Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-01-21
PAY AS YOU co.


are being formed for the control and shap-
ing of character and destiny during the
coming year, it would be a good thing for
many of our readers to adopt the above.
Pay as you go, or buy nothing on credit.
We are persuaded that the credit system
as it now exists and has existed for some
time past, has more to do with the financial
distress ofwhich we hear from year to year,
and the annual bankruptcy and ruin of good
men, than any one thing else.
The gradual decline in the price of cotton
and other marketable products for the past
few years, is bringing disaster, and some
times digrace, to many Of our citizens. The
purchasing power of pound Of cotton is as
price of other things has been reduced in
a similar proportion. But the mischief
wrought is due to the fact that there has
been no shrnkage in the money valuation
Of debts contracted years ago, and while the
present crop of cotton will go as far towards
paying for the supplies of the present year
as it ever did, yet its power to paythe debts
contracted in the year 1880 has been reduced
by the corresponding depreciation in price.
Debts contracted under n twelve cent sys-
tenn must be met by the returns Of an eight
or nine cent market. One hundred and for
ty pounds are necessary where one hundred
would have answered five years ago. This
is one of the evils of the credit system that
is working hardships to both farmers and
merchants.
Another evil of the system is the fact that
one will make larger and more unnecessary
purchases when buyingon credit than when
paying cash. Send two men to market, the
one with one hundred dollars in his pocket,
the other with permission to buy goods to
the amount Of one hundred dollars on cred
it, and the chances are nine to one that the
cash buyer will make fewer, wiser and bet
ter purchases, than the credit buyer. There
is fascination in buying on time that often
makes man exceedingly reckless and eX-
travagant in his purchases. People are Of
ten ensnared into making needless purchas-
es by the gentle, courteous and captivating
manners of popular statesmen, who assure
them that their promise is as good as their
money. 1t may be all that to the seller, but
it is neither the safest nor the Wisest for the
buyer. :,
The cash system may not be favored by
the merchants, itmay reduce his sales, leave
old goods upon his shelves and dispense
with an occasional visit to the Northern
markets, but it will eventually prove the
buyer and seller.
TO adopt it fully may be impossible, to
adopt it in part may call for rigid self-de-
NAL and untold sacrifices, it may cut sharp
ly and deeply, but in the end-and the END
will not be very distant-it will pay and
pay richly. The discipline of self, the hab-
its of economy acquired, and the surplus
left over at the end of the year, would be
more than liberal compensation for the
pain and denial it entailed.
1t would be infinitely better for the NOR
ais of the country if merchants would draw
the lines more rigidly and sell less on cred
it. The extension of time from year to
year, which has the appearance OF mercy IS
a positive unkindness to the buyer. The
process is continued from yeartoy year, until
the unfortunate man becomes hopeless y in
volved and all his property is absorbed by
the debt. If prompt payment had been in,
sisted on at the outset, and the sheriff called
| in if necessary, the lesson would have done
good and the poor fellow left with some
thing with which to begin life anew. Then
he would have been slightly poorer but a
much wiser man. Now he is literally
''ceaned up" and left to start anew with
nothing but a damaged reputation. Too
much leniency weakens moral obligation.
Excuse man from paying an honest debt
and next year he thinks himself bestoWlng
quite a favor on you if he pays, and II
| tno QeDC lies over ulllll Tie llllIu JSal HS
half persuades himself that he ought not to
pay, or if you press him for the money, ne
denounces you as a heartless extortioner
and cruel prosecutor.
That sense of moral obligation which
should have been as band of steel around
mans character protecting it from warp
and twist, has been attenuated into gossa.
mer thread, which the lightest breath OF
policy may Sunder in a moment. such a
system as the one described has been intiu-
entail in bringing about the low standard OF
moral obligation that prevails in many 10
calties, standard that has rendered the
collection of an honest debt as next to i'm
possibility unless the aid of legal process
is resorted to.
Nothing but an invincible determination
to come out of and keep out of debt will
save the country from moral as well as ii,
nancial disaster Abolish the credit and
adopt the cash system.
Pay as you 60, and in the end it Will pay
YOU an hundred fold.-A. R. Presbyterian.