Indebtedness

“ This vast mental indebtedness has every variety that pecuniary debt has,—every variety of merit. The capitalist of either kind is as hungry to lend as the consumer to borrow; and the transaction no more indicates intellectual turpitude in the borrower than the simple fact of debt involves bankruptcy. On the contrary, in far the greater number of cases the transaction is honorable to both. Can we not help ourselves as discreetly by the force of two in literature? ”

“ Else, would they have reduced our indebtedness, within eighteen months, from over $90,000 to some $40,000 at this present writing? Why may we not believe that God has His reserves, both of men and of money, at hand, to wipe out the remaining balance against us? ”

“ Cancellation of indebtedness.-The cancellation of indebtedness, in whole or in part, may result in the realization of income. If, for example, an individual performs services for a creditor, who in consideration thereof cancels the debt, income in the amount of the debt is realized by the debtor as compensation for his services. A taxpayer realizes income by the payment or purchase of his obligations at less than their face value. ”

“ It is not enough, as urged by respondent, that 'interest' or 'indebtedness' in their original classical context may have permitted this broader meaning. [10] We are dealing with the context of a revenue act and words which have today a well-known meaning. In the business world 'interest on indebtedness' means compensation for the use or forbearance of money. ”

“ Is it within your own knowledge that a large portion of the people here are in a state of permanent indebtedness to the merchants?-I don't know to what extent they may be in a state of permanent indebtedness. ”

“ They have had the benefit of that Company's means; they have been brought from the old country to this place by that aid; and when they get here, some appear to feel indifferent with regard to paying their indebtedness. All know that this is not right, for that should be the first debt they should pay. They should not wait until they get rich before they pay, especially when these debts can be paid in labour, stock, grain, cast and wrought iron, or any and every description of available property at command in this country. ”

“ Much has been said about the protective policy for ourselves making it impossible for our debtors to discharge their obligations to us. This is a contention not now pressing for decision. If we must choose between a people in idleness pressing for the payment of indebtedness, or a people resuming the normal ways of employment and carrying the credit, let us choose the latter. Sometimes we appraise largest the human ill most vivid in our minds. ”

“ How comfortable a man feels when he can say to himself, "Though I have but little, thank God I do not owe anybody anything." I have paid up my tithing, my emigration indebtedness, I have paid for my newspaper, and done the best I could to keep the hearts of my brethren whole by paying promptly, according to promise, so that the great machine of progress may move without obstruction and hindrance? I believe that if we will all turn in from this time and be honest, and really pay our debts and obligations, we have no great reason to fear anything injurious proceeding from any quarter. ”

“ There comes a time when even the blindest of creditors will insist upon the liquidation of a miller's account, and the poor man found himself getting deeper and deeper into debt as the months passed along, and was now at last at his wits' ends to devise new excuses for the non-payment of Gasmerilda's indebtedness. ”

“ A feature that serves to increase the number of these financial bickerings is the fact that questions of indebtedness are almost invariably discussed while drinking is going on and as a result, according to an immemorial rule the world over, the creditor frequently indulges in personalities. ”

“ No need of wishing bad luck to any poor creature—it will come only too soon without. In view of the indebtedness—which you have so gracefully acknowledged—to one of that trading and thrifty race that never loses an opportunity to turn, if not a penny more or less honest, why, something else, to their advantage, I stipulate that you give your dependent there another chance. ”

“ The concerns from whom one buys may be prosperous. The bank with whom one deals may be flourishing, and yet without warning something happens and you are suddenly called upon to liquidate your indebtedness. ”

“ If these facts are noted they go far to explain the extravagances of the relief system, of paper money banking, of internal improvements, etc.
There is in every commercial community a general indebtedness. It is constantly being dissolved and renewed. ”

“ With this knowledge it adopted the sweeping language of § 27 (a) (4) of the Act of 1938. As introduced the section spoke only of indebtedness. It was amended by the Senate Finance Committee by adding the words 'of any kind' after the word 'indebtedness', for the purpose of clarification. ”

“ In the face of this great decline in value our indebtedness is rapidly maturing, and is yet to be provided for. The indebtedness of our county in railroad bonds is $300,000, of which $150,000 are in litigation, and upon which there is nearly $40,000 of an accumulation of unpaid interest, and all may yet be adjudged a valid indebtedness. The assessed valuation of the county, including the city, this year is $3,509,164; the valuation of the city being about one-fourth of that, places one-fourth of the county's burden upon the city. ”

“ The obligation to pay the indebtedness devolved upon the railroad company by reason of an agreement, annexed to the complaint, between the persons to whom the construction company had disposed of the first mortgage bonds of the railroad company and the construction company. ”

“ Debt! what a terrible word that is to every true and honest man! There are multitudes who would prefer to bear privation and poverty rather than run into debt. The workhouse is bad enough, but better the workhouse than “debt.” But will you suffer me to say that “debtors” we all of us are? “We have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” We have come short—we have given God less than His due; He has a claim against us; we are “in debt” to Him. And the debt is one that cannot be expressed in the figures and coinage of earth. It is a debt that money can never pay. ”

“ At length he exclaimed: "But, master, where's the money come from?"
"Never do you mind that, ——," was the reply; "go home, and tell your wife you are out of debt; you are an independent man. I only hope the creditors have felt something of the satisfaction in forgiving you one-half your debt to them, that we know God feels in forgiving our debts to him for Christ's sake: I have said that much to all of them." ”

