The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-12-25
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
SATURDAY. DECEMBER 25.
ssPav rs You CO."

lulHF ~ Jul ~ A9h
ing out new plans have formed new resolutions
which they intend to put in force in the coming
year. All this is very right and proper. when the
plans and resolutions are to operate to the advan-
tagc of the individual OF the community in which
our lot is cast
It must be apparent to those who have given
the subject a thought that retrenchment must be
the watchword for the coming year. How to
make a dollar go as fas and do as much as posi-
BILE is the study of most, and as the necessities Of
individuals have led them 10 strain their credit to
the utmost tension, the result is bound to
be damaging to the best interests OF our eommu-
nifty. Why not try to do a cash business as far
as possible during the coming year? VI course
business men have Mt times to ask for n credit,
and if the system is not abused the results are not
injurious.
In looking over our clippings, which have been
accommodating for years, we came across the follow
ing: s.sCredit is IN excellent thing, but it is
grossly abused, as excellent things are prone to
be. Credit should be based upon actual substan-
tial security. We give credit to the man who
profers a pledge Of undoubted property for the
punctual payment of his debt we give credit to
the man we thoroughly know as a man of integ-
TIL H IoIAa OAhJ
mate, though it should still appear that the
person giving credit is thoroughly able to do SO.
Selling and giving credit are two entirely distinct
operations, and one should never suppose nor IN
volve the other"
Our importers buy on credit, our commission
houses receive consignments which they should
not jeopardize our sugar planters and other pro-
duccrs dispose OF their material on credit, when
in most cases they cannot afford to but it is the
custom, the purchaser says, and the sale is
effected iobbers sell on credit, and so at last do
| the retailers. The time comes when the importer
or commission merchant wants money, and the
iobbcr cannot meet his notes, and for demanded
! security he exacts n note from the retailer, which,
when endorsed, passes for money, although per-
hars not what is known to be 6 gilt edged All
will 90 well for a time, but a stagnation in trade,
a fall of prices, and the man in debt suffers. Let
every one who owes a bill at the close of this year
pay it promptly, if he can, and if he has not the
means study to retrench in order to satisfy the
claim Mt ms early a date as possible. Also resolve
to pay cash when practicable. Buy only such
articles ms are really necessaries. And what are
necessaries is well stated by another clipping at
hand:
NeCesStry eXptuIiiuIcS aEC "hhSh
avoided without injury Individuals and families
must have food and clothing and shelter and lodg-
ings. There is also a certain degree OF conformity
with the community in which we live in the matters
Of elegance and refinement, in dress, furniture, etc,
which may properly be set down as necessary. These
may be regulated in a great measure by the income.
The great majority Of those with only a moderate in
come, expend n considerable part Of it for articles
that are not perhaps strictly necessaries. For those
things which they could have omitted without suffer-
ing in mind, body. or reputation. This unnecessary
expenditure should be estimated as tnLcn from the
net, and not from the gross income. 1t is generally
considered as taken from the latter. For example, a
working man with n family may receive say one
dollar per day or six dollars per week. He finds
that taking one year With another he can only save
about fifty dollars per annum or about one dollar
per week. The great majority Of workers in our
country scarcely do as we'll as this. Now when n
working man is called upon to spend n dollar un-
necessarily, he says to himself, cit is the produce of
n day. can replace il by one days work. This
Is n mistake. One dollar is the net product Of one
weeks work. 1t can only be replaced by one week
Of toll.
To the Industrial classes. in fact to every one
who has a set stated income, we say avoid run
ming in debt, of consuming your entire income
before you have it in hand. All may. not be able
to start on this basis ut the beginning of the
year for want of money in hand. To such we need
only say aim to be able to do so in a month or
six months. and the time will come. If you have
material to dispose of, turn it into cash, remem-
bering {. that a bird in hand is worth two in the
bush.''
Another writer says:
"There is such a thing as legitimate credit.
There are many cases where n man may properly
and prudently run in debt to n reasonable extent.
But for the industrious classes generally, it should
be the exception, and not the rule. A man may
run in debt for articles of prime necessity, for those
things without which his business would suffer,
without which his industrial operations would be de-
ranged or suspended. A man may run in debt
for n piece of land which he wants immedi-
ately for his own use, to enter upon, to cultivate
and improve. But this, as a general thing. can
only be done in a new country, where property is
rising in value. 1t is debts for those things which
are not actual necessities, but only articles of conve-
nience or Of luxury, which could have been done
without, or at least postponed until the party was
better able to pay for them, that weigh the most
heavily upon the debtor. Such things are frequently
used up, and entirely disappear, leaving behind
them nothing but the debt that was contracted in
their purchase. In short, n man may properly con-
tract a debt for n piece of land, Cor n horse, n pair of
oxen, or a plow, to cultivate it with, or for the
necessary tools Of his trade but not properly for
fine carriages, pianos, for rich carpets, bureaus, and
sofas. Those things should be dispensed with until
they can be bought without ieht or involvement. 1t
is much easier and pleasanter to use the old wagon,
the old furniture, and the old clothes. voluntarily
in the beginning, than to use them on compulsion at
q later period"
The idea which We wish to impress on our
readers il, that the credit system, or debt system,
is always annoying and often dangerous particu-
larly to the industrial classes or the trader of
moderate means. Try to avoid running in debt
the coming year. If from force of circumstances
you have to contract a debt, consider yourselves
in danger until it is paid. A cash system would
make one dollar do the duty of three under the
present order of things.