February 25, 1948 (20th Parliament, 4th Session)

Mr. BOWERMAN:

Continuing, I wish to place before this house another pronouncement which was made at a World-wide conference of Anglican bishops at Lambeth, England, in 1930. It reads in part as follows:
An outstanding and pressing duty of the church is to convince its members of the necessity of nothing less than a fundamental change in our economic life. This change can only be effected by accepting as a basis of individual relationships the principle of co-operation in service for the common good, in place of unrestricted competition for profits and sectional advantages.
Furthermore the late Archbishop of York, William Temple, declared:
The vast system of beliefs, practices and policies which may roughly be called western civilization . . . was admirably adapted to the production of wealth and power. But its motives were non-Christian, self-interest, competition, the struggle of rival forces. If it is to be a blessing, not a blight, its motives must be transformed.
Still further, in 1939, the report of the committee on social service of the United Church of Canada stated:
We are driven to the conclusion that the only thing that will solve our present day social and economic problems will be the absolute Christian socialization of the means of production and distribution of all the necessities of life.
The twenty-first annual report of the board of evangelism and social service of the United Church of Canada for 1946 said:
This board recommends the control by the federal government of any industry in Canada whose degree of concentration or monopoly is such that it can enter or has entered into cartel agreements, believing that the holding of such concentrated economic power in private hands is contrary to the interests of the Canadian people.
Your Honour, what an indictment-the world's great spiritual leaders both at home and abroad condemning in no uncertain terms uncontrolled materialistic capitalism, an "ism'' that all down through its history has brought war and rumours of war, famine and pestilence to those peoples who adhere to its system of uncontrolled rent, interest and profit. Is it any wonder, sir, that these great church bodies to whom vast multitudes look for guidance in spiritual and temporal affairs, seeing and knowing the distress that so-called free enterprise has wrought, have cried out: we condemn and abhor the abuses of capitalism? Free enterprise is dead. Dictatorship has taken its place. Our duty before God and man is to convince all people everywhere of the necessity of nothing less than a fundamental change in our economic life. We are driven to this conclusion-the only thing that will solve our present social and economic problems is absolute Christian socialization of the means of production and distribution of all the necessities of life.