The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1889-01-10
MARTINS MESSAGE
commune from first paee.

usury, this subject viii, no doubt. re-
ceiye your early and favorable atten-
ton.
MORTGAGE LAWS.
The laws concerning mortgages need /
revision and radical Improvement. 1t
should require something more than a |
mortgage to steal q mans farm, either |
in this or any other state. Appraise-
ment of property before its sale under |
foreclosure should be surrounded with
the most stringent limitations |
to protect the interests of
the debtor, and the right of
redemption should be not only extend
mortgage laws invite outrageS on prop
erty rights that are as fragrant as
grand larceny. and the wrong and in
justice that has been done under the
shield of these laws, is a disgrace to
civilized government. Our mortgage
laws should be generally remodeled, so
as to protect the interests and rights
of debtors and mortgagors against the
greed and inhumanity of creditors and
mortgages.
TRUSTS AND COMBINATIONS.
The declaration of principles
upon which nearly the entire
body of the present legislature
was elected, affirms that ''all
trusts and combinations to monopoliZe
food supplies or control productions,
are dangerous to the interests of the
people. and should be prohibited under
the severest penalties of law; nand spec
ifically mentions. as especially obnoxi-
GUS and destructive to the interests of
all classes, 1.-The trust or combination
of the packing-hOuSeS TO drive out of
business all other butchers. and thus
control the cattle markets, as well as
the supply and prices of dressed meats. -
No subject that has engaged the at
tention of the lawmakers of the
United States for century past is of
such vital Importance to all classes of
so called ''trusts" or combinations OF
capital to control the market supplies
and prices of the country. The real
purpose and effect of these combina-
tions, no matter what they may pre-
tend, is, on the one hand, to fix the
buying prices of raw products without
reference to the rights or interests of
the producer or the public, and, on the
other, to fix the selling price of the
finished product without reference to
the rights of interests of the consumer
and the public. Wherever these
trusts" are organized, competitive
properties and industries are destroyed,
with ruthless system, until the
public is at the mercy of their mana
gers.
Within the last two years several of
the most promising Industries of this
state, including several hnseed oil
mills, plaster paris works, and cracker
| factories, have Wantonly Strangled by
such combinations, to the serious dam
age of the communities in which they
were located, and of the producers of
the materials used by them. Recent
| ly the packing houses have made a
30 g
mess the local butchers in all parts of
the statea nd this effort, successful in
some of our cities and towns, has failed
| in others only because of the firm
action of local authorities.
The most stingent and far
reaching laws should be at once
| enacted to prevent and punish all COM
| binations organized or intended to re-
gulate or fix the price of any products
of the soil. the factory or the workshop,
| and the penalties for violation of
these laws should involve imprisonment
as well as heavy fines. Laws should
also be enacted comforting upon the
municipal authorities of all cities and
towns ample authority to prevent and
punish such combinations, and especi-
ally to protect their local industries
against the rapacious greed of
these destroying free-boOters. Our
senators and representatives in con-
gresS should also be instructed to exert
all their influence in urging the adoption
of national laws having the same OBJ
jects in view. The republic must an
initiate the so-called TRUSTS" uuder
whatsoever name or gulse they may be
organized, or the trusts will sap all the
sources of our national prosperity, and
destroy the republic. The trusts
establish commercial despotism in
the stead of individual skill
and energy, destroy thousands of in
dustries conducted by men of limited
means, restrict or eXtinguiSh personal
enterprise, and deprive the people of
those fair opportunities for the exer-
else of talents, energy and skill which,
for a century past. it has been our
boast, were open to every American
citizen. The trusts" invade every
interest and outrage every right of the
citizen, and establish, whenever and
wherever they are successful in their
aim, despotlsm unequalled for audac-
ity and rapacity in the history of the
worlds commerce.
NOTARIES PUBLIC.
The laws providing for the appoint
ment of notaries public, and defining
their duties should be revised. These
officers are authorized to per-
form many important duties.
They are empowered to ackRowl-
edge conVeyances of real estate, to
take dispositions, and to protest bills of
exchange. bonds and promissory notes.
Their official functions, involving a
vast range of the most important
financial and commercial transactions,
should be discharged with scrupulous
care and eXactneSS. Full and accurate
details of all their official acts should
be kept in books of record. and they
should be required to deposit their
books, at the close of each year, in the
Office of the district clerk. It is true
that the law requires every notary to
keep fair record of his official acts.''
but no penalty is imposed for fall
ure to comply with this require
ment, and it is doubtful whether one
notary in a hundred ever does keep
such records. No limitation is placed
on the number of notaries t. be ap-
pointed, and, as result, every person
who presents petition signed by repu
table citizens known to the executive,
is appointed. There are now over &. 500
citizens of Kansas holding commissions
Inevitably, the loose require
| ments of our laws and the
enormous number of persons empow-
| cred to exercise the functions of no.
taries, lead to a loose and reckless per-
Torrance of notarial duties. In sew
| eral Cases that have engaged the at
| tention of our courts, serious frauds in
| the attestation of conveyanceS and
| other important legal documents, have
been discovered. These instances will
multiply each year, unless the office of
| notary public is made what it ought
to be, an important public trust, the
| duties of which are clearly defined by
law. with severe penalties for their
neglect. The record notaries are re-
quired to keep of their official acts
should be clear and full. 1t should
give, in cOnveyances. the name of the
grantor and grantee, the nature of the
instrument of writing, the property
conveyed, the consideration, the names
of XZitneasaa and all nthar