Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-21
FORTUNES FROM BIG FEES
FROM the Cleveland plain Dealer.

A MILLION DOLLARS for a feel
/ n As much pay for a brief transact
tion as the owners of some OF
Americas largest industries are able
to make in a lifetime!
! 1t Is well-to-do citizen in this
country whose total earnings through
/ life reach $50, 900: what OF the man
| who, I'm payment for a single service,
| taking only a few weeks or days,
may collect as much as twenty pros
/ porous men earn in long lives of toll?
That the day of the million dollar
| fee has come is shown by one bona
| fde and another partially authenti-
Gated instances recently disclosed
That James Il. Dill received a cool
| million for settling steel corporation
dispute has been asserted as q fact;
that william Nelson Cromwell made
81 100000 or possibly S2,000,000 by ne
| gotiating the sale of the Panama canal
is sub rosa assertion.
One of the most difficult achieve
ments of the century was the selling
of the Panama canal to the United
States and well informed persons agree
that even IL William Nelson Cromwell
did get 81 100000 or S2,000.000 for 1t
| he earned It,
He even risked his life to make his
negotiations successful. One day while
the treaty was under discussion In
Washington II looked very much as IL
the whole project would fall through.
| But one man could save 1t.
Where was Cromwell? Friends OF
the canal found upon inquiring at his
| hotel that he was In bed very Ill with
temperature of 103. Yet upon learn
ing of the situation he arose, drove
to Secretary Hays office, stayed with
him an hour, then returned to the
xnsttI
fever for six weeks.
But the canal was bought.
Before a senate committee Mr..
Cromwell admitted having received
| 100000 and said he expected more.
How much? Only the gossip of Wall
street attempts to answer and this
places the total amount at almost
| so, 100000. The canal cost $40. 100000.
This isn't Mr.. Cromwells first big
fee For reorganizing the firm of
Decker, Howell & Co. in 1891 he re-
ceived from the court $4,000. He is
said to have got q 100000 fee on an
other occasion.
One Of the deepest muddles in Amer
lean industrial history was the series
of disputes between Anlrew Carnegie
and Henry c. Frick over the transfer
of the properties merged in the United
States Steel corporation. There are
those who say that James b. Dill-he
has since become a judge on the New
Jersey bench at a comparatively small
salary-was the only man in the Coun-
try who could have untangled the
mess: that the job was worth the
81, 000, 900 he received.
The group of attorneys who secured
payment by the government of the
long deferred claims of the Cherokee
Indians some time ago, amounting to
SIS, 900. 900, were allowed Is per cent Of
the whole, or nearly $750,0OO. OF this
fee, it is said. a great part went to
one man or firm.
A fee of $S00,000 is said to have
been paid to a New York lawyer,
William D. Guthrie, for breaking the
will of the late Henry B. Plant, own
er of a system Of steamships, railways
and hotels. OF the $24,000,000 estate
the widows share was $8,000,00O, and
as this was tied up in trust she en-
gagged counsel to secure its release,
giving him 10 per cent of her share.
Another large attorneys fee recent
Iy granted in court decision at
Seattle, Wash, was that of United
States Senator S. H. Piles, who will
get $3.50, 900 in the famous John Sulli-
van will case. The estate Is valued at
100000 and two of the heirs gave
deeds of conveyance to their counsel
for half the amount.
Modest in all things, the city of Mil
waukee, Wis, would, of course, be ex-
pected to furnish examples of modest