The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-28
A PROTEST..
From the Ordinary and Clerk of
ChattahOOchee County.

From the Ordinary and Clerk of
ChattahOochee County.
Cusseta, Ga. Oct. 25.-Editor Morn
ing News: have just read with much
interest your editorial and comments
in yesterdays paper. on what you
term Gambler Valedictory." l note
with special interest the latter part of
your comments, wherein you call at
tention to the following language of
of the Governor. ut has been alleged
that in some instances prosecuting Of
ficers and court officials who profit by
this practice of collecting the hire of
this class of convicts and dividing the
money out among themselves in pay
ment of inSolvent costs have a capital
understanding with some of the les
sees of misdemeanor conVictS. and
that such court officials are virtually
recruiting officers for private chain
gangs" AS you state this is indeed a
reflection upon court officers. and as
no such practice is carried on in this
county / feel constrained to protest so
far as this county is concerned, &C.
cupying as l do dual capacity. that
of Ordinary and Clerk of Superior
Court. By reason of being Ordinary and
having control of county affairs, | have
the hiring of all misdemeanor convicts,
and by reason Of being clerk l am
interested in all money applied as in
solvent costs. l have given the matter
considerable thought, and upon
careful examination of the law. the
same is as clear to my mind as are
the ten commandments. Section 1897
Penal code of 1895. reads as follows:
when a county hires out convicts,
the money received as compensation
for their labor shall be applied to the
payment of the fees of the officers of
court, including justices and consta-
bles who rendered services in such
cases, and to the witnesses fees, and
the balance shall be paid into the
county treasury for county purposes"
1t will he seen that if the law is COM
piled with as provided in the above
it will be greatly to the interest of
the officers of court for all misdemean-
or convicts to pay their fines, as in that
event all the money paid in as such
legally goes to insolvent cost BILL
whereas in case convicts are
hired out the only money go
ing to officers from such hire
is the actual cost in the case
thus hired out. and the balance is
to be paid into the county treasury
for county purposes. To illustrate, at
two misdemeanor men who did not
pay their fine, consequently were hir-
ed by the undersigned to the Eufaula
Brick Manufacturing Co, located near
Georgetown in Quitman County, for
the sum of 5000. Out of this sum the
solicitor general was paid SAL clerk
1895, sheriff S.. justice and constable
1895; total cost in two cases S64 90
paid county treasury $1S5.10. Now 1
believe the court officials of Georgia
all to be men of honesty and integrity,
and want to do exactly what is right
and legal, and If they construe the law
as do, they can and only will deduct
the cost in the identical cases hired out,
and turn the balance in to the county
treasury and not apply it to insolvent
cost bills. When / first investigated
this matter l wrote to the Honorable
S. P. Gilbert, solicitor general of this
circuit, for his opinion and he wrote
me that my construction of the law
was in his opinion correct. but added
that he did not know another circuit
in the state that practiced it. Now.
Mr.. Editor, I write this much in de-
Tense of the court officials of this
county, to show to the public that the
Governor could not and did not have
in mind this county or this circuit
when he wrote his "valedictory''
F. NJ Gordy
Ordinary and Clerk Superior Court,
| Chattahoochee County, Ga.