Mower County transcript., 1871-07-06
Financial Recklessness

Financial Recklessness
u ia infinitely easier to contract q
debt than to ply it. This truth is
none tho less important from being
uld, Franklin made some very sage
.phorisms concerning running in debt
and be and his Puritan cousins sue
seeded in establishing them AS par,
Vt the principles Of New England
political economy. The penny trades
If New England yankees are snccrct
1T the world over, but it must be nd
miucd us fact that with the uniform
and prevalent disposition to pincl
pennies, there was always found ar
honest intention to nay ones debts
The Connecticut pcilar of wooden
clocks would debate an hour with tho
housewife for the last farthing, but he
was always sure to redeem his promise
10 take the clock back if it didn't run
we'll. In later years. as the scale OF
traffic has rapidly increased, as penny
trades have become obsolete and the
business transactions among men have
gradually assumed broader bas is the
disposition to incur large pccuniary
obi hations without reference to the
meass BY which they arc to be met,
has grown in corresponding degree.
The great hue and cry everywhere to
he met now is that everybody is in
deb: without means to pay. The
difficulty and danger lie not so much
j" the fact that one portion of our peo-
;'lc owe another portion. Debt is one
sf the necessities Of trade and COM
n'erce, and Its prevalence may mean
nothing more than activity in business.
hut when We find prevailing dis
nosition among the laboring, producing
classes to incur liabilities to the nou-
producing, veal thier people, without
knoring how or when these obligations
'nn be met, it is then time to reflect
upon results. 1t is fact to be re-
gretted that nearly y all of the farmers
n the New West are overwhelmingly
!, debt. Notes are maturing every
day which they have no means of pay
:"g. To keep tho sheriff away from
their doors little longer, they hire
money at killing rates of interest,
mortgage their farms, their last COW or
horse, and perhaps their growing crops,
secure the payment which thoy will
then be no better able to meet than
they arc now. Somewhere back of
'>is lamentable condition OF things arc
'e GAUGES which produce it. Hoping
~ arrest the attention of somo of our
rmer readers, We give below few of
the many reasons why the producing
rlasses Of our State are so badly iu-
'olved. First: They make large
Expenditures every year for machinery
: "ds tools which they might. by the
Ssrciss Of prudence and economy get
'ong without. when some itencrant
'!esman comes along the question with
'''c farmer is not, "Do l really need
lis article and can I lot get along
y r',hout it," but, "would it not be
Try pleasant to have it,?
Second. They do not tako proper
re to oprcservc what they have. Ma
~hines costing from twenty to five
undred dollars are permitted to re-
rain exposed to the weather until
unfit for use. Thus thousands upon
thousands Of dollars arc squandercd in
'very county each year. Third: Not
ne in ten Of the farmers who purchase
and give their notes stop
;" ask whether he will bo able to pay
The notes when they are due. About
by day they are entirely unconcerncd.
They do not even keep memorandum
Il the notes they give or the time
n hen they mature. Fourth: They
. i've promissory negotiable notes to
>srangers for patent humbugs, with a
fir promise that the hunbug is to be
delivered at some future day, and
which they never hear Of afterwards
until tue note turns up in some in
n"eent (?) third party's hands and has
- be paid. Some Of tho best farmers
IN Mower county have been swinJled
~ this way with their eyes wide open.
; he love OF novelty aud the reckless
to buy, is working them
ruin. One half the people seem to
think that giving promissory note for
. debt is paying it. Space forbids our
charging upon this topic as its impor.
'.ncs demands, but it is our purpose to
mako an especial theme ofthis financial
vrcklessncss until at least one farmer of
Mower county is led to change his
practice.