The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-10-20
They Rival Their Brothers OF the
Legal Profession In Fancy
Fees
Some Enormous Incomes That Arc
Enjoyed by Disciples Of
Aeeculapius.
Whs Change 900 for Looking NJ
Your Tongus-Othsrs MaAs A.
Mach In y Yea

try a few years G said Of New York that
It was "a market where all desirable wares
are certain to bring n fair reward for the
trouble and expense of producing them"
While this is as true today as it wa then,
there are critics who find fault with the
scale Of prices and give points the old say
ing that 1t Is impossible to satisfy every
body.
A reporter has investigated the subject
Of professional incomes received In this
city, and in the course of this investigation
has discovered that, II the figures cited by
President Harper are accurate, his college
professors are doing quite as we'll as the
average lawyer, doctor and clergyman in
New York. He states that in 81 colleges
having from 60 to ESQ students, the salaries
Of the most highly paid professors average
about $1,000, and that in. colleges having
more than $50 students the average is
e1,0l6.
The average busirc~r man who makes s
per cent on his invested capital thinks that
he is getting u very fair return for it. The
capital of the professional man is his edu-
cation, 80 that President Harper's professor
receives an income about equivalent to that
derived from s25, 900 invested at 8 per cent.
Many doctors and lawyers have confessed
to the reporter that they would be glad to
ACNA oolS kbiS tAAO III VIZ AZ
suit of n years labor.
During the last 80 or 40 years the rate Of
compensation for the heaviest cases of work
In the three learned professions has greatly
increased. Before the war the lawyer who
received n fee of $4,000, = 5000 or 5000 was
regarded as u specially lucky fellow. To-
day it Is a common thing for we'll known
members of the bar to charge and obtain
such sums for u particular service.
During the famous Erie litigation,
brought about by the transactions Of Fisk
and Gould, David Dudley Field, their coun-
sci, is said to have received a retainer Of
100000. At no time during the period
when that eminent jurisconsult was at the
summit of his fame and in the midst of an
active practice did he derive less than $780,
600 per annum from his professional labors.
Mr.. Evarts' income was quite as large, and
Mr.. Choate, his partner, Is today in receipt
Of one that cannot be much less. While
these cases arc exceptional, there are, it is
estimated, between 500 and 400 lawyers
exceed $4,000.
Against these, which may be classified as
cases of lawyers of exceptional talents and
opportunities, are to be placed the cases Of
the thousands of less fortunate ones, many
of whom barely manage to earn a support
for themselves and their families. The law
is a crowded profession, and for the man
who enters it without briefs or friends an
improbable one. According to an estimate
given the reporter by a member in long
practice. the average income of the New
York lawyer is between 5000 n 1000.
The same conditions are to be observed in
the medical profession. There, too, men
Of the highest attachments and reputation
are earning yearly sums that half a century
ago would have been regarded as a fortune.
A list submitted to the reporter Of physi-
clans whose incomes exceed $1,000 con.
tanned, among others, such names as DR..
Loomis, DR.. Flint, DR.. Sayre, DR.. Satterlee,
DR.. Stimson, DR.. Markoo, DR.. Peters, DR..
McBurney, DR.. Hamilton, DR.. Delafield and
DR.. Weir. The list of those whose incomes
are in the neighborhood of $4,000 embraces
the names of nearly 200 practitioners.
Doctors like LOOMS, Flint and Sayre hold
the same relation to the practice of medi.
cine hat lawyers like Choate, Evarts, Car.
ter and Field hold to the peactice of law.
They are the major gods'' of their pro.
~fession, and their remuneration is grad.
uated according to the public appreciation
Of their pre-eminent skill and talent. A
physician who has been associated with DR..
Loomis III many important cases is of the
opinion that his profession yields him as
much as 100000 or $7O,0 900 a year. In former
times, when a doctor had more business
thun he could attend to, he turned some OF
it over to an assistant. Although that is
still done, the most popular of the leading
physicians correct the excess by increasing
their charges or by adopting the role OF
consulting physicians.
A quarter of Il century back 81. so was the
,.v,o fon 10 =, ,,scsk Nov, - 10 l., -~,>o ;,
stances IS, in other $40 and in still other SEQ
When a physician who has abandoned the
practice of visiting his patients and become
a consulting physician makes an exception
under special circumstances, he charges fol
a visit thus made as much as he would fol
a consultation. Doctors of the grade Of
Sayre, Stimson, Flint, Loomis and Nc
Burney, when acting as consulting physi
clans, receive as high as $50. $75 and 500.
In the third or lowest grade Of the pro
fession the incomes taper down from 90, ON
to a few hundreds. This of course Is thu
most numerous grade and has the princi
pie Of the survival OF the fittest us illus
trated by experiences that are often posi-
lively narrowing. At the time when thu
passion for painting PLAQUES was most in
tensely developed in this city, n cynic oh
served that, "Of PLAQUES and doctors there
is no end" He alluded to the multitud,
of "sawbones" yearly graduated in spite o
the fact that New York has had for year!
more doctors than it knows what to d.
with. by the profession the opinion is al
most unanimously entertained that tn,
best correction of the evil is to raise tn,
standard of qualification. Reduce thu
quantity and improve the quality of tn
supply.-New York News.