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194 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
She edited a journal for the General Confederation of Industries
in Rome.
While living as an American citizen in Italy, Pound conducted
himself in much the same manner as he had done in England and
France. He worked on his poems, studied, carried on a voluminous
correspondence, and made a few public talks on his advanced
economic theories. These theories were inspired by his hatred of
war. Witter Bynner says that during the First World War, he asked
Henry Ford how long the conflict would last. "Until the idlers
have killed off enough of the workers to feel safe," Ford had replied.
Pound knew that great changes were needed. He had written
editorially, in The Exile, "Quite simply, I want a new civilization."
46 In his Polite Essays, he had stated that "Civilization begins
when people start preferring a little done right to a great deal
done wrong." 47
Pound had long been concerned about the anachronisms and
injustices of monetary issue. In 1917, he had met Captain C. H.
Douglas, an engineer who had formerly been in charge of international
operations for the Westinghouse Corporation. Objecting to
the nineteenth century mode of distribution, Douglas had worked
out some improvements, which he termed "Social Credit".
A few years ago, I was asked at a trial in New York, "What
is Social Credit?"
"Social Credit," I replied, "is a system which, in times of prosperity,
not only discontinues the collection of taxes, but distributes
surplus funds to the citizens in the form of a national dividend.
It transforms the state from an organization whose motto is
'Always Take', to a government which is not a continuous misfortune
borne by the citizens."
No doubt, Pound would disagree with this definition, since he
would wish to get some of the fundamentals of the system before
the public. His economic views have been widely misinterpreted,
from malice as well as from ignorance. Horace Gregory, who had
evidently not looked too deeply into the matter, commented in the
August, 1935 issue of Poetry, "Like Douglas he [Pound] ignores
the fact that labor is an integral factor in the denomination of
money values."