St. Landry democrat., 1878-02-09
Credit-..COttOaRs

Credit---COttOm.
| AS was suggested in our first issue
the present year will be one OF distress
and suffering amongst all classes Of our
people. Crops of all kind were exceed
ingly short and sold at starvation prices.
The credit system has been a greater
curse to this country than all the carpet
| baggers God in his mercy poured into
it. They came to plunder, to rob, to
| fill their capicious mades and then elike
the grasshopper or locusts, went "away
to seek new fields and pastures green
Not so with the curse of the credit
system. 1t has stuck fast to us. We
can't get shut of it. 1t has induced
habits of extravaganza, which it not
checked and checked soon will lead to
a transfer of ownership of the country.
| There is nothing so insidious, SO under
mining, so destructive to everything
| like thrift and economy as our present
credit system. 1t leads men unwilling
| ly to contract debts beyond their ability
to pay the debt in the course of time
| developes into a Judgment; the jndg-
mentis followed by seizure and sheriff 8
sale and thus before the victim realizes
the situation by change of property,
the old homestead round which perhaps
cluster the dearest memories of life
passes into the hands of a stranger, who
Ply the time he is fairly. settled down,
strains his credit aud then finds the
creditor ere he is awale knocking at
his door, accompanied by the sheriff and
he in turn is sold out. This is the rule
now, and it will continue to he the rule
until our people by cultivating proper
habits of thrift and economy abandon
the credit system, and coming down to
a cash basis, learn to pay as they go;
and if they can't pay to do without. 1t
would indeed he startling fact could
we but ascertain how few of our plan
trrs came out ahead of or even with
1heir liabilities in 1877. 1t is not the
fault of our country, or it's soil or eli
mate. 1t is none of these. 1t is attri
butable solely to the vicious system
under WHICH we are attempting to live !;
10 running heels over head in debt rails
ing cotton, which after all our trouble
and expense and labor, owing to over
producticn has become worthless in 5he
market, and will so remain for years to
come. Meet any one Of our planters,
now and when he begins to grumble
about the hard times and scarcity Of
money, ask him how he came to fall be-
hind hand and the ready answer is; 81
went in debt heavily for plantation sup
pliesi the merchant had privilege on
my cotton crops the caterpillar, the
storm, the rain cut it down three-fourths.
could only pay part Of my indebted
ness to my merchant and have nothing
left.n Well suppose he had planted
less cotton and more corn, peas. pota-
toes and rice, raised his own hogs; had
a flock of sheep, and q fine colt or two
coming on, he would have had som ething
to depend on for another year. even
though the caterpillars, rain and storm
had done its work on his cotton crop.
The fact Of the business is cotton will
yet be the ruin of this country, II we
continue devoting our exclusive atten-
lion to raising it, under our present
credit system. The war between the
States from 1861 to 1865, developed a
formidable rival to the cotton fields OF
the south in the British possessions in
India. They can produce cotton cheaper
than we, owing to their superabundant
population, and the price of cotton like
everything else depend upon the supply.
Hence the more of it there is raised, the
lower the price. The minimum OF price,
steadily increasing every year has not
yet been reached. Hence the necessity
for Southern planters to begin diversi-
flying their crops and paying more at
teption to their stock.