such men so that they could be properly dealt with, is another example of the despicable tactics adopted to mislead the community from getting at the truth and understanding it. It is no wonder that Wm. Jennings Bryan wrote:

"The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies all who question it methods or throw light upon its crimes."

Paragraph 19:    It is unnecessary to amplify further the pains and dangers of cost-free credit and other "easy" methods of paying for the war. No one with a sound, realistic outlook could believe that financial juggling can take the place of the sacrifices which war demands. Unfortunately, many people do not thing, and consequently their opinions can be molded by unscrupulous and fanatical members of the "something for nothing" group. That is why every clear-sighted and competent Australia should use his or her influence and full force of persuasion to assist in keeping our nation on the firm though narrow path of sound finance. We shall not divert from that path, provided we cheerfully shoulder the heavy burden of taxation and contribute every penny (cent) we can spare to the War Savings Certificates and War Loans.

Brown's Comment:    When we talk of paying for the war," what exactly do we mean? Pay what and pay whom? If we are to pay with "rights to goods," who is to produce those rights and who is to own them at the time of production? The war itself is paid for as it is fought , in blood, tears, broken hearts, broken homes, frustrated lives, fatherless children. Is this payment not enough? If more is necessary, what form is it to take, who demands it, and who is to get the payment when we make it? If this bankers articles means anything it means anything it means that after having paid for the war physically with living men and women and valuable resources, we are expected to go on paying for it in perpetuity with "symbols and records" obtainable only from the private banks and then only upon the terms they dictate. The witch doctors and medicine men can't show the financiers any tricks. They have not only put the greatest confidence trick of all times over humanity, but have succeeded in persuading the "best" elements in society to assist them. Church leaders and outwardly devout Christmas have been specially helpful in effecting the fraud, and now these usurers have the hardihood to appeal to "clear-sighted and competent" Australians to use their "full force of persuasion" to keep themselves and their fellow men slaves to financial tyranny. Is it not time we realised that the Psalmist was right when he said that usury has no part in God's service. Those who prize truth above the advantages of rank and fortune should study Psalm 15, wherein we may read this:- "Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle? ... He that speaketh the truth in his heart ... He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent."

Millions of us have been hoodwinked in the past by propaganda. We have accepted falsehood in the belief that it was truth, and have unwittingly supported a usurious system of finance which can only work by taking reward against the innocent.

And who are these "unscrupulous and fanatical members of the something for nothing group? "The only group which now gets something for nothing is the banking group, and there is increasing evidence that the members of this group are without superiors in the practice of unscrupulousness. No clear-sighted and competent Australian could possibly assist in keeping the nation in the yoke of sound finance, for every clear-sighted and competent Australian knows that "sound finance" is the community's greatest enemy.

Paragraph 20:    Naturally, that involves care in spending deferring the satisfaction of some desires and buying less of things that can be done without. Fortunately, in Australia, there is no need to restrict expenditure on food and other necessities of life. Full maintenance of, and, where possible, improvement in the health of our citizens, should be regarded as important objectives of the war-time economy. This connotes ample food at prices well within the buying capacity of the public. If, however, large scale inflation is adopted as the means of transferring resources from civil to government use, the prices of food and all other commodities will be forced upwards, and living standards - notably of people in the lower group - will be forced downward.

Brown's Comment:    The writer of the paragraph must have known when he wrote it that "inflation" has actually been in operation since 1932, and that it is stupid to talk about improving the health of our citizens when the where with all to do it is being taken from them. Physically we have everything for good health, but financially we are kept from using these gifts from a universally - beneficent creator.

Paragraph 21:    To conclude:

(a)    No expedient can relieve us of the real costs of war.

(b)    Inflation adds to both the nominal and the real cost of war.

(c)    Credit expansion is the mother of inflation.

Brown's Comment:    It is true that no expedient can relieve us of the real costs of war. As already shown in these comments, our mothers and wives know that only too well.

Inflation as now practiced by the bankers does impose  unnecessary burdens and sacrifices upon us, and must be stopped.

Credit expansion is not the mother of inflation. Bank policy which causes a rise in prices is the mother of inflation, and when we are not having inflation it is deflation, causing bankruptcy of producers through falling prices. As previously stated, the methods employed by the bankers to alternate periods of prosperity and depression are detailed in paragraph 93 of the monetary and Banking Commission Report.

Having criticised the present system, it is only right that something practical and constructive should be put forward. Finance will never reflect reality and give the people the standard of living made possible by solar energy, machinery, and scientific discoveries, until the following principles are put into practice:-

1.    Money must come into existence and go out of existence only by governmental authority, and when it does come into existence it must come in as the property of the people, not as the property of a private institution.

2.    The Commonwealth Bank and the Commonwealth Statistician should be required by Act of Parliament to co-operate to ensure that money is distributed to the people in sufficient quantities and at such a rate as to enable them always to have access to the goods and services available. These authorities would also provide the necessary technique for the withdrawal and cancellation of money if and when such a course is required in order to maintain equation between money and prices.

3.    The difference between the quantity of money now supplied to the people and the quantity that should be supplied to them to give them access to their production, should be issued direct by the Commonwealth Bank to the Government for use in a variety of ways as a supplement to present incomes. Such money could be used, for example, to meet war costs, to pay old-age and invalid funds for municipal development, and so on.

4.    When the supplementary distribution of money as in 3 is taking place, there must be a scientific price mechanism which would make inflation of prices impossible.

QUOTATIONS

ABRAHAM LINCOLN:

"Government possessing the power to create and issue currency and credit as money, and enjoying the power to withdraw both currency and credit from circulation by taxation and otherwise, need not and should not borrow capital at interest as the means of financing Government work and public enterprise. The government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credit needed