The Portland daily press., 1897-02-09

not be left oren go that the whole bag
can be appointed es has been done in
one county. The bill provides that
married women may be cited, but mob
subject to Arrest except for oontemgt.
AS for personal notice which she Dial
abolishes, Mr.. Whitehouse argusd that
seven days notice left at the debtors
placs of residence, ought to be sufficient.
The DILL provides that the commissioners
may conduct all examination OF deb
tors when he does not have an attorney
with him. Mr.. Whitehouse called atten-
tion to the section Of his bills which
provides that the debtor In disclosure
GASES may give a mortgage to the credl-
tor on property he may have outside OF
the ststs subject to the foreclosure laws
OF the state where the property Is located
and regarding the provisions OF Ghe
bill that no one shall be subject TO arrest
for bills under $40 when the oath ls re-
fused by the commissioners. Mr.. Whita-
house said that young lawyers were Cit
ing debtors to disclose when they knew
they had nothing for the purpose OF get
ting fees or on a hope of having the oath
refused.
Mr.. Whitehouse also argued for the
section of the bill compelling commits
sioners to keep records including the
reason for refusing the oath.
Jossrh B. Reed, register of probate OF
Portland, said be could not subscribe to
the idea that tie insolvency law Was
made for the relief of the creditor, but
that 1t was primarially for the relief OF
the poor debtor. He srgued that II the
limit governing the privilege OF lnsol-
vency was raised sbere would be at once
howl of dissatisfaction. Er. Reed said
that he ohHught that the present insol-
vency law had worked well up to tho
present time and that the increase In
insolvency cases is probably due to the
depression in industrial circles.
Then Mr.. Reed said: II recently wrote
man to come IN and pay bill aud
made the usual talk to him when he
came in. He said he was working for
1.25 day and had . wife and two chill
dyen. He finally agreed to pay s3
week. I don't think he will and don'r
not believe in making 1T impossible for
such man to go into insolvency by
making it obligatory for the insolyent
debtor TO deposit S75.
A. r. Merrill of the Waterville board Of
trade, said that the mem bers of that body
could not agree ON the question OF max
ing any change in the insolvency law.
Judge PhiIbrook of Waterville said
that he had been loaded on the snb-
ject for some time and had plan which
would be radical change in the law.
''Whsn l go to the insolvency court am
supposed to dump into the hopper my
real estate and personal property. Now
contend that 1 ought also be Obliged
to put in my future earning capacity to
ncertain extent and under certain limi-
tations. would give the judge of insol-
vency court when he has examined into
the capacity of the debtor the pow
er to stay proceedings and to compel
the debtor to pay dividend before be
can get discharged in insolvency. |
would leave it to the court to modify
his decree in case of sickness
Judge Philbrook said he would elimi-
nate assignees where there are no assets.
Regarding who should examine the
debtor, he said that judge who acted
as an inquisitor could not be in good
judicial frame of mind.
The matter will be further discussed
Today's discussion oocupisd the whole
afternoon.