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Written by: Doris Grant

Category: May

Published: 17 August 2026

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The following article was written by Doris Grant and appeared in The Cambridge University Medical Society Magazine, Cambridge University, England. We are reprinting it from Prevention Magazine of July 1960 by kind permission of the publisher.

This article has aroused so much interest since its appearance last August that we... are re-printing it. We feel sure that all those actively engaged in the fight against fluoridation will find it usefu.

The EDITOR

No physician in his senses would hand a potent drug to his patient with the advice: "Take as much or little as you please", but this is precisely the procedure implied in the government's proposal to add sodium fluoride to our drinking water.

Fluoridation, as this project is called, is intended to reduce dental caries in children from birth up to the age of 8 or 10. But it takes no account of the fact that it is quite impossible to assure that all these children will be given the correct and safe amount of this substance; some children drink a lot of water, some drink a little, and some drink none at all, taking all their liquids as milk or fruit juices. It also fails to reckon with the fact that there is no medical case for compelling the remaining 92 per cent of the population to drink water which contains a toxic substance, a substance which can do them no good and may well do them harm.

Should fluoridation be made nation-wide, millions will have to drink this water irrespective of diet, occupation, state of health, susceptibility, climate and sex, not to mention the present-day hazards of fluoride-polluted air and fluoride- contaminated food.

Sodium fluoride is one of the most lethal of the halogen salts, and according to the Condensed Chemical Dictionary it is largely used in fungicides, insecticides and some rat poisons. But the general public has not been informed of its true nature. A leading American proponent puts the official case crudely and bluntly in words which leave no doubt about official morality: "We are under no obligation to people to tell them the truth. They would not understand it anyway. Our duty is to tell them whatever is necessary to make them do what is good for them." The failure of public health authorities in this country even to admit that there might be a valid case against increasing the intake of a toxic substance for the whole population is doing great damage to confidence in the Health Service and in the medical profession generally.

The fact that the concentration proposed is as low as one part per million is useless as an argument, no acute poisoning or immediately obvious harm is expected by anybody. As with the addition of chemicals to food, it is the cumulative effects of an intake of minim quantities over a long period which constitutes the danger. It is generally agreed that sodium fluoride is cumulative in action.

In a letter to the British Medical Journal, a Harley Street specialist protested: "Even if the effects of fluoridation were less controversial than they appear to be, it is clear that this method of wholesale indiscriminate administration of what is undoubtedly a highly toxic substance is improper and constitutes a complete break with the medical tradition of individual care and responsibility." The Delaney Committee, in a report to the United States Congress, was equally emphatic indescribing this method as "Mass Medication without parallel in the history of medicine."

The proponents' vigorous denial of mass medication is nothing short of equivocation; medication is intended for curing, alleviating, or preventing disease. Fluoridation is intended to prevent tooth disease. Mass medication is an intolerable interference with freedom of thought and action, and ignores the right of the individual to determine what shall be done to and with his body. As sodium fluoride can be administered individually to those who require or wish it, there is no question of anyone's rights being denied if fluoridation is not adopted. The moral issue regarding fluoridation is therefore paramount.

Another aspect of fluoridation, which should be viewed by all of us with alarm, is discussed by Miss Margaret Kidd, in the Glasgow Evening News of 17th May, 1956. Miss Kidd, famous as the first woman Q.C., points out in a forthright article that fluoridation "is yet another example of the lamentable state of affairs in Britain today where the power is rapidly passing from the people and parliament to a few officials because of the apathy of the ordinary men and women." (Emphasis supplied - Ed.). She also says that "It is high time that the general public bestirred itself and stamped upon the busybodies who would thrust their ideas of what is good for us willy nilly upon us all". If we are not careful: the "experts" may soon be adding Epsom salts to our water because they think we are too constipated!

It should be remembered that the expert is not infallible and that a government department which has committed its prestige to the success of some technical procedure cannot always be relied upon as a source of impartial information about it. Let us never forget that it took 25 years to discover the possible connection between ogenised flour and nervous disorders in man, and no less than 150 years to discover that mercury-containing teething powders have been the cause of poisonings and deaths among babies.

