Putnam patriot., 1925-01-09
CITY COURT SHOWS
 A LARGE PROFIT
Total Fines and Costs Collected
 During Year S11,o95.o3
Judge and Proseeutor's Salary About
 Equal to City Janitors

4 Easing success upon AAa ann -. I status. the Putnam city court m ls<4 had the most successful year by lar l in it's history. Fines and costs collect ed amounted to S1i .095.05, or nearly la thousand dollars a month. Added to i this large sum will be further receipts from cases appealed to the Superior court. In such cases the city gets costs. but the fines, if any are impos- ed. go Co the state.
 1 Large Number of Cases
 There were 343 cases during the wear for the prosecuting attorney to l handle in court. There is great amount of work and many eases are l handled that do not reach court. The prosecuting attorney is receiving the same salary. S500 year, that the first iproseeufnr of the city received when l there was very little work 10 do. IL ls i safe to say that the prosecuting attor- nev does not average 2 dollar for each lease investigated. including. Of course. 5thgz. that do not reach the trial stage
 The same applies to the judge ef the city court. These officials receive lS4i.6 .66 a month, which salary IS about on par with the city janitor's salary.
 The court clerk, who is also assist ant judge of the court, receives sal arv of $500 a year. Like the other court officers his duties have also de velaBed 10 a considerable degree.
 Have to Change Charter
 The salaries of the court officers are l fixed by the city charter, and can only i be changed by an act of the General 1 Assembly. Whether anything IS to be I done at the session about to open, Is 1 not known. No person with the inte , ests of the city at heart wishes to in- Icrease the expense of city government, but there is certainly a bit of pride in leverV citizen and no one wishes to have i the city's servants paid out of all pro Iportion to the work they do. The hold l CTS of these offices are men of unques- toned standing and should be kept so. iand there is little if any criticism
 heard of the .funetioning of the city court. However, the ineumhents Of i the office can not very well take the step that will bring before the legisla= Iture the matter of a remedial act to i increase their own salarles.
 City's Big Profit
 While 1t is not financial institu- l tion and it's funetiening should not be commercialized. nevertheless t IS a fact that last year it cost the city Sl.- i 300 ia run its city court, and in return i the city received the sum of Sl l.095.03. Including the police department as an adjunct Of the city court, which m re alitV n is not. even then the city court shows a large profit over the combined expense of the court and police depart ment.
 Those in close touch with city court affairs well know that the court off Icials are not gIumhling over the mai ter of salary. It has been demon
 strated within the year that It Is be coming harder to find candidates for the office of prosecuting attorney than ever before. The attorney who ac- cepts the office under the present sal ary k donating his time and learning to the city. for he could make more money by refusing the office and repre- senting those arrested and brought l before the court.