Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-01-04
HUGE INCREASED BUSINESS FOR
 CIRCUIT CLERK
Forty Per Cent Additional Work With Same Force,
 Same Pay

Along with other Jefferson coun- ty institutions showing a big increase in the volume of business and profits in 1919 is the circuit clerks office. But there the slnl- larity ceases. For while other in- stitutions and enterprises show in creased costs of operation, due to the payment of higher wages and salaries, additional employees and higher costs of materials or merchandise. the circuit clerks of- flee operated with the same force on the same salary basis in effect eight or 10 years ago when there was enacted the law placing the officials of Jefferson county on a salary basis, and providing that fees collected by them be paid into the county treasurer.
 So, while people in private es tablishments have demanded short CT hours and more pay, the county officials have plugged along extended themselves, worked long CT hours, taken care of the ln- creased business, and the addition al profits go into the public fund;
 This information is obtained from the figures, compiled for the first annual report of Circuit Clerk S. F. Vaulx, to be filed with Circuit Judge w. B. Sorrells this week. Mir. Vaulx's report will show that his first year in office has been followed by a 40 per cent in crease in business over that of 1918, and that the office will re- turn a net profit to the taxpayers of about $7,12O.
 Receipts of the office total $15.- 536.O6, derived as follows: Record CTS fees $8.65210, miscellaneous fees S34015. circuit court fees $1021, chancery court fees $4,2O5' criminal court fees, received iron, sheriff of Jefferson county, $20O.-- 56. criminal court fees learned and chargeable under the law but not collected from the county), $1,- 117.25. Disbursements of the of- flee in the year were: Salaries fo1 three deputies $3,850, postage $249.25, criminal court fees, earn CT but not collected, $1,11725: sundries $199.41, making total of $4,29S.6 66 This leaves balance of $1O,120.15, which MT. Vaulx has paid into the county treasurer Deducting from this amount the circuit clerks salary of $3,000 a year, payable quarterly, leaves a profit to the county of ST 120.15.
 Volume Is Great.
 In order to earn for the county the $S.652 shown under the item of "recorders' fees" MT. Vaulx and his deputies recorded 3,977 in- struments pertaining to real es- tate and 3,537 chattel mortgages The chancery and circuit court fees come from filing S41 cases ir the chancery court, and 222 eases in the circuit court. In addition to this work, the circuit clerks Of flee handles the minutes of tho circuit and chancerv courts, and recently had added to it's burde:' the issuance of hnntinp licenses Mr. Vaulx also handles petitions for naturalization, and from the manner in which this work has been performed has come from the federal supervisor of naturaliza- tion the compliment that he "is the best circuit clerk" in the fed eral district,
 Under the salary basis act, feos in criminal eases chargeable to the county are not collected. In coun- ties still operating on the fee basis the circuit clerk collects and pockets these fees, last year in Jefferson amounting to SHY. h. cidentally under the old fee sys. tenn, the Jefferson clerk would have obtained $15,536.0e for con- ducting the office last year, and if he could have "got by" with as low an expenditure for deputies salaries as $3,S50 (the maximum allowed under the present law) he would have received $9,6S6 as com- pensation for his years work, more than three times as much as MT. Vaulx receives in salary, or about 30 per cent more that is provided for salaries of the circuit clerk and deputies. despite the enormous increase in labor entailed and the more than 100 per cent in cost of /! living since the salaries were fixed about eight years ago.