It is as well to remember, also, that the official assurance of "no harm" after the Windscale disaster was belied by subsequent events; that the experts' conviction, till recently, of the safety to X-ray therapy has now been rudely shaken, and that many people have now developed a dangerous sensitivity to the supposedly "non-toxic" penicillin. The official expert has been proved wrong on so many occasions that in this matter of fluoridation the thinking public is looking to those other experts who have no axe to grind, whose prestige is not involved and who may indeed stand to lose materially by opposing officialdom where important principles are involved.

The proponents' case

This has been based upon the evidence of the caries inhibiting effect upon young children of water supplies containing fluoride at approximately 1 p.p.m. The proponents claim that water to which fluoride is added at 1 p.p.m. (1 part per million Ed.) will have the same effect as water in which it is naturally present. When critics point out that the added fluoride is entirely different from that occurring naturally, the proponents reply that a fluoride ion is a fluoride ion no matter what the source.

Leading water toxicologists and biochemists do not question the identity of the fluoride ion but maintain that in naturally fluoridated waters, there are minerals which unite with it and affect its absorption and toxicity, and which may also in themselves contribute to caries-resistance. The naturally occurring calcium-fluoridated water has been proved to be 85 times less toxic than sodium-fluoridated water; this was determined by comparing lethal dosages in animals. For obvious reasons the effect on dental caries of other minerals present in drinking water has been denied by the proponents; in the much quoted Newburgh-Kingston experiment, fluoridated Newburgh, which claims a 60 per cent reduction in caries, has five times more calcium in its water than fluoride-free Kingston. One questionable premise upon which the case for fluoridation has been built that artificially and naturally fluoridated waters are biologically identical has been seriously questioned by many informed and responsible experts including the Medical-Dental ad hoc Committee, a group of American dentists, physicians, and scientists who have been studying the problem.

In their recent detailed and critical analysis of the Report of Councils (Conclusion No. 1) adopted by the A.M.A. (Philadelphia, Dec. 3-6, 1957), they draw attention to statements in this report which in effect, cast doubt on its conclusions: "It is too early to know what the effects of artificial fluoridation will be"; "what is reported a reduction may be a delay in the recognition of caries"; "that reasons given for believing that artificially fluoridated water will have the same effects as water with natural fluoride are not valid". The Medical-Dental critique also points out that the Report makes it clear that some people will be harmed by fluoridation. Nevertheless the A.M.A. "endorsed" fluoridation. This fact is eloquent of the "steamroller" tactics of the American proponents.

It is extraordinary that a project which claims to be scientific rests mainly on "endorsements", "parroted opinions", and "statistics" rather than on accurately documented scientific data. Lack of a convincing case has led some proponent scientists, on occasions, to resort to unseemly personalities, and even to slandering and censuring their opponents. Typical of this persecution is the ultimatum recently received by Dr. Jonathan Forman, for many years editor of the Ohio State Medical Journal: "Resign your editorship or strop opposing fluoridation". He resigned. An example of the way in which fluoridation has been promoted with the help of "parroted opinions" was published in Northwest Medicine (54, p. 44, 1955): "Drs. H. R. Dean and F. J. McClure started (to be recognized as experts)... by quoting themselves and each other. Soon they were quoted by others and they could quote in support of their conclusions others who were merely parroting them."

Misinterpreted statistics

In The Lancet of 6 th December, 1958, on article entitled "Danger! Doctors at work" contained the following statements which might have been written with fluoridation in mind: "We are liable to be led astray by ideas that are based on unsound premises or on fallacious reasoning... Communal bonnet-swarming is liable to occur when large numbers of doctors are sold on idea which is attractive in theory. In therapeutics a new myth is born every moment... Misdirected enthusiasm is common in the sphere of public health and preventive medicine. The peculiar danger here is the keen medical administrator with a passion for planning, liason... and lots of statistical data."

Fluoridation is so attractive in theory that many well-meaning and public-spirited do-gooders regard it as another giant step forward in this age of chemical progress. But the "lots of statistical data" upon which it is built have recently been devastatingly queried in Australia, America, France, South Africa, New Zealand and Britain.

In the Medical Journal of Australia, February 1st, 1958, two Melbourne University scientists revealed disturbing features of fluoridation promotion that, contrary to the aim of all true scientists, the proponents quite obviously set out to prove a pre-conceived theory; that the statistics were frequently manipulated to conform with this theory; that in the clinical survey no attempt was made to devise a randomisation procedure which would have eliminated bias on the port of the examiner; that "bias is suggested by the presentation of some results, so that the reader may be misled"; that "the results are not those which would be expected if the fluoridation theory is correct."

