Birmingham age-herald., 1895-08-20
GARNISHM ENT.
To the Age-Herald:

To the Age-Herald:
 In the columns of a morning daily of this city a few days since appeared a communication signed Merchant" which was a. somewhat labored comment of an adverse character upon the actions in stituted against three prominent jus- tices of the peace and notaries public" for violating the garnishment law.
 The writer of this article has no desire to enter into newspaper controversy upon this or any other subject, but feels called upon as one of the commonest sorh of the common people of the land to give expression to the sincere hope that "Mer- chant" (so signed) does not, in his pub lshed opinion, reflect the conservative thought of the business community of this city.
 The writer is opposed to any construc- tion of law that would permit a debtor to eVade the payment of just dues wheE he is able to discharge the same in any degree, and at the same time he believes that it is a greater infraction of the law and morally far more pernicious prac- tice to use the statutes of the land as a cloak for imposition and extortion by officers charged with the sacred duty of rendering decisions in appeals to their ar bitrament.
 l do not propose to discuss the details ol lIe lliulclHleIllS contained In the war rants upon Which the several justices and notaries have been invited to appear be- Tore the judge of the inferior court and render an accounting, nor would under take or presume in advance of a decisionJ or that honorable court to pronounce the yerdice that would, upon the alleged facts, appear to be eminently proper and retributive
 The question as to whether the law of me land has been violated is the only one at issue This cry of "commissary" has nothing to do with it. A law-abiding community will insist upon the fulfill ment or the law and a close observance of the same, as much so on the part of the public officials as on the part of the common masses of the common people,
 Only last year it was alleged that the law was in danger of violation by body or Workingmen, who took public issue on questions of difference with certain in- corporated employers of labor. As a re- suit the civil and military powers of the state were drawn upon to their limit to act as preventative to the threatened infraction. Now, when these same work lngmen are persecuted by alleged mis- direction of official and judicial powers weakly cry goes up against a propo- sltlon to have an accounting before a tribunal where law rendered by com petent judge, shall pass upon serious charges of official misconduct From the
 
 seem that all the civil and military power of the state, lavishly exercised, could not operate as a preventative to the violation of the laws for the collection of debts as exemplified in the edicts issuing from the temples of some of the magistrates and notarieS of the land.
 What is the law of garnishment? As l understand it. it is a provision in the statutes prescribing lawful methods for the collection of debts. If the law is of such character that it enables an honest man to honestly collect an honest debt no one should find fault herewith But if the law is one that presumably aims at such remedy, yet is used as an oiling apparatus to make the revenue machin- cry of the court run at record-breaKlng speed, it is time for the conservative element of all classes of the people to devote attention to the question and study remedies for the evils arising from the defect in the law.
 Is it to the interest of the wise and conservative merchants of the city to prosecute and harass the labor upon which the city depends for it's business? Is it to the interest of the merchants to have the law so construed by the jus tices and notaries as to result in making it pay day every day" with the great majority of the laborers of the country? Is it to the interest of the merchants of the city to uphold a pernicious system of wholesale garnishments against la borers, whereby the latter, in dread of the writ, hie them to the timekeeper with every setting of the sun, and make a draft upon the commissary? How many of the merchants of the city would be willing to advertise. that the law of gafnishment was the first rule of their establishments?
 Merchant seems to apprehend that the Louisville and Nashville Railroad company and "Col Dave Brown" have lurking interest in the operations which Mir Thomas G. Hewlett has undertaken, by way of reforming some of the mag istracy of the land.
 Perhaps so. If the Louisville Railroad company and "Col. Dave Brown" have ever been under the ban for aught done in the past the conservative people of the country will be much inclined to mod fly the severity of sentence by granting benefit of the clergy, should they second the efforts of MT Hewlett to a consum- nation of practical reform.
 God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform"
 OBSERVER. ' Notice.