The Press., 1915-10-13
FEES OF LAWYERS
Modern Legal Lights Would Scorn
 Webster's RetainerS.
FORTUNES IN SINGLE CASES.
Many of the Leaders of the Bar of To- day Receive For One Piece of Work Ton Times the Amount the Great Senator Made In Year.

Many of the Leaders or tne par or t0' day Receive For One Piece of Work Ton Times the Amount the Great Senator Made In a Year. What is the biggest fee ever paid a i lawyer?
 There is nothing certain about 1t, but it is the opinion of some of Bos- tons most widely known lawyers that Robert M. Morse has received the largest fee ever paid to a Boston lawyer.
 In the famous Wentworth will case of dozen or so years ago he Is re- puted to have been paid $25O, O,0OO. while on the opposing side Samuel J. Elder and John D. Long are generally cred ited with having added $1OO,OOO each to their bank accounts. | Another big fee that almost staggers belief is one awarded by the courts of Massachusetts to Sherman L. Whipple in the Bay State Gas company re- ceivership case, in which MT. Whipple got $233, ,OCO, although he said it did not all go to him.
 There is tremendous difference be- tween the fees which lawyers receive today and those which the legal lights of a generation ago were paid. | Daniel Webster is as good an Illus l tration of this as any one, and Samuel J. Elder is authority for the statement that Webster's best year netted him only $1S,OOO.
 "I have seen Webster's books," MT. l INIdo. coi1 s.apd thoro was mt a voQr l that he earned more than $1S,OOO, usu- ally much leSs."
 l It has often been said that the great senator from Massachusetts did not average $1O.OOO a year, and yet today man with his attainments and emi- hence who did not earn half a million dollars a year would have only himself to blame.
 | Rufus Choate, very great lawyer in his day, practiced more than Webster. His average receipts from 1849 to 1859, inclusive. were nearly $18OO0 yearly.
 The largest receipts in a single year during that period were a little more than $22,OOO in 1856 and the smallest $11,OOO His largest single fee was $2,OOO, and he had four more of the same amount. Once he had a retain ing fee of $1,5OO. Choate was proba- bly, the equal in eloquence and learn ing of any lawyer living today.
 Lincoln, q member of the Illinois bar, was another whose low charges have caused comment Prior to 1S4O he re- ceived two or three fees of $50 each. Trial fees were usually entered as $5. He sometimes took payment in trade.
 The largest fee he ever received was $5,GOO from the Illinois Central rail- road, the richest corporation in his state, and he had to sue to collect that. Today he would get $5O,OOO or $1OO,OO0 for the same work.
 Coming down to our present day, it is said that the late James B. Dill re- | ceived $1 100000 for his services in connection with the forming of the United States steel trust.
 William D. Guthrie received $SOO,OO for his work in breaking the will of Henry B. Plant.
 John B. Parsons work in connection with the formation of the sugar trust is said to have enriched him $35O,OOO.
 Joseph H. ChOate received many enormous fees. He is said to have been paid $2OO,OOO for his argument before the United States supreme court successfully attacking the con- stitutionality of the income tax. His work for the United Shoe Machinery company also netted him large fees.
 Samuel Untermyer has received at least one fee of three-quarters of a million dollars with the consent of both parties and with the approval of the court Another fee of a quarter of a million dollars is also credited to | him.
 George w. Wickersham, Taft's attor- ney general, received a fee of $200.O0O in 1909 as one of the attorneys who negotiated the Chicago Traction com pany settlement between the city and the companies.
 l William Nelson Cromwell is said to have made a million dollars in connec- tion with the Panama canal business. but the truth or falsity of this state ment probably never will be proved | Boston Post.