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If caught, commercial racketeers can usually be convicted for mail or bankruptcy fraud, both Federal offenses. But in retail trade a creditor has no recourse against a dead beat except to sue. It is no crime to charge a mink coat, then fail to pay for it.
The organization that watches personal credit is the National Retail Credit Association, which will hold its annual convention this week in Omaha. Unlike NACM, NRCA has no central credit exchange. But records of no less than 60,000,000 U. S. chargers are on file with local credit bureaus in more than 1,000 cities. The Credit Bureau of Greater New York has 3,000,000 alone. These local credit bureaus are, in the main, non-profit-making organizations owned by their members, mostly stores, and any charge account not paid in 120 days must be reported. Delinquencies are entered on a permanent record available to all other members and, through a system of standardized fees, to all other credit bureaus in the land.
Thus if Mrs. John Jones moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, any good Los Angeles store could quickly learn how promptly she paid her bills in Chicago. It might learn that she was a widow of 40 with no children, enjoyed no visible means of support, lived in swank apartments, entertained unsavory characters, was late with her rent, lived in Chicago for only two years and left with $500 of unpaid bills. In that case Mrs. Jones would have a hard time opening a charge account in Los Angeles.