TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

TABLE 15.

The writer does not care to permit to go unnoticed the imputation that he has attacked railroad officials as a class. If such inference is to be drawn from this paper, he desires to correct it.

The writer was in railway service for some years, for six years in an official position. For the past fifteen years he has been, at frequent intervals, on special service for railroads. He is at present under employment by two of the principal railways of the country. He has many warm friends in the service, many in official capacities, and he is fully cognizant of the high ability, integrity, and loyalty of railway employees, and by employees he means to be understood as including all classes, from the highest officials down.

Inasmuch as our railroads form our greatest industry, and inasmuch as the active heads of the large roads have under their control such properties as but few in other fields are called to administer, it follows that there are hundreds—yes, thousands—of men in railway service, competent to fill any office in the land. The writer repeats: it is a pity that the demands of their work are such that they cannot give more of the benefit of their highly specialized training to the public service, and that they have so often apparently misunderstood or misconstrued the perfectly honest attempts of public officials to find a remedy for real evils.

In closing, the writer desires to say that he regrets the impossibility of treating the subjects of depreciation and fair return in a satisfactory manner without unduly lengthening this discussion.

It may not be out of place to say that, in the writer's opinion, a fair return on the average public service corporation property should be considerably in excess of the figures usually named. There is but little incentive to invest in railways, street railways, or other public service corporations, if the limit of return is to be 7%, or 8%, or even 10%, on the actual investment. This is especially true where the hazard of investment is increased by term franchises under which the companies are operating. The writer has the most absolute confidence in the ability and integrity of our Supreme Court, and is led to believe that, on a proper showing, confiscation will not be permitted.

He also believes that, in general, the great mass of intelligent people wish only absolutely fair dealing with the corporations.

On making a full and frank showing of facts and conditions, the public service corporation which is honestly financed and honestly operated, need have little fear of ultimate justice.

The public service corporation which is administered, not to render service to the public, but to permit stock speculators to reap a harvest, can hardly hope for the same brand of justice, and it is hardly to be expected that such a corporation will welcome publicity.

19.Electric Railway Journal, January 8th, 1910. p. 76.

20.December 4th, 1910.

21.Railroad Age Gazette, July 24th, 1908. p. 587.

22.Engineering News, June 16th, 1910, p. 697.

23.March 4th, 1910.

24.Railroad Age Gazette.July 31st. 1908, p, 627.

25.Engineering-Contracting, May 25th, 1910, p. 468.

26.Railway Age Gazette, March 4th, 1910, p. 437.

27.Electric Railway Journal, January 15th, 1910, p. 110.

28.Professor of Political Economy and Finance, University of Michigan.

29.For convenient reference, a set of these forms is filed in the Library of the Society.

30.Now M. Am. Soc. C. E.

31.Transactions, Am. Soc. C. E., Vol. LII, p. 328.

32."Elements of Railroad Engineering."

33.Michigan Centralvs.Powers Record, p. 500.

34.Second Annual (1888) Report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, p. 64.

35.Letter of Hon. Martin A. Knapp, Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, to Hon. Stephen B. Elkins, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, covering a then pending bill providing for railway valuation, March 25th, 1908.

36.Pages18-19.

37.C., C., C. & St. L. Ry.vs.Backus, 154 U. S., 445.

38.Proceedingsof the 22d Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association.

39.Page11.

40.Decision and order of the Railroad Commission of Wisconsin, issued August 3d, 1909, in the case of Hillet al.vs.Antigo Water Company, pp. 84-85.

41.Page139.

42.Shortly after the Kansas City Water Company case and the classic decision of Mr. Justice Brewer, and since developed by the suggestions of a number of engineers, among them John W. Alvord, M. Am. Soc. C. E., whose admirable article on "Going Value of Water-Works," presented at the Milwaukee Convention of the American Water-Works Association, held in 1909, is familiar to all students of water-works valuation.

43.Page155.

44.Page144.

45.Transactions, Am. Soc. C. E., Vol. LXIV. p. 94.

46.Bulletin 21. Department of Commerce and Labor, U. S. Bureau of the Census.

47."The Principles Governing the Valuation for Rate-Fixing Purposes of Water-Works Under Private Ownership." By Arthur L. Adams.Journal, Assoc. of Eng. Societies. Vol. XXXVI, No. 2.

48.The Minnesota Commission classified all roads as "Carrying Roads" or "Switching Roads," the latter being mostly Union Depots.

49.This paper will be published in a subsequent volume ofTransactions, Am. Soc. C. E.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTESUsed a comma instead of a space after every third digit from right to left in numbers of more than three digits in keeping with authors preference.Table 9 on p.228has an error in the math. The total of the second column is $1,259,149,434 instead of $1,259,049,434. The latter does agree with the difference arrived at in the next line.Added "Grand total—All assets" to last line in Table 10 on p.230as this description agrees with the actual totals provided.Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors.Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

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