The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-10-05
Frederick Haskin's Letter
HOW MUCH DO you OWE?

was the installment plan Of nav,,.
for purchases. "One dollar 49,
and one dollar a week the ~. !.
your life", as the humorist AZ
presses it. At first this sys.sr
encountered the same sort Of sIsa
ticism, from the other side, - n.
prepaid delivery system. Merch,s,s
said they would not consider ~
ting valuable goods leave ths;,
stores on the chance OF colIectir.
for 1t some day. But the pions.r.
pers ed in, the practice and. sst.
ting most Of the trade, drove otSsr,
to accept it.
The plan vastly increased n.
buying power of poor people. Also
it assisted them to save. Tho,.
who could not pile up the pennis.
INTO a hoard which would buy .
new dining room suite, could. nav
a few dollars week. The instaIi.
ment plan has extended TO almost
every line Of trade. tits estimated
that il every family in the United
States was buying something on !
the installment plan. and a sur-
prisingly large proportion Is doing
so, it would be found that Zach Of
them is paying an aggregate Of IS
a week. There are 20.000,0o0 fam
lilies in the country. Taking every
thing from books and diamond
rings to furniture and automobiles. :
it takes an average of so weeks to
pay out in installments on a pur-
chase. This means that 20,O0O.000
families constantly are obligated to
pay SIS a week for so weeks. This
makes a total of instanment indebt-
edness of $4,000, 100000.
Many of these families could at
any time. pay off their entire in
debtedness. but most of them could
not. Literally millions of families
are using furniture, wearing
clothes, jewelry, reading books,
playing pianos and other musical
instruments, and riding in automo-
biles for which they are paying on
the installment plan.
Food bills are another large item.
1t is estimated that every Ameri-
can family owes constantly food
bill amounting to 500. This in
cludes the grocery bill, the meat
bill, the milk bill, the bread bill and
a score of others. OF course these
bills are settled weekly or month
v and a new account is begun, but
there is an average constant indebt-
edness of $100,000,000 for the ma
ton. In the last year or two, even
the bootleggers have been running
open accounts with their custo-
mers, making regular deliveries
and collecting weekly or monthly.
Farm mortgages constitute an
other big item. Official figures
compiled by the department of az
riculture show that American
farmers owe $S,556, 100000 on
mortgages. This all figures into
the total of Indebtedness and fur
Their exemplifies the wide extension
of credit.
A still larger item is the mort
gage debt on the homes of the peo-
pie in cities and towns. The cen
sus bureau gives the total Of mort
cages on owned homes as S6,OOO,-
900 900. This relates only to the
houses which are owned by the
people who live in them. No cen
sus figures have been made TO show
the amount of mortgage debt which
landlords have placed on dwellings,
apartment houses and tenements.
Probably the sum is vastly greater
than the aggregate OF mortgages
on owned homes, but to be conser-
vative it may be placed at the same
figure, $4,000, 900 900, or a total OF
$4,000, 600, 900 on dwellings.
In this instaument age many
small houses and lots, particularly
vacant lots sold to persons intend
ing to build, are vended on land
contracts. No mortgage is given
in such transaction, the purchaser
making monthly payments untl
the purchase price is met, where
upon he receives a deed. 1t is es-
tima.ed that Indebtedness OF TINS
character reaches total OF $780,
100000 at least.
These figures show what the gen,
eral public owes as a matter o.
everyday life. They do not so inte
the matter of the vast bonded IN
debtedness of the great corpora
tons. If the bonds Of all the rail-
roads, steamship companies, teie
graph and telephone companies
mines, steel mills and the Thousand
and one other industries OF thu
country were added they Woust
make a total running far into INT
billions.