The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-08
JUST ONE Per DIEM
THAT'S ALL COUNTY COMMISSION
ERs ARE WILLING TO PAY.
JURORS AND \ OFFICERS
HAVE RECEIVED TWO WHEN
CASES LASTED AFTER . O'CLOCK.

Indications Point 10 the Conclusion
That This Practice VIII BE stop
ped-COunty Commissioners ant
sheriff Schwarz Had a Conference
ON the Subject and the Opinion
Has Been Rendered by County At
torney Camille Says the Plan Ii
Clearly YIIeEaI-Whnt Chairman
Dale Has to Sny-PRyment of PEI
Diems TO BE Kept Down to the Let
ter of the Law.
The County Commissioners have In
stituted a war against the system
which has prevailed in the Superior
and City Courts of paying sheriffs,
deputies, bailiffs and jurors two per
diems for each day when a case con-
tinues in progress later than O'Clock
at night, and the officers and jurors
are kept in the Court House beyond
that hour.
This has been the practice for time
out of mind, and though the commits
sioners, more than a year ago, regis
tered . protest against it, they did not
then succeed in making their protest
good. Now they say they have re-
ceived additional confirmation of their
conviction already entertained that the
practice has no warrant in law and
they seem determined to stop 1t.
A conference has been had between
Sheriff Schwarz and the commission
ers and a report on the subject has
been made by County Attorney George
T. Cam. The conference between the
sheriff and Chairman Dale took place
on Tuesday, while the report of the
county attorney was filed with the
clerk of the board yesterday morning.
The entire matter will be discussed at
the meeting of the commissioners this
afternoon.
The report was prevalent yesterday
that the commissioners meditated a
campaign of retrenchment in county
expenditures all along the line and that
the effort to restrict collections by
court officers and jurors to one per
diem for each day served was but a
part of the general plan.
Chairman Dale was seen at his office
at the Oglethorpe Savings and Trust
Company yesterday and asked If this
rumor were true.
v,
is as yet nothing particularly new in
the situation. The only practice pur-
sued at the court house to which OBJ
lection is now being made is that
which gives to jurors and court Of
GERS two per diems when they are kept
at the court house later than 8 o'clock
at night. Some months ago the board
asked the then county attorney, Mr..
J. r. Saussy, for an opinion on this
u snfo haf hn
day which the law contemplated was
one of twenty-four hours and that the
practice which had been followed was
clearly illegal.
1T had been my impression that it
had been stopped. until learned few
days ago that the contrary was the
case and that jurors and witnesses
were still being paid two per diems for
each day on which they were kept
later than 9 o'clock The board then
asked the present county attorney. Col.
George T. Cam, for an opinion on the
subject. 1t was submitted this morn
ing and though l have yet had no OPP
portunity to read ii, l am informed by
Col. Cam that he has reached the
same conclusion as did Mr.. Saussy-
that the law contemplated a day of
twenty-four hours and that juror or
court officer could not legally be paid
midnight and midnight.
ut is a simple question of law" said
Chairman Dale. IF the law permits
the payment of two per diems in these
cases, why, of course, they will be paid;
if the law does not permit this to be
done, ii Is the duty of the commits
sioners to keep their expenditures down
to the legal limit. The opinion of the
county attorney is that the practice re-
ferred IN is clearly illegal"
Mr.. Dale said that the matter would
probably be discussed fully at the
meeting of the commissioners this az
ternoon and just what action will be
taken will be decided upon then. He
did not predict what this action would
be, but he left the impression that I'M
der the law, as interpreted by the
present county attorney, as well as by
his predecessor in office, there was only
one thing the commissioners could do.
This is to restrict payments TO jurors
and court officers to a single per diem
a day, and that whether the court Is
adjourned finally at IL o'clock in the
morning or at IL o'clock at night
Sheriff Schwarz declined to discuss
the matter at all when he was seen and
asked about it by a Morning News re-
porter, other than to say that the COM
missioners had never informed him
that the practice of paying jurors and
officers two per diems, under the cir
cumstances surrounding this practice
in the past, would be discontinued.
81 will say" said Sheriff Schwarz.
that the Office 1 hold is not what ii
has been and that 1t is not worth what
my friends believe"
Several weeks ago Maj Schwarz
gave a Morning News reporter some
idea of what he was getting from his
office. He stated then that he was so
tied up by obligations made to his po-
litical friends that there was nothing
left for him when the fruits of the Of
flee had been divided among them and
that one month his residue of the pro-
ceeds had been only SIT. For other
months, he said, II had not reached a
much larger figure. If the present plan
of the commissioners is put into effect
and the emolunents of the office from
other sources are not sensibly increas-
ed, the probable result will be that
the sheriff will have to make good some
of his Office expenses out of his own
pocket.
The practice increases the expenses
OF each of the courts between $35 and
S45 each night that a jury stays out
later than 9 o'clock. Just what this
would amount to yearly 1t would per-
haps be difficult to say, but ii is GER
tain that 1t reaches a figure of con-
siderable magnitude. 1t is enough
a.. IL.