The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1909-02-11

Charlotte Observer.

Charlotte Observer.
The billintroducedi into the Legisla-
ture by Representative Kendrick, OF
CASTOR, contemplating a constitu-
tional amendment which, with some
secondary provisions, shall reduce
the real property exemption from
thousand dollars to five hundred
dollars and the personal property
exemption from five hundred dollars
to two hundred dollars. has and de.
serves many friends. The merchants
OF tho State have long been desirous
of reduced exemptions, and, notwith-
standing a provision that no mer-
chant be allowed any exemption out
OF his merchandise or stock in
trade, the merchants appear to favor
the Kendrick bill very cordially.
This apparent discrimination
against merchants is, in an impor-
tant sense, really a discrimination
for them; it's prospective working
may be used to illustrate the truth
that exemption laws cut more WAYS
thar one. By as much as a mans
property is made exempt from legal
process, by just SO much except for
whatever influence his reputation
may exert, has his credit on unsecured
note or open account been diminish
ed. The result OF large exemptions
in North Carolina and every other
State tolerating them necessarily is
that the mortgage comes into almost
dc, off m
tons which in States more enlighten-
ed on this score could be completed
with some simple acknowledgment
OF Indebtedness requires the clumsy
and expensive mortgage to clear
away the exemption. Business suffers
much from the sheer Inconvenience
which a law encouraging the repudia-
ton OF debt inflicts. Credit condi-
tions for the average man, no matter
what his occupation, would be better
from one end OF North Carolina to
the other il the present reputation
encouraging provision in the consti-
tuition Of 1868 were amended as pro-
posed. The State as a whole would
benefit greatly in consequence.
OF course there will always be ways
whereby debtors can make the collec-
ton of many just debts difficult or
impossible though amply able to
pay-often though spending money
freely, living on a much more ex-
pensive scale than their creditors
and perhaps really well-to-do; but
the law should frown upon rather
than abet dishonesty. In numerous
cases dishonesty could not be success
full without the aid of the law. With
all allowance for such bad debts as
are due to folly for spinelessness
in extending credit, we feel strong
sympathy for the merchant whose
INSCRIPTIONS creditors, favorites of
the law, snap their fingers in his very
face.
The present homestead and person
al property exemption Of North
Carolina, while not by any means
the largest in the Union, is one Of the
large ones. 1t belongs to a period
when a desperately hard pressed and
almost crushed people were endeavOr
| ing to start the new life before them
with the very fewest encumbrances
possible. Any mission which it may
ever have had is at an end, and it
survives merely as O nuisance The
Kendrick bill leaves the exemption
still rather larger than otherwise and
can certainly cause no honest debtor
the slightest hardship. And the pro.
posed change, involving a constitu.
tiOnal amendment, must be voted
on by the people. The Legislature
will do itself no little credit fit takes
| affirmative action.