John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-The January payment, amounting to $10.00, is past due on your account with this association.

It is evident that your New Year resolution has been forgotten. A remittance by return mail will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely yours,

Secretary.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-I am indeed sorry to note that you have forgotten your February payment, which was due on the first day of the month. Your account now stands delinquent on our books, and I know you will be glad to send us remittance at once.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

Cordially yours,

Secretary.

MY DEAR SIR-You will find noted below a statement of the amount owing on your contract with us.

We know you will be glad to remit at once, and we want to thank you now for your prompt attention to this request.

Payment due April 1st-$..

Yours very truly,

Secretary.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-I am indeed sorry to note that you have overlooked your October payment, which was due on the first day of this month. Will you please send us $10.00 at once, so that we may take your name off the delinquent list?

I know you will be glad to help.

Cordially yours,

Secretary.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-The usual Christmas rush has, no doubt, made you overlook the December payment on your account.

You surely want to take care of this small payment before the holidays, so that you will have a clean slate for the New Year.

Your remittanse of $10.00 will, therefore, be expected at once.
With best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Cordially yours,

Secretary.

On the 21st, we send out our second letter, which is still courteous, but somewhat insistent.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-You have, no doubt, forgotten our request of the 16th, when we asked that you immediately take care of your October payment.

We know you don't like to have your account delinquent, and you know that we don't like to send dunning letters.

Let's get this behind us.

Thank you.

Secretary.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-I am wondering if you fully realize the help you can give me if you will send in your September payment today.

This is the last month of our fiscal year, and the cleaning up of every item means that I have a thousand things to do.

The receipt of your payment today will relieve my mind greatly.

Thank you.

Secretary.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

DEAR SIR-You undoubtedly have our last letter, and you have been expecting to send us a remittance, but each day the matter has slipped your mind.

Please send us a check for $..

ment today.

Thank you.

to cover the past due pay

Secretary.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-We have not, as yet, heard from you in response to our letter regarding your account for $. being your June

payment.

If there is any doubt in your mind as to the position in which you are placing yourself by your failure to comply with your signed contract, we suggest that you consult with your banker or attorney and have him explain to you just what credit is based on.

There may be some good reason why you have not paid. If there is, you certainly owe it to yourself to explain why and exactly when you can arrange to pay.

Yours very truly,

Secretary.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-Every man intends to meet his obligations sooner or later. But unless he gets into the sooner habit, it becomes harder and harder to pay later. We all know this to be true.

We know in your case that you evidently have some good reason for not sending in your remittance. You probably have been so unusually busy that you have not found time to take care of it.

This letter is, therefore, being sent you to again bring the payment now due to your attention. If you have not already sent in your remittance, send it at once before you forget it.

Very sincerely yours,

Secretary.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-You undoubtedly have our last letter, and you have been expecting to send us a remittance, but each day the matter has slipped your mind.

Now let us make two requests: Make a memorandum on your calendar pad of these monthly payments, so they will come to your attention before the 15th of each month; and, send us a remittance to cover the past due payment today.

By.

Sincerely,

Secretary.

And again, if on the 26th of the month, we have some slow pays, we again send out a letter.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-"Friends and credit pursue the man who does not need them." So says Elbert Hubbard.

Collection reminders also do that. However, one sometimes forgets how rapidly the next month comes around, and therefore, reminders of this nature become necessary.

You, no doubt, will be surprised to know that two reminders have already been sent without a response. There is just a small amount due for the July payment. Why not get it off your mind now by sending your check for $.. in the next mail?

Sincerely yours,

Secretary.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-If you will give me a good reason why you should not live up to your signed contract by making your monthly payments promptly, I will quit dunning your for our money.

If you cannot give me a good reason, I want your June payment today. Sincerely yours,

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

Secretary.

MY DEAR SIR-How do you think you would feel if you were in my position? My Board of Directors say I must collect your installments as they come due.

