COUNTY CLERKS' PER DIEM.
Mr. Youche's bill [S. 117] being read the second time -
Mr. YOUCHE said: The object of this bill is to repeal the proviso to Section 7, Acts of 1883, page 49, which gives to County Clerks the sum of $2 a day for attending Court Before the act of 1882 Clerks received no pay out of the County Treasury for attending the Circuit Court. It was supposed that his fees furnished sufficient compensation. When this act was introduced in the Senate last session there was no proviso in the bill. When it came back here from the House it seems there was a proviso in it, but it came back on one of those closing days, when bills are passed hurriedly. The proviso in the bill was not read. I listened to the reading attentively, and I don't believe there were there members of the Senate who knew they passed a law raising the Clerks' fees $2 a day. It amounts to the sum of $25,000 every paid out of the County Treasuries to the Clerks. This bill is to restore the law as it was before 1883. I think there can not be any well-grounded opposition to it.
Mr. OVERSTREET: If there is any reason why the Clerk of the Superior and Criminal Court is entitled to $2, it would apply to the Clerk of the Circuit Court. We are told that in counties where there is Superior and Criminal Courts, the Clerk has to hire a deputy to attend those courts. But that deputy performs similar work that the Clerk of the Circuit Court does, and he receives the same fees, which amount to more than he pays that deputy. If the bill also repealed the statute giving $2 a day to Clerks of Superior and Criminal Courts, I would support it, but as it stands I will vote against it.
Mr. FOWLER: I concur in what has been said by the Senator from Johnson (Mr. Overstreet), but do not arrive at the same conclusion. I think this bill is good as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. There ought to be distinction between clerks where there is a Superior and Criminal Court and where there is none.
The bill passed by yeas 28, nays 14.
And the Senate adjourned.
