The Rice belt journal., 1916-11-03
SAYS FEE PLAN IS
NOT ABOLISHED
Clerk Mecom of Caldwell Parish Oh.
jects to Amendment.

sltlon to the proposed constitutional
amendment abolishing the fee system
for sheriffs, assessors and clerks of
court:
Columbia, La, Oct. %, 1916.
Editor Shreveport Times:
"It is stated and claimed by some
that the fee system will be abolished
by Acts 142 and 143 of 1916, if the
proposed amendment to Article 129
Of the constitution is carried at the
November election; such statement
and claim is grossly misleading and
does not give the public a fair and
impartial presentation of the case.
"The fact is, that Acts 142 and 143
do not abolish the fee system, nor
has the fee bills for the clerks and
Sheriffs been changed or reduced in
a single instance. All persons who
have business with either of these
officials must continue to pay fees at
the same price, and in the same man.
ner as at the present, and to pay in
cash as they go. Under the proposed
salary basis the clerks and sheriffs'
Offices will be under the supervision
of the state supervisor of public ac-
counts, and these officers will be held
to strict accounting for all fees COL
lected through them, therefore, the
public must give good and solvent
bond or pay cash, as it goes, and it
matters not how meritorious a char
ity might be, neither the clerk nor
sheriff will be allowed, under penalty
to remit his fees in any case, either in
whole or in part.
"Act 142 does not place all the
clerks of court on salary basis, but
specifically excepts the parishes of
Orleans, Concordia, Assumption, Cam
eron, LaSalle, st. John the Baptist,
West Baton Rouge, St. Charles, Cata-
houla, st. Helena, West Carroll and
West Feliciana, yet the people of these
twelve parishes, being in no manner
affected by the proposed salary basis,
will vote on the amendment, and say
whether or not the remaining public
of the state and the remaining clerks
of the state shall have the proposed
law. The people of these twelve par
ishes being as they are unaffected
and withol,t interest and the legisla-
tion being local in character and ap-
| believe their sense of JUS
tice of those affected will cause them
to either vote against the amend
ment or not to vote at all.
"Under the proposed salary plan,
the sheriffs' and clerks expense ac-
counts are in some measure depend
ent upon the will of the judge of the
court and the president of the police
jury, therefore, instead of keeping the
judicial elections free from politics,
as was sought to be done when these
elections were changed so as to be
held in the autumn, and after the
general election, it creates a strong in
centive for the sheriffs and clerks and
their partisan friends to get actively
into the judicial campaigns. The
same applies to the elections of police
jurors and particularly to the selec-
tion of the president of the police jury.
"The proposed salary plan is fur
ther Objectionable for the reason that
it is local in character, fixing the sal
ary in in one parish and different
salary in another, yet uncertain, hap
hazard salary in each parish, while in
the twelve parishes above mentioned
it fixes no salary at all. If we are to
place these officers on salary, let
that salary be uniform, fixed and GER
tain throughout the state, and what
ever grading is to be done. let it be
done in expense accounts. Why should
any clerk or sheriff get better sal
ary than the judges of the district
courts? If the public must continue
to pay fees, and if the sheriffs and
clerks are now receiving excessive
fees, let the state reduce them and
not continue a practice and claim an
interest in a practice that it has prac-
tically said is both legally and morally
wrong. The salary plan is further OBJ
jectionable for the reason that it is
an attempt to break the states con-
tract, then existent, when her public
servants were elected last April.
1.-THE state may by legal suit, but
not by moral right, violate the con-
tract between it and its public serv-
ants, but it can with perfect fidelity
70 all concerned write new and dit-
ferent contract properly promulgated
and published to advance and made
effective only when its servants have
been elected Hereunder.
'The better course for Louisiana is
to call a constitutional convention,
when this and many other important
measures now up for amendment, can
be, without so much patchwork, orig
inally written into organic law of the
state. With the hope that this will