The Valuation of Public Service Corporation Property / Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, / vol. LXXII, June, 1911, ASCE 1190

by Henry Earle Riggs

Fair Value.

"The present value of a railroad property is necessarily very largely a matter of opinion only; it depends upon a vast number of contingencies and uncertainties, a road apparently of great value to-day may soon become worthless by the opening of a competing line having superior advantages or by the competitive struggles of other lines which operate to reduce the income of all; the value of a railroad largely results from the personal characteristics of its officials; the policy pursued by directors for the conservative and economical or progressive and daring, is a great factor in the determination of the current value of the property; a railroad property is not necessarily worth what it would cost to replace it and, on the other hand, it may be worth very much more than that."[^[34]]