Revenue from Fees 
199 
The amounts collected as fees in the great cities, seem to be 
enormous when taken by themselves, but they are by no means 
as large as they might be under more efficient and economical 
administration of municipal affairs. The municipal machinery 
is as yet very crude and undeveloped. As a result the amount 
of waste is very great. Very many of the small fees which are 
collected here and there, may be compared to the by-products 
of a great factory. Utilization of these by-products, and new 
economies are the things which can increase the output. Just 
so with our municipal establishments. Taxes are already so 
high that the income from that source can not be increased very 
materially with the present system; but the receipts may be 
augmented quite perceptibly by getting into the treasury all 
the fees which are collected for every privilege or service what¬ 
ever. 
D. GENERAL TREND OF THE FEE LEGISLATION. 
The most general and far-reaching tendencies which can be 
said to exist, are in two directions. There is one class of fees 
which tend everywhere to disappear, or at least to diminish in 
size. This class includes all payments for actual services or 
goods furnished by public authority. Good examples are the 
following: the Post Office; the public schools; all kinds of cler¬ 
ical services; the use of highways, which originally and in a 
few places even now, are paid for by means of tolls; water sup¬ 
ply in large cities; gas and electricity when furnished by mu¬ 
nicipalities. In short, wherever the government attempts to 
furnish a service which could be furnished by private initiative, 
the tendency soon becomes manifest to reduce the fee below the 
cost of the service, often even to such an extent that it becomes 
a free good. 
There is, however, another large category of fees which may 
be said to be on the increase in amount. These include most of 
the license fees. We have seen in the foregoing how each one 
has, as a rule, originated in a simple recorder’s fee, and grad- 
buy a tag from the city clerk for fifty cents, which was required to be at¬ 
tached to their wagons. The estimated annual profit to the clerk from 
this source was $8,000. 
