Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/75

Rh is obviously no criterion of the value of those rights of way in 1908, when they were used under these fares and rates and when agricultural lands in Minnesota were worth from $35 to $100 an acre, and rights of way and lands for yards and sites for stations in cities like St. Paul and Duluth have wonderfully increased in value. It is a fair return upon the reasonable value of their Minnesota property in 1908 to which these companies were entitled, and the cost of that property at times varying from five to forty years ago may be some evidence, but it is certainly no criterion of its value in that year. In view of these facts the master rightly decided that the cost of reproducing this property new was a more rational and reliable measure of its real value than the original cost of its acquisition and construction or the market values of the stocks and bonds of the companies, and upon that basis he made his findings.”

Here is shown conclusively that the fair value of this one railroad is very much in excess of the securities issued, and this judicial Rh