Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-02-28

AT last evenings session of the Coun-
Gil Committee on Ordinances a commit
tee of business men were present to ask
that an ordinance be drawn and rec
commended to Council for adoption re-
curing the City Clerk or other proper
city official, to answer garnishee pro-
ceedings against city employees and Of
ficers, for the collection of debts due
business men.
This matter has been brought before
successive Councils for years, but moth
ing definite was ever done, as the State
law, while not forbidding the city to
answer such proceedings, does not re-
qulre it to do so, and as a matter of
practice it has thus been practically
impossible to collect anything from
debtor in city employ.
The committee, through Mr.. Strobel
and others, stated its case, among 9th
er things it being said that a man
would sometimes contract a debt at
grocery or other place of business, urg-
ing sickness or some other sufficient
cause for credit, and then, after get
ting into the employ of the city, would
calmly ignore the debt, and the cred
itor was pOwerless. They asked that
the city make answer to garnishees,
and that then it would be good thing
all around
This proposition was objected to by
members of the Committee, who stated
that while they had no objections to
answering such proceedings as far as
debts contracted while the debtor was
actually in the service of the city, it
would scarcely be proper to make the
proceedings cover all old debts, as it
would simply often mean the transfer
of the officer or employees salary to
creditors, constables and justices,
while the family of the debtor would
have nothing to live upon, and in this
connection it was pointed out that on
the Ohio side of the river, at the mills
and big factories, men earning a dollar
and a quarter day were garnisheed
by the hundred at every pay, and that
the fees in each case amounted to be-
tween nine and ten dollars, or more
than one weeks wages, and as a result
the men and their families got nothing,
the debt was not materially reduced,
and the workmen, often first-class men,
simply quit, as they made about as
much money doing nothing as while
WI htuS. IloIdIlCto were given Wu6I0
creditors were merciless, and eXacted
the last cent. sometimes where men
whose only fault was that they were
poor, had large families depending up
on them and had sickness besides.
In reply to this several members of
the committee stated that as far as
they knew there was no such DISPOSE
ton in this city to push poor men, and
that the costs, at any rate, here were
only about half as much as in Ohio.
Two members of the committee stated
that they would personally be glad to
make any arrangement with creditors
for payments of a dollar or even fifty
cents every pay day, on account, but
that sometimes debtors, relying upon
the immunity they enjoyed, deliberately
repudiated a just debt, and there was
no recourse for creditors.
After long and full discussion, the
Council Committee instructed the SOlic-
itOr to report an ordinance requiring
the city to answer for debts contracted
while the debtor was in the employ of
the city, but not extending to old &C
counts of any sort.
A resolution was also adopted re-
questing the Finance Committee to set
aside sufficient money to compile the
city ordinances uD to date and print
five hundred or more copies of the new
volume. The present ordinance book
was printed in 1891, and is naturally q
little behind the age, there being as
many ordinances out of it as are in it.