The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1915-01-29
OUR NATIONAL CURSE.



Ours is the oyerworked credit system
a. applied TO the ordinary expenditures
of life, and especially to the table.
II every business and professional
mar in this community were asked as
to whether he would rather sell for
cash al. a considerable discount in price,
or continue the credit system, We be-
Iieye the vote would be unanimous in
favor of cash and reduced profits.
The credit system is a nuisance. II
is a national curse - a community curse,
if you please.
Wherever the credit system prevails,
there you will find the usual number OF
slow-pays and genuine deadbeats.
The merchant pays for his goods, and
in urn some one must pay him. he
cannot live on wind, hope of expecta-
tons. 1t is a case of mp cash, no
live"
Every merchant who extends credit
gets taken in by the deadheads. he
loses not only his profits, but the cost
Of his goods as well.
And what then does he do? Just
what you or any other sensible person
would do-raise the prices sufficiently
on his wares to protect him against
such losses. And the man who pays
his W bills also pays the bills of the
deadbeat.
If a person can pay at the end O.
every thirty days it would require bu'
little retrenchment and sacrifice to en-
able him to reach the point where HI
can pay cash as he goes.
When the merchant carries your &C
count he virtually lends you his money
and this should not be. The bank i
the proper place for such transactions
By paying cash for his goods tn
dealer can get a substantial discoun
from the wholesaler, and the discount
coupled with the saving of the usua
deadbeat losses, would make a materia
reduction in the cost Of supplies. Blu
he can hardly stand the strain of
cash transaction himself while he /
extending from thirty to ninety day
credit to Dick, Tom and Harry and a
of the little Harrys.
Prices are high in this community
but conditions are no worse here tina
they are in other sections of the cour
try. The wall is heard in every cit
and hamlet, and the volume is exceed
ing great.
Give US relief is the cry.
Give yourself relief we say. I
a great extent the remedy is in you
own hands.
Some of you are welded to the ma
order habit because you get a cent @
two off here and there-but you pay
back in the freight!
Is your credit good with the mail Of
der concern? Not in a thousand year!
: Do you hand over cash before yo
get your goods? You b~et-every tim
and you keep what you get, whethe
it stings or not"
: You expect your home merchant, WI
extends you credit and carries your a
= count indefinitely, to make the san
price on goods he guarantees that tt
5 mail order man makes on goods he do
not guarantee; and for which he d
= mands his pounds of flesh in advance.
! Is this fair? Is it just to the hon
merchant, or even to yourself?
Now why can't the people of tn
community get together with Il
~tradesmen and inaugurate a strict
cash system inevery line of bushes
Why cant we stamp out the cree
e curse? 1t is simply a breeder of hi
prices, in which everybody suffers.
/ Buying for cash would mean mo
goods for your money, less worry, a
a better community generally.
And the deadbeat would then ha
I to pay for his keep.
y What say you, brother? These c.