Litchfield Enquirer

There is perhaps no evil, nothing that is not absolutely criminal, that bears so heavily on the labors of the working part of community as the credit system, or the custom of crediting out the produce of our labor for promises of future remuneration; and this custom has now become so common that it is almost equivalent to a law; and there is no one, except it be an independent farmer, who can carry on a profitable business without conforming to this ruinous custom. To this custom, troublesome as it is, we almost all naturally conform; mutually co-operate, not to help but to vex each other, with collecting debts, which many say it is easier to earn than afterwards to obtain: but while a man in business has to give credits, unless he is immensely rich he is obliged to obtain credits; and thus the trouble goes round, is communicated through society, and becomes general.

The mechanic who works for customers feels most heavily the weight of this now so necessary an evil; and none more so than the publisher of a newspaper, whose customers, though perhaps generally good, are more scattered, and their credits in smaller parcels than most others; while their own debts, if they make any, are in much larger sums, and the most prompt payment is necessary.

We give here but a slight sketch of the evils of the credit system, as it exists; for which we know no remedy but in public opinion and corresponding action operating to aid us, and to that only would we appeal. Indeed, it has often been suggested by writers on political economy, that the absence of all laws for collecting of debts but the law of honor, would be the most sure remedy for the evil of which we complain.