The Fee System as a Social Force. 
218 
for the sheriff, 1 and a fee for every other officer who takes part 
in the trial. It is but natural that inducements should be made 
for the vagrant to return and be re-arrested, 2 to be perhaps 
again committed to jail for a short time. Indeed, to such an 
extent have t&ese frauds been carried, that it has been found 
necessary in some states 3 to pass laws prescribing heavy penal¬ 
ties for conspiracy between tramps and judicial officers 4 to de¬ 
fraud the counties. 5 
Even if we grant that the increased use of machinery in pro¬ 
duction, and the consequent industrial system, is responsible for 
the idleness of many in our dependent classes, still the ease with 
which they obtain their food and shelter, is the primary reason 
why so many become professional tramps instead of returning 
to productive labor when opportunity is offered. Austria forces 
tramps to work for a definite period in a work-house or a house 
of correction. Belgium prescribes a comparatively long time in 
a compulsory workshop. France fixes imprisonment and hard 
work for at least three months. G-ermany has her public tramp- 
hotels, and strict police supervision, and England her tramp 
work-houses. 6 All of these countries are attempting to discour¬ 
age vagrancy; while in the United States, with a tramp prob¬ 
lem more pressing and serious than any which Europe has had 
to solve, we find many states and counties which indirectly 
spend huge sums, not to reform the vagrant or to enable him to 
become a productive worker, but practically to encourage him 
1 The fees of the sheriff for each tramp are said to run from four to six 
dollars, while those of the judge vary from two to three dollars. 
2 Tramps are often induced to appear before the justice in the forenoon 
under one name and in the afternoon under another, so as to earn extra 
fees for each official. 
3 Laws of Wisconsin, 1889. 
4 Some cases have been found where the same tramp was serving three 
different sentences at one time, by being discharged and re-arrested and 
recommitted to jail, so as to earn fees for the sheriff and magistrate. 
‘ This state of affairs is not confined to a few states. Inquiries in the 
different states show that the same frauds have been, or are at present, 
prevalent in New York, in New England, in the South, in the Middle 
States, and in the far West. 
6 See consular reports. 