An outstanding case of "manipulation" can be found in the figures from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, before fluoridation and afterwards. Out of one hundred children examined, the number with decayed teeth fell from 97 percent to 94 percent, that is there were originally 3 percent free of decay; but after eight years there were 6 per cent. This was reported as 100 per cent improval, whereas in actual fact it was only 3 percent of the total.

In Orthodontologisk Revy (3 240-254, 1957) Dr. Palfer-Solier of the French National Institute of Hygiene criticises the fluoridation statistics particularly in connection with the DM.F. (decayed, missing, filled) index by which the proponents measure the condition of the children's teeth. Determining D.M.E. tooth surfaces per person, he says, has no value whatever "because caries not only affects the tooth surface but develops in depth as well". The weakness of the D.M.F. index in this respect has also been pointed out by other experts.

At the fourth International Health Conference at Essen, in October 1958, Dr. Steyn, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Pretoria University, warned that the fluoridation statistics, considered as evidence, are "unconvincing to the point of absurdity".

Dr. C. G. Dobbs, a University microbiologist, has pointed out in the British Dental Journal and elsewhere that the idea constantly put forward that the safety of fluoridation is proved by the absence of significant difference in the statistics of mortality and disease between low and high fluoride areas betrays a shocking ignorance of the range of normal variation in such statistics. This is so wide that only the crudest effects, such as could not possibly be caused by fluorides at 1 p.p.m., could be distinguished. For instance a doubling of the death-rate from one year to another from a disease such as cancer is quite common in restricted locales. The failure of public health officials to appreciate this is more dangerous than fluoridation itself. The only  reply, so far, to this criticism has been a stream of disparaging letters about the critic's lack of medical qualification, which is somewhat impertinent as many university biologists must be better qualified in statistics than most medical men.

Fallacious reasoning

Nothing revealts the weakness of the fluoridation case more clearly than the "fallacious reasoning" which has accompanied its promotion. The following examples speak for themselves:

Fluoridation is compared with chlorination (reference note No. 9, M.O.H. 1955): This is a false analogy. Chlorine is put into the water to make it safer to drink; fluoride is put in to effect a physiological change in our bodies. When chlorinated water is heated the chlorine is evapored, but when fluoridated water is boiled, the fluoride is progressively concentrated. As most cooking processes involve the reduction of liquids, the stipulated daily "safety" dose of 1 milligram (2 milligrams is regarded as the danger point) could soon be exceeded, especially as the factor of safety is admittedly very low - in fact, it is a "calculated risk". When a proponent M.O.H. was asked at a public meeting in the Caxton Hall on January 9th, 1959, how this danger could be overcome, he denied it existed; by his reply that if one took a glass of fluoridated water and reduced it to half by boiling, the amount of fluoride in the glass would be exactly the same as in the beginning. This is quite correct, but the learned doctor either underestimated the intelligence of his audience or made an outsize "shoolboy howler". For people to consume their habitual amount of liquid they will have to take a full glassful of this same boiled water and this glass would then contain twice the amount of fluoride in the same way as water boiled down to one fifth would contain five times as much.

Excess of sodium fluoride is compared to that of salt and Vitamin A or D. (letter to the Jersey Evening Post, Jan. 29th, 1959). This is contrary to the accepted fact that the margin between the therapeutic and toxic actions of sodium fluoride is narrow in some people while there is a high threshold of tolerance in most people where salt or one of the vitamins is concerned. It is to be hoped that no proponent would commit suicide by accepting a challenge to swallow a teaspoonful of sodium fluoride, which is approximately equal to the lethal dose of 4.5 grams, while his challenger swallowed the same amount of salt or vitamin A or D!

Without sodium fluoride our bones and teeth would be in a sorry state (Some source as above): This contains two such howlers: Fluoride does not occur in food as sodium fluoride but as calcium fluorophosphate. Sodium fluoride however has been testified by researchers to cause increased bone density. "Misdirected enthusiasm" of proponents has interpreted this to mean "stronger" bones, whereas it may mean brittle bones. At the Watford Press Conference of 1955 I heard the local Medical Officer of Health claim that storage of a small amount of fluoride salts would strengthen up the skeleton thereby preventing fractures in old people. (Press conference report, pp. 6-7).

