Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 25.pdf/242

 The Impeachment of the Witness effect. Manila, ThePhilippine number of Islands. cases of executor ships, trusts, etc., accepted by the public trustee in the first three months of 1908 was 63, of the value of £384,317; for the twelve months ending March thirtyfirst, 1909, the number of cases was 381, of the value of £3,133,523; for the twelve months ending March thirty-first, 1910, the number of cases was 622, of the value of £4,989,191; for the twelve months ending March thirty-first, 1911, the number of cases was 877, of the value of £6,548,641; and for the twelve months ending March thirty-first, 1912, the number of cases was 1,050, of the value of £8,626,315. This gives a total of 2,933 cases, of the value of £23,681,987, in something over four years. In addition there were at the date of the report 126 trusts, of the value of about £1,000,000, in the course of being transferred from previous trustees to the public trustee; and 2,020 applications had been received from intending testators, whose estates were of the aggregate value of £44,030,000. Thus, the total value of the business of all kinds, present and prospective, negotiated by the office in a little over jour years was approximately £68,7 12,000, or about three hundred and thirtyfive million dollars. There had also been deposited with the public trustee for safe custody 1,166 wills; and the number

225

of officials and employees in the office had grown to two hundred and twenty-five, of which eighty-five were in the account ant's department, forty-one on the legal side, twenty-two on the business (including investment and brokerage) side, twenty-one in the filing depart ment, nine in the cashier's de partment, and forty-six classed as stenographers, miscellaneous clerks and messengers. The public trustee says in his report: "Persons of means above the average have availed themselves as freely of the advantages of the statute as any other class. It would seem that these value the security of the state guarantee, the eco nomy of a permanent trustee, and the freedom to nominate an executor or trustee who will certainly survive them, who from the measure of his success is necessarily highly skilled and experienced in his duties, and who, being remun erated, acts without any sense of per sonal obligation arising. Moreover, the fact that the fees are not to be profit-bear ing gives a mutual character to the de partment, so that those who resort to it assist each other in effecting a reduc tion in the cost of administration. It is undeniable also that the success which has attended the work of investment has proved an attraction."

The Impeachment of the Witness By Rufus Walker ONE of those attorneys who says he used to command $30,000 fees down in Kentucky,, and who came to New York to become a great lawyer, but who is now trying petty cases in

the city courts for a little collection agency, was to argue on behalf of the defendant a motion for a new trial. When the case was called, he jumped to his feet, surveyed the table full of law