St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-11-23
DEBTS.
Sam Jones Gives Advice a. to
What to Do With Them

Better Pay Up. He ssys-rry - Begin
the New Year On . Cash Deeae-
Dsbes - . sasa ee
Property.
COPYRIGHT. l0A
I suppose no problem is causing moro
thought just ct this time than debts
and how to collect them; debts and how
to pay them. Many creditors are lying
awake At night thinking and studying
how they can collect the amounts due
them. Some debtors arc lying awake
at night thinking and studying how
they can pay their debts Many Of
them are letting the other fellow stay
awake and do the walking. How the
debtor got in debt sometimes settles
the question as to whether he will pay
his debts. A man who goes In debt
recklessly and carelessly may pay his
debts, but largely the arrearages upon
the books and notes of the creditors Of
this country year after year are due
largely by the class who are reckless In
their expenditures and prodigal in their
life. Pat said he got rich by doing
without the things he was compelled
to have. l am sure that caution and
economy will enable q man, at the end
of the year, to discharge. If not all.
most Of his obligations. The creditor
who has the hardest time collecting his
money is the creditor who has been ex-
tortionate with the debtor-the credit
merchant who adds fifty per cent. to
the bill of the unfortunate debtor be-
cause he is not able to pay cash.
l am sure II cash customers cannot
pay the extortionate price for goods
tho debtor class cannot do it. It Is
much easier to pay high prices for cash
than it is to go on a credit and pay
them later on. When the cash is paid
the debt Is discharged, but when goods
are bought ON credit the debt still
hangs over the fellow. The banks
and many of our banks do this-charge
extortionate rates. Any bank ought
to make q good dividend on eight per
cent. interest. Any bank that charges
over eight per cent. per annum ought
to lose its capital. A solid, sound, safe
line OF discounts, verify believe, can
not be made anywhere in this country
above an eight per cent. interest
Whenever the banks get over eight per
cent. interest they imperil the princi-
pal of the debt to do It. A man who
pays that sort of interest long will not
be able to pay the principal. and the
farmer who buys goods on = credit at
the extortionate per cent. the merchant
puts upon them will soon be found rob-
bling the merchant or pauperizing his
family.
don't believe that the debtor class
are multiplying as rapidly rs they did
few years ago. In the first place
their credit is not SO good, and in the
second place the times and seasons in
the business world have been such that
men have, in q sense, taken their bear
ings and determined to stay nearer the
shore. This is true largely Of the indi-
vdual, bot cities and Municipalities
are not reducing their Indebtedness.
Every now and then we see where this
city and that city has sold bonds; and
a bond in a city is a great blanket
thrown over the whole city from cor
poration line to corporation line and an
evidence that somebody has got that
city by the leg.
We are now discussing another bond
issue by the national government May
be it is better to have lass gold and
fewer bonds than to have more gold
and more bonds They tell me that
debt is evidence Of prosperity. II that
be true we are the most prosperous
people under the shining sun Eng
land is creditor nation. and I suppose
she is in debt. Long time bonds is
what the creditor wants and is what
the debtor is willing to give, but there
must be q reckoning some day. and l
suppose we can let our children and
their children settle the debts in the
future.
But the purpose of this letter was to
call attention to the fact that the holt
days will soon be here, the first Of jan
nary in few moro weeks Win dawn
upon I'm. Very few dsbts a the part
Of the debubr claas are settled after the
1xst Of Jenuasy. It is he duty of
every honest man to Labor and % save
and pay, II not the whole debt, - large
. per cent. Of it as possible. Common
demands this. and it il the
duty of every debtor to help in all ways
that he can to settle with the creditor
on the most equitable basis. The cry
of the debtor isl made this debt when
money was not half so valuable as it is
now. The cry of the creditor is-if l
had kept my money that l lent to you
it would have been as good money to-
day as the money demand Of you. It
is bad to 90 in debt when you are COM
PEELED to do it; it is almost criminal to
go in debt if you arc not compelled to
do it. It is criminal to recklessly take
The goods or money of another without
The honest purpose and the indefatiga-
bio effort following it, to return it
again with interest. Some creditors
love to be lenient; some are merciless.
Some debtors love to pay; some only
wait to find q legal loop-hole out Of
which they may 60 with no compunc-
lions Of conscience and no pride of
character. From the plain colored man
who is still in debt for the half bushel
IF meal and ten pounds of meat, to the
that owes its millions and
would borrow more and know not how
L shall be paid, we need to overhaul
The purpose and the principle Of both
,olored man and corporation. Collect
FOUR debt, Mr.. Creditor, if you can do
L as man, but don't do it like . hyena.
Pay your debts, Mr.. Debtor, If It takes
he shirt of your back. Pay your debts
4 you can. l like to have said, pay
hem whether you can or not.
SAM p. JONES.
Expert Thieves.
"When I.was in India" said the man
Who had travelled, "the native thieves
,tole the sheets from under me while !
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