Evolution of Fee Systems in the United States. 149 
fairs to the public, and arouses it so that it overcomes the in¬ 
ertia and obtains a revision of the law. But it is almost im¬ 
possible to invent a fee bill for an office which has been yield¬ 
ing $50,000 a year so as to make it yield only $5,000. 
The easiest way for legislation to accomplish its pur¬ 
pose is to place the office on a salary and require the old 
fees of the office to be turned into the treasury. At any rate, 
such has been the trend of fee-legislation. The Federal legisla¬ 
tion reflects the movement more decidedly than that of the 
states; still a careful investigation of the laws of any state will 
show the same tendency. The legislation of one state for a 
short number of years may not reveal such a change; but 
taken all together the laws of any state show a more decided 
tendency away from the fee system of compensating officials 
than would seem possible to a superficial observer. There is no 
regularity in the movement among the different states. One 
legislature passes an act requiring the fees of one office to be 
turned into the treasury, and another legislature makes the same 
law applicable to a different office. At long intervals we find 
acts which are almost revolutionary in character, in that they 
are made applicable to a large number of officials. 1 
The individual laws are not the result of a general theory or 
force of any kind, but are as a rule passed under pressure of 
actual local or special conditions. In some cases aggravating 
frauds and over-charges, in others considerations of public 
economy constitute the motive power; but, whatever be the 
immediate causes, the results show by the very fact of their 
generality, that the indirect cause lies in the fee system itself. 
There is, however, another method by which this tendency and 
its consequences may be easily brought to light. This is by a 
comparison of the number of salaried officers or the common¬ 
wealth’s pay-roll, as it may be called, with the unsalaried or 
fee-paid officials at different times. A comparative study of 
this kind shows very clearly how one by one the fee-paid offi¬ 
cials are transferred to the salary list. Allowance must, how¬ 
ever, be made for those cases in which the office fees are 
abolished entirely instead of being turned into the public 
1 Statutes , N. Y., 1839, Ch. 338, sec. 3. 
