Undoubtedly this statement was made in good faith, and has gained currency by not having been corrected, but it is not the fact.
The Chicago and Northwestern Railway took immediate steps to make surveys and secure data, as has been described, and made a complete appraisal, using the Michigan forms. The result of this appraisal was:
| Chicago and Northwestern, present value | $8,551,530 |
| State appraisal, present value | 8,281,090 |
In this case the railroad had no records, and the work was of value to them, not only as a check on the work of the State, but also as giving them complete records of permanent way. It was not done independently of, and after, the State work, but was organized so that the field work of both railroad company and State was done at the same time.
No other complete work of valuation was done by the railroad companies. During the trial of the cases, no contrary or different valuations were set up. No special attack was made on the work, except to select here and there some specific example of a building which was appraised at a higher figure than cost, perhaps half a dozen in all, and to introduce expert evidence, particularly on land and right-of-way values. Aside from the money expended on the litigation, there were no expenditures by the roads in checking up the work. On the contrary, a number of managers, at their own expense, had typewritten copies of the final report as to their own lines made, in order to file in their records.
It is a fact that only one of the seventy-eight roads made a complete appraisal, covering 387.8 miles of main line, and none of the other roads or mileage went to any considerable expense.
The Cost of the Work.—No complete statement of the total cost of the work of valuation in Michigan has ever been issued as a public document. The cost of the work, including salaries of appraiser, engineers, assistants, clerks, all expenses of the Board of Review, all expenses connected with Professor Adams' non-physical appraisal, also all office rent, stationery, supplies, telegraph, telephone, and railroad expenses, printing and binding—in short every dollar chargeable to the Michigan railroad appraisal of 1900—footed up to $70,604.21.
The exact mileage of roads in the State was:
| Main track | 7,082.35 | miles. |
| Second track | 164.83 | " |
| Branches | 730.92 | " |
| Spurs and sidings | 2,904.70 | " |
| _________ | ______ | |
| Total | 10,882.80 | miles. |
| Average cost per main-line mile | $9.97 | |
| " " " total-track " | 6.50 |
The exact figures of cost of the subsequent work of appraisal, or the costs of the litigation, are not available to the writer. In a general way, it may be said that the cost to the State of the railroad tax cases was not far from $75,000, and that the expenses of the second and third appraisals were less than $50,000, so that, to date, the entire cost to the State of Michigan is less than $200,000 for the three appraisals and the litigation growing out of them.