216 Urdahl—The Present Fee System in the United States. 
going to reform a man sentenced for being drunk. On the con¬ 
trary, it is generally admitted that many of our county jails 
and penitentiaries are training schools of crime; and that the 
man who was “ sent up ” for some petty offence often comes back 
a full-fledged criminal. The more trivial the offence, the more 
likely is he to react against law and order, and become a real 
criminal, to prey upon society. Better far that many criminals 
should go unpunished than that one innocent man should be ex¬ 
posed to such humiliating and dangerous environment. 
About each police court in our great cities there is always 
hovering a large number of pettifoggers or mediocre lawyers, 
who are waiting to be appointed to defend any wretch, for the 
fees that are allowed them. Where they have access to the 
prisoners before the preliminary hearing, they often succeed in 
getting every prisoner to plead not guilty and demand trial, no 
matter how clear a case of guilt it may be. This practice is 
often encouraged by the custom, still prevalent in many states, 
of allowing the prisoner to choose the attorney who shall appear 
in his defense, even where the latter is paid for his services out 
of the public treasury. There is also another class of men 
which the fee system attracts to these same courts. These are 
mainly local “politicians,” retired saloon-keepers, and other 
idlers, who hang around the corridors of every police court, wait¬ 
ing for an opportunity to serve as jurors for the sake of the fee. 
So serious has the evil become, that the abolition of the entire 
jury system in the police courts has been advocated. 
C. FEES AND JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 
There is perhaps no part of the American judicial system 
which exists with such uniformity in all states, as the Justice 
of the Peace. And everywhere, almost without an exception, 
his remuneration consists in the fees which he collects. This 
official seems almost indispensable to the local administration 
of justice, and no state has as yet been able to devise any fair 
and economical system of compensation other than by fees. 
The amount of business done by each of these officials varies 
from time to time and place to place. One justice may have 
