124 
Urdahl—Historical Survey of Fee Systems. 
to the municipalities, as is customary at present. In 1806 1 the 
Massachusetts Court of General Sessions passed an act giving 
power to certain state officials to grant theater licenses, which 
had been forbidden up to that date. 2 The voice of the munici¬ 
pality was moreover beginning to be recognized; as is seen in 
the fact that the license should only be granted on the recom¬ 
mendation of the selectmen of the town. 
The key to the whole situation lies in the fact, that the ob¬ 
ject of all legislation in this period was to make the fee-collect¬ 
ing offices self-supporting, and still not allow the officials to re¬ 
ceive more than a fair compensation for their services. This 
almost impossible task necessitated frequent changes to corres¬ 
pond to the growth in population and industry in each locality. 
In general it may be said, that the only common characteristic 
of the fee legislation of the different states during this period, is 
the tendency of the states to perform services directly in the 
interest of the public, which are indirectly a benefit to individ¬ 
uals, and to collect fees for such services. This extension of state 
activity manifests itself in one direction in one state, and in a 
different one in another. No general category of the fee-system 
can be said to have originated in the period, although every 
state introduced new regulations and collected fees which were 
new, as far as the individual commonwealth was concerned. 
C. DIFFERENTIATION IN ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY. 
Prior to the Revolution many of the states had no adminis¬ 
trative machinery for assessing and collecting taxes, or for per¬ 
forming many other public functions necessary to the existence 
of the modern commonwealth. Some of them attempted to uti¬ 
lize the judicial machinery which they had, to carry on the new 
adminstrative functions. The sheriff is thus the tax collector in 
a few Eastern States even to this day. But as taxation became 
more and more important, it was found necessary to make the 
tax collector a distinct public official. In the same way the as- 
1 Laws , Mass., II, 150. 
2 Statutes, S. C., 1817, par. 9. p. 384. Charleston may charge not less 
than $500 for theater licenses. 
