The New York herald., 1921-08-10
A Money Making Office.
Practices Of Some Registers Under
the Old Fee System.

10 IHE NEW YORK HERALD: wv. G..
M" asks why the profits of the Regis
ter's Office are not as large now as
when the fee system was in force The
answer Is that the great sums realized
| by Registers under the fee system were
obtained almost entirely from official
searches.
! The searchers attached to the office
had monopoly of the business and re-
ceived large incomes. The indexes were
in such a condition that searching by
individual lawyers was tedious and ex-
pensive. Each of the searchers attached
to the office had his own plant of maps.
chains OF title and abstracts. They
carried away the official maps for their
own use and did not always return
them. The Registers were interested in
making searching difficult for the public
so as to drive business to the official
searchers Any one desiring to make
a transfer or obtain a mortgage quickly
was at the mercy of the searchers, and
graft and extortion we're common.
A curious instance OF the attitude OF
the Register toward measures designed
to make the records more readily ac-
cessible to the public appears from the
preface or advertisement Of AN Essay
Towards an Improved Register Of Deeds"
published in 1882. c. i. Grim. the au-
thor. was a lawyer who prepared a
combined alphabetical index of grantors
and grantees covering the early period
of the city's real estate history
He had made transcript OF the en-
tries to December, 1893, and was con-
tnuing them to December, 1880, but
when he attempted to verify and extend
his work the Register took the volumes
of the general indexes out OF his hands
A legal controversy was threatened but
Mr.. Grim published his index as far as
It was completed and the work was OF
great benefit to the public. No wonder
that Mr.. Grim says: ''It surely is no
part of our system of government that
public convenience must WELD to slug
gish obstinacy or the course OF improve
ment be checked by an office holders
will''
The clerks. other than searchers. In
the old days were i'll paid and fire.
quently discourteous and unwilling TO
furnish information to the public. The
records were In poor condition and the
indexes imperfect and badly arranged.
The Registers Office was changed from
fee TO salary system in 1884. The
block indexing system was established
under a statute of 1889, and the block
reindexing system was introduced in
1910. The change in later years IN the
relation OF the office 70 the public has
been revolutionary. Every effort is made
to assist searchers. The last owner of
a piece OF property is ascertained for a
nominal fee. The block and lot systems
in use enable searcher to make ex-
aminations in few hours which would
have taken weeks in the earlier years.
The competition Of the title companies
has aided in the reduction OF the num-
ber of Registers searches, formerly
profitable to the Registers personally,
and which should be larger source OF
income to the city under the salaried
system.
wv. @. NJ, also asks whether the
creation OF Bronx county led to a re-
duction Of the force In the Registers
office. There has been n considerable
reduction In the number OF employees
under my administration.
JAMES A. DoSEoAN, Register
NEW YoRR. August ..