Morning journal and courier., 1883-01-31
The Sargent BIll.

tfTOHa the NOFWlC0 bu1IeI1nI
 The Sargent bill SO called. regarding the Legislature, is attracting good deel of at tention just at present. As we understand it. the bill is intended to prevent creditor from attaching the wages of any person in his debt, unless they shall have been due for at least forty days. The wages of work man, paid promptly once week or oftener, would, under this law, never become liable to attachment. A law contemplating such a change as this ought to be serutinized care fully before it is passed.
 Under the present law, the wages of an employe are exempt from attachment to the amount of $1O, if he is single man, and to the amount of $25, if he is married. This is in the case Of an ordinary debt. Even in the case of debt for personal board his wages are exempt to the amount of 8, by a law passed at the last legislative session. Fur thermore, by another law passed last year, the creditor cannot obtain costs amounting to more than one-hslf the sum recovered on the debt.
 The costs, even in the simplest case, can hardly be less than $6. and are liable to be much more, rather than any less.
 In case of small bill it is easy to see how completely the creditor is, even now, at the mercy of his debtor. Suppose his bill is $5. He may recover the whole of it, but he can get only half that sum in costs, l. G., 2.50. He will get, in judgment and costs, $7. 50, and the process will have cost him, at the lowest possible computation, $6-with his attorney bill yet unpaid. If the debtor makes the slightest resistance the costs will be largely increased. They can easily be doubled or even quadrupled, if the debtor is at all anxious to make trouble. &a
 In other words, a tradesman cannot collect small bill from an unwilling creditor under the present law without paying, in costB as much if not Q good deal more than the bill amounts to. In addition the debtor has always the right of making assignment. It certainly seems as if the poor but honest workingman was pretty well lprotected. And we do not understand that 1t is the duty or the wish of the Legislature to protect the poor but dishonest man, be he workingman or anything else.
 As ninety-nine out of every hundred estab- ishments pay their employees with reasonable promptness, at least as often as once a month, the effect of the Sargent bi1l, if 1t should become law, would be to put all wages beyond the reach of attachment. It would take from the tradesmen with whom an employe asks for credit the last power be has to collect his bill. The ifnMediate and necessary result of this would be to :prevent the tradesman from giving credit in any case where he has the least doubt S to the vii ingness or the ability of the applicant to pay. - '1al1ss--1
 10 the workman who always pays cash and is never sick or out of a job this would be little of a hardship. But there are few men of any class who can always pay cash. There are times when the most ssfore- -handedn are anxious for little accommodation. In so far as this goes the proposed law would seem to promise increased hardships to the work ing classes without any appreciable benefts to offset them. l72u$7=sa43 3si-ss s%z1 3 The majority of the petitioners for the change seem to be manufacturers- The rea- soTl f0r their anxiekv can ba 6asiIv es,OTI oh understood. The serving of copying pro cesses on them is considerable annoyance, and they would be glad to be rid of 1t. They have. without doubt, ample excuse for wish ing the whole system changed But store keepers and merchants and workingmen themselves have interests in the matter which must be consulted pG
 There is perhaps room for debate as to the exact purport of the bill It certainly should not be allowed to pass until the whole field has been canvassed. Our columns are open to any fair discussion of the matter.