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THE JACKSON ECONOMIST.
VOL. VII.
What It Costs and
What It Means to
Bea Bankrupt.
Some Interesting Facts, Clearly Stated, Regarding
the New Law Which Is Enabling Many Men
To Begin Anew Their Business Life.
from a misunderstanding of the
purpose of the bankruptcy law the
courts of bankruptcy throughout
the country have been Hooded with
the petitions ot men owing com
paratively small sums and unable
to raise enough money to pay the
cost of the proceedings.
It appears to be the general opin
ion of the courts that when a man
cannot raise enough money to pay
costs, he is not m a condition
where he can be pressed very hard
by his creditors, and it does not
make much difference to society
at large whether he is adjudged a
bankrupt or not. For this reason
some of the judges have looted
with great disfavor on all cases in
which the paupers’ oaths have
been taken.
Law Intended for Two Classes.
There are two classes of people
whom the bankruptcy law was in
tended to benefit. The first class
are people who have been in busi
ness, have failed and have no
chance of re-establishing them
selves so long as there are a lot of
debtß hanging over their heads.
The law provides that in such
cases the debtor shall give up
everything he has, surrender all of
his property for the'benefit of bis
creditors, and theu have the op
portunity of starting in business
anew.
The second class to be benefited
is the creditor class. v Creditors
are benefited by that provision of
the law which prevents a debtor
from making any preferences. Be
fore the bankruptcy law was passed
it was possible for a debtor to pay
certain favored creditors in full
and leave the rust to sing for their
money, Now the mere act of pre
ferring one creditor entitles the
other creditors of a man to have
him adjudged a bankrupt. The
law protects in this manner all
creditors by putting them on the
same footing, which is especially
helpful to large firms selling goods
in all partsgof the country.
When the debtor seeks lolief
from the burden he has grown
Weary of bearing he goes into vol
untary bankruptcy. Wheu the
law first went into effect it was
thought by some uninformed as
pirants for relief that it would not
cost them anything, and there was
a great rush of applicants, many
of whom were practically penni
less.
Costs of Bankruptcy.
The fees fixed by the law are
110 for the clerk,[slo for the ref
eree and ss]for the trustee, making
a total of $25. In- addition there
19 the cost of sending out notices
to the creditors [and of advertis
ing the creditors' meetings and the
discharge. These items will cost
■ rom $lO to
1 een employed to prepare the
three petitions which have to be
hied, the charge may be from $5
to 850. The expense of a lawyer
WINDER, JACKSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1899.
may be saved if the bankrupt is
able and willing to prepare the pe
titions and represent himself all
the way through. When there are
no assets to be administered the
cost of bankruptcy at the lowest
will be from $35 to S4O.
It is provided that a man may
be relieved of paying the $25 al
low’d the officers of court for fees,
when he takes the pauper affidavit.
He has to srear. in that event,
that he is without the necessary
money to pay the fees and cannot
obtain it. When that oath is
made the clerk has to file the pe
tition, but when the case goes to
the referee he has the right to ex
amine the bankrupt, ascertain his
business or occupation and deter
mine if it is absolutely impossible
for him to raise $25.
If the referee is convinced that
the bankrupt cannot pay the fee
he makes a report [recommending
that the man be granted his dis
charge.
Many Thrown Out.
If the referee believes the appli
cant is able to make the payment,
he applies to the court for an order
for the bankrupt to show cause why
he should not pay the $25 or have
his case dismissed. If the bank
rupt is exempted from the court
fees he still has to pay fromsioto
sls, which is the cost of advertis
ing and sending out notices to the
creditors. Not a few applicants
thought the court officials not only
ought to do all of the work free of
charge, but ought to go dowu into
their own pockets for these extra
expenses,
The officers and the of
course, took a different viow, and
on one day recently there were
nineteen applications dismissed in
this city because the bankrupts
were either unable or unwilling to
pay a cent for their discharges,'
The smallest amount of debts of
any man applying to be adjudged
a bankrupt in this city was $l5O.
No limit was fixed by the congress
tor voluntary bankruptcy, but the
law provides that no man shall be
forced into involuntary bankruptcy
unless he owes as much as SI,OOO,
and the petitioners have claims
amounting to SSOO,
No Limits Either Way.
