The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-11-25
EVIL OF CHEAP CREDIT.
The Low Rate Of Interest Has Led
Farmers Into Extravagance-And
Low Interest Pays a Poor Return
IN Stack IN hOIdprS.

The present condition of our people should
teach them profitable lesson:
them the great value and the imperative ne
cessity for making provision 10 supply SOME
of their own wants.
Heretofore they have raised little else than
COTTON They had no use for 1t, and were
compelled to sell it to buy something which
they were obliged to have.
The constant depression In the price OF the
staple must bring about change IN the con.
our own wants. to supply the world with cot
ton. a collapse must finally come. -
Another lesson from the present conditlon
should be learned, as to the unwlse ana un-
profitable plan of going In debt.
For two years our farmers have been max
ing big debts ut our banks. They gave thelr
notes fer money which was borrowed ostensl'
bly, to make the crop, but when IN lact; IN
many instances, was sQuandered In paying
old debts. or In buying goods which they
might have gotten along without.
For instance, what use has farmer 10
March or April, with the full amount whlcn
In many cases the farmers call for money as
early as February, March or April. and when
they come they are, In some cases, In lmne-
diate need of half. or three-fourths, or posi-
bly, the whole amount.
We'll. now, every man who knows anything
at all, knows that no farmer needs that
amount OF money in February or March Win
which to max the crop or that year. Many
farmers make ii a rule to walt to the hrst Oh
March, and in some instances. as last spring,
they find IL impossible to run a furrow before
the first of April. Three-fourths OF the year
was thus gone before any work Is done.
BY that time much OF the borrowed money
has been frittered away. in paying debts, buy
ing millinery, road carts, buggies, pistols, and
other agricultural implements OF like value
in making crop.
borrowed at the banks is squandered before
the crop is planted, and in a majority OF cases
before 1t receives its first hoeing every vestlge
Of the bank money Is gone.
In proof that the cheap credit at the banks,
by the early distribution of the ready cash
have been contributory to the present
Strengthened circumstances, 1t will pc only
necessary to state that, as lar as we nave
heard, there Is not single store In town that
sold less goods on a credit last year than on
former years, and many of the stores greatly
increased their credit sales.
With larger store bills, and oank account
bordering on toward quarter OF million
OF dollars, is it any wonder that there is dis
tress in the land?
There is no denying the fact that we have
had reasonably good crop OF cotton. Ine
CANT exper diture of money has broughtaoout
the legitimate result.
Our people must economiZe, and they must
spend less, and they must borrow less. They
10 est work more and they must play less.
Our banks, by their exceedingly low rates
of interest, by their cheap credit, and the
readiness with which they pay money out Of
their vaults before Il furrow Is run, have con-
lrlbuted To the present Strengthened circum.
stances.
II they let their money out in fact to make
the new crop, there might be advantage in It.
If they made rule to let out their first In
staliment when a months work was done
and the second installment when another
months work was done, they could be of In
estlmable advantage to the farmers.
The banks, in our opinion, should charge q
higher rate Of interest, and should see that
the money is not let out before an amount Of
work has been done, which Is equivalent In
value 10 the money that may be wanted.
vauced for labor, before the labor is actually
done.
This editor has little experience himself
in advancing ON crops before the WORK has
been done. He answered every demand until
about the first of April, when the drafts az
gregated O considerable sum. A halt was
called, and enquiry was made as to the pro-
gress in the crops. According to the farmers
own report the work which had been done
was worth less than one-fourth the money
that had been advanced. ItemiZed II stood
like this: Cleaning land, opening bitches,
and blowing q few acres. This editor that
wear Jared badly. He advanced too much
in February and March. Another expert
ence: A tenant, the first month, wanted a
twenty dollar cooking stove, and thirty dol
lar milk COW. He was willing to mortgage
his crop, when he hadn't struck single lick
Of work. II the bank had let him have the
cash, somebody would have been hurt that
time. The price Of cotton was good enough,
but 1t was bad crop year.