Exhaustive tests on animals by Drs. Maurer and Day have proved the non-essentiality of fluoride to health, to teeth and to bones (Journal of Nutrition, 62. Aug. 1957). It is significant that excellent dental health has been found in communities drinking. fluoride-free water and that appalling dental decay and cases of bone abnormality have been found in communities drinking water fluoridated at, and under, the "magic" concentration of 1 p.p.m.

Fluoride cannot harm at 1 p.p.m. (Waterford press conference, 1955). This claim is contradicted by the proponents'own admission that 10-15 per cent of children drinking fluoridated water will have mottled teeth. An A.M.A. report acknowledges that mottling is the most delicate criterian of harm but that mottling at 1 p.p.m. is minimal and that its importance is outweighed by the caries-inhibiting effect. However "minimal" the "harm" the proponents are adopting an intolerable position in respect of their claim to have the right to inflict it on the public.

The many aspects of fluoridation

Never in the history of medicine has a public health procedure cut across so many different fields; it concerns not only the physicians but the toxicologists, nutritionists, dentists, water engineers, statistical experts, food processors, housewives, politicians, the Church and the Law. The well-informed layman may therefore be better qualified to see the picture as a whole thant the expert who sees in a problem only that small part to which he has devoted his life's study; the expert is more apt than most of us to suffer from the modern disease of "fragmentation". Fluoridation is eloquent of this disease: it treats the part instead of the whole. Some physicians, dentists and nutritionists are agreed that the problem of tooth decay is primarily a nutritional one and concerns the whole body. They maintain that our refined foods and the greatly increased consumption of sweets and sugared foods are the main cause of the appalling dental decay in children today.

By treating the symptom of caries instead of removing the cause faulty nutrition and too many sweets the proponents are denying the children not only for better dental health than fluoridation could ever achieve, but also for better physical health. It is ironical that the children whom this experiment with our water is intended to help may be the ones to suffer most from the effects of fluoride, for dental caries is produced by faulty feeding, and this faulty feeding has been shown by investigators to increase the severity of fluoride-intoxication. (Paper 9, Steyn, Essen Conference, 1958).

The opposition

In order to discourage opposition, the proponents have labelled as fanatics, cranks and nitwits all those who have dared to oppose them. Nevertheless the opposition includes internationally recognized research scientists, biochemists, dentists, physicians, editors of medical journals, university professors, water engineers, toxicologists and women's organizations throughout the world. The proponents' contention that "competent authority" means only those in favour of fluoridation is absurd. There is now considerable opposition in America from medical and dental associations en bloc e.g.. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. In March, this year. Ontario's Minister of Health, Dr. Dymond, announced that no further fluoridation will be permitted as "no one knows for sure what the effect is to persons given fluoride throughout a lifetime." (Edmonton Journal, March 6th, 1959): "When I prescribe treatment for my patients", says Dr. Dymond, "I prescribe a stated amount. It is not possible to prescribe a stated amounted of fluoride by introducing it into the water supply."

When experts disagree as they do concerning this experiment, it behooves the layman to be very skeptical of it. That he is indeed very skeptical is apparent by the fact that over 1,000 communities in America have rejected fluoridation including 81 communities which have stopped it; that in Great Britain fluoridation ceased in the "demonstration" town of Andover last July, that Cardiff, Darlington, and Norwich rejected it some time ago and that Sheffield has just recently done so. Said a Sheffield councillor: "We don't know enough about it. Opinion is divided on the benefits and disadvantages of fluoride and nobody has proved that it does no harm." (Sheffield Telegraph, Jan. 15th, 1959)

Opinion is not divided, however, on the possible caries-inhibiting effect of fluoridation, although opposing experts qualify this as being "a delaying of caries with ultimate injury to the teeth and bones". "The crux of the matter is the possible harmful effects on the health of human beings drinking water containing added sodium fluoride from infancy for 30, 40 or more years. This is not the concern of the dental profession but entirely that of the medical profession, and of the toxicologist and nutritionist in particular. If the medical or nutritional case for increasing the fluoride intake of the entire population had ever been discussed by properly qualified and unbiased people at official levels, fluoridation would never have been heard of again.

