The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-12-13

SHSdSlH6 Will 4llSIH III any SuCI tTdu-
saction. Since you cannot collect your
debts by any process Of law, you have
no recourse but to wash your hands
of the fellow and let him alone. He
is thus banned and ostracized, and the
evidence shows that he breads this
punishment infinitely more than your
respectable "financier'' breads expo
sure or Imprisonment under the laws
for the collection of debts.
AS our correspondent says, such a
system would largely eliminate specula-
ton and restrict credit. 1t seems to US
that both these ends are to be desired
Speculation is the fungus that has fas-
tened upon and eaten up the very life
of legitimate business in this country
Nobody is satisfied, as our forefathers
were. to earn a competence and leave
at the end of an honorable life simply
enough to protect those helpless and
all want to get rich and to get rich
quickly. 1t is the bane of American
existence and the curse that lies be-
hind evil in finance, bursting bubbles
in business and corruption in politics.
We could get along very we'll with
out much speculation. AS to the larger
question, the restriction of credit, it
seems to us that credit has been glori-
fed thoughtIessly by people who under
stand much of it's advantages and little
of its dangers. They will quote Daniel
Webster to you and the other eminent
authorities to be found opposite the
title page of McLeod's great work on
banking, as if credit were beneficent
jimmy instead Of a natural force, which
has, like all other natural forces, great
possibilities within it either for good or
for evil. Commercial experience shows
that credit is a good deal like alcohol.
1t is an immensely powerful stimulant.
Administered recklessly it produces ex-
pansion of the commercial head and in
| toxication that brings subsequent de-
rangements and penalties. The wor-
breath that too much cannot be said
Of it's wonderful virtues as a force in
modern life, and in the next they will
ask you to retire the greenba cks.
We believe that there is no question
in the whole range Of economics so vital
and so practically unnoted as a practi-
cal limitation of credit Every col
| lapse from which the country suffers is
| induced by overspeculation, which
could not have happened but for i'm
proper extensions of credit. Credit
would not be improperly extended but
for the reliance of the lender upon the
aid of the law in collecting his debt
rather than upon the character of the
| borrower and the solvency Of the enter
| prise in which the borrowed capital is
| to be employed. The most successful
| bankers will tell you that their best
| loans are made in reliance upon midi
! vidual character, and when times of
| panic and shrinkage come their trusted
| collateral shrivels to nothing, and the
| debts which they can collect are those
| that are paid at any personal sacrifice
| by nothing but their honor.
There can be no question that the
moral fineness of perception and sense
of obligation of multitude of people
are dulled by the feeling that borrowing
and lending has come to be matter
| of skilIful fencing. The lender, they
think, relies upon the penalties of the
| law for collecting his debt, and if they
can outwit the law they feel that they
| have incurred no moral reproach. We
believe that this "overproduction' of
means that the development Of indus
tries and Of production has proceeded
unnaturally, that supply and demand
have been artificially disjointed, and
that the worlds industry has moved
too rapidly to move either wisely or
safely, is due most of all, if not entire
| ly, to extravagant expansions of
| credit, that are at bottom little else
than gambling transactions for enor-
nous stakes. If there had been no laws
for the collection Of debts, it is prob
able that we would not have so many
gigantic combinations, but great
| many more solvent enterprises and a
| solid stratum Of impeccable honor in
the national character, for which we
| alleged wealth.