The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-12-15

THEY RIVAL rHsis BROTHERS or LE-
s 2cALs FAME N FANCY FEES;<

joyed by the Elect In Their Respectiye
Professions In New Yorlk--,Haw. IN Con-
trast, the Common Herd Fares.
An,English jour- ,list visiting this coun-
try a;few years ago said of New York that
It wab IA market where all desirable wares
are certain TO bring fair reward for the
trouble and expense of producing them"
While this Is as true today as it was then,
there are critics who find fault with the
scale OF prices and give point TO the old say
ing that it 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, IL the figures cited by
President Harper are accurate, his college
professors are doing quite as well as the
average lawyer, doctor and clergyman in
New York. He states that In 61 colleges
having from go to $50 STUDENTS, the salaries
OF the most highly paid professors average
about 81 1900, and that in colleges having
more than $50 students the average is
$l,9l6. u
The average business man who makes
per cent on hisinvested capital thinks that
he is getting very fair return for it, The
capital OF the professional man is his edu-
cation, so that President Harper's professor
receives an income about equivalent to that
derived from s25,000 invested at per cent.
Many doctors and lawyers have confessed
to the reporter that they would be glad to
feel sure of realizing that profit as the re-
suit Of a years labor. p
During the last 30 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 a fee of S2,00o 5000 or 5000 was
regarded as a specially lucky fellow. To-
day it is common thing for we'll known
members of the bar to charge and obtain
such sums for 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 are exceptional, there are, it is
estimated, between 900 and 400 lawyers
here whose average annual earnings will
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 support
for themselves and their families. The law
is crowded profession, and for the man
H.. a., III, ii I.
Improbable one. According to an estimate
given the reporter by member in long
practice, the average income OF the New
York lawyer is between 5000 and 81 900.
The same conditions are to be observed in
the medical profession. There, too, men
of the highest attainments and reputation
are earning yearly sums that half century
ago would have been regarded as fortune.
A list submitted to the reporter of physi-
clans whose incomes exceed so, 900 con-
tanned, among others, such names as DIR.
Loomis, DR.. Flint, DIR. Sayre, Dr. Satterlee,
DIR. Stimson, Dr. Markoo, DIR. Peters, DR..
McBurney, DIR. Hamilton, DR.. Delafleld and
DIR. Weir. The list of those whose incomes
are in the neighborhood of $40, 900 embraces
the names of nearly 200 practitioners.
Doctors like Loomis, Flint and Sayre hold
the same relation to the practice of medi-
cine that lawyers like Choate, Evarts, Car
ter and Field hutd TO the practice of law.
They are the major godsp 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 in many important cases is of the
opinion that his profession yields him as
much as 100000 or $40, 900 year. In former
times, when a doctor had more business
than 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 century back S. 30 was the
usual fee for visit. Now it is in some in
stances 50, in other $40 and in still other $40.
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 for
a visit thus made as much as he would for
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 $40 and Sf00
In the third or lowest grade of the pro-
fession the incomes taper down from 5000
20 few hundreds. This of course is the
most numerous grade and has the priuci-
pie of the survival Of the fittest as illus
trated by experiences that are often posi-
lively narrowing. At the time when the
passion for painting placques was most in
iensely developed in this city, a cynic OBJ
served that, "Of placques and doctors there
is no end" He alluded to the multitude
Of ''sawbones' yearly graduated in spite of
the fact that New York has had for years
more doctors than it knows what TO do
with. BY the profession the opinion is al
most unanimously entertained that the
best correction of the evil is to raise the
standard of qualification. Reduce the
quantity and improve the quality of the
supply.-New York News