At the Essen Conference of 1958, Professor Steyn warned: "It is the author's considered opinion, as a toxicologist and pharmacologist of 30 years' experience, that under certain conditions, especially with certain types of water, artificial fluoridation of public water supply can, and does, constitute a grave danger to human health. "This view is shared by many other authorities including Dr. Sinclair, lately Reader in Human Nutrition at Oxford. In an address reported in the B.M.J. of Dec. 14th, 1957, he says: "I believe this is one of the many examples. where a little learning is a dangerous thing, and where health may be injured and science brought to disrepute by the incautious and premature application to public health of insufficiently investigated procedures."

A lighter but none the less effective note is sounded in the warning of Mr. H. B. Foxwell, the Waterford schoolmaster who is secretary of the local anti-fluoridation committee. According to him, fluoridation is:

Medically controversial

Dentally doubtful

Scientifically spurious

Legally questionable

Economically wasteful

Promotionally unscrupulous,

and Politically dynamite!

I have shown, I hope, that there is reason for some members of the public to object to being forced to take additional fluoride through their drinking water. Many middle-aged people are already worried about the increase in chronic disease of uncertain origin, notably cancer, heart disease and rheumatism; and it is surely not unreasonable to suppose that a permanent, daily increase, in the intake of a substance known to be toxic, might tend to increase rather than decrease the danger of such diseases. Whether these people are right or wrong, they have a perfect right to entertain such a reasonable belief, and those medical men who would deliberately impose this added anxiety upon them are acting in a manner quite contrary to the best traditions of their profession. Incidentally, as events in Andover, where the council was voted out on this issue alone, shows very clearly, they are also amalganizing a large proportion of the population whom they are supposed to serve.

Such warnings from such a variety of authorities will be disregarded at our peril. Let us hope that the doctors of tomorrow will lend all adoption of fluoridation before too much irretrievable damage is done.

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Written by: Editorial Staff

Category: May

Published: 17 August 2026

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"The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof the world and all that dwell therein." This text, which is the opening verse of Psalm 23, expresses the absolute ownership by God of all created things. As Creator, He has full and complete ownership, control and rights over all creation. However, in His wisdom, God has deigned to give man a participation, in a limited sense of course, in this dominion which He exercises over His creation. This is clear from Psalm 8: "Thou hast subjected all things beneath His feet."

A natural function

The subjection which man exercises over created things we recognize as ownership. Ownership is a natural function of man because, in him, by reason of his intellect, there exists a capacity, or a power, to exercise that certain control, which is ownership, of material goods. This enables him to provide for the physical needs of his life. The earth itself does not freely furnish the goods and products necessary for man's physical well-being. He must, by unremitting labour, prepare and cultivate the soil in order that it will produce fruitfully. As a consequence, he must be able to exercise a degree of control over the fruits of his labour so as to have an exclusive use of them. This right to an exclusive use of the fruits of his labours is essential to his living a normal human life.

Essential to the family

If ownership, or exclusive control, of material goods is necessary to individual life, how much more is it essential to family life! It is impossible for the family properly to exist as an independent organism unless it can freely manage its own internal affairs and unless the parents are permitted to provide for the maintenance and education of their children without any form of outside interference. To fulfill these obligations the exclusive use of dwellinghouse, clothes, food, etc., is a fundamental necessity. When the family is deprived of all property it becomes wholly dependent upon the will of others for sustenance. As a result it is no longer able to manage freely its own affairs. Furthermore the duty of the parents to rear and educate their children provides them with a constant incentive to work, and the childrens' realization of their dependence upon their parents forms an important factor in their training and education.

Essential to society

The ownership of property, then, is essential to man and the family. So, also, it is essential to society. Man in the possession of private property is encouraged to work and be orderly. Since the family is the basic unit in society, it follows that society will be greatly benefited by the industry, order and thrift of the families and individuals of which it is composed.

Furthermore, with a wide diffusion of private property, the dire poverty and insecurity with which so many are affected will be appreciably reduced.

Fiat (Dublin, Ireland), No. 49

Canada's stand

With the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), Press and leading politicians promoting the Kremlin neutralist-nuclear disarmament line, with Ottawa promoting trade with Castro, and with Canada now giving a refuge and rebirth to the notorious IPR (Institute of Pacific Relations), is it any wonder that our Southern neighbors (U.S.A.) are beginning to wonder just where we stand in these decisive days of the world conflict!

