| Show ABUSE OF THE FEE POWER THE diversion of 4 law designed for the of a tabooed practice to the personal ends of the officials entrusted with its execution is not unknown in utah it appears to have been extended to great lengths in iowa the prohibition law has offered as line fine a field for greedy fee fiends as the edmunds and kindred laws have in this territory the iowa state Re register regidor gider a republican can paper wha which favors prohibit pro hibi tion and therefore does not speak from party ground or the objections of principle makes some startling statements on this matter an examination of official records shows that during the first six months of 1890 there has been taken from the treasury for the criminal costs of the justices just icess courts in des moines alone over of which more than was paid to five e J justices ices the remainder going to their constables jurors etc this expenditure was nearly all for the searching bu business sinew or such ouch criminal business as incidentally grew out of it as ordinary criminal cases go be u the police court the worst of the case is that this great outlay not only has not suppressed bed the illegal sale of liquor in th that at city but was not designed to do so the register makes heavy charges against these greedy officials and says the expended on the jus justices courts has gone into the pockets of the justices constables and their favored gang of assistants without any honest attempt being made to stop permanently perman enay the sale of liquor the constables who make maka tuese these searches dont want afie traffic suppressed for they are getting rich by it the justices who issue the warrants and get large fees dont want it suppressed for they are making thousands of dollars out of it every year and so the whole machinery of these petty courts is worked to perpetuate the business and yet punctuate it with lucrative interruptions nearly every day and sometimes several times dimes a day I 1 this sort of thing ought to be stopped wherever it is worked and all respectable papers of every party should use their influence to suppress it the fee system is a bad one pay every officer for his services a fair salary abolish the fee system and thus rid the country of the rapacious and ever grasping fee fiends |