In official circles the opinion
prevails that no man ought to go i
into bankruptcy voluntarily unless (
he owes SI,OOO, and that none j
should seek relief from debts ag
gregating less than that. Still,
there is no law to prevent a man
from going into bankruptcy when
he owes only $5. Asa matter of
common sense, it would be cheap
er to pay his debt than to bear
the necessary expense of the pro
ceeding, and such a case is not
likely to arise.
When there are assest to be taken
charge of by the courts the coßts are
greater, as bcth.the referee and the
trustee receive email commissions
111 addinion to their regular tees.
The lawyers’ fees in cases o’ invol
untary bankruptcy are fixed by the
court, without regard to the num
ber of the lawyers w ho may be en
gaged.
As the object of the law’ become,
better understood by the business
world and the public generally
there will be hss friction in its op
eration.
What Is An Education?
A great many young people think
when they have mastered orthoepy,
orthography, reading, grammar ge
ography, arithmetic and writing,
that they have an education. They
may even got a certificate and teach
school and not he educated. Some
of the most' ignorant people we
have are school teachers. The com
mon school branches are only tools
to fit a person to educate them
selves A young man may go to
a hardware store and buy a full kit
of carpenter tools, but that does
not make him a good carpenter,
a though he has a fine kit of tools;
he must learn to use them. So it
is with the school .education ; it is
only the tools. Not the school
teacher in fifty can write a good
article on any subject. Just ask
one to write you a recommen
dation and not one in ten can do
it.
To be educated you must gain
knowledge; unless you have a gen
eral knowledge you are not educat
ed. Take agricultural journal to
be educated in agriculture, gener
al newspapers to be educated m the
ways of the w r orld and scientific
journals to be educated in science.
Even after some have been grant
ed a good commen school training
they are too indolent to read and
gain an edncatiou. All per ons
can be well educated in any one
branch and yet be ignorant of oth
ers. So, young men or young wo
men. do not think because you
stand at the head of your classes
at school that you have the best
educatiou ; you have only the best
tools to gain an education with.
Some men can scarcely write their
name, know nothing of gramnier.
have barely learned to read, but
they have read books on all sciences
and subjects, and have better gen
eral education than the moei teach
ers. How often do we see the poor
farmer with poor tools make bet
ter crops and more produce than
his lazy rich neighbor with plenty
of fine tools. The poor man work
ed hard with his poor tools while
the rich man sat in idleness aid
the rust consumed his tools. So it
is with a man with poor school
training; he reads and keeps his
mind bright and active, while his
collpdge bread, rich neighbor sat
around, forgot all he had ever
learned at school, and did not read
and keep up. He had the fine
tools, but rust ate them up. Young
man, you do not have to set hump
ed up with a book or journal in
your hands all tho time. Nor do
you have to set up till midnight
reading by lamp light to get a gen
eral education—read a little and
often. Take a few good journals
and read them at odd times.—Dr.
T. Pickles, Anna. Ills.
In The Church.
Signs of the Times.
While 111 His church God de
signed that there should be but
one Head, that head is not to lie er
ring humanity. ‘One is your Master,
even Christ ; and jal . ye are
brethren.” “For the head of every
church is Christ,” And yet, despite
these and many other similar de
clarations ot Holy Writ, ?t is a
patent fact that the church today
in most of its aggressive work is
looking to man instead of God.
Many thousands, especially
youth, are oftenjurgely controlled
by one man, and this not in Roman
Catholicism, where we looked for
such things, but in modern protes
tanism. How many times in the
religious press is this man or that
man lauded to the skies, while the
Maker of man aud the Redeemer
of man is barely mentioned!
God uses men; but He would
use them in His church “as good
stewards of the manifold grace of
God;” “not as being lords over
God’s heritage, but being ensam
ples to the , Hock,” But for the
good of all. He Himself should
have the glory. Therefore in the
for this time, the last
great threefoid message to a dying
world (see Rev. 14:6 14), that
thought is emphasized right in its
very beginning. The message im
plies the very conditions we see
But it calls to the conditions which
every true Christian should occupy.
Listen : “Fear God and give glory
to Him, for tho hour of His judg
ment is \some, and worship Him
that made heaven, and earth, and
the sea, and thejountains of water.