The Canadian Intelligence Service, January, 1961

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Written by: A. K. Chesterton

Category: May

Published: 17 August 2026

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When the huge "charity" trusts in the United States converge in supporting the same cause, there is always solid reason for keeping that cause under observation. For instance, the Royal Institute of International Affairs has long been the beneficiary of American trust funds, so that Chatham House has been and remains well worth watching. Now comes the turn of the Institute of International Education to receive largess. Not long ago the Carnegie Corporation made it a grant of $1,500,000, and the Rockefeller Foundation soon afterwards bestowed $250,000 upon it. The Ford Foundation recently announced that it would grant the fortunate Institute $3,500,000 spread over the next ten years.

The Institute of International Education is not a new body: what is new is the uniting of the giant trusts to lavish their benefactions upon it. Its work consist in encouraging educationists and others to study abroad and in supporting students from abroad in the United States.

Quite innocuous, one might think. As the trusts are being widely used to promote internationalism, however, it would be interesting to know on what basis the students are chosen, and to what influence they are subjected in the countries to which they go. We may be quite certain that these influences do not include any which rest on the belief that the sovereignty of the nation-state is essential to the preservation of Christendom.

A. K. Chesterton, Editor of Candour, the British Weekly as quoted in The American Mercury, December, 1956. (Emphasis supplied).

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Written by: Earl Massecar

Category: May

Published: 17 August 2026

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This brief outline of the history of the Social Credit movement in Canada known as the Union of Electors, has been taken from notes prepared by Miss Therese Tardif, secretary of the movement, for a publishing house which wished to use them in one of their publications. Of necessity, this resumé is very brief for a movement which during some 25 years has preached a doctrine rich in truth, which has seen so much activity, fought so many battles, labored so strenuously in an apostolate and accomplished so much. Still, these notes should prove interesting and useful for those who are coming into contact for the first time with the movement; who are hearing for the first time such terms as, "the Institute of Political Action", "Vers Demain", "The Union of Electors". They will also serve to dispell the confusion which has arisen as a result of the existence side by side of the true and authentic Social Credit movement embodied in the Union of Electors, on the one hand, and on the other, of certains groups of politicians who have formed political parties bearing the label "Social Credit", through which parties they hope to acquire personal profit and power.

The founders

Louis Even and Gilberte Côté-Mercier (then Miss Gilberte Côté) are the founders of the Union of Electors, the Institute of Political Action and the movement's two publications, Vers Demain (French-language) and The Union of Electors (English-language).

Louis Even first happened upon Social Credit in the Autumn of 1934. At this time he was a teacher of economics for the Gardenvale study club at Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, a suburb of Montreal. Social Credit, in its more immediate aspects, is an economic doctrine which was given to the world in 1917 by the Scottish engineer-economist, Major C. H. Douglas. Louis Even recognized at once the perfection of this doctrine and he took the decision to devote his time, energy and talent to propagating this doctrine.

Living in the French-Canadian milieu, he decided to begin his work by presenting this doctrine first to the Canadians of the French language. He began by publishing articles in the publication, "Moniteur", which publication is translated from English into French for the Garden City Press. Then, on his own, he began editing and issuing small works on Social Credit which he called Social Credit Notes. He also gave conferences in many of the towns of the province of Quebec.

Gilberte Côté-Mercier holds the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Montreal. She also followed courses leading to licenses, in the faculties of philosophy, Letters and the Sciences of economics and politics at the same University of Montreal. In 1937 she attended a conference on Social Credit given by Mr. Louis Even in Montreal. From that moment she has devoted herself completely to spreading the doctrine of Social Credit in Canada.

The foundations

In 1939 Louis Even and Gilberte Côté-Mercier founded the publication, Vers Demain. They are the editors of this paper. It appears twice monthly.

The first issue of Vers Demain was dated November 1, 1939. It introduced itself as follows: A journal for political, economic and social orientation.

Vers Demain was founded to teach Social Credit, to form, among the mass of the people, an elite group which, by study, reflection and action would determine the new trends and currents in the flow of history. This group would be the force which would turn the course of politics towards a social order in which man would be capable of reaching his full development.

