The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-13
To Receive Increased
 Feed Bills.
ACT IS HELD TO BE VALID
Attorney General Garber Rules on
 Mooted Question.
No sheriff To. Receive Under New Legislative Enactment Less Than Thirty Cents Per Day Per
 Prisoner For Feeding

Attorney General Alex NJ. Garber yesterday Issued his opinion in the mat ter of feed allowances for the sheriffs who furnish provisions to the prisoners in the jails in the several counties The opinion, in substance, holds that the extra allowance granted to the small Jailers is not a fee, but reim- bursement, and State Auditor Brandon will, accordingly pay the extra money under the terms of the bill
 The whole system of feeding prison CTS in this State has been the subject of serious consideration on more than one occasion by legislative bodies but nothing has ever been done, until last summer
 As was pointed out by a State house official yesterday, the increase allowed the sheriffs in counties where the number of prisoners confined is small , was not solely because they really spend that much in substance, but in a measure to pay them for the trouble in looking after the prisoners
 This system Is perfectly fair. it is pointed out. where but few prisoners are held, but in counties like Jeffer~ son, Montgomery, Mobile and other of the larger ones, where the feed bill sometimes run as high as $2.000 per month, the price of thirty cents per day for each man Is considered too
 
 pended by other States.
 Attorney General Garber stated yes- terday that his ruling was entirely according to the law, and in no wise indicates the merits of the contentious as to the justice to small and large feed contractors.
 His opinion, in part, follows:
 Section 1 of the Legislative Act under discussion is as follows:
 Be 1t enacted by the Legislature of Alabama, that the sheriffs shall receive for feeding prisoners in jail under charge or conviction of any in- dictable offense, to be paid by the State according to the following scale, viz: When the number Of prisoners does not exceed five, for each prisoner forty cents per day; when the number of prisoners exceeds five and does not exceed ten. for each prisoner thirty seven and one half cents per day; when the number of prisoners exceeds ten and does not exceed twenty. for each prisoner thirty-five cents per day; when the number of prisoners exceeds twenty for each prisoner thirty cents per day
 This section operates as an amend ment of one of the items of section 45s5 of theyPenal Code of 1896. which deals with sheriffs fees and allow ances in criminal cases The particu- lar fee or allowance affected is that one which entities sheriffs to thirty cents for each day for feeding each prisoner in jail under charge or com victfon for any indictable offense to be paid by the State
 Tt is to be observed that neither the term fee nor the term allowance is used in section 1 of the fecent Act above quoted. but this section being in effect an amendment of section 4565 of the Code, 1t is reasonable to assume that the Legislature intended the in- creased charges allowed to sheriffs for feeding prisoners to be construed in like maner as the terms used in the Code to designate these charges.
 The first question for decision is to determine whether the amounts to be received by the sheriffs for feeding prisoners is a fee or an 'allowance.' It is of no consequence that the title of the Act employees the expression sThe fees of sheriffs,' no such express sion being used in the boe5 of the Act.
 Fees are a reward or wages given to one as compensation for his labor and trouble for the execution of his office or profession. So in the case of Harbor Master. etc, vs. Southerland, 47 Ala. SIT, the court held that the meaning of the word fee Is a recom- pense allowed by the law of officers for their labor and trouble. On the other hand, the term allowance has been frequently distinguished from the term salary or 'compensation Man gum vs. Brooklyn 50 Am. Reports 7O5. In this case the court states we have yet to discover any employment of the word allowance by lawmakers or others which Is the exact equivalent of either of the words salary or com pensation.'
 This distinction can also be applied with equal force to the word fees The word allowance means. according ao Webster, TO put upon allowance.