Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1941-05-09
Facing
the
Facts
BY VIM. L. Sheriff.
Dollar Down, Dollar Week
Mortgaged Incomes
Easy Credit"
You Can't Have Everything

Installment Plans seem to have
a peculiar appeal to the Negro
Yes, I know installment buying is
the American way Of life, but ]
believe our group has more weekly
collectors calling upon them for
payment on things they do not need
and should have done without than
any other group.
Dollar down and dollar week
buying keeps most of our people
forever on the verge of bankruptcy.
Whether we need it or not, wheth-
er we can afford it or not, if you
sell it to US for "a dollar down and
a dollar per week" we will buy. We
buy all sorts of things from illus
trated Bibles to fancy music boxes
on the weekly payment plan. eve
will contract to buy the world"
someone has said, ''if it is offered
to US on the installment plan"
Because Of This Weakness for
credit buying the financial in
comes of many Negro families is
mortgaged to furniture houses, pic
ture dealers, clothing houses, gro
Gerry stores, jewelry companies.
household appliance statesmen, ped
dlers of shawls and draperies, etc.
Every week we are driven near
ly crazy ducking and lodging; pay
ing and standing off collectors for
all sorts of things which we could
have done without and we were
not able to buy in the first place.
Our lives do not belong to our
selves. Collectors swarm our COM
munities brow-beating us, insulting
US and prostituting our women all
because we go so readily into debt.
Buying on the installment COM
pels US to pay more for our goods
and products >. and pay in many
cases twice the amount for which
the same article could be pur-
chased for cash. This type of buy
ing therefore, causes US to live con-
tinually above our means. It keeps
US enslaved to loan sharks and
credit houses. 1t forces US many
times to use inferior, if not worth
less goods.
We Should Learn to say mol"
to credit sharks when they offer
and often force their services and
goods upon US. We must stop be-
ing sucked in by these credit art
lists who are the essence of polite
ness and humility while begging us
to buy, but Immediately become
matter-of-fact and hard-boiled once
we are hooked.
Even in necessary things, such
as clothes and foodstuffs, we should
buy less on credit. Nothing has
done more to wreck homes, under
mine characters and steal virtue
than easy Credit" It will
keep one forever poor. We should
shun it as we would a dreaded dis
ease. Credit buying used wisely
and sparingly is a healthy thing in
our economic current of our daily
life, but used carelessly and con-
tinuously it will keep US eter.
nally poor.
We Can't Have Everything I'm.
less we are willing to live within
our incomes and to spend our dol
lars in a way to get the most fol
them; unless we are willing to
sacrifice needless wants.
The Jew learns this lesson early
and practices it all his life. We
can't have wealth unless we save
and spend wisely.
1t takes as much sense for one
to know how to spend a dollar as
it does to know how to earn one
Nobody will work harder for a dol.
lar than a Negro. He will dig 9
ditch deeper, get dirtier and
greasier t. take more kicking and
cussing to get a dollar than any.
body D.. then care less for it.
There is nothing but want anG
disappointment in working hare
and saving nothing. We must learn
to save something If we are t.