Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-07-11
SHAVING NOTES.
ny HENRY WARD BEEcHER.

New York, May 4ih, 1871.
have profiied many times by reading your
| answers in the LEDGER, TO correspondents, on
various subjects. and venture to ask you to
give me, through the same medium, your view.
upon subject concerning which have not
been able TO reach a satisfactory conclusion.
| lst Is il right TO shave .notes? 2nd. If not
why not? Sd. Is it right TO buy a neighbours
farm for two thirds its real value, knowing
that he must sell for the purpose of raising
money? 4th. If SC, wherein consists the differ
ence between this last and shaving notes?
know many worthy people who say may do
the former, but that may do the latter.
am unable TO discover the difference.
G. 0. T.
| l. There is no more sin in buying
note than in buying load of wood,
heifer, or a two year old colt. When
a note is made, it becomes an article
Of merchandise. The merchantable
element is that of time and response
JiAty Of the drawer. If note has
four months to run, and one sells it
for less than its face, the difference
is simply the interest which the seller
is willing to pay for the use of the
money until the note becomes due.
Negotiable notes are subject to pre-
cisely the same terms of bargain and
sale that other property in the mar
ket is. The evil of shaving notes
does not lie, therefore, in any intrin-
sic sin in the transaction itself, and
must be looked for in some other di.
rection.
2 Men that make business of
shaving notes are brought into cir
cumstances where, almost inevitably.
they will become both very hard
hearted and very avaricious.
In general, notes that are shaved
are in the hands of needy sellers.
They submit to great loss because
their necessity leaves them no altern.
ative. 1t is that or ruin. When
the note shaver perceives this, he
is tempted to press his advantage,
based upon his neighbours misfortune,
to the extremest point. His avarice
grows. He becomes less and less
affected by anothers trouble. He
nourishes bis own greed out of the
distress of fellow man. Whatever
may be said of the right to buy a
note in open market at its cheapest
going rate, the effect upon a mans
moral nature, of a continual business
of that kind, is not doubtful 1t
hardens the heart 1t teaches a man
to look upon another's misfortune in
worse than a selfish light. 1t de-
stroys pity, whets avarice, and goes
far and fast toward making a note
shaver a cruel Shylock.
No man can afford TO pursue a bus.
mess that makes him merciless and
inhuman. While note shaving may
be done equitably and usefully, yet
the temptations which attend it, to
extortion, to almost robbery, are
such that few men long practice it
without suffering, in greater or
less degree, moral and social deteri-
GRAFTON. They exchange their man
hood for money. They enlarge their
possessions, but shrivel up their
hearts.
If any one doubts this let him in
quire of business men who have had
opportunity of watching and study
ing the operation of this business.
He will be told that while there mag
be such a thing as honorable and
humane note shaving, there very
seldom Is any such thing; and that
the practice very soon begets cruelty
of the most unfeeling kind.
3. AS to the matter of buying a
farm below its market value, we
have this to say:
l. That no man who aims to live
by a Christian standard, should de-
sire to obtain anything whatever
without paying for it "a fair equivalent
of some kind.
2. If farms forced to sale under
their real value were as thick as
notes in market, and men should
make a daily business of buying
them at discount ruinous to the
seller, the evil Of buying real estate
on such principles would be as great
as that of note shaving.
No bargain is fair which, all things
considered, is not, at the time, hon.
estly supposed to be as beneficial to
one party as to the other.
If it be said that if such a princi-
Pile were carried into business it
would very greatly impede the con-
duct of affairs, we reply, that no
man should expect, in the great bat
tie of the world between selfshness
and benevolcnce, to win without Sc
we're conflict. No man can be hon
est, just, kind. and moderate in all
his desires, without taking up a cross.
Better that men should be larger
and fortunes smaller, than that for
tunes should grow while manhood
shrinks.