The Pulaskian., 1917-02-09
WOULD CHANGE
 BANKRUPTCY LAW
TEXANS SEE MANY PLACES WHERE CHANGES SHOULD BE MADE-PREFERS PRESENT
 ONE TO NONE AT ALL.

Beaumont, Tex, Feb. G. - The wholesalers of Texas seem to be un- animous in the retention of some kind of bankruptcy law but are solidly of the opinion that the present one needs some desirable amendments. Ii this cannot be done they are in favor of repeating it entirely and have new one enacted which will cover the ground more thoroughly and, if pos sible, make the expense less.
 I Tn the opinion of local wholesaler, who attended meeting of whole salers at Nashville, one of the most desirable amendments would be the appointment of an attorney by the court to look after the interests of all the creditors without their being fore ed tG the necessity of employing indi- vidual lawyers which makes heavy expense that should be borne by all alike He pointed out that it is ire quently the case where one creditor has almost absolute proof that the bankrupt is not acting exactly square with his creditors but his claim is for small amount and he does not feel l justified in going to the trouble and f expense Of hiring a lawyer to look up the trouble and uncover the irregular ities Others find themselves in the same condition with the result that the bankrupt defrauds his creditors as d whole and gets a whitewashing, as it were, from the court, by discharge from bankruptcy. This not only causes miscarriage of justice in the case involved but acts as an incentive to others to try to avoid their just obli- gations with the result that every cir cult court is often crowded with shady petitions, but of not sufficient inter est to anyone to expose them.
 Would Make Attorney Court Officer.
 It is the opinion of the wholesalers that the attorney should be made court officer in the same manner as a referee His fee should be paid out of 1 the assets and in this manner each one would pay in proportion to the amount of proteetionehe has received 1 against fraud. An able attorney could be employed at a nominal fee in each case were he assured of the 1 regular employment of the court in that respect for year He could be required to look into the legality of the proceedings of a bankrupt who listed no assets in the same manner as the other officers of this branch of l the federal court, evening up on bank ruptcies where assets were available.
 This is deemed absolutely neces- sary for the protection of wholesal- CTS from the small merchants, it is said The largest concerns usually owe some concern a sufficient amount to justify a thorough tab on the pro- ceedlngs while the little fellow has it dribbled out in small amounts from one end of the country to the other. This makes it particularly hard on the merchant in New York doing busi- ness in Texas, or vice versa.
 The wholesalers as a body. agree l that something should be done with out delay, but when it comes to point ing out the exact trouble and suggest ing an effective remedy, they disagree with the result that they cannot pre- sent a solid front to the lawmakers and demand what they want.
 Do Not Want Assignment Law. They agree on one thing and that is they do not want to return to the old assignment law like the mer- chants formerly resorted to in Texas i The preferred creditor left the foreign merchant out in the cold and he rare ly got a cent for his claim Frequent ly people whose claims would hardly hold good under the bankruptcy law got all the assets and there was no remedy. It left wide open door for collision in trumping up fake claims and the amount of crooked work ex- posed in the bankruptcy court con- vinces the wholesalers that merchants are not wanting who would resort to this method of ultimately obtaining possession by legal means of that which belonged to their creditors. By this method the assets often rotated around among the family instead of the creditors.
 Result of Unconditional Repeal.
 It is felt that an unconditional re- peal of the bankruptcy law as has been threatened in some quarters would mean a flood of involuntary bankruptcies at the present time. While it is possible to reopen the case after bankrupt has been discharged. if is much moro frouhIacona thop would be the case where merely an as signment was made to some preferred creditor and the old debts still hang ing over the creditor Often there are men who become involved in debt through accommodation paper and other means who have no assets but