I endeavor to be courteous and give you every opportunity to live up to your signed contract without embarrassment. How do you feel when a man agrees to pay you on a certain day and then fails to do so and disregards all notices that you send him? You think he isn't much of a man, don't you?

Our reasoning is just the same as yours, and we are compelled to acknowledge that we do not think you much of a man when you do not live up to your signed contract.

We will expect your May remittance, amounting to $......

at once.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

Secretary.

MY DEAR SIR-We are at a loss to understand why we have had no response to our letters of the 16th and 21st, calling your attention to your delinquent account.

It has been our endeavor to accord you every consideration, and yet to impress you with the importance of living up to your signed contract. You must appreciate the fact that neglect of your monthly payments and your failure to make any satisfactory explanation will inevitably reflect adversely to your credit standing.

Will you not give this matter your immediate attention, sending us remittance for $. .....at once?

Thank you.

Secretary.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

MY DEAR SIR-You don't like to get dunning letters.

We don't like to write them.

Already we have written you twice regarding your March payment of $... This is too much, isn't it? Too much bother for you

over such a small payment-too much bother for us to get what belongs

to us.

Of course you are going to pay this amount soon-but, if you please, we will take the money now, as it is past due.

We are closing our books for our semi-annual report, and it is certainly embarrassing for you as well as ourselves, to be compelled to report your name to the Board of Directors as delinquent.

John Doc, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

Secretary.

DEAR SIR-Can it be that you have forgotten our letters of the 16th and the 21st?

We have sent you two reminders, calling your attention to the fact that you have neglected your February payment, and up to this time we have had no word from you.

Please attend to this matter before discarding this letter, as your contract calls for the payment on the 1st day of the month, and you have been delinquent since the 15th.

Thank you.

John Doe, Esq., Lincoln, Illinois.

Secretary.

MY DEAR SIR-Now that the Christmas rush is over, and with but a few days left before the close of 1920, you will surely wish to clean the slate as to your outstanding accounts.

The December payment on your account has not as yet reached us. The amount is only $.... and because it is small, you, no doubt, overlooked it in the press of holiday business. Please pin your check, money order or currency to this letter and rail it.

Do it now before you forget.

Very truly yours,

Secretary.

You will notice that these letters first of all are written with the presumption that each and every member wants to do and intends to do what he agreed at the time he became a member of the association. We never, in any of our collection letters, forget this one idea. With this in mind, you must select your letters considering the nature of the man to whom you are sending them. Some men you can appeal to, some men you can reason with, and some men you must threaten. We always keep this in mind in writing our letters and we try never to send the same man the same letter twice.

No Live City Without One.

No city of any consequence, and no real live one, is without its building and loan association. These organizations are many sided in their local uses and benefits.

There is no enterprise like it for stimulating home building and making home owners. These associations have been recognized in the many cities of this country as the strongest financial organizations, the best investment sources, bringing safe returns, and sustaining much the same position in finances as the banking houses.-Union City (Tenn.) Commercial.

The First Building and Loan Association in
America.

In view of the present firmly established position of the building and loan associations it will be of interest to learn some of the conditions and details that accompanied the organization of the first institution of this kind in this country. It was organized in January, 1831, in Frankford, Pa., as a terminating association, and was known as the Oxford-Provident Building Association of Philadelphia county.

The following details are taken from a paper read before the United States League meeting at Portland, by John H. Currier, secretary of the Tacony Building and Loan Association, of Philadelphia, to whom the NEWS is also indebted for the accompanying illustrations.

The Frankford Herald of January 14, 1888, gives the following account of the preliminary steps:

The first Building and Loan Association ever instituted in America was organized in Frankford. The idea was brought from England by Samuel Pilling and Jeremiah Horrocks, manufacturers, and Dr. Henry Taylor, all of whom had received their knowledge from similar institutions in that country. The suggestion was submitted by them to Isaac Shallcross, a surveyor and conveyancer, and Jesse Y. Castor, a lawyer, and a club was formed upon a plan as near that of the English "clubs" as could be arrived at without either written or printed guides.