Page:Discipline and the Derelict (1921).pdf/49

 he alleged, at liberty to pay when and if he pleased. There are not many like him, thank heaven.

It is a curious coincidence that of the eight men whose loans from one of our funds are longest overdue seven are lawyers. Perhaps their knowledge of the law has helped them in the evasion or the neglect of their obligations. It will at once be said by some one that the explanation of the phenomenon lies in the fact that lawyers are long in getting established, and that these men are not making enough money to meet their obligations, that they must spend what they make in order to keep up a respectable appearance. This is a good explanation, but in this case it is not the correct one. Of the ten lawyers whom I have repeatedly written concerning overdue accounts only one has replied; no one has paid, though all are quite able to pay.

A great many fail to meet their obligations on time because they plan to pay in one sum what they have borrowed. Almost every one who goes out from college could, from the very beginning spare five or ten or fifteen dollars a month from his salary and so gradually reduce his debt; but when it comes to having at hand two hundred or three hundred or five hundred dollars, the situation becomes more complicated if not impossible. There are too many temptations surrounding the man just out of college tending to separate him from his money to make it likely that he will have available at one time the total sum of his indebtedness. If he begins by making monthly payments he will be surprised how quickly the debt will be cancelled without any apparent embarrassment to himself.