THE MONROE JOURNAL
Founded In 1894 by the preeent
wners and publishers, G. M. and
R. F. Beasley.
Published Every Tuesday.
$ 1.00 per year.
The Journal Building, corner of
Jefferson and Beasley Streets.
Telephone No. 19.
TucsJay, October 22, 1912
The piii-h of news and advertising
matter takes up all the editorial
paee this week sorry, ean't help
it.
'! ruins the RctvrdvVs Court.
To the Kditor:
I have received the following re'
quest: -.Mr. V. J. Pratt: 1 uotic
e l in last week's Enquirer an ar
t!c!e attempt in to show that the
ttci-orders Court was expensive to
the tax payers of the county.
have always believed thvj court a
good thing, but if it is not 1 would
like to know it. Will you please
publish the fasts concerning the op
(.-ration cf the same?"
(Signed): T. J. YV. BROOM
The article signed "Taxpayer."
attacking the Recorder's Court
which appeared in the Enquirer of
last Thursday, showed such an Ig
norance of the facts, or such a wil
l'ul perversion of the truth, that I
am glad of the opportunity called
forth by Mr. Broom's letter to lay
the truth before the people of Un
Ion county. The plain purpose of
that article was to give the people
of the county, outside of Monroe,
the impression that they are bear
ing the burden of the Recorder's
Court and that Monroe gets all the
benefit. The records of the court
lor the last year. October 1st, 1911
to October 1st, 1912. tell an entire
ly different story from "Taxpayer's
unsupported statements. Here they
are:
The number of cafes tried in the
Recorder's Ccurc during the list
year was 69ti. In 573 of these the
defendants were found guilty, nnd
11,91 i.aO was imposed as fines,
enrs and 8 !muihs la road sen
tences, nnil $:!,4;o was the amount
of costs imposed upon it ml paid by
these defendants. In til cases the
defendants wore acquitted, and the
tvst cf the rus.-s were tiiosn In
which nol. pros, was taken, and pre
liminary hearings. About 4 on of
the easos wer-. from within the city
limits, and about II 00 from else
where in the county. There were
"17 cases within a magistrate's jut'
diction, and were formerly
v ithin the original jurisdiction of
the Hupc-rlor Court. To the amount
of fines imposed there wits added
from forfeited bonds, making a
total of $l,!i.:t.G'i, all of which went
to the general county school fund
and the city of Monroe's share of
that was Just 'about one-tenth; bo
laore than S1.7i 0 went to the pchool
fund In the county outs'de of Mon
roe, LESSENING to that extent the
burden cf the taxpayers of the coun
ty.
Of th.3 $15.42;) pnsU Imposed upon
nnd paid by the comleted defend
ants, the various magistrates nnd
onstablrs of the county received
about SSOO in fees: about $tfi)o of
11 went to the ciy treasury as foes
from arrests made and subpoenas
;vrvcd by the policemen of the city,
who are under salary. This leaves
a balance of J.'.iMiO, half of which
vent to the county treasury and
half to the city treasury. In addi
tion to this th aggregate of road
sentences for the year having been
I. years and S months, the costs In
those ease ivi:; paid by the chain
tang board, which costs are also di
vided between the city and county.
I have not had time to ascertain the
:xact amount cf these costs paid by
the chain gang beard, but li is a
low estimate to place the amount
I rem that sourc?, which is divided
between the county and city, at
$400.
For the salary of the recorder the
county paid last year S36u, and for
the salary of the prosecuting at
torney $240; a total of $600. The
city of Monroe paid the same
amount. "Taxpayer" Bald, "We pay
the Bub-recorder $240 a year."
Here Is the law regulating the sal
ary of the sub-rtcorder: "The sub-
recorder shall bo paid equally by
the city of Monroe and the county
of Union the sum of $2 for each case
tried by him which has been mov
ed upon the affidavit of either par
ty to the action: Provided, the sub
recorder shall not receive more
than $20 for any one calendar
month. That In each and every
case where the defendant is con
victed by the recorder or sub-record
er a fee of fifty cents, to be known
at the sub-recorder's fee, shall be
taxed In the bill of cos's l- addition
to the other cos's, which fee shall
Y-e paid to the city of Monroe and
tounty of I'nion in equal propor
tions." (Chapter 4 49, Private Laws
of North Carolina. Session cf 1911.)
Under this law the sub-recorder has
not reclved more than $70 during
the last ear, but the ""sub-record
er'g fee," equally divided between
the city and county, amounted to
nbouf $285 during the sa.ne time.
So we have the actual silarlts, paid
by tiie city and caun'y togsther,
during the ear just past, $720.00
to the recorder, $70.00 to the sub
recorder, and $4 80.00 to tbe prose
cuting attorney, making a total of
$1,270.00.
