Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-03-14
NOTHING TO BRAa OF.

The Register has been full of person
al comment, presumably personally
clipped by the person who owns the
Register, from republican exchanges,
giving:the state senator for this dis
trict a'wdnderful lot of taffy and great
ly exaggerating the good done by the
late legis lature.
AS our readers have never had much
hopes that the senator would do very
much for his constituents they are not
greatly disappointed; and it is not
worth while to enter into detail OF
the side he took on matters of import
ance to the farmers Of Kansas.
Suffice to say he tried to be ON the win
ming side so as to make out that he
had done something. He promised the
voters to work for many needed laws.
among them the interest law. The
following from the Kasas Ear7ner will
show the good (p) of the law our state
senator helped TO pass. The Farmer is
farmers paper, and has the interests
of farmers at stake-as only by advanc-
ing those interests can the paper
succeed. It says:
There was but little general legisla-
tiOn, at least three-fourths of the bills
passed being Of local or personal char
acter. The constitution specifically
provides that ''in all cases where gem
eral law can be made applicable, no
special law shall be enacted, - yet we 20
on from season to season enacting
special laws for townships or school
districts, or cities, or counties, Or
notaries public, Justices of the Peace,
etc, when SO per cent. of the cases
could be covered by a general law.
The practice is bad one in every re-
spect. We ought to have commission
to examine all proposed legislation, at
any rate all Of special character,
before it is submitted to the legislature.
In that way all meriterious cases could
be provided for by general laws, and
those without merit would be thrown
out. If the legislature were relieved
OF the pressure for local and special
legislation, it would have. ample time
to consider all general bills brought
before 1t. OF the 1856 bills introduced
this season but little short of 1000
were special.
The interest question was fought
over inch by inch. There was strong
lobby opposing any change in the law.
The senate spent several days on it,
and the house had two long debates on
the penalty clauses. The two houses
disagreed and a conference committee
finall..' settled the difference by elimin-
ating about everything the house had
insited upon. As finally passed, the
bill does not prohibit usury; it makes
the legal rate 6 per cent. when no
rate is contracted for, and it allows
the parties to contract for any rate
they please, but in case the matter gets
into court, mo person shall recover in
any court more than 10 per cent"
The penalty clause is found in this
proviso:
P1Orided, That any peron SO con-
tracing for greater rate of interest
than 10 per cent. per annum shall for
felt all interest so contracted for in ex-
cess of such 10 per cent; and in addi-
tion thereto shall forfeit sum of
money, to be deducted from the
amount due for principal and lawful
interest, equal to the amount of interest,"
contracted for in excess of 10 per cent.
per annum.
The forfeit is the excess of interest
above 10 per cent. and lin addition to
that, an equal amount deducted from
what is due at 10 per cent. To illus
trate: Say principal is 800, rate IL per
cent. time one year. The amount in
that case would be s112, an excess of
81 above what would be the amount at
10 per cent. That 81 is thrown out,
and like sum (s2) is deducted, not
from the principal, but from the
amount of principal and intrest COM
puted at 10 per cent. which is S11O.
The amount collected would be SOS.
which is per cent. above the legal
rate. The language is adroitly used.
Another important bill is that in re-
sponse to request Of the railroad COM
missieners, asking for power to enforce
their orders. The bill provides penal
ties for failure to comply; but it ap-
plies only to matters concerning depots,
side tracks, switches, ETC., and has no
application to freight rates. Half a
dozen localities may want changes in
their depot facilities, and the companies
are punished if they do not promptly
comply with the recommendations of the
board. The people of the entire state