Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-04-22
HARRISON'S INCOME.
THE PRESIDENCY HAS NO FINANCIAL
 ATTRACTION FOR HIM.
His Law Practice Is Very ProfitabIe-Acts Chiefly as Advisory Counsel-some Cases He Has Appeared In and the Fees He Has Thereby Earned.

Has Thereby Earned.
 The friends of ex-President Harrison who deprecate the methods now being made to bring his name before the St. Louis convention give as reason for his determination not to be candidate that he has found his profession of law exceptionally remunerative, and that his receipts annually aggregate more than the salary of the president. While he has appeared in court in some very important cases, much of his work is as | consulting or advisory counsel.
 It is asserted that cases in which the ex-president has not been known as an attorney, and i'll which he has acted only as advisory counsel have netted him during the past year more than com potency, while he has made over $S5,- 900 ill cases in which he appeared i'll court ill the past two years. The most important public case ill which he has appeared since he returned from Wash ington was the litigation between the city of Indianapolis and the street rail- way company, the former contending that the charter of the company had ex- pired by limitation and the latter that the charter was perpetual.
 Mir. Harrison appeared for the com pany. The ex-president contended ill an exceedingly ingenious argument that corporate privileges are created by the state, and that city could not limit them by ordinance; that the right to use the streets of a city once granted T or revoked. Judge Wood of the federal court coincided with this view of the law, and the case is now in the United States supreme court on appeal. For his argument i'll this case Mr. Harrison re- ceived fee of $25, 900, and another fee of $25, 900 as a retainer for the supreme court.
 Ill the Henry Ives case, involving the l purchase of the Vandalia railroad by the young Napoleon of finance, 7" and which was recently decided in favor of l McKeen, there was another fee of S25, 900 for the president. In the more re- cent will case at Richmond he received fee of $l9, ,000 which would have been made, but he consented to reduction of ST, 900 in order to advance com promise between the heirs. An impor- tant case which he argued in the In diana supreme court was that involving the charter of the Eel River railroad, which was leased by the Wabash, be- cause it was competing line i'll Indiana. and then suffered to go down. The state attempted to revoke the charter of the Eel River road on the ground that there
 
 and the Wabash. In this case the ex- president received a fee of $22, 900, al though he came into the case after the issues were all joined and the battle had been fought in the lower court.
 It is said that he received $40, 900 and contingent fee of $10, 900 ill the Cali fornia irrigation case in which he re- I gently appeared in the United States su- preme court In addition to the fees for these services he received $1, 900 for each of Is lectures delivered at the Le- 1 land Stanford college two years ago, making, since his return to Indianapolis, about $150, 900 that he is known to have | received for his services
 It is said that he takes more pleasure in his "out of court cases than all oth- CTS, and that there is a strong probabil- ity that he will eventually confine him. self entirely to the former cases These consist largely of cases arising in the management of great incorporated in- | terests.
 A sample case, in which he received fee of $10, 900, is thus related:
 One morning MT. Harrison received letter from firm engaged ill buying municipal and state bonds Some ques- | tion had arisen about the legality of the issue, and there was a difference be- l tween counsel that had been consulted l A full statement of the facts, with I tender of fee of $10, 900, reached MT. | Harrison one morning and he imme diately set himself to studying the case. 1 That afternoon he visited the supreme court library, ran down a long list of cases and found certain limitations in the constitution of the state in which l the bonds were to be issued that caused him to doubt their legality. The next day he dictated an opinion, in which he set out the facts and suggested that certain changes be made, which, he said, would remove all question of their 1 illegality. It is not known whether this advice was followed or not. A friend who relates the story says that the in- vestigation occupied the greater part of one day and the opinion was dictated and mailed the next, and thus the fee was practically $5, GOO day It is said by Mir Harrison's friends that he thoroughly enjoys the study of cases, and in addition to making a great deal of money, he is entirely free from the cares of office. They do not believe that he will give up his comfort and income for an office that he has once 1 filled and which he himself has said can have no attractions for him-New York Journal