Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-11-22
Dntr Of pehtors IN Hard Times.

A little common sense IN common
affairs is always in order. But so fond
are people of all persuasions and pro-
fessions and pursuits, of going accord
ing to the received maxims and preoe-
dents of business, that they set man
down as an ignorant pretender who
offers advice against the traditions of
the craft This very wise remark has
its application to the prevalent habit
of honest aud able men who neglect to
pay their debts when the times are
| hard.
The business community, where the
credit system is the rule, Is often and
aptly compared to row of bricks on
an end; when one falls it knocks over
the rest. So it goes till all are down.
1t is not likely that society will ever
again get into the way of obeying the
best of all business rules, pay as you
go :" and there are men having some
reputation as fnanciers, and statesmen
who think the cash system is incOm-
patible with enterprise, progress and
great success. We are not of that
school. We believe the safest course
for individuals and communities is to
bring their business as nearly as pOssi-
Bile within the bounds of their present
ability to pay for what they get TO con-
sumo or to sell.
We have lived through four or five
great panics, times of commercial dis
tress, times of many failures, suspen-
sions- of banks and other companies
and we have noticed this one thing as
the tyne and feature of them all, that
they had their immediate cause in the
violation of the most obvious moral !
laws, that ought to govern the dealings |
of man with man Good men contract |
debts which cannot be justified by the !
rules of Christian prudence and NOR
ality. They make engagements to pay /
and, for their ability TO do so, depend |
upon others over whose action they |,
have no control, and when their Obli !
cation becomes due, the means are not |
in hand, and they fail. That is the /
word suspend is a middle word. but |
means the same thing. They fail to |
pay their debts. They fail to keep
their word. They are professedly /
Christian men, but they stand before
the world as having failed to abide by
their promises.
1t is very true that they have the
justification or apology that their debt
ors failet: to pay them. This is sufh-
cient in the eyes of the world, and 1t
is to be confessed that the time has
gone by when merchants and bank
ers die of modification when their
name is among the bankrupts. But
the duty of Christian is to do bust
ness on those principles only which
will bear the scrutiny of the divine
mind and will, and He who sees the
end from the beginning, will not ap-
prove when a man makes contracts to
pav. without having securities that
will enable him to meet his engage
ments, despite the vicissitudes of the
times. If he promises to pay he must
be sure that he will pay. Anything
short of it will partake, rs stock spec
ulation largely does, of the nature of
gambling, and the immortality of that
is too obvious to need exposure.
We are in the habit of supposlng
that savings banks lend their mnney
only on good security, such as mort
cages OF government bonds. But in
the late sad revelations in Rhode Is
land, it appears that one savings bank
had lent million of dollars to a bust
ness firm engaged in manufactures,
and in the crash of last week this firm
failed. By what principles of moral
ity is a savings bank justified in thus
hazarding the money of the poor con-
fded to its keeping? The ban K prom
ised to pay the depositor his money on
demand, and when is money demand
ed, the bank direotOrs-good men
only say, we lent it to
Sprague & Co., and they have failed;
we cannot fulfill our promise to pay
you what we owe you This is wrong.
1t is breach of trust, and common
morality refuses to sanction it.
But not less wrong Is the neglect or
the refusal of any other man to pay
his debts. To contract debt with
out the reasonable prospect of ability
to pay, is obviously dishonest, and to
neglect or refuse to pay debt Is
equally or more dishonest. And just
here is the root of all the financial
troubles of these times or any other
times. The whole difficulty lies in
the disregard of those principles of
common morality on which is based
all sound political economy. No spec
ulation mania, like the tulip of HOl-
land. the South Sea bubble of London,
Dorus 8ulticduhs of this country, or
apv of the more recent fevers of spec
ulation, had any other than fictitious,
that is a false basis, and the men who
promoted them did what is morally
wrong. 1t is always wrong to do bus
mess on fictitious basis and that prin
ciple condemns half the speeulations
of our own times.
Pay as you go. If you would be a
true man, and keep a name unspOtted
from the world, keep clear of engage
ments to pay, unless the ability IS as
sured. And if you are now in debt.
you will hasten to pay, because 1t Is
your duty to do so, and your creditor
may be in danger of failing, or of sUf-
fering, because you are not true to
your word.
The want of our times is honesty,
common honesty, that old fashioned
virtue. which has now become so OBJ
scured by new names in the vocabulary
of trade, that it is scarcely recognized
as the virtue that requires a man to
pay his debts.-Ne'0 York ObserreT.