226 UrdaJil—The Present Fee System in the United States . 
power and magnitude. Each candidate has a whole army of 
henchmen in the field, each of these demanding pay either by 
some position or by money. How is all this possible? Most of 
these positions have no great amount of honor connected with 
them or even of influence, except so far as the subordinate ap¬ 
pointments are concerned. The mainspring which furnishes the 
power for all this political machinery, lies in the amount of 
salary which the fees yield to the officer. He can afford to 
spend $50,000 in money and a year or two of his time, to obtain 
an office that will yield $100,000 a year in revenue. * 1 A man 
can afford to contribute liberally to the party fund who can 
realize such a sum if his party succeeds. 2 3 Political office is not 
the greatest incentive or stimulus which he has. More is at 
stake. The candidate has usually invested his entire fortune on 
the issue, often also as much as he can borrow from his friends. * 
Is it any wonder that he strains every nerve to win? Is it sur¬ 
prising that no stone is left unturned which will aid his elec¬ 
tion? Success means not only a position for a year or two, but 
it means comparative wealth and prosperity affecting his entire 
career, and opens the door to future advancement. It is almost 
in the nature of a wager in which everything is at stake. Un¬ 
der such conditions more or less corruption is inevitable; and 
the worst of it is, that the people themselves pay the fees which 
constitute the corruption fund. The history of any of our large 
cities will furnish numerous examples, and there is scarcely a, 
county in the older states in which the same spectacle has not 
been witnessed over and over again. 4 
position of county clerk in New York city used to yield from $80,000 to 
$100,000; at present it is considered to be worth $25,000. The office of 
register of deeds is at present worth about $20,000. 
1 Several New York and Philadelphia fee-paid positions were for many 
years said to yield from $50,000 to $100,000 a year.— Estimates by reliable 
men. 
2 Conservative estimates by citizens of Minneapolis, for several counties 
in Minnesota, disclose the fact that over one-half of the salary of the sher¬ 
iff must be spent to obtain election. 
3 Cases are not rare where the candidate mortgages his home and prop¬ 
erty to raise campaign funds. 
4 In New York and other states where a partial reform of the fee-system 
