Stitched booklet cover. Wesley mailed this 4x6-1/2 in 10 page booklet of carbon copies to his father in 1956.


-----------------WAR----------------

War is a result caused by mental & moral forces expressing themselves in the material activity of earthly life. The material wrong must be understood to be rectified by moral thoughts in material action.

Race-prejudice, - cut throat national & international commercialism, - poverty amidst plenty, - accusations of acquisitiveness from both sides of the iron, bamboo or any other curtain; -- are a number of possible suggestions for immediate causes of war. In the definition of any of them the word "economics" will [be] used or implied.

We praise God for Creation, but we don't like to use our God Created brains to figure out the material economics of using the Great Bounty of Nature for our own good. So of course the devil in us steps into this vacancy--for "The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." (Luke, 16:8) We've not obeyed Jesus' saying: "----make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness-----", and actually put God's righteousness into the heart of our economic system. Few care about its operation & fewer still really understand economics.

The World Council of Churches "Division of Studies" raises in its "Prevention of War in the Atomic Age" subject, these issues "What shall a Christian say about using Creation to destroy Creation -- "What personal decisions should a Christian make about helping a country' a defence programme?" "What are Justice & Security in an Atomic Age?"

The Words Atomic Age do not alter the age old problem but only lend urgency to the need for its solution. These are questions that need not be answered separately. Indeed they may not be properly answered at all if answered one by one. A clear study of the present economic system will explain them all. The real application of God's Righteousness in the economic system, will answer them all.

Is it possible to describe our intricate economic system in a few words? Not completely of course but we do know that under it we must spend huge sums on armaments to keep our various national economies solvent. --Under it the enslaved Public Press and all other media of public information and education, follow a programme of the spreading of hate, fear, selfish patriotism, racial prejudice, --propaganda. ---under which the peoples of the nations are so persuaded by such propaganda that they believe, that war will end war, that massive defences are a sure deterrent for war (not a provocation of it), and that they must continue to spend borrowed money on the defence programme. ---Under which we must suffer in peacetime periods of recession when consumer goods can not be sold because men have no money to buy. - to transport or to store, and the goods must rot where they are. ---Under which we are now paying more taxes yearly for just the interest charges on our National Debt than we owed altogether in 1900; and have mortgaged our children's children yet unborn with a burden of debt.
--Under which employment is the only ticket to a living income, although now men can produce more than ever before per man-hour.
---Under which the value in goods of a unit of money becomes less & less making an individual programme of personal savings something of a mere mockery. ---and so on & on & on & on----
----WHY?

A brief answer may not be understandable, but here goes. -

Men are blind to the FACT THAT GOD HAS ALWAYS GIVEN THEM THE FREE GIFT OF NATURE'S BOUNTY.

In their selfishness they've not seen that, ---
The produce which the primary producer takes from the earth or the sea or the sky, - gives them a profit measured in terms of money for which no money was paid out. It is the "Increase" God gives them, - The gift of God.
---The vastly increased production which modern science has given both primary and secondary producers, - has meant that these producers are producing far more per unit of money spent than ever before. It is the"Increase" with which God has blessed the wise use of the brains He gave them.
---In order to distribute this produce, this "free gift of God" the consuming people, some of whom are producers, must have an adequate supply of money, - the medium of exchange or distribution.
---Money is a valueless man-made convenience in itself. It has no value but the value of the stuff it distributes. This being the produce which God gave as a reward for our labours, the Money itself then should be FREE. Raving performed its function of distribution, disappear at no cost to anyone, - to be resupplied tailor made to convey more produce to more consumers.

But the children of light are stupid- & the children of the world are blind, being wise in their own eyes only. They have allowed a small group within each Nation's population to take from the Gov'ts. the power of the supply of money for the Nation's business. So little do they understand that money merely represents God's free gift of the "Increase" to men's labours, -that besides failing to assume the prerogative of Goy'ts. to supply money, - they borrow money from this small private group, and agree to repay with interest money that need not be repaid at all.

This small private group being so steeped in their own wisdom, - have enslaved by debt all media of public information and education - so that for generations all people have become even more blind, - and "The children of Light" stupid as well.

And so it is now when a country's surplus production cannot be sold to backward or underdeveloped areas of the world as formerly, - it can not be sold unless the Gov't. distributes some borrowed money to bolster the markets. Of course both it and the interest, we have agreed to repay. The money is useless unless [it] represents some produce, but the produce disappears, - down a million or more gullets in part - even may disappear in the bloody slaughter of an enemy, - but - the money remains as an unjustified debt.

Then because private companies can' t borrow themselves to prosperity, -unless the public can be persuaded (frightened) into wanting to borrow more for defence (the public press dutifully propagandizes to help things along) -- the market slumps, we have a recession, and the still unjustified debt and taxes to add injury to insult.

This small private group of money managers exist in every country and have Central and Branch facilities everywhere. Furthermore they have an International Clearing House which plans exchange policy and money supply in every country. It is not only possible but obvious that by making loans difficult or easy they can control every Gov't's. war preparedness, so that war does not actually break out. Of course the little side skirmishes like the affairs in Korea and Burma, count only for their value to keep alive the public's sense of fear and hate, by giving the Public Press's exaggeration some element of truth. Thus they maintain the continued pressure of desire by people to continue the defence borrowing programme.

They made a bit of a slip in the 1914-18 affair, a nasty business-- They made a foolish error in the power play just before '39, but by '45 things had become more dormant. But our best young brains were a bloody mess in some war graves, the remainder - just self-wise children of the world, and stupid children of Light.

The Christian must not spend too much time bewailing the use of Creation to destroy Creation, but SNAP to the job of getting into the really tough Job of Christianizing our Gov'ts. Such a Gov't. would remove from the small group of money managers the power of supplying money, - leaving them with the essential job of distributing and handing the Nation's transactions (admirably done now). It would set up a scientific policy of supplying money just to match God's free gift of the "increase" to men's labours. It would then be able to use Creation to SUSTAIN Creation.

The Christian must not worry too much about campaigning against defence expenditures,- when the Nations see that they do not need the "blood-money" (war factory wages) to remain solvent, why then the Navy can become a Life Saving group, - the Air Force the same, - while the Army can just go home unless some of then want to keep up tradition by marching around in fancy dress uniform.

Justice can mean only the same in any age. Under a real Christian Gov't. men would have true freedom of economic security without having to trample on their Brothers rights.

The solution of the War Prevention problem is exactly the same as the solution of 90% society's problems. Anything less would be inadequate or useless.