The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-28

ner state for the voluntary bankruptcy
 business. It is a remarkable fact that
 in the whole state of New York the num- Der of voluntary petitions in bankruptcy
 filed for the year ending September 9O
 1905 exceeds the number filed at Birming-
 ham alone by only 491.
 There Is a reason for this and the re-
 port. commenting on the large showing
 made by Alabdma, says: More or less
 complaint has arisen in the state of Ala
 bama, where local conditions are almost entirely to blame. Under @ state statute affecting the right to attach or garnishee
 the wages or salary of the laborlng class hundreds of poor unfortunates, with total
 liabilities in many instances less than $500, have been driven to seek relief un- der the federal law as a matter of self preservation. Of total of 2655 voluntary cases throughout the United States in
 which fees were not paid at the time of the institution of the proceedings 873 of such petitions were from the Northern district of Alabama while In only 19o cases were the fees paid; in the Middle district of the state there were 90 cases not paid out of total of 157 cases filed. Furthermore Alabama has almost inva- riably shown more cases filed in forma pauperis than any other state or several states of the union."
 The greatest abuse of the bankruptcy law is in these voluntary petitions, where the liabilities are not over few hun dred dollars and the assets generally nothing. It probably explains why there Is among business men and commercial bodies here such a prejudice against the operation of the law, while it seems that business men and commercial bodies in the north favor keeping the law on the statute books In other words. the bank ruptcy law has been seen in It's worst features, and in all its defects in its op- eration in Alabama, and especially in Bir- mlngham. This is owing, as intmated above, to the Alabama laws allowing garnishments and to the peculiar local conditions existing here in Birmingham, among which may be included high living expenses and a large negro population. However, this seems an anomalous con- dition in view of the prosperity of this district and the high rate of wages paid laborers.
 It is pleasing to note that the number of voluntary petitions filed has decreased almost each year since the enactment of the law, and this decrease will no doubt continue from year to year. There has been yearly a marked decrease in the number of voluntary petitions filed in the United States clerks office at Birming- ham.
 Other information of general interest is contained in the report Out of 10,995 vol untary cases. S2D were filed by farmers, 5426 by wage earners, 3505 by merchants, BPS by manufacturers, 136 by professional men and 7S0 by contractors, real estate
 men and persons in other walks of life. The striking feature of these statistics Is the large number of merchants who fall fin business They show that the farmer lives comparatively easy, but that the merchant very often falls to make good.
 Taking into consideration the fact that the merchants are only small per cent of the wage earners. the latter seem to he able to take care of their affairs about as well as the average business man. The reason why so many merchants bankrupt
 is probably because so many men em- bark in merchandise pursuits with small
 capital and no experience whatever. Their inexperience and want of capital, coupled with a liberal extending of credit to GUS tornars soon finds them ready to turn over the remnants of their assets to the bankruptcy court for distribution among creditors Professional men who bank rupted in 1905 only number 136 winch proves. either that they manager their affairs prudently. or that they can make peace with importunate creditors Wlth- out resorting to the bankrupt court Tn s515 cases closed, the average assets realized were s1234 each and the average liabilities s15, 6S4: in 44s0 cases there were no assets realized whatever.
 The report of the involuntary cases shows that merchants lead with 1066 pe- titions filed against them as against against professional men; 174 against manufacturers. and the remainder against persons and corporations engaged in oth- CT kinds of business.
 Whatever the defects of the bankruptcy law. 1t is conceded that It is a necessity and very much to be preferred as against the imperfect and varying insolvency laws of the different states.