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Show " ' ; ' i j " ' j ' ' . . ' II Q ) ' Two proposed measures that will be considered at the eoming session of the Legislature will be to make the Sheriff's Sher-iff's . term four years and . another against nsnry. . , An attempt to pass a bill making' the term of the 8heriff four years has been before the last three sessions of the Legislature, but each time has met de- feat. During the latter part of the session ses-sion of 1901 sueh a bill was presented to both branches of the Legislature. It Passed the Senate by a good majority, but met death in the committee room of the House. 1 In 1903 and again in 1905 an attempt waama.de to pass sueh an net. but both times it met with defeat. de-feat. . - The advocates of the- measure argue that the term of the Sheriff should correspond cor-respond to that of the District Attorney, Attor-ney, as a, large part of the work of the Sheriff's office has to be passed on by that officer; that it depends largely upon the Sheriff and his force to secure se-cure evidence to be used by the District Dis-trict Attorney tn the prosecution of criminals,, and that it is an -advantage to the latter officer to have but one Sheriff and set of deputies during his term of office. Again, it is argued that-an officer is much more efficient at the end of two i years than he is at time be goes into office. - - - Should the proposed measure pass, it could only go into effect following the next general election. Friends wf the proposed usury mea- ! sure urge that some sueh law is needed in this State to protect those who find i it neeessary to borrow money. In some instances it' is knqwn that men who lend money on chattel mortgages charge .as high as 10 per cent a month for the use of the money. In this war the interest inter-est amounts to more than the principal in one yeas. In a number of instances now on record in the local courts, persons per-sons borrowing the money have been unable to meet the payments of interest inter-est when due, and it is claimed that the "Shylocks" do not hesitate to foreclose fore-close the mortgage, with court costs and attorney's fees added. This is possible pos-sible because everv note eslls for court costs and attorney's fees in the event of a foreclosure. . In some States, notably Illinois, the rate of interest is fixed by law, and no matter what agreement may exist be-1 tween lender and borrower, if the former for-mer charges more than the legal rate of interest, he cannot recover a cent of interest only the principal. The bill is now being prepared, snl will be introduced during the early part of the session. |
