The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-03-06

wins the scantiest pay and destroys
whatever reputation ne may have won
when his powers were at their best /
productive activity, There may be ex-
to this rule; but that this is
the rule is beyond dispute.
The men OF fees are the physician
and the lawyer One has to do physical |
diseases OF men, and the other with |
their legal quarrels and their crimes.
We do not in the slightest degree, |
the usefulness of these two
classes of professional men; We simply
say that the better the other classes
perform their work, the less these have
to do. They live upon the moral and
physical evils Of the country; and there
is no reason in thenature oftheir calling
for their advantage in pecuniary rewards
over the other classes. There is no
reason Why a general practitioner OF
medicine, or a specialist in medicine or
surgery, should sit in his Office, and
take in a single fee, for a service that
costs him fifteen minutes of time, q sum
equal to that which a teacher or a
clergyman works all day to win There
is no reason why q physician, called IN
to a house In consultation, should
charge for his service q sum that it
takes an editor two days of hard work
to earn There is no good reason for
the setting of price upon surgical
operation, performed in half an hour,
that the most successful authors copy
right cannot pay IN a month. 1t is
simple, inexcusable and outrageous
extortion If we go from the physician
to the lawyer we find still higher fees.
The simplest work, such as searching
titles, work that only demands accuracy,
and is usually done by clerks, COM
mands price that few men can afford
to pay, while larger work involves fees
that are startling. and stupendous.
Some of the incomes of lawyers in this
city are large enough to swallow ~ the
salaries Of a dozen, or twice the NUM-
Der, Of salaried professional men. The
way in which the people are bad IN the
process OF securing justice is often most
shameful So shameful is il, that
thousands submit to wrong rather than
go into any litigation whatever. People
dread getting into a lawyers hands as
they dread getting into the hands of a
New York hickman, There are
honorable and reasonable lawyers, with
out doubt, men in whose honor we
may implicitly trust but there are 50
many extortioRers among them that
they have given a bad flavor to the pro-
fession.. There are slysters and scamps
enough in New York, attached TO the
profession, to sink it, were it not that
there are noble men in it who are IN
purchasable But lawyers fees are
VIGOROUSLY large as a rule, and although
outweigh the salaries of the salaried
professional men
Perhaps the fees the community is
obliged to pay is fitting punishment
for the wrong it inficts upon its saIari-
ed professional servants. There ought
/ to be some remedy for both evils.
Where it is to be found, we do not
know. The physician has some apology
for getting high fees of those that can
pay, because he is obliged to do SO
much for the poor who cannot pay but
/ the lawyer, as a rule, does not under
take a case which promises him no re
Enumeration. s., .szf
He goes an for money (; and there ought
to be some law which viii enable the
poor man to get justice without
financial ruin. There il at least nc
good reason why one set of professional
men should half staIve while another
gorges itself upon fees that bring wealth
and luxury That fees are too large
and salaries too small has become {
popular conviction, which can only be
removed by reform IN both directions
that shall bring literary and professional
men equivalent rewards.-Dr. F. g.
I Holland.