Under the law. the deputy clerk
of the Superior Court U ex-officio
clerk of the recorder's court. The
deputy clerk of the Superior Court
receives a salary of $45.00 a month,
or $540.00 a year. "Taxpayer"
adds this whole sum to the sala
ries paid to officers of the record
er's court, which is manifestly un
fair. (Indeed, "Taxpayer" In his
anxiety to load the recorder's court
with everything In and out of sight,
adds nearly the whole salary of the
Clerk of Superior Court to his list
of salaries in the recorder's court.)
Dut allowing $20.00 of the $45.00
a month paid to the deputy clerk
of Superior Court as the recorders
court part of that salary, there Is
$240.00 a year to be added to the
$1270.00 above mentioned, making
$1510.00 as the whole amount of
salaries paid to officers of the re
corder's court In one year, instead
of J3.oo0.00. as asserted in "Tix-
rsytrV article.
Now, set off against this $1514.00
fpnsts. the I2.0U0.0i that was
I'iiided between the city and the
county from costs paid by defend
ants, the $400.00 divided betwrer.
the city and county from the
costs paid by the chain gang
board, and the $ 1. 700.00 that
vvnt to the school fund of the
oiiiitv outside of Monroe, and then
;-sk Mr. "Taxpayer" to explain how
the "recorder's court is a burden
on the taxpayers of th county.
he says it is. It seems to me the
taxpayers cf the county would like
to have some more "burdens'' like
that placed upon them.
"Taxpayer'' says that "three-
fourths of the time of this court is
taken up trying petty violations of
town ordinances. It is a sufficient
answer to that statement to point
out the fact that of the 696 cases
tried this last year up to October
1st. 3 49 were cases formerly within
the original jurisdiction of the Su
perior Court, and only 217 within
the Jurisdiction of a magistrate or
i.iayor; and of these 317 cases only
about one-third, or a little more
than 100 were for violations of
town ordinances.
If "Taxpayer" had desired to get
the real facts about the recorder's
court, he could have easily gotten
tueni from the records. They are
public property. He says. "The ad
ocates of this court are good hands
at juggling figures." If the above
figures are juggled, he has the
opportunity and means of showing
U.
He talks about the people of the
county "being brought away twelve
miles from home at a loss of ten
dollars to testify in a nigger fight
ing scrape that ought to have been
settled before the nearest justice
of tbe peace." Now, he knows, or
ought to know, that if the justice
of the peace has jurisdiction to set
tle any such case, he can settle It
without sending it to the recorder's
court. The justices of the peace
outside of Monroe have the very
same jurisdiction and the same
right of exercising It as they had
before the recorder's court was es-
tiblished. And he also knows, or
ought to know, that the 349 cases
tried, where the Superior Court for
merly had original jurisdiction,
would, in the absence of n record
er's court, have been heard by the
magistrates, and the defendants
bound over to tlw Superior Court
for trial, thereby entailing further
attendance of witnesses, additional
txpense and loss of time. It would
i.so require defendants to employ
ounsel In both the magistrate's
court r.nd the Superior Court, and
thus give counsel double fees. Fur
thermore, It would require those
defendants who are bound over and
unable to give bond to be kept In
Hia county Jail at tlu county's ex
pense until the next criminal term
of Superior Court.
"Taxpayer" s;ys again, "We
h;ie as many terms of the Superior
Court as we had before the record
ers court was created." If he Is
s familiar with terms of Superi
or Court as he claims to be, he
knows as well as everybody else
knows, who has anything nt till to
iio with the Superior Court, that
since the recorder's court was es
tablished the criminal terms of Su
perior Court hare been concluded
ia three or four days. Instead of
takiag one or two weeks as formerly.
Who is "Taxpayer." anyhow? He
makes a noise like a lawyer, and if
he would come out In the open and
declare himself instead of hiding
behind an assumed title, it is a
pretty sure thing that the only tax
es be pays Is a potl tax and the.
five-dollar tax on lawyers. He says
he wan1 to relieve the citizens of
the "burden of taxes put upou th m
! the recorder's court;" but what
ho really wants is to get his cli
ents Into the BIG COURT, and uet
them scared to as to charge tlum
bigger fees.
He also makes a noise so like the
following plank in the County Re
publican platform adopted at the
republican county convention In the
court house on July 13. 1912, that
It is prttty clear that the mind nnd
hand that devised and wrote that
plank, or someone else using that
plank as a text, eitht-r wroto or in
stigated the "Taxpayer" article.
Listen!
