Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/181

 there would be a Republican telegraph, and if the reformers came in I don't know what there would be. (Laughter.) I think it would be a mere political machine. I would be perfectly willing, so far as I am concerned, to allow the government to try it, to sell out our property, but it would be very unjust to take it away, the property of our own citizens, and make it valueless."

"Have you any idea what the government ought to pay?"

"I think that it ought to pay what it is worth and no more. I think that the method that was provided in the law is a very just one, and I would be perfectly willing to let the government take it on those terms."

"What, in your opinion, is the Western Union property worth?"

"Well, I judge of property myself by its net earning power; that is the only rule I have been able to get. If you show me a property that is paying no more than the taxes, I don't want it. I want property that earns money. You might say that there is water in Western Union, and so there is. There is water in all this property along Broadway. This whole island was once bought for a few strings of beads. But now you will find this property valued by its earning power, by its rent power, and that is the way to value a railroad or a telegraph. So it is worth what it earns now, a capital that pays seven per cent."