d have been remedied. That evil is the unpaid
magistrate and the vicious fee system by which he must make a living. It
is a system that has been abolished in nearly all civilised countries; a
system that lends itself to all sorts of petty abuse; a system that no
one pretends to defend. No greater single step in advance could be made
in the government of Alaska, no measure could be enacted that would tend
to bring about in greater degree respect for the law than the abolition
of the unpaid magistracy and the setting up of a body of stipendiaries
of character and ability.

The anomalies of the present situation are in some cases amusing. At one
place on the Yukon it is only possible for a man to make a living as
United States commissioner if he can combine the office of postmaster
with it. A man who was removed as commissioner still retained the
post-office, and no one could be found to accept the vacant judgeship.
In another precinct the commissioner was moving all those whom he
thought had influence to get him appointed deputy marshal instead of
commissioner, because the deputy marshal gets a salary of two thousand
dollars a year and allowances, which was more than the commissionership
yielded. One is reminded of some comic-opera topsyturvyism when the
judge tries in vain to get off the bench and be appointed constable. It
sounds like the _Bab Ballads_. The district court is compelled to wink
at irregularities of life and conduct in its commissioners because it
cannot get men of a higher stamp to accept its appointments.

[Sidenote: LIQUOR AND POLITICS]

The only policemen are deputy United States marshals, primarily
process-servers and not at all fitted in the majority of cases for any
sort of detective work. Their appointment is often dictated and their
action often hampered by political considerations. The liquor interest
is very strong and knows how to bring pressure to bear against a marshal
who is offensively active. They are responsible only to the United
States marshal of their district, and he is responsible to the
attorney-general, the head of the department of justice. But Washington
is a long way off, and the attorney-general is a very busy man, not
without his own interest, moreover, in politics. An attempt to get some
notice taken of a particular case in which it was the general opinion
that an energetic and vigilant deputy had been removed, and an elderly
lethargic man substituted, because of too great