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Show GETTING OUT OF DEBT We have seen a statement recently, prepared by men who have made a deep study of the subject, that the United States and its inhabitants are in debt to the tune of one hundred and thirty-four thousand million dollars. That includes in-cludes all government debts, Federal, state and local, the debts of the railroads, public utilities and industries, mortgage mort-gage debts and financial bond issues. There is no manner of doubt that in the great boom era credit was far too easy, men and institutions went into debt recklessly, and that the great problem of the hour is how debtors can be enabled to pay their debts without at the same time ruining their creditors. Short of universal bankruptcy for the rest of the world is much in the same boat the path back to solvency is bound to be a slow and painful one. We are not at all sure that the plans proposed at Washington to lighten the burdens of individual and corporate debtors will work as planned, but they are at least a long step toward pulling us out of the hole. The problem of the debtor who can't pay is as old as humanity. In the 15th chapter of Deuteronomy we find the way in which the ancient Israelites solved it. "At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the mannsr of the release: very creditor that lendth aught unto his neighbor shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his brother, because it is called the Lord's release. Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again but that which is thine with thy brother thy hand shall release." re-lease." Forgiveness of debts was one of the tenets of the early Christians and the plea comes down to us in the Lord's Prayer. Perhaps too many debtors of our day expect to be released re-leased without any payment whatever. We would not go so far as to advocate the Chinese system, under which for thousands of years every Chinese had to seettle all his debts every New Years Day, with the alternative, if he failed, of committing suicide or entering into slavery to his creditors. But we do believe that most of us would be better off if we never had been able to borrow on long terms, but only for short periods, and then only as much as we could satisfy a reasonable creditor we could pay when due. |