166 Urdahl—The Present Fee System in the United States . 
Other licenses which are by no means rare, are druggists’ permits 
to sell liquor; likewise licenses to merchants engaged in mercan¬ 
tile business, licenses to grocers and others. Some states pre¬ 
scribe special licenses for taverns, for club houses, and many 
other places where liquor is sold. 
The tendency of the license legislation since the war, has 
been to gradually increase the fees. There is scarcely a state 
which has remained unaffected by this movement, although 
changes in legislation of this character are slow. The reform 
movement has taken many directions in the different states, the 
most striking of which may be mentioned: the constitutional 
provision of North Dakota, prohibiting the passage of any 
license law; the South Carolina dispensary act which attempts 
to change from state regulation to state management; the Maine 
and Iowa prohibition laws; and others. In most states a small 
fee, ranging in amount from fifty cents to several dollars, is 
charged by the official granting the license, for the clerical 
work of issuing or recording. 1 
c. peddlers’ licenses. 
Most of the new states which have been formed since the war, 
have found it necessary at the very first session of their law 
making bodies, to pass some sort of regulations for peddlers; 
and the old states have either continued the old laws or elabor¬ 
ated them further. The diversity of laws on this subject is 
almost as great as that of liquor regulations. But few states 
consider it sufficient regulation, to require simply a state li¬ 
cense 2 with a small fee for the use of the state, as was the 
nature of the earlier legislation. On the other hand, some 
require no state license at all, but have turned the whole regu¬ 
lation over to the cities and counties, 3 in some cases prescrib¬ 
ing only the minimum and maximum fees which may be charged. 
In a large number of other instances the legislature prescribes 
in detail how the license shall be granted and exactly what fees 
shall be charged, but allows the counties to grant the license 
and to put the money into their own treasuries. Others adopt 
1 Arkansas clerk’s fee, two dollars. 
2 Revised Statutes , Neb., 1895, p. 919, Sec. 251. Rhode Island. 
3 Or., 1864, par. 14; Wy., 1864, Sec. 14; Ill.; etc. 
