The Fee System as a Social Force. 
227 
That many of these fee-paid offices yield more than legitimate 
salaries can not be questioned. How much more, no one knows. 
These high rewards do not, however, attract better and more ef¬ 
ficient men. In fact the opposite is very often the case. The 
man who can obtain such a position must be a politician, the 
more unscrupulous and skilful the more likely is he to obtain it. 
None but a politician who has had experience in manipulating 
the machine and knows how far corruption money will go, would 
dare to take the enormous chances of losing which are involved; 
and when he is elected, we do not have an efficient official but 
a man who is primarily interested in obtaining as much gain as 
possible out of what he regards as a legitimate enterprise. The 
high rewards, therefore, instead of drawing men of ability into 
office, tend rather to repel them, and to attract the most unde¬ 
sirable class of office holders, namely, those most skilled in cor¬ 
rupting voters; and the enormous fees collected by them must 
be used, in part at least, as a corruption fund to secure the 
coveted position. But suppose the money is not used as an act¬ 
ual corruption fund, we find another state of affairs which is al¬ 
most as bad. The aspirant for the office announces himself a 
candidate almost a year before the election, sometimes much 
earlier, and then spends all his time, and often employs his friends 
also, to secure delegations instructed for him from the various 
primaries. When at last he succeeds in becoming the nominee 
of his party, only half the battle is won. He must now spend 
all the rest of his time in campaigning so as to secure votes 
enough to elect. There is, therefore, a double opportunity for 
using corruption methods. 
An official who has obtained his position by using more or less 
questionable means, is not going to turn over a new leaf and 
become a model of honesty as soon as he gets into office. Over¬ 
charges, favoritism, and frauds of various kinds, are extremely 
likely to be the order of the day. * 1 Reports of investigation 
has been introduced, the testimony of men in position to know the facts 
is, that the campaign expenses and the intensity of the political struggle 
for office have been reduced by one-half after the new system was put in 
operation. 
1 j Reports of the Investigating Committee of the city recorder’s office of 
Chicago.— Chicago Times-Herald, Dec. 23, 1896, p. 1; also other papers. 
