Show Individual Faces Changed Role in Personal Habits If it the new deal Is to to accomplish all it should it must bring with it changes in fri our ideas and our standards standards stand stand- ards of individual conduct just about as sweeping as the thc changes that have already been ordered for the operation opera opera- lion tion of our industrial machine One of oC the changes we wc need to make is in relation to our attitude toward debt It might be a very healthful thing for us to rega the point of view which our grandfathers had in regard to it itIn I In the old da days s people had j if nola not nol nota a horror of oC it at least a very real distaste distaste distaste dis dis- dis- dis taste for tor going into debt The proudest proud proud- est boast cast of the solvent successful man was that he owed no man a farthing People borrowed only when they had to and they did so so usually with great reluctance No one needs to be told that we haven't got that viewpoint any more In the last decade or so the hallmark of the successful man has not been en his his ability ability to keep out of debt but his his' ability to get gel into it It became an accepted accepted ac ac- ac standard that the smart man used other peoples people's money in his oper opere Not only did business firms barrow borrow bor bar row ow to e expand and their plants rich men borrowed to speculate in stocks poor men borrowed to to- buy automobiles furniture and what not and while many of the thc results of 0 this were very good the thc way in which it made us willing to mortgage our out futures to satisfy present wants was all In all anything but wholesome It led furthermore to a stultifying of our conception of the morals in involved in In- in the thc use of other peoples people's money Many an American town can canell cantell tell ell a tale precisely like the thc following follow ing lug A bank has folded up in a 3 large manufacturing town High officers of the he bank have been revealed as heavy borrowers from it Their debts have not been paid and because they ey are not paid the depositors are arc holding the he sack zack Just what difference Is there es- es between the bank president who borrows burrows from his own bank to invest in stocks hoping that his profits will enable him to repay the thc loan ioan oan and the little shoe shop cashier who vho takes money from the thc till to play be the races If IC a too-ready too acceptance of debt tad had not blunted our concepts of right and wrong we would not have had a I society in which such tuch things would ha happened PP U |