this reason that thrift is essential to a man's credit--thrift and
honesty.

There is no magic about credit. It is a powerful agency for good
in the hands of those who know how to use it. So is a buzz saw.
They are about equally dangerous in the hands of those who do not
understand them. ... Many a farmer would be better off to-day if
he had never had a chance to borrow money at all, or go into debt
for the things which he bought. However, there is no reason why
those farmers who do know how to use credit should not have it.

Shortsighted people, however, who do not realize how inexorably
the time of payment arrives, who do not know how rapidly tools
wear out and have to be replaced, or do not keep accounts in order
that they may tell exactly where they stand financially, will do
well to avoid borrowing. Debts have to be paid with deadly
certainty, and they who do not have the wherewithal when the day
of reckoning arrives become bankrupt with equal certainty.

On the other hand there is nothing disgraceful in borrowing for
productive purposes. The feeling that it is not quite respectable
to go into debt has grown out of the old habit of borrowing to pay
living expenses. That was regarded, perhaps rightly, as a sign of
incompetency. ... But to borrow for a genuinely productive
purpose, for a purpose that will bring you in more than enough to
pay off your debt, principal and interest, is a profitable
enterprise. It shows business sagacity and courage, and is not a
thing to be ashamed of. But it cannot be too much emphasized that
the would-be borrower must calculate very carefully and be sure
that it is a productive enterprise before he goes into debt.