Vers Demain has reached a circulation of 80,000 readers some 60,000 in Canada. It has readers in 34 other countries of the world. Nor does this paper accept any commercial ads. It is financed solely by the contributions of its readers. No one receives any profit from its publication. All the money received is turned back to the propagation of the movement. Those who do the work of propagation, do so gratuitously!

The English-language paper, The Union of Electors, was founded some two years ago and was the result of previous smaller publications in English. It is the natural outgrowth of the development of the movement. Having penetrated the milieu of French-Canada and established its influence, it was only logical that the movement should begin to spread out among the English-speaking Canadians. While far smaller than its older brother, Vers Demain, this paper is still beginning to make itself felt. Among its readers are many of the men actively engaged in the government of this country, as well as a multitude of professional men.

The Institute of Political Action

The institute of Political Action was founded in 1940. It is a group of dedicated individuals who, receiving no remuneration, seek to promote the circulation of Vers Demain and The Union of Electors, enlighten the people, give true direction to politics and defend the poor and the persecuted.

The directors of the Institute, since its foundation, are Louis Even, Gilberte Côté-Mercier and lawyer, J. Ernest Grégoire. Mr. Grégoire is a prominent Quebec city lawyer, a former mayor of that municipality and former M. P. from the constituency of Montmagny. He was professor of political economy at the time of the founding of the Institute of Political Action. He also holds degrees from several European universities.

Other directors at the present time are: Gérard Mercier, a full-time worker in the movement since 1941; Louis-Philippe Bouchard, a full-time worker since 1942, and Hervé Provencher, a full-time worker since 1944.

The group of full-time workers at present is made up of 17 young people who have dedicated themselves entirely to the movement's activities. They travel about the country, begging their lodgings and meals, holding assemblies, visiting Crediters, guiding and encouraging the members of the movement in their work.

The main army of the movement is made up of that multitude of men and women who give their spare time to advance the cause. They spend their weekends going about from door to door soliciting subscriptions to our publications and speaking of the movement. They pledge themselves to take so many subscriptions a week.

All those who regularly take subscriptions to these papers are considered to be members of the Institute of Political Action, since they actively participate in the work of propagating the movement.

The Union of Electors

This is the movement. Its essence is in this; that it is the formula of policy of the Social Credit movement. It is the totality of all citizens, enlightened and educated by the Institute of Political Action and by the papers, Vers Demain and The Union of Electors, who take their responsibilities seriously and an see to it that their wishes are respected by the civil authorities.

Other means of education

For two years now, the directors of the movement have been giving weekly talks over 22 radio stations in Canada. They are also beginning to be seen and heard over different television stations.

The Institute of Political Action also edits and distributes pamphlets, holds local and regional assemblies and periodically holds grand national congresses.

Demands

The Union of Electors demand of the authorities concerned, the realization and application of the principles and ideals of Social Credit: the distribution of a monthly dividend to each Canadian citizen in order that the abundance of production might be shared and each might receive enough to meet the necessities of life; the institution of a compensating discount which will balance prices with purchasing power; the financing of all new production, public and private, through the issuance of credits free of interest charges.

The Union of Electors demands the abolition of taxation. It fights against Socialism and Communism.

The results of 25 years

The Institute of Political Action counts thousands of individuals amongst its members individuals who fight to defend the poor and the oppressed. Many very special cases have been set right by these elite who work among the people. This movement develops a spirit in the member which is at once patriotic, social and Christian.

If there is no conscription labours in Canada during time of peace, this is due, in part at least, to the unremitting labours of the Union of Electors against conscription.

There has been very considerable advance in the matter of social legislation during these latter years. There are the old age pensions for those arriving at 70 years - no enquiries made; help for needy mothers, etc. The Union of Electors has always striven for such legislation, but always with the proviso that there be no increase in taxation.

The four Premiers of the Maritime provinces have demanded a special commission to investigate the existing monetary system. The premier of Ontario, the Honorable Leslie Frost, has publicly criticized the policies of the Bank of Canada, demanding that it "come down from its ivory tower and accomplish its proper functions". More than 700 municipalities and school commissions have requested that money without interest charges be made available for the execution of public works. A considerable number of heavy loans proposed by municipalities have been blocked, and the increase of taxation halted, through the pressure brought to bear by Crediters working with the people. All of the above mentioned have come to pass in an atmosphere, a climate, which has been developped by the work of the Union of Electors.

