El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-25
Antl-Deadbeat Organizations

Auti-Deadbeat Organizations.
Minneapolis Times.
The landlords and retail grocers OF
Minneapolis, az of many other Ameri-
can cities, have united in q movement
for self protection from the wiles of
the chronic dead beats-that prevalent
cross between highway robbery and
mendicsncy-which the law tolerates
as it does neither theft nor the open
solicitation of charity. The purpose
is to abate the nuisance, as far as prac-
ticable, by concerted action on the part
of the landlord and merchant.
If the homes: men and women who
rent houses and flats and patronize the
shopkeepers engaged in this movement
had more thorough appreciation of
their direct interest in its success, the
inaugurators of the new move
ment might appeal with con-
fidence to far larger body of al
lies. All people who buy merchandise
bad debts Is q part of their annual
losses and expenses, just as they in
clude insurance against fire and losses
from perishable goods are necessarily
taxed to make good, the ravages
of the deadbeats. These gem
try Indirectly feed on the fat of the
land and 60 clothed in fine raiment
They are people who deliberately in
tend to live beyond their means and 90
on shamelessly. year after year, buying
what they know they will not pay for,
and maintaining q style of living far
beyond their ability to support without
fraud.
This is q widespread evil. The man
who deals justly with his fellow citi-
zens rents q house for $50 or &35 per
month. That is the best the landlord
or his agent can do because there is q
class of renters who seldom pay rent,
but occupy q tenement until the pa
thence of the owner or agent is exhaust
ed and evacuation of the premises is
enforced by law. This class of tenants
take good care of the houses or rooms
they occupy, knowing that their oc-
cupancy will be brief. Hence the
landlords costs for repairs are greatly
increased, and the constant change of
tenants tends to the rapid deteriOra-
ton of their property.
Similarly the retail merchant, the
butcher and all other retail dealers,
have to add these inevitable losses in
Cured for the support, Of these high:
toned deadbeats. in their estimate of
the cost of their business so that, in
the last analysis the honest and re-
liable customer is taxed for the
loss in the added cost of
his purchases. He Is taxed his
prorata of the cost of the sup
port of those who have less Conscience
and more impudence. Families which
limit their expenses strictly to their
nc cans must add little to their outlay
every week because they must make
good their part of the losses which
their grOcers and tailors and butchers
sustain through the chronic leeches
who brazenly buy what they cannot
pay for and deliberately rob the mer-
chants whom they deceive.
No man need fstter himself that he
escapes his part in this tribute to the
shameless indulgence at the expense
of honest buyers because he trades only
where there is q strict cash system,
No one store regulates prices. That
is done by general competition. If
no merchants were compelled to make
up, somehow, the losses they sustain
through dishonest customers there
would be much closer competition for
the mparatively few which trust.
Then prices would be lower all along
the line, and the paying customers
would reap the benefit.
OThe work of petty swindlers simply
makes an opportunity for the mer-
chants who sell only for cash to in
crease their profits. In the end the
great mass of honest and paying GUS
toners foot large part of the bills of
the deadbeats. The rest is taken out
OF the legitimate earnings of the CAPT.
tai and labor which the victtmized
invest in their business.