The Fee System as a Social Force. 
229 
1840, would, if .in force in 1890, produce a fortune in a single 
year. Why ? Simply because the business of the office has in¬ 
creased enormously on account of the growth of population. 
Furthermore, the work can be done at a much lower cost. It is 
like production on a large scale, in that economies of various 
kinds can be practiced. 
The question immediately arises: Why have the legislatures 
so often failed to adjust law to economic conditions in this par¬ 
ticular more than in others? The answer is evident. Which¬ 
ever political party happens to be in power is directly inter¬ 
ested in having as many lucrative offices to confer as possible. 
A party is not likely to diminish the emoluments of an office 
when, by so doing, it diminishes to just that extent the patron¬ 
age which it has to confer. Especially is this the case where 
no pressure in that direction is brought to bear upon the legis¬ 
lative body. There is likely to be no pressure of this kind for 
the diminution of the fees of an office or a change in the system, 
because no body of individuals, as a class, is likely to be espe¬ 
cially affected or feel the burden of the system. The fees are 
paid intermittently, now by one person and now by another; 
while the great majority of people rarely have any fees to pay 
at all. There has thus never arisen any popular demand for the 
publication of the amount of fees collected or for their reduction. 
As a result, we find that it is only at this late day that the 
same requirements are beginning to be made in regard to fees 
as were introduced in regard to taxes one hundred years ago; 
namely, that their amount should be made public, and that all 
fees collected should be accounted for. This lack of knowledge 
of the number of fees collected has tended still further to dis¬ 
courage any agitation for their reduction. But whenever a 
movement of this kind is started, then all the fee-collecting 
officers, with all the political influence which they can command, 
stand ready to work against it. 1 It is not strange, therefore, 
1 A bill to abolish some minor sheriffs’ fees in the Wisconsin Legislature 
in 1896 was defeated through the lobbying of the sheriffs and their friends. 
Numerous similar bills have met the same fate. It is a notorious fact, 
well known to all who are familiar with New York politics, that the recent 
