156 Urdahl—The Present Fee System in the United States. 
American oil fields had been discovered and exploited. Indeed, 
it is the aggressiveness and power of the Standard Oil and 
other companies, in keeping up the price and lowering the 
quality of the oil, which may largely be considered the 
cause of the later legislation on this subject. The consumption 
of oil increased enormously, until it became a necessity to 
everybody; and as the quality gradually deteriorated, popular 
discontent made itself felt in the form of legislation prohibiting 
the sale of any oil below a certain quality. Public oil-inspect¬ 
ors were provided, usually by appointment, whose compensa¬ 
tion consisted in fees fixed in amount by law. In general these 
were determined by the quantity offered for inspection at the 
time, usually a certain number of cents per barrel. Many states 
make the fees regressive in amount, in that the charge per 
barrel decreases as the number of barrels inspected at the time 
increases, from forty cents for a single barrel to ten or fifteen 
cents if over ten barrels are inspected at one time; 1 while one 
state provides that the inspector shall be paid by the hour. 2 
The other state laws on the subject fix the fee per barrel, rang¬ 
ing in amount all the way from ten to twenty-five cents, with 
no reduction for large quantities. 3 Nebraska pays its oil in¬ 
spectors fixed salaries. Minnesota requires all oil-inspection 
fees to be paid into the treasury, and other states limit the 
amount which an inspector can receive as his official income to 
a certain maximum. 
2. Commercial Fertilizers: Another instance of compulsory in¬ 
spection for the protection of buyers or consumers is that of 
commercial fertilizers. The importance of these to agriculture 
and the opportunity for fraud, by means of adulterations and 
imitations, which their manufacture offers, has led many states 
1 Laws , Kan., 1882, Ch. 180, par. 5; Minn., 3889, Ch. 246, Sec. 2; Ohio 
66, Vol. 117, par. 4; N. D., 1890, 107, par. 4; N. M., 1893, p. 118; Md. 
1881, p. 571; Fla., 1893, p. 88, one cent per gallon for less thanfive gallons, 
one-fourth of a cent for more than 5,000 gallons. 
2 R. I., 1896, p. 449. 
3 la., 1896, Ch. 195, par. 4, 10 cts. per bbl.; Mich. 1881, p. 43, 16cts. per 
bbl.; Ark., 1883, Sec. 6-10, 25 cts. per bbl.; Wis., 1883, Ch. 156, 10 cts. per 
cask; N. D. 1890, p. 219, 10 cts. per bbl.; Ga., 1880, p. 153; S. D., 1890, 
p. 219, 10 cts. per bbl. 
