The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1866-03-30
ooarxuS1cATED.
The Credit svstem vs.. Cash.

The Credit System VS.. Cash.
How long, oh how long are the down
trodden people Of Tennessee to suffer dire
fully the consequences of the war recently
closed? Is it not enough that they should
have been despoiled not only of their prop
erty in slaves, but also of the means of sub
sistence? Are they now to be deprived of
their lands?
The politician and the prosperous news
paper publisher may think that the admis-
sion into Congress of our representatives
and senator's, and the discontinue of the
Brownlow State Government will cure the
ills we are now suffering. Buthow widely
are they from the truth? s .o 30
Public property cannot be secured with
out individual prosperity. The community
is an aggregate of Individuals. If onePor-
ton Of the community is engaged in en-
riching themselves by impoverishing their
neighbors, what sort of political economy
can cipher ont the prosperity of the COM
mcnwealth? .H.
The prosperity of Tennessee, prior to the
war, was due to the fact that her people
exported more than they imported. The
articles exported came into market but once
year. The producer employed the mer
chant and factor to export his produce, and
to import articles of necessity and luxury
which he required. The merchants, the
banks and all the mercantile transactions of
legitimate character looked to the annual
crops to recompense them for their risks,
their labor, their skill. For the credit from
year to year granted them, producers paid
cheerfully. From their earnings, the mer-
chants grew rich, and the banks declared
satisfactory dividends. The noney-shaver,
the shylOck, demanding the price of flesh,
which to exact, he knew would. cost the life
of his victim, was Of but little importance,
and he was allowed, solitarily and miseIa-
bly,, to gloat over his ill-gotten and unholy
gains and die, mayhap, unregretted.
All merchants, traders, mechanics, agri-
culturists, who were prudent and sagacious,
went on rejoicing in each others prosperi-
ty. The normal condition of society, the
healthy performance of the functions of the
government, and the certainty Of help in
rational and prudent enterprises marked
prosperous eople.
Now, how changed The producers of
the country, deprived of all their capital, in
a great majority of instances, particularly in
Middle Tennessee-except their lands--at
the close of the war, found themselves di-
vested of labor and subsistence; and for
want of capital unable, certainly, to com
mand either.
After undergoing sufeFiugs, heretofore
experienced by butfew people IN the histo-
ry Of the world, they (the goose that laid
the golden eggs), under the cash system,
are to be squeezed to death, or put under
such a pressure as that, if life is left, the
last particle of goose grease shall be ex-
tracted from their almost@feless bodies.
Why are such a people, so tried and
tested, so honorable and so unselfsh, sub
iected to such an ordeal as they are now
going through?
Surely. having deprived them of their
negroes, it is not designed by the Govern
ment to deprive them of their lands and
homes. That this is not the policy of the
Government is indicated by the frequent
orders to return abandoned lands to their
owners.
Let the people look t. il: the mercantile
class are. to a considerable extent, respou-
sible for the present state of afairsS The
wants of the countryside nature of its pro-
ducts--req equires the resumption of the. credit
system.
.>If any reader Of this article, a merchant,
excuses himself by asserting that he has
not the capital to do other than cash
business, we reply to him: then get aspi
the way of the capitalists, who has. Do
not go to New FORK or elsewhere, and ad-
vocate the cash system, when. if you have
lived in any given community any length oi
time before the war, you know that COM
munity better now than you did then; and
in crediting. you can exercise wiser dis
elimination than formerly.
All commerce is founded upon credit
And if an individual embarks in commerce
in any of its branches, without adequate
capital, to extend and enjoy Legitimate
credits. he ought to, and in healthy and
legitimate trade he win go By the board.
If a merchant or shopkeeper connot en-
gage in legitimate commerce and carry i
on in a manDer that will best promote the
interests Of the community, he is, to al
intents and purposes, a drone, a non pro
Queer aud consumer and would act patri
otic part by taking hold of the plough, o.
plying some mechanical pursuit, wherein
he can earn his own bread without enrich