"We condemn the Democratic
party for foisting on the people
without an election the Recorder's
Court of Monroe, which Is In n?me
at well as fact a city court, but
more than half of the expenses of
which are borne by the county. We
are opposed to the taxing of the
people of the county to punish the
violation of the city of Monroe's or
dinances. We are opposed to try
ing our people before a one man
court. We are opposed to the cre
ation of jobs for politicans without
the consent of the people. And we
pledge ourselves to leave to a vote
of the people the question of the
rontinuanace of the Recorder's
Court."
The Republican platform, of which
the above is a plank, was adopted
before the Democratic primary was
held. The County Board of Elec
tions, consisting of two Democrats
and one Republican, one of the
Democrats being avowedly opposed
to the Recorder's Court, and voting
with the Republican on the ques
tion of having a vote on the Re
corder's Court nt this election, (the
other Democrat, the chairman, not
voting) WITHOUT ANY AUTHORI
TY WHATEVER TO ORDER A
VOTE ON THE QUESTION, has tak
en upon Itself, within a couple of
weeks of the general election, this
means of using their official posi
tion to carry out a scheme to fur
ther their private ends, and to carry
out the plank adopted by the Re
publicans in their county convention
i here is the tiijtcer in the wood
pile and that's how he got in. Know
lag this, are the people of Union
county Koing to let him steal the
wood? W. J. PRATT.
Xi.tlce of Sale cf City Property.
Notice Is hereby given I hat the
City of Monroe will expose for sale
to the highest bidder at public auc
tion, at the court house door in
Monroe. N. C, on
MONllAY, NOV. 11th. 1912,
.;t 12 o'clock M., the following de
scribed lots of land:
First Lot The lot of land on
Rryan street. In the eastern part of
the City of Monroe, now owned by
the City, on which the City recently
sank two artesian wells. .
Second Lot The lot of land ly
ing In the Northern part of the City
of Monroe, known as the City's
Rock Quarry lot.
Terms of sale: Cash.
For further Information apply to
ihe Mayor or City Clerk.
This October 9. 1912.
J. E. EF1RD, Mayor.
P. H. JOHNSON',, City Clerk.
BARGAINS
-AT THE-
GRHAT ALL-ROUND
STORE
An unusually fine assortment of
hats at the following prices:
HATS AT YOUR PRI6E
$3.00 Hats $1.75
2 50 Hats 1.50
1.50 Hats 1.00
All colors, rough finish, something new
Wo can fit the men and boys in suits
and the ladies in dress goods and dry
goods of all kinds, and we have
SHOES FOR EVERYBODY
III fact, this is the Great All-Round
dry goods, clothing, shoe, hat, gen
eral merchandise and grocery house
of this section.
See US Before You Buy Anything.
Crow Bros. Gash Store.
When You Buy Shoes Remember Guaranteed
Snlid Leather Shoes are the Cheapest.
Our Goodman's Zig-Zag Stitch, Western Well Made and Schoolmate Shoes for Boys and
Girls are reliable and honest. These shoes are bought in quantities that commands the
lowest factory prices. Every pair sold means a satisfied customer. All the best leathers
used and shapes are now in stock at prices to suit all.
Queen Quality and K. & D. Shoes for Women
represent everything that could be asked for at the price. They have style, comfert, and
are made of the very best leathers. We are selling Tans, Patent Leathers and Gun Metals
made on popular lasts from $2 00 to $3.75. A new shipment of Pink and Light Blue Even
ing Slippers at $-.43.
W. II. BELK & BBC).
whit.i: voir dollars last longer am look larger.
WHOLESALE AN D RETAIL. MOXROE, X. C.
7 7
T. L. CROWKLL. Collector.
Dr.E.D.Puett,
Optometrist,
" CHARLOTTE, X. C.
No. 30 Xorth Tryon Street.
Eyes Examined. Glasses Fitted.
Invincible Flour,
(High Patent).
Golden Cream,
(Fancy Patent).
Baker's Choice,
(Half Patent)
Graham Flour,
(Absolutely Fare.)
Buy flour with a reputa
tion. Just good, plain, hon
est home-made Flour. A
flour that is actually good a3
can be made from selected
Valley of Virginia Wheat.
For sale by all dealers.
Henderson
Roller Mills Company
In Franklin county, Saturday
night, Charlie Perton, colored, went
home drunk and abused his wife
and children. One of his small
t-ons not a rifle and shot his la
ther dead.
We still have a
few of those good
mules left We
have several pairs
that are beauties.
We want your buggy trade.
We keep the best grades to
be had. Give us a chance
before you buy.
If your buggy needs new rub
ber tires, we have expert
blacksmiths to do the work.
We make harness to order.
FINE LIVERY.
Yrmrt truly.
1 818
Q P
U
Monroe,
. North C&rolina.
Thone No. 19 for Job Printing The Journal.