183 Urdahl—The Present Fee System in the United States. 
of over four hundred thousand inhabitants, while the fifty-third 
class contained all having less than two thousand. The salaries 
for the county clerks, sheriffs, auditors, recorders, treasurers, 
tax-collectors, assessors, and district attorneys were fixed for 
each class, and provision made that the fees collected should be 
paid into the county treasuries. The other officers,— coroners, 
justices of the peace, constables, and so on, are allowed to re¬ 
ceive fees; but it is required that an account be kept, and any 
■excess over the maximum allowed must be paid into the county 
treasury. 1 
The only one of the older states 2 which has as yet attempted ■ 
to deal with this question in this way is Kentucky. 3 A 
law, passed in 1895, fixed certain maximum amounts which 
might be retained as salaries by the county officers; and pro¬ 
vided that all sums received above such amounts should be 
paid into the treasuries, and heavy penalties were prescribed 
for false reports by any official. An attempt was made a year 
earlier to limit the amount which might be retained by city 
officials out of the fees received. 4 
It would appear as though some one of the above schemes, if 
thoroughly carried out, would furnish an adequate solution of 
this grave problem. One thing, however, seems certain; and 
that is, that the experiments which these Western states are 
carrying on, will be of interest and value to every state in the 
Union, whatever their result may be. The problem is one which 
confronts almost every locality, although the abuses are more 
manifest in some states than in others. Thoughtful men and 
wise legislators are beginning to take more and more interest 
1 Supplement to the Code of 1893, p. 375, 806. 
2 Pennyslvania made an attempt in 1810 to limit the amount which 
might be retained as salaries by registers of wills, recorders of deeds, pro- 
thonotaries of courts of oyer and terminer, courts of quartersessions, and 
orphans’ courts, by providing that an account of all fees collected by each 
officer should be given to the Auditor General; and that fifty per cent, of 
all fees collected in excess over $15,000 should be paid into the state treas¬ 
ury. The attempt was a failure because of the inefficiency of the admin¬ 
istrative machinery.— Laws, 1810, §1. 
3 1895, Ch. 47, par. 1776. 
4 1895, p. 1046, par. 3065. 
