ghout
the country, which give special preference to claims for wages or even
for material furnished by "material men," have already been noted. It
may be broadly stated that the presumption is that such claims are
everywhere a preferred debt to be paid out of the estate of the
insolvent, living or dead, in preference to all claims except taxes.

The security of mortgages is very generally impaired by legislation
confining the creditor to only one remedy and delaying his possession
under foreclosure. That is to say, in far Western States generally, he
cannot take the land or other security, and at the same time sue the
debtor in an action for debt for the amount due, or the deficiency.
This, of course, makes of a mortgage a simple pledge. Moreover, with
the practice of delaying possession under foreclosure, appointing
receivers in the interest of the debtor, etc., he is in many States
so delayed in getting possession of his security that by the time he
acquires it he will find it burdened with overdue taxes and in a state
of general dilapidation. We have already alluded to the practice in
California of compelling the executor of a mortgage to submit
himself to the jurisdiction of the local public administrator, which
practically results in a sequestration of a considerable portion of
the property. For all these reasons, many conservative lawyers in the
East, at least, would not permit their clients to invest their money
in mortgages in California, Minnesota, Washington, or the other States
indulging in such legislation, and partly for this reason the rate of
interest prevailing in mortgages is very much higher in the far West
than it is in States east of the Missouri River.

The greatest mass of legislation is, of course, that upon mechanic's
liens, which are burdensome to a degree that is vexatious, besides
being subject to amendment almost every year. In a general way, no
land-owner is free from liability for the debt of any person who has
performed labor or furnished materials on the buildings placed upon
the land, even without the knowledge or consent of the land-owner in
some States, though in one or two instances, notably in California,
such legislation has been carried to such an extreme as to make it
unconstitutional.

The matter of nuisances has been already somewhat covered. Legislation
extending the police power and declaring new forms or uses of property
to be a nuisance is, of course, rapidly increasing i