158 Urdahl—The Present Fee System in the United States. 
tion, have none of them, so far as can be discovered, passed 
any general inspection law affecting provisions, cr agricultural 
products in general. 
B. INSPECTION FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PRODUCER. 
Such a statement as the above may seem erroneous to one 
who knows that many Western states have compulsory grain- 
inspection and similar laws; but the grain-inspection laws of 
the West have an entirely different purpose from the old in¬ 
spection laws. Their purpose is to protect the seller and not 
the buyer. They are aimed at frauds and discrimination prac¬ 
ticed by the great elevator companies against the producers 
or farmers. These companies in purchasing would very often 
represent first-class grain to be of the second or third class, 
and pay only third-class prices. The farmers generally would 
have no means of protecting their interest, because no other 
buyers were within reach. Much of the ware-house legislation 
which attempted to fix the ware-house fees, had the same 
purpose, namely, to protect the interest of the farmer or 
seller against the buyer, who was usually the ware-house man. 
The oleomargarine legislation is very similar in its aims and ob¬ 
ject. It is enacted not so much to protect the consumer as to 
protect the dairjunen against a certain kind of competition. 
Most of the regulations mentioned originated in the West, 
and are a result of the opening up of its great resources and 
the expansion of its population, both of which were made pos¬ 
sible by the improved transportation facilities. The old prob¬ 
lem, which consisted iu preventing the sale of inferior or un¬ 
marketable goods, has almost disappeared, primarily because 
competition has become so much more perfect. The question of 
determining quality or value is no longer important, as buyers 
and sellers are in general more nearly on an equality than was 
the case earlier. 
C. INSPECTION FOR POLICE REGULATION. 
The character of frontier life, or rather the form of industry 
which is best suited to some of the Western states, is responsi¬ 
ble for the change in the significance of another class of inspec- 
