The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-01-15
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
CONSTITUTIONAL REF0RMs-THE sul-
WEIR BILL-A REPLY TO A MEMBER
or THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
superHnSus OHicIals ls-Amendments to the
C1de Of Pre- rtiee.

Edifoy Demorat- A member of the General
Assembly. in this mornings issue calls for
specific suggestions on measures Of reform.
to be acted upon by the present Legislature,
and you have kindly offered your columns for
such purpose.
His No G--Is In regard to supertluous
offices. All Offices connected with port charges
In New Orleans might be abolished. and with
them the port charges, all inspection officers
and their fees. These arc an Incubus on the
trade OF this city
His No. There never was my reason why
the assessor should be paid on the amount of
taxes levied nor really on the value Of the
property assessed. In the first place, his sal
alary would increase or decrease as the rate
of taxation should be increased Or decreased;
and secondly, it Is no more work for him to
ASSESS the ST. Charles Hotel than little cot
| tage, or q vacant lot, not worth 800. Paying
| by a rate depending on the amount OF the as
eess;rnent leads to Hn over or fictitious assess-
ment. The writer knows of an instance Of
over $2.00OOO0 fictitious assessment in one
| case. and over $4,000 over assessment in an
other On these the assessor received his per-
CrItage, which was total loss to the State
as the State could not collect the taxes
But my experience has been that true re-
form Is not accomplished to any great extent
by nbolisling offices or cutting down salaries.
| A few Thousand dollars may be saved and ms
| many ten thousands lost by the business not
being properly attended to. The policy, ON
the whole, is tho penny wise and pound fool
ish policy. The aim should be to effect inn
provement in the methods of adfninistra-
| ton nf the various departments of govern
mont; to substitute the reaper for the sickle,
| the cotton gin for the hand method,
In 1926 u project for Code Of Procedure
| the Code Of Pragtice) was drawn up and
adopted. 1t was the first attempt in America,
and has after many years been adopted rs the
ground work Of Codes Of Procedure In most of
| the States of the Union. Three or four States
only now use the old common law forms. All
| the others have Codes Of Procedure based on
| the Louisiana Code Of Practice, following ii
section by section, but with vast improve
ments. Our Code Of Practice as Mr.. Rose
| li,is said to his law class, twenty-five years
ago or more. was in reality no Code OF Prar-
| tce ut all, only a frame work upon which to
build one-othrr States have improved In tho
| building.
As lmrties to suits now are legal witnesses,
SO amend the Code that each allegation Of
| fact land Prof. Roseus laid down the rule
| that ii was bad pleading tO mike an allegh-
| tion Of law, he made specific and distinct, and
| be taken as true if sworn to hy the plaintiff,
| unless specifically denied under oath by the
defendant In nine cases out OF ten there
would be no disputed faets in the case, and no
taking OF testimony sllmlnohlng of witnesses.
and their loss Of time in attendance day after
| day. This would be economy by q new ma
chine, and one found To he effective, whenever
| tried. A change in about three articles Of tho
| Code Of Practice would effect this Only de-
PENDANTS desiring to defer collection Of debts
would object: and the labor Of the courts.
from the Supreme Court down, would be re-
duced one-ha1f. and consequently one-hAlf the
courts could be dispensed with and their sala-
| ries saved. E.1 4 @+
Again. most States who have adopted our
| Cod, of Practice. with improvements. have
| changed the mode of citation, giving II to any
| constable or deputy sheriff, or any individual
| not party in interest, in this case the party
serving the citation TO make affidavit of The
| form and manner. OF service all copies Of
pnpers being made In the Offices Of the rtspec-
| tive attorneys by their clerks, under their
supervision and for one-fourth the cost now
paid the clerks and sberiffs. The amendment
| of dozen articles would accomplish this !;
| three-fourths Of the costs on the average in
all suits would be saved; ltigants and stu
| while obtaining n practice aud learning their
| profession. Now many lawyers get their
practice from deputy clerks instead Of know
| ing il themselves or teaching their students
A bill, printed by the New Orleans Bar Asso-
citation several years ago, will accomplish all
this: but two successive Republican Legisla-
lures refused to consider it, though the
amendments were Of Northern origin.
Ii this Is acceptable, in another article, will
be exhibited another REFORM namely, I'm re-
gard to the old cumbrous machinery for tho
transfer Of real estate Our system is so
ancient that the memory of nun rlnneth not
to the contrary. BY it the cost Of the trans
fer of lot Of ground worth $50 Is SIS. In
most other States, from twenty-five to fifty
cents is the cost, except the cost Of registering.
In all other States the Legislature has fixed
to I'll up than is required to fill up nm appeal
bond The acknowledgement Of the signatures
before ~ proper officer, and the recording and
Hl Is done A. LEGAL REFORatER.