Wisdom of Our Fathers

The sesquicentennial anniversary of Alleghany County's founding is coming up next year and any number of events are being planned. To that end, Volume 1, Number 1 of the Alleghany Star newspaper, published on August 15, 1889, has been reprinted and can be purchased for 50¢ throughout town. In light of the condition of our economy today and its attendant causes, I found the editor's commentary, printed 119 years ago, to still be meritorious.

BEWARE OF DEBT

We think the old and well traveled principle "be just before you are generous" will hold true now with as good results as ever, therefore we beg leave to say — do not give away what does not belong to you. Let us warn you, an account of its moral bearings, against debt. Nothing more effectively robs one of his best energies, takes the bloom from his cheek and peace from his pillow, than pecuniary obligations. And that is not all, nor the worst; debt is a foe to to a man's honesty. Avoid all immoralities; but shun as a pestilence the habit of running thoughtlessly in debt. Let your expenses always be short of your debts.

How in due season it will carve the frank open face into wrinkles; how like a knife it will stab the honest heart. How it has been known to change a goodly face into a mask of the beast, and the true man into a callous trickster! A freedom (of) debt, and what nourishing sweetness may be found in cold water: what happiness he adds to his house. Be sure of it, he who denies out of debt though his meal be but a corn cake and an onion, dines in a banquet hall.

And then what warmth in a threadbare coat, if the tailor's receipt be in your pocket! How glossy the well worn hat, if it covers not the aching head of a debtor.

How sweet are the home comforts, and the out-door recreations of the free man. "The street door falls not a knell on his heart; the foot of the staircase, though he lives on the third pair, sends no spasms through his anatomy; at the rap on the door he can crow 'come in' and his pulse still beats healthfully, his heart sinks not into his bowels." See him abroad! How he returns look for look with any passenger; now meeting an acquaintance, he stands and gossips, but there this man knows no debt; debt that casts a drug in the richest wine; that makes the food of the gods unwholesome, indigestible, that sprinkles the banquets of a Lucullus with ashes, and drops soot in the soup of the Emperor. Debt that writes up on frescoed halls the handwriting of the attorney, that makes the heart quake of the haunted fireside; debt the invisible demon that walks abroad with a man, now quickening his steps, now making him look on all sides like a haunted beast, and now bringing to his face the ashy hue of death as the unconscious passenger looks glaneingly upon him! Poverty is a bitter thought, yet may, and sometimes can, with advantage be gulped down. Debt, however courteously it may be offered, is the cap of the siren; and the wine spiced and delicious though it be, is poison.

Contracting debts are not unlike the man who goes to sea without a compass — he may steer clear of of rocks, sand-bars, a lee shore, and breakers, but the chances are greatly against him; and, if runs afoul of either, ten to one he is lost. The present indiscriminate credit system is a labyrinth, the entrance is easy, but how to get out — that's the question. It is an endless chain, and if one link breaks in a particular community, it degrades the whole. The concussion may break many more, creating a pause, and the chain becomes useless. If this misfortune would cure the evil, it would be a blessing in disguise; but so deeply rooted is this system among us that no sooner is one chain destroyed than another is manufactured; and increasing weight is put upon it; presently some of the links snap, another concussion is produced, and creates a new panic. Car after car rushes down the incline plain of bankruptcy, increasing the mass of broken fragments and general ruin, also commingling that a Philadelphia lawyer, aided by constables and sheriffs, can bring but little order out of the confusion.

At the onset especially will the merchants impose by this system a ruinous tax upon the vendor and vendee. The seller, in addition to a fair profit for cash in hand, adds a larger percent to meet losses from bad debt, but which often falls short of the mark.

On every hand we see people living on credit, putting off pay day to the last, making, in the end some desperate effort, either by begging or borrowing, to scape the money together and then struggling on again, with the canker of care eating at their heart, to the inevitable goal of bankruptcy.

If people would only make a push at the beginning, instead of the end, they would save themselves all this misery.

No man can, to a certainty, guard against ill health; no man can insure himself a well-conducted, helpful family, or a permanent income, but all young men of health can shun debt and thereby avail themselves of the greatest happiness afforded man in a worldly sense.

According to the credit card companies, there were 984 million bank-issued Visa and MasterCard credit card and debit card accounts in the U.S in 2006. According to the General Accounting Office, there were more than 292 million credit cards in use in the United States that same year. Fifty-five percent of credit card users keep a balance on their credit card. The average American with a credit file is responsible for $16,635 in debt, excluding mortgages. The average credit card indebted young adult household spends nearly 24 percent of its income on debt payments.

Total U.S. consumer debt (which includes credit-card debt and non-credit-card debt but not mortgage debt) reached $2.55 trillion at the end of 2007.

Life takes Visa?