Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-04-21
a3iseellamepus 8eadina.
PAY AS YOU GO,

during the coming year, it would be
good thing for many of our readers
to adopt the above. Pay as you 60,
or buy nothing on credit.
We are persuaded that the credit
system as it now exists and has exist
ed for some time past, has more to do
with the financial distress of which 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 oi
cotton and other marketable products
for the past few years, is bringing dis.
aster, and sometimes disgrace, to
many of our citizens. The purchasing
power of a pound of cotton is as great
today as it was five years ago, as che
price of other things has been reduced
in similar proportion. But the mis-
chief wrought is due to the fact that
there has been no shrinkage in the
money valuation of debts contracted
years ago, and while the present crop
of cotton will 90 as far towards paying
for the supplies of the present year
as it ever did, yet its power to pay
the debts contracted in the year 1880
has been reduced by the correspond
| ing depreciation in price.
Debts contracted under twelve
cent system must be met by the returns
of an eight or nine cent market. One
hundred and forty pounds are necessa,
ry where one hundred would have an
swered Eve 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 buy.
ing on 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
credit, and the chances are nine to one
that the cash buyer will make fewer,
wiser and better purchases, than the
credit buyer. There is fascination in
buying on time that often makes a
man exceedingly reckless and extrav-
agant in his purchases. People are
often ensnared into making needless
purchases by the gentle, courteous and
captivating manners of popular sales
men, who assure them that their credit
is as good as their money. Itmay 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, it may reduce his
sales, leaves old goods upon his shelves
and dispense with an occasional visit
to the northern markets, but it will
eventually prove the wisest, safest and
most remunerative to both buyer and
seller.
To adopt it fully may be impossible,
to adopt it in part may call for rigid
self-denial and untold sacrifices, it may
cut sharply and deeply, but in the end
and the end will not be very distant
it will pay and pay richly. The dis.
cipline of self, the habits of economy
acquired, and the surplus left over al
the end of the year, would be more
than a liberal compensation for the
pain and denial it entailed.
1t would be infinitely better for the
morals of the country if merchants
would draw the lines more rigidly and
sell less on credit. The extension Of
time from year to year, which has the
appearance of mercy is a positive un-
kindness to the buyer. The process is
continued from year to year, until the
unfortunate man becomes hopelessly
Involved, and all his property is alb.
sorbed by the debt. If prompt pay.
ment had been insisted on at the out
set, and the sheriff called in if neces.
sary, 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 a slightly
poorer but much wiser man. Now
be is literally "cleaned up" and left
to start anew with nothing but dam
aged reputation. Too much leniency
weakens moral obligation. Excuse a
man from paying an honest debt and
next year he thinks himself bestowing
quite favor on you if he pays, and if
the debt lies over until the third year
be half persuades himself that he
ought not to pay, or if you press him
for the money, he denounces you as a
hairless extortioner and cruel perse-
cutor.
That sense of moral obligation which
should have been as a band of steel
around mans character, protecting
it from warp and twist, has been at
tenuated into gossamer thread, which
the slightest breath of policy may
sunder in a moment. Such system
as the one described has been infuen-
tial in bringing about the low standard
of moral obligation that prevails in
many localities, standard that has
rendered the collection of an honest
debt as next to impossibility unless the
aid of a legal process is resorted to.
Nothing but an invincible determi-
nation to come out of and keep out OF
debt will save the country from moral
as we'll as financial disaster. Abolish
the credit and adopt the cash system:
Pay as you 90, and in the end it will
paw you an hundred fold.-A. r.
Presbyterian.
DELAwAREs THREE COUNTIES
Delaware was the first state admitted
to the Union, and is the one to which
Randolph of Roanoke referred con-
temptuously as having two counties at
high tide and three at low tide. 1t is
still governed by antiquated Colonial