“ By running into debt yourself, or by your allowing your wife to run into debt, you give another person power over your liberty. You cannot venture to look your creditor in the face. A double knock at the door frightens you: the postman may be delivering a lawyer's letter demanding the amount you owe. You are unable to pay it, and make a sneaking excuse. You invent some pretence for not paying. At length you are driven to downright lying. For "lying rides on debt's back."
What madness it is to run in debt for superfluities! We buy fine articles—finer than we can pay for. ”

“ Debt, indeed, had been creeping on them with slow but sure feet during the last five years. Who can see his children hungry, and not take bread if it be offered? Who can see his wife lying in sharpest want, and not seek a remedy if there be a remedy within reach? So debt had come upon them, and rude men pressed for small sums of money—for sums small to the world, but impossibly large to them. ”

“ The debtor, under this principle, has a much stronger motive than he has under the opposite one, to the practice of honesty, industry, amid frugality, and-if unable to pay the whole of his debt-to the payment of the most that it is in his power to pay, when the debt becomes due. ”

“ Property has been long set aside for the payment of that debt to its utmost farthing. My father felt that while that money remained unpaid there was a brand on himself and his family, and he has wrought, wrought as few men have wrought, to pay off, not only that, but other obligations of a sacred character. Many a bill of exchange, the proceeds of his labour, has he sent to old creditors who were in need of what he owed. ”

“ But when a debtor contracts a debt with the knowledge that, at its maturity, all that can be required of him by his creditor, will be, that he shall have practised integrity, indus­try, and frugality, and that he shall make such payment as the practice of these virtues may have enabled him to make, and that, under these circumstances, not only his debt will be cancelled, but his character and credit saved, he has the stimulus of all these motives operating upon him during the whole period from the time the debt is contracted, until it becomes dm10. ”

“ Let the first thing you attend to be to pay the debt you owe the Fund. Do you say, "Well, shall we not get us a house?" No; live in your tents, or go into the woods, and bring down bushes and make bough houses as the Indians do, and say you will be satisfied with that until you have paid the debt you owe the poor. You do not owe it to me, nor to these my brethren; we have plenty. We have houses; we have enough to sustain ourselves. You do not owe it to any individual here, but you owe it to the poor who wish to come here; the debt is due to them alone. ”

“ But whilst I would abolish imprisonment and should like to see the English workman paying his way like his German brother, whilst I am eager to see the poorer classes freed from the misery that debt and extravagance brings upon them to-day, yet no one, I hope, recognises more clearly than I do the sacred duty of a debtor to pay an honest debt. Every penny that he can save after his first duties of maintenance of wife and family should be devoted towards the repayment of debts. ”

“ In short—for I am sure you must be dreadfully tired of hearing me talk about myself—the world, my{84} cursed creditors included, would be pretty well justified in believing that my worthy father-in-law would flatly refuse to pay a sum of something very like fourteen thousand pounds for a fellow whose extravagance and love of play were alone accountable for the debt; one, too, who has nothing—no, not even a ‘whistle’—to show of all the things that he has paid so dear for. ”

“ It destroys the happiness of his household.
Even those who are in the regular receipt of large incomes, feel crippled, often for years, by the incubus of debt. Weighed down by this, what can a man do to save—to economise with a view to the future of his wife and children? A man in debt is disabled from insuring his life, from insuring his house and goods, from putting money in the bank, from buying a house or a freehold. All his surplus gains must go towards the payment of his debt. ”

“ You took that old sideboard for a debt—yes, a debt at eighteen per cent interest. You don't pay a cent of taxes. You sing psalms and bag your trousers with kneeling on the platforms at prayer meetings and then loan out the church's money to yourself on worthless securities. You're too mean to keep a cat, for the cost of her milk. ”

“ But you don't mean to say that in six months you have saved one hundred dollars out of three hundred?"
"Yes; that is just what I mean to say."
"Preposterous. I get six hundred, and am in debt."
"No wonder."
"Why no wonder?"
"If a man spends more than he receives, he will fall in debt."
"Of course he will. But on a salary of six hundred, how is it possible for a man to keep out of debt?"
"By spending less than he receives."
"That is easily said."
"And as easily done. All that is wanted is prudent forethought, integrity of purpose, and self-denial. ”

“ I would rather risk prayer offered under these circumstances than when offered while the suppliant is involved in debts and obligations he has failed to discharge.
Now, brethren and sisters, if we will train ourselves never to contract a debt, unless we feel sure, and not only feel sure, but determined, to pay according to promise, we shall not have the burdens on our shoulders that we otherwise shall have. Times are changing. Sometimes we are tempted by the allurements of the world, by the flow of money and by the abundance of everything, to go beyond the mark, and we contract debts ”

“ Living beyond one's income: running in debt.—Income is limited; while the things we would like to have are infinite. We must draw the line somewhere. Duty says, draw it well inside of income. Temptation says, draw it at income, or a trifle outside of income. Yield to this temptation, and our earnings are gone before we know it, and debt stares us in the face. Debts are easy to contract, but hard to pay. ”

“ Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, and the sons of genius fear and hate;—debt, which consumes so much time, which so cripples and disheartens a great spirit with cares that seem so base, is a preceptor whose lessons cannot be forgone, and is needed most by those who suffer from it most. ”

“ That, whether our debt be more or less, it is more than we are able to pay: They had nothing to pay, nothing at all to make a composition with; for the debt is great, and we have nothing at all to pay it with. ”

“ If a state is poor, and people owe more money than can be procured, a legislature may perhaps go so far as to suspend the collection of debts; or to ordain that a certain part only of the debts shall be recoverable immediately, and the payment of the remainder suspended. This may ease the debtors; but can be justified in extreme cases only, when the people are generally and greatly involved.
[pg 042] A people should not generally be in debt: The consumers of goods should not get credit. Heavy and numerous debts are great evils to a state. ”