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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.