Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-07-24
THE BANKRUPT LAW.

THE BANKRUPT LAW.
There is an old anecdote that an ap-
plicant for admission to the bar in En-
gland was once asked this question
"What is the province of the courts OF
bankruptcy" And he replied with
great promptness, ITO see the estate OF
the bankrupt equitably divided between
the officers of the court and the attor-
neys engaged in the cause" This reply
of course had application to the British
courts under English law, but it shows
discernment into the general practice
of bankrupt courts, and has such uni
versal application, that we cannot doubt
but what the applicant would make a
shining light in administering the bank
rupt law of the United States in this
year of grace, 1878. Every business
man has felt the necessity for some uni
form system of bankruptcy, and this is
especially true in a State where we have
such oppressive attachment laws as has
been entailed upon Vermont, but the
cumbersome, expensive and unjust regu-
lations and practice of the present bank
rupt law, defeat all its benefits, and
make it an instrument of injustice, in
stead of an advantage to trade
When the embarrassed trader finds
that his little bills are becoming due and
the money market is tight, his first
course, if he is an honest man, is to ex-
plain the situation TO his creditors and
ask an indulgence, which if granted u.s.
ually carries him safely over his Difficult
ty, and when prosperity again shines
upon his path, and his debts are all paid,
he has learned in his humiliation a
lesson which will guide him past the
breakers of commerce and ultimately
lead him to useful and prosperous man
hood, and it has long been an enigma to
us to explain why our state adhered to
its old grab system, by which any bust
ness man when he first starts out in life
may be ruined in his prospects and bust
ness by the cupidity or malice of any
single creditor. This system renders it
almost impossible for the young man
when he meets his first financial crisis,
to weather the storm. He most always
has some creditor who is constantly ex-
ercising his diligence to get his pound of
flesh, and the law allows one shylock to
disconcert and destroy the plans of
thousands of christian men, and bank
ruptcy is the inevitable result.
Wo be to the man who gets before the
bankrupt court, with its retinue of reg
listers, clerks, marshals, assignees and
messengers, with its petitions, returns,
advertisements, examinations, fees and
temptations! He finds one thing GER
tain, that unless he has assets enough to
pay his debts to start on, after each
party entitled to fees has been satisfied,
the third meeting of creditors will find
the balance ON band so small that some
officer will keep it all himself to save the
trouble of dividend. This difficulty of
administering the law is one inherent in
the act itself. The courts which have to
administer it are the district courts of
the United States, whose judges are Sc
lected under the constitution for their
learning and judicial integrity, and are
usually men of the very highest personal
character. The officers underline Judges
are selected for their ability and eff
cheney, and are such as to add dignity to
the august tribunal to which they are APP
pointedi but the machinery of the law
is so tedious and cumbersome, and the
time required to settle bankrupt estate
so extended, that an ordinary laborer
would almost earn enough topay the debts
of an ordinary case before the petition
is through the courts, and it takes full as
much money as is usually required for
the capital in the business of a country
trader.
This age is one that cannot long SUBJ
nit to such a cumbersome and expen-
sive method of preventing justice. There
is an earnest desire for something cheap
er and better, and we should long ago
have been relieved from its unjust
workings had it not been that some
1'NOS9 "AhOiC " bhSh SiaO laws
in the collection of debts. We have
no doubt that if the attachment laws of
all the States were reduced to some such
equitable system as that of New York,
or to system that whenever a mans
property was placed in the custody of
the law, the avails of it should be ap-
piled equally in payment of all his debts,
that the present costly and cumbersome
bankrupt law could not outlast another
session of Congress, but wholesale trad
ers do not feel that it is justice to them
for the law to leave them at the mercy
of every local Shylock who has a deeper
love for few dollars than for tho sue
cess of commerce or the prosperity of
his fellow men. They feel that they
should at least have this defence, that if
the local creditor must ruin his neigh
Dor, that he shall not gain great adj
vantage by his cupidity. When men
will practice more upon the precepts of
Christian faith. we may hope to see
these oppressive laws repealed, but at
present we can see no way of protecting
the commercial world against oppressive
attachment laws, except by an equally
unjust bankrupt law.
THE WORK OF MORALITY.