Rutherford B. Hayes Quotes
Let every man, every corporation, and especially let every village, town, and city, every county and State, get out of debt and keep out of debt. It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.
Hayes, Rutherford B. Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, edited by Charles Richard Williams, vol. 3, Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1924, p. 297.
Almost every major corporation that is growing must borrow money to finance the growth. There is a great temptation to do this continuously, as if all works out the borrowed money is paid back and the nation has grown. However, not every investment succeeds, and when they do, few nations will take the growth and save it for a future date when a national investment does not work out as well as hoped. Gradually national debt as a proportion of the economy gets larger and larger and it makes mew investments more and more difficult to succeed because of the higher rates of interest that must be paid. Every modern country must find a balance. Those that do not can have a financial disaster such as Greece in the early part of the 21st century.
Commenting on the practice of making loans to repay old loans:
He was referring to making the idea of federal deficits emotionally negative.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was an American politician and attorney who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governor of Ohio. A lawyer and staunch abolitionist, he had defended refugee slaves in court proceedings during the antebellum years. He negotiated the political agreement to end federal support of Reconstruction.
