Social Credit in Alberta 1905-1935 -- Bramley-Moore, Leedy, Bevington, Irvine, C.H. Douglas, Aberhart
- Tom Monto
- Jun 30
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 5
Rural Credit, a form of banking reform, was discussed in 1913. Aylmer Bramley-Moore, Liberal MLA, and UofA's Henry Marshall Tory were on an official commission to investigate the possibilities for banks to better serve farmers.
Bramley-Moore is better remembered for his book Canada and Her Colonies.
By 1913 J.W. Leedy had begun proselytizing for rural credit. The former Kansas governor, assisted by Bramley-Moore and Tory's 1913 report, help lay the base for the election of Aberhart's Social Credit government in 1935. Along the way, Edmonton alderman James East, George Bevington, William Irvine and C.H. Douglas helped open the door to the election of the first SC government in all of the world. way.
Aylmer Bramley-Moore and UofA's Henry Marshall Tory et al.
Report of the Alberta Commissioners on the American Commission for the Study of Agricultural Credit. (1914) 77 pages.
(Peel 3951)
Bramley-Moore went off to war, never to return.
J.W. Leedy, former governor of Kansas and Alberta farmer since 1908, was a vocal proponent of rural credit.
He ran in Gleichen in the 1917 provincial election for the Non-Partisan League.
At the time the Gleichen Call carried an accusation that Leedy was a poseur and that Kansas's banking act was not adopted into law until long after Leedy was governor. John C. Buckley, later an UFA MLA (I think), investigated and submitted his findings to the newspaper asking for the truth to be published in equal consideration to the lies that the newspaper had published.
Gleichen Call did so but at same time repeating the lie and publishing both under title "Claims J.W. Leedy repealed bank law". Gleichen Call, Aug. 23, 1917, p. 1)
Truth was that Leedy as governor repealed previous bank law and brought a new one into law in 1896 at the start of his two-year governorship.
The Non-Partisan League included banking reform in its platform. It elected only two of its candidates in 1917 so was never in power to enact its banking reforms.
1918 (June 8th) Edmonton Bulletin: "Sunday band concert in East End park will be followed immediately with an address with J.W. Leedy, ex-governor of Kansas, on interests of city workers and agriculturalists with sidelights on the methods of Canadian banking institutions. Edmonton tax sale."
1919 (Jan. 22) Edmonton Bulletin: "J.W. Leedy reported [to the UFA convention] on the proposal to ask for legislation permitting the establishment of a banking system. he explained that it was desired only to secure the right... [to use it as leverage against the private banks].
The Nonpartisan newspaper (Jan. 15, 1919) stated the Co-operators (United Kingdom) had a full programme
"The Co-operators demand from the government:
"Increased death duties, increased taxation on unearned income; State ownership and control of the railways, mines, and shipping; and the establishment of credit banks in connection with a national system of banking, all of these to meet the financial obligations of the nation."
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William Irvine was elected to the House of Commons in 1921. He and J.S. Woodsworth pushed the House of Commons to institute an investigation into the banking system. George Bevington, a farmer of Edmonton's Winterburn area and self-taught banking authority, appeared before the committee.
Tony Mardiros's book William Irvine devotes a whole chapter to Irvine and his relationship to the concept of banking reform.
He and Leedy were strong proponents of banking reform into the 1930s.
Edmonton alderman James East believed in the need for regulation and reform of the banking system. (more on him in the Montopedia blog "Timeline of Edmonton's progressive history")
"Banking reform of keen interest in 1932"
1932 J.W. Leedy to speak on scrip and its relationship to banking at a meeting of Edmonton Home and Property Owners Association. George Bevington to speak on banks. (Edmonton Bulletin, May 14, 1932, p. 13)
1932 Alberta's UFA government is to set up a committee to study the banking law and banking system.
Conservative PM Bennett said a federal commission will be appointed for the same purpose.
"The money question and all phases of it are subject of keen interest just now." (Edmonton Bulletin, May 14, 1932, p. 13)
1932 July-Aug was when William Aberhart was exposed to SC ideas and that started him on the road to the premiership that he secured three years later.
He read a tract by F.C. Colbourne [check], an actor who had performed on Alberta stages. And that somewhat-obscure connection was how the Alberta Social Credit movement began to really move.
But the ground had been prepared before him by the less-dramatic proselytizing of Leedy, Bevington, Irvine and many others.
The historical background for Alberta drive for social credit is recounted in the 1943 publication Alberta's treasury branches their purpose and their place in the provincial economy
Among other things the 1943 booklet outlines why Alberta was blocked from regulating the private banks operating in Alberta and how it then turned to founding an alternative, publicly-owned banking service - the Alberta Treasury Branches.
About that time William Aberhart passed on, and his replacement as premier was not interested in Social Credit reforms.
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