C. H. Douglas
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Major C. H. (Clifford Hugh) Douglas MIMechE, MIEE, (January 20, 1879-September 29, 1952) son of Hugh Douglas and Louisa Horfdern, was a Scottish engineer and pioneer of the Social credit concept. He graduated from Cambridge University, with an honour degree in mathematics. He worked for the Westinghouse Company of America, was the Reconstruction Engineer for the British Westinghouse Company in India, deputy Chief Engineer of the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway Company, Railway Engineer of the London Post Office (Tube) Railway and Assistant Superintendent of the RAF Factory, Farnborough during World War I. He appeared as a witness before the Canadian Banking Enquiry in 1923 and before the Macmillan Committee in 1930.
It was while he was reorganising the work of RAF Farnborough during World War I that Douglas noticed that the weekly total costs incurred were greater than the sums paid out for wages, salaries and dividends. This seemed to contradict the theory put forth by classic Ricardian economics, that all costs are distributed simultaneously as purchasing power.
Douglas collected data from over a hundred large British businesses and found that in every case except that of companies heading for bankruptcy, the sums paid out in salaries, wages and dividends were always less than the total costs incurred each week.
He published his observations and conclusions in an article in the English Review where he suggested: "That we are living under a system of accountancy which renders the delivery of the nation's goods and services to itself a technical impossibility."
Social Credit is an economic theory and a social movement which started in the early 1920s, inspiring the Canadian social credit movement and New Zealand's Social Credit Political League. Douglas also travelled and lectured on Social Credit in Japan and Norway.
Douglas died in his home in Fearnan, Scotland.
Books
- Social Credit (1924, Revised 1933) new edition: December 1979; Institute of Economic Democracy, Canada; ISBN 0920392261
- Economic Democracy (1920) new edition: December 1974; Bloomfield Books; ISBN 0904656063
- The Monopoly of Credit (1931) new edition: 1979; Bloomfield Books; ISBN 0904656020
- The Use of Money (1935)
- The Alberta Experiment: An Interim Survey (1937)
- The Brief for the Prosecution, Legion for the Survival of Freedom, Incorporated; (December 1986) ISBN 0949667803
- Whose Service is Perfect Freedom?, Canada; Veritas Publishing Company; (June 1986) ISBN 0949667641
- The Big Idea, Veritas Publishing Company, Canada; (June 1986) ISBN 0886360005
Further reading
- Major Douglas and Alberta Social Credit by Bob Hesketh ISBN 0802041485
External links
- Social Credit by Major Clifford Hugh Douglas (http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/socialcredit/socialcredit.htm) (fulltext)
- http://www.alor.org/Library1.htm Australian League of Rights online library
- The Alberta Social Credit Party - C. H. Douglas (http://www.socialcredit.com/subpages_history/douglas.htm)
- Guido Giacomo Preparata - Major Douglas in the witness box (http://www.open-economy.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=UpDownload&file=index&req=getit&lid=36)