This is man’s duty, to fear God, to
look to God, to worship God. “Ye
were bought with a pries: become
n )t boud-servants of men.”
“God gives us men! a time like this de
mauds
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith,
and ready hands;
Meu whom the last of lucre does
not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot
buy •
Meu who possess opinions and a
will:
Men who have honor; men who will not
lie;
Meu who can stand before a dema
gog.
And damn his treacherous flatteries
without winking;
Tall men, suu crowned, who live
above the fog
In puolic duty and in private think
ing;
For while the public with their thumb
worn creeds,
Tneir large profession and their little
deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom
weeps,
Wrong ruies the laud, and waiting Jus
tice sleeps.”
Society Contrasts.
We learn from a Sunday paper
that the fashionable ladies of New
York have started a ‘Mouse Club,’
and that the members own relia
ble well-bred mice that are valued
from three to twenty-two dollars
apiece. It is also the proper-cap
er to join cat clubs, and the more
the felines are beribhoned and be
jeweled the more honor and ad
miration is in store for the male
and female chappie own
ers.
The other day a thousand dollar
cat, belongiug to Mrs. lieta L.
Adams of 254 Madison avenue
kicked the bucket and went to cat
heaven, aud then the Adams wo
man had it buried in a coffin lined
with green ribbon, with velvet
blanket wrapped about its form,
aud a tombstone will be erected
over its grave on Long Is-
land.
Two weeks ago the New York
papers printedthe startling infor
mation that there were 257 un
claimed corpses, two weeks’ accum
ulation, in the morgue and on a
transport awaiting burial in Pot
ter’s field. Not the corpses of cats,
dogs or miso, but human beings.
Cats, dogs and mice are worth on
ey. The submurged poor are worth
nothing. And this is a Christian
civilation, they say? And,accord
ing to the Democratic, autoaratic
and Republican wire pullers, pol
itical! righteousness exists,
and the working men have, no just
cause to get into a Labor party of
their own. Vote to continue the
capitalistic system, and these hor
rible contrasts of criminal profli
gacy on the one side, wretched pov
erty on the otner. by casting your
ballots for the Democratic and Re
publican parties. Don’t vote the
populist or Socialist tickets! It
might be the beginning of the end
of hell on earth. —Southern Mer
cury,
The Cry Against Trusts.
The treacherous old Democracy
is just iiO'V posing as the enemy of
the trusts, and an anti-trusts plank
is sure to be inserted in its plat
form next year.
This is characteristic of the par
ty It will be remembered that
Jaycay Jones, present National
Chairman was the author of a SSOO,
000,000 bond bill, and the champ
ion of the National bank trust in
1895. In 1896, this same Demo
cratic leader was howling against
the issuance of bonds and opposed
to national banks, and was made
the head of the organization.
New Jersey was for many years
the most reliable Democratic state
in the East, and New Jersey has
done more to fatten trusts than all
the other states of the Union com
bined. When a real mean monop
oly was to be organized, and one
which scarely any other state
would countenance, New Jersey
was always confidently applied to
and never in vain.
The Now York Tribune recently
published a list of tho most vill
ainous trusts in America, fifty nine
in number, which were organized
under the laws of New Jersey made
by Democratic Legislatures and
among them we note the American
Tin plate company capital $50,000-
000. The Federal Steel Company
capital $200,000,000. Rubber goods
manufacturing company capital
$50,000,000. Continental Tobacco
company, capital $75,000,000.
American sugar Refining company,
capital $75,000,000 aud The United
States Leather company, capital
$125 000,000. The whole fifty nine
companies represent a combination
of capital amounting to more than
two billions dollars, a sum largely
in excess of the entire circulation
in the hands of the people of this
vast country. The gigantic thiev
ing combines are organized ex
pressly to dictate the prices of tho
raw material in the bands of the
producer; to limit the output of
the manufactured articles that
they may fix their profit without
competition and to enslave the la
bor employed, and now after the
socalled Democracy had fastened
these vampries upon the prosperity
of the country it is in keeping
with the history and traditions of
the fraudulent old party, that it
should begin to cry out against
trusts. The clalmor-raised may
fool the unsophisticated but the
trusts will laugh iu their sleeves
and contribute to the campaign
fund. They know their friends, —
Okolona Messenger.
NO. 14.