DEBTS CANCELLED

Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1932, Page 6

DEBTS CANCELLED

PLEASANT SHOCK FOR CUSTOMS

1 ‘UORCIIVIC AND FORGET” POLICY

NEW YORK, July 28

Some hundreds of the inhabitants of r'ioan. (Iowa) have, jjist. experienced ,a .emarkably pleasant shock. The proprietoi,.?. of ’ a local general stone, Mr and. Mrs Hennum, have addressed to a customers whose bills. are still unsettled a letter which begins: “Kind .Lends,—We. take the.'liberty of cancelling your debt-to us cf dollars. Wei hope this will meet with your approval.” i Mr Hennum explains that “this depression has been hitting some folk pretty hard,” and that his wife and he “believe in forgiving and forgetting.” Since the debts on the books total some £15,000, it wild be seen that the capacity of this admirable couple ..for helpful .forgetfulness is .substantial, fio is their tact, for .there is no; attempt to distinguish in their igetv&rosity between. the desei%ig and the unworthy.

It might presumably offend the independent spirit .of?,;some citizens, of Sloan to .be singled out i for.’ charity., .no the debts, -whether of a .few .cents or of. many dollars* whether cof a \ week’s standing or of many yeiils,'' and whether owed by the victims of the economic blizzard or by the still prosper6us, are indiscriminately niped OUt. ''

Here is the clean slate and no mistake. Here is a case in which the storekeeper sets a model flit the statesman.