The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1868-11-21
Getting In Debt


Is il ever advisable for man to get in
debt2 Most certainly, for it is by doing so
hat ninety out of every hundred of our
most successful merchants and farmers have
reached the positions IN which they now
stand. We know that such advice is not
generally considered orthodox among politi-
cal economists, and we also know that our
forests and praiTies would in a great
measure have remained In their primitive
Silduess il the men who now people them
had kept out of debt
shall young man get in debt for farm,
or would it be better to work for somebody
else until he is able to pay for it with his
own money! We say buy the farm and paw
for it when you can. This is the system
which has been in vogue ever since the SET
Jsement OF America, and we know OF no
country that has made more rapid ro@ress,
nor one Ia which the farmers are more inde-
pendent Suppose A man has little car ital,
say three thousand dollars, and wishes to
purchase q farm worth that sum; now it
becomes a question Of policy whether he
shall pay ali the purchase money down or
only a portion of it, Teserving the balance
as working capital We believe that the lat
ter would be the best plan, for what can
man do with land If he has neither team nor
tools with which to cul5ivate his crops2
This being in debt Is not always very
agreeable position bat it has been the means
of making more fortunes than all other
causes put together. Debt Is often the poor
man capital, and the young man who can
establish good credit is on the high road TO
success, and if he does not reach the goal it
Is because he Is too much of an imbecilc TO
take advantage Of his circumstances.
The great secret of getting into debt is in
never purchasing anything that is not worth
as much or a little more than you pay for it,
or to put it in a better light, buy that which
is sure to rise annually In value more than
the interest on the sum paid
Fast clothes, fast horses, iewelry ana
wines that you and your friends have con-
sumed during the year are not usually in this
class Of property, but good farm well titled,
good stock well cared for, are pretty sure to
pay d; therefore we say again, Young men who
mean to work need not be afraid 60 get into
debt To owe money which you mean to
pay IS one of the greatest preventatives
against sloth with which we are acquainted,
and it l'as been the saving of many a nat
urally indolent man
There are plenty Of men who have more
capital than they can use to advantage, and
there are others who have energy, tact, and
good financial abilities, but no money 1t
must be apparent that each can be Of assist
ance to the other, but one Of them must get
into debt.
The man with money Is usually satisfied
with seven per cent. per annum, and the man
without it can, if he has the ability, afford
to pay this sum, for it becomes the imple-
menU with which he is to carve cut a compe-
tency, if not q fortune
No man cut cordwood with two axes
at the same time and work to an ad vantage,
consequently be had better lend one to his
neighbOr who has none, than to keep beth
of them HIMSELF and further, cannot the
ueIghbor better afford to pay small sum for
the use of the axe than to do nothing fer the
want of It? We think so
This Is just the position in which we
often End two men-one has farm to let or
sell on credit, or money to lend, while the
other has nett er.
There are thousands of farmers who have
more land than they can cultivate proftably,
therefore it would be to their advantage to
sell portion on credit to those who could.