| Engineering, superintendence, and legal | 4½ per cent. |
| Contingencies | 5 " " |
| Interest, time of construction varying according to mileage from 1 to 8 years | 4 " " |
In addition to these three items, the item of "adaptation and solidification of roadbed" was given a large place, being, for all the roads of the State, $11,743,007.15. This feature was novel to this class of valuation, and it is to be regretted that, in his report, the appraiser did not narrate more fully the detailed methods by which he arrived at his resultant figure.
Land Valuation.—The vexed question of a proper value to give to lands owned by a railway company, was treated by Appraiser Morgan in a different way than it had been in Wisconsin or Michigan. A number of special agents were appointed, who made an exhaustive study of the transfers and assessed values throughout the State. The discussion of this subject in Mr. Morgan's report is exhaustive, and of great interest. The conclusions are quoted. It is regretted that the discussion of methods of valuation can only be given in brief form.
"Careful and full consideration of all information made available for establishing the value of the right of way owned and used by the railway companies for railway purposes, led to the conclusion that in the state at large exclusive of the three terminals of St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth, a multiple of three (3) applied to the true value or normal value of lands, as obtained from the transfers, would in general satisfy the conditions.
"During the period referred to, the railway companies paid for the property acquired by them, over and above its normal value, an amount sufficient to justify the use of the following multiples: St. Paul, one and three-fourths (1¾); Minneapolis, one and three-fifths (1⅗), and Duluth, one and one-fourth (1¼), which when applied to the normal value of the lands as established from contiguous and surrounding property, formed the basis for measuring the cost of reproducing the existing terminals of the railway companies."
In the final compilation of results, two sets of schedules were rendered:
(a) Those which gave the land values with added increment,
(b) Those which omitted the increment.
The cost of the engineering work was about $70,000; this covered 7,596.4 miles of main track, 427.4 miles of second track, and 2,414 miles of side-track, or a total of 10,437.8 miles of all tracks. As yet there has been no decision by the Courts on the Minnesota rate cases.
Forms Used in the Compilation of Information.—The forms used in the Michigan appraisal have been described and fully illustrated. They were all printed on 8½ by 11-in. sheets.