182 Urdahl—The Present Fee System in the United States. 
they could get. Furthermore, the Western spirit, which looked 
with favor on the “self-made man’’ attempting to work up in 
any profession, was opposed to stringent examinations as tend¬ 
ing to shut out all except those with means enough to attend 
schools. The result is, that, even in the present age of pro¬ 
gress, the great majority of our states allow individuals to 
practice law and medicine who have scarcely any qualifications 
whatever. Another cause of this state of affairs is the fact, 
that many states have turned over to medical and legal schools 
and to colleges the power to grant degrees which have the force 
of state examinations in giving iicense to practice. In many 
of the commonwealths where state examinations are given, they 
are usually made easy, with the express purpose of allowing 
those who can study these branches privately to obtain license 
or certificate. The examination fees in the states having this 
system range from five to twenty-five dollars. 
Much more general is the requirement that pharmacists shall 
pass a satisfactory examination before they obtain a certificate. 
Many commonwealths provide for examinations of assistant phar¬ 
macists, and have laws forbidding the sale of any drugs except 
by a licensed pharmacist or assistant. 1 But it is in the com¬ 
paratively modern profession of dentistry that the most strin¬ 
gent regulations are made, if one may judge by the number and 
amount of the examination fees. A glance at the table will show 
that that the fees range all the way from one to thirty dollars, 
the most common charge being ten or fifteen dollars. 
In all of the above-mentioned cases the examining board has the 
power to designate the institutions whose diplomas shall ex¬ 
empt the candidate from state examination. It is, therefore, 
quite customary to require the applicant to obtain a certificate 
from the state board at a small cost, usually from one to two 
dollars, even if he has an accredited diploma or has passed an 
examination. In some states this certificate is required to be 
recorded with a state or county official, which necessitates the 
payment of another fee. 
For the better regulation of some of these professions, espe- 
1 Wisconsin and Minnesota have such laws. 