But perhaps the most significant work cccomplished by the Social Credit movement which has been built up around Vers Demain and The Union of Electors, is the formation of an ever-growing number of men and women who constitute an elite corps among the mass of the people men and woman who are educated in matters pertaining to economics and politics, who have shouldered their responsibilities as citizens, who have dedicated themselves to action which will redress the grave injustices and inequalities of the day and obliterate those evils which have caused so many to suffer need and hardship in the face of an abundance which could bring the satisfaction of the basic wants of everyone. This is the great contribution of the Institute of Political Action to the formation of a better world the cultivation in the souls of men and women of the spirit of the apostle, the spirit of brotherhood.

Participation in elections

Although the Union of Electors was not created to participate in elections, it has, nevertheless, already participated in election campaigns. At a time when the movement was still young and inexperienced, it gave in to the pressure exerted upon it by certain election-minded elements in the group. In 1948 it went so far as to present some 92 candidates in 92 constituencies in the Quebec provincial elections. The results for the movement were exactly nil. Not only that, the fruits of a dozen years of hard apostleship were threatened with annihilation. The true apostles of the movement took up their true work once again with undiminished fervor and zeal. Those election-minded individuals, primarily responsible for the defeat, retired into the shadows to concern themselves with their own private affairs.

Once the movement had recuperated its losses after this electoral disaster, there once more appeared in its ranks individuals who strove to lead the movement back into the field of party politics and elections. They wasted their time. The directors of the movement, and the rank and file quickly put a stop to this move. Thus repulsed, these politicians attempted to profit from the good name of the movement by founding a group called "Ralliement des Créditistes". (literally, "the rally of Social Crediters'). They even attempted to usurp the places held by the directors of the movement. These electioneers are the adversaries of Social Credit. They know very well that in diverting Social Credit towards electioneering they are diverting it from its true end. Such ambitious individuals, pushed on and aided by the true adversaries of Social Credit, are in effect traitors to Social Credit, and they are denounced as such by the Union of Electors.

The Union of Electors exists to give Social Credit to the people, not to give power and profit to ambitious and overbearing individuals.

The political party is the very contrary to Social Credit. Social Credit seeks to put power into the hands of the people. Political parties on the other hand give power into the hands of small groups of individuals. The two are contradictory. The Union of the people (the "union of all electors") tends to make the people powerful. Political parties weaken the power of the people by dividing them.

The Union of Electors, the Institute of Political Action, the two publications, Vers Demain and The Union of Electors, have never been allied in any way with the so-called "Social Credit" parties of Alberta or British Columbia nor with the now-defunct federal group once headed by Solon Low. In 1944, at a convention held in Toronto, the Union of Electors agreed to experiment with a federation of all the different Social Credit movements across Canada, each movement, however, to remain autonomous. Three years later, the Institute disassociated itself completely from this groupment when it became evident that the Union of Electors could best pursue its aims by severing all ties with an organization which, contrary to the principles recognized at Toronto, was more and more gravitating into the field of party politics.

There had been members of parliament in Ottawa, supposedly Social Credit members, for some 23 years. What did they accomplish for Social Credit? Absolutely nothing! Solon Low, himself, once elected chief of the national Social Credit Association, passed from the provincial legislature of Alberta to the House of Commons in Ottawa where he held this seat during 13 years. He accomplished nothing for the wonderfull doctrine of Social Credit. And yet, it was in the name of Social Credit that he was elected. The same can be said about Manning, the "Social Credit" premier of Alberta and of Bennett who holds forth in British Columbia under the name of Social Credit. In their provinces they have done nothing towards establishing a Social Credit regime. Yet they persist in presenting themselves and their followers for election under the name of Social Credit. In fact, they constitute nothing more than a political organization whose aim is to hang on to power as long as it can. They simply find that bearing the name of Social Credit is beneficial when it comes time to vote.

The Union of Electors has no relationship with these politicians. Neither has Vers Demain or the English-language The Union of Electors. Both of these papers bear on their front pages, legends to the effect that they are in no sense of the word associated with political parties. (Material supplied by Miss Thérèse Tardif).