Word: aberhart
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
With free quotations from the Bible and Abraham Lincoln, Gerry McGeer won seats in the British Columbia Legislature and the Canadian House of Commons and the mayoralty of Vancouver with the biggest majority in history. Since the rise of Alberta's Social Credit Premier William Aberhart in the next province, he has lost his self-assumed rank of "Canada's Greatest Money Reformer." Last winter he invited every celebrity he could think of to Vancouver's two-month celebration, hoped for President Roosevelt. One invitation reached London's Lord Mayor Sir Percy Vincent, a retired millinery...
Canada's Alberta was last week a proving ground for a money experiment so fantastic as to baffle financial experts. On the theory that fast-moving money would bring Prosperity to his battered Province, Alberta's Premier William Aberhart last fortnight issued a scrip he called "prosperity certificates" (TIME, Aug. 10.) They had dated spaces on the reverse side for 104 tiny if stamps which must be bought and attached week-by-week to keep the money "fresh" (i. e., acceptable). Premier Aberhart had produced a "money" that was actually cheaper to spend than to save...
...prosperity certificates started off fairly well. They were used to pay in part relief workers, legislators, Cabinet members, Premier Aberhart. They were accepted by most retail stores. The first day, Alberta merchants gave "hard money" change to purchasers with prosperity certificates. On second thought they made change in credit slips or required buyers to spend a whole certificate. A list of wholesalers who had agreed to accept certificates from retailers was published. Trumpeted Premier Aberhart: "You'll have to get used to using something else than this little thing [waving a real dollar bill] for money...
First obvious injustice of the new money was that it loaded wholesalers with certificates for which they were required to buy stamps, could not use for purchases of goods outside the Province. Premier Aberhart promised to redeem part of their certificates each month in cash to keep goods coming into the Province...
Presently Albertans began to think. It was obvious that the Aberhart dollars depreciated if a week and that, to make up this depreciation, Albertans were paying the Government 52% interest a year on their average weekly balance. Last week the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce called the Aberhart money "a heavy and discriminatory taxation scheme." The Chamber had already appealed to the Dominion Government at Ottawa to force Premier Aberhart to withdraw his prosperity certificates...