146 
TJrdahl—Historical Survey of Fee Systems. 
lected for their services almost up to the present. It is only with¬ 
in the last year these positions have become salaried. The ter¬ 
ritorial court officials still receive many fees for numerous serv¬ 
ices which are usually performed by other officers in the states. 1 
For example, fees for marriage licenses, recorders’ fees, and the 
like are still received by them. 
F. LAND OFFICE FEES. 
It is in the Land Office that we first see the government 
change from a fee-system of compensation to a salary system. 
The prospects of gradually increasing government land sales 
made it evident, that the fees in many offices would greatly 
exceed the legitimate compensation for the work performed; 
and it was equally evident that no adjustment of the schedules 
could bring an equilibrium between work and pay about. So, 
as early as 1818, we find an act which gave the land office regis¬ 
ters and receivers an annual salary of $1,500, besides one per 
cent, of the money collected by their respective offices; pro¬ 
vided, however, that no salary should exceed $3,000 per annum. 
But even this provision made a position in the land office of a 
rapidly growing state exceedingly desirable. Hence in 1859 
another act 2 was passed which limited the salary of registers 
and receivers to $2,500 in Western, and $3,000 in the Pacific 
states. The land office fees constituted a very large part of 
the original price of the land. 3 In the Pacific states the fees were 
thirteen per cent, of the total price, in some of the others they 
constituted eleven per cent., and in many cases even more. 
When the surveyors’ fees are added to these, one can realize 
what an important item in the cost of the public land these fees 
were. It must be borne in mind also that the fees had to be 
paid, even though the land was obtained by pre-emption, by 
tree claim, or in any other manner. The land office fees have 
at times been used by unscrupulous officials as instruments for 
1 Ibid., p. 96. 
2 Statutes at Large , XI, 378. 
3 Schedule in 1869: 160 acres of land at $1.25 per acre, commission $18; 
80 acres at $1.25, commission $9; 40 acres at $1.25, commission $7; 80 acres 
at $2.50, commission $18. 
