. Electric railway journal . questions that are presented by juggling withthe meaning of words, or by giving them an arbitrarydefinition. Any inequalities in the law may be moresurely and promptly corrected by facing them squarely. How Is Value to Be Ascertained? The value of any public utility at any particular timeis a fact which must be deduced from the application oftrained, intelligent, honest judgment to a great manyother facts. The Supreme Court said in the Minnesotarate cases (230 U. S. 434) that the ascertainment ofvalue is not a matter of formulas, but there must be areasonable judgm
. Electric railway journal . questions that are presented by juggling withthe meaning of words, or by giving them an arbitrarydefinition. Any inequalities in the law