Show A bankruptcy LAW NEEDED the time was in the very vary remote ages agea when an insolvent debtor might be put to death by his creditors creditor coming along down the shore of time with the sun of a more perfect christianity rising higher and higher and an improved civilization growing and spread priced I 1 aag among men the savagery ot of such laws law was finally recognized and they gave way to measures len lea rigorous AI far back as a the media aDval val period we believe or say bay about the time that the good kieen Q leen isla disposed of her jewelry rather than go la in debt to give mr columbus a world flecking outfit the more merciful treatment of only imprisoning the man who or woi lant pay his hie obligation was in vogue rogue and the race haw ha not entirely gotten rid of this relic of modified barbarism barb arlim yet till still it is i only in a few places where civilization prevails that this thib to la done and it to la not a as a rule invoked in them except in the more aggravated caw cam few things in this life are more genuinely annoying than for a confiding creditor who may be in need of his dues duei to te be put off and avoided and himself and his busi bui neu ness made to suffer buffer through the de fault of others but like almost Overy everything thing else in this life there IN ii another side fide to the question perhaps the be debtor through lack of a bubines faculty or some stroke of misfortune HM has become unable to meet his obligations and as aa there Is IB nothing criminal in this there to IB nothing to be gained by either the creditor or society at large in punishing the debtor in cases where there its is a criminal or fraudulent defalcation or avoidance it is altogether different and the law mm am ply provides for dealing with such transactions the relation of debtor and creditor ham hai always alway existed and always alway will so BO long as aa men bev and sell I 1 immediate ni mediate payments are practically impossible impo besides bu eldeB even if such euch things could be they would create wore more hind ranee rance damage and lose than they would avoid this is i an age of refined civilization and compre bensine enlightenment one in which transactions are not noraa as a rule conducted on the bamis of an immediate exchange but rather on that ot of a risk riek or an experiment peri ment the man who buys buy a stock of goods for instance and opens up a tore store takes upon himself a rik riek at the hands handa of the people amoul whom he locater loca tei he must conform to theli their customs and circumstances if he sells ells anything at all it thoy they are a farming class who receive money as a a rule only after the sale eale of crops crop he must give them credit till after much euch sales eales and in the meantime mft antime must keep up him hii stock without perhaps having the ready cash to do it so 80 he in turn must have credit from the concerns with which he be dealt deals these latter and the village dealer also are thus thue constantly involved in a risk the people trusted may not pay a sufficient proportion of their obligations obligating at the appointed time to settle bottle with the greater ones on or the farmers farmen crops crop my may fail altogether and they be thus thui unable to pay anything at all in which case the small beall concern goes goei to the wall hopelessly and its if fall may seriously jostle if it does doea not completely over turn some borne one or more of the places from whence came the upp lle this thia kind ind of tiling thing or something similar sometimes happens hap pene but not very often but it if it occurred every day we still could not dispense with the credit system ay tern and its ita attendant risks just juat fancy a store in which a man has dealt for years yean and always alway paid up refusing further credit because it has hag been determined to abandon that system of dealing or 8 hotel proprietor demanding the pv pay for each meal and lodging upon the th receipt thereof from a registered patron patrol who presents external evidence of ability to payl pay or of a new york mw mer chant refusing to honor boner a telegraphic order from a reliable firm in salt lake until the money arrives fives although thi the goods might be wanted immediately and would steadily diminish in de dc mand corresponding with the delay of course no one V t inks of much euch things and they all go to show to what ex er tout tent the commercial world dixe confidence in its ite constituent pr par yet this confidence la 19 misplaced mii placed oftener than otherwise through unforeseen calm atles and this all makes it for each nation to establish ard maintain a comprehensive rule of bank ludicy A bankruptcy law was passed in this country in 1800 and permitted to live but three brief years in 1841 it was waa revived by congress Con gresi which has bag the sole ole power under the constitution or of dealing with the subject but tola this time through political agitation it did not live so BO long as before its ita repeal reneal taking placer in 1843 after the war of tiie the rebellion the agitation was again renewed the pressure at that time being well nigh irresistible through the unsettled condition of business in the country and as a measure of relief to those who were fina financially stranded a bill was passed in 1867 it was waa an ev ex parte quixotic and most moat unsatisfactory contrivance showing that the legislative as an well a aa the business department of the land was in bad repair it ws ea afterwards amended and made somewhat worse if possible and after a fitful existence of eight years it went the way of its ita predecessors the whole country is in need of a just and impartial system Vo governing Verning bandru bankruptcy t ay iy but perhaps we need it worse in n utah than do the people pauple of other commonwealths commonwealth for we have not like most of them even an in solvency law when an assignment in ia made here it is in upon the tho principles of 0 the common law and customs pro pre availing elsewhere by oneana of which the debtor arranges arrange things pretty much as he pleases the subject has baa been brought up in several congresses Congress ess but nothing could be agreed upon let us hope the next one or the next session of this thia one will take the matter in hand and keep it there until completed the reflections on this subject herein contained have reference of course t the greater mercantile coyA concerns cerns which are governed by the law of busin business as aa well as an the law of congress and the local enactments there is no design or la in to either excuse or suggest an excuse for private individuals running recklessly into the meshes of obligations from which they cannot honorably escape providential calamities being excluded from the computation of the case the remarks on oa the subject of debt at the recent general conference were full of appropriateness and wisdom and cannot be too emphatically urged upon the consideration of the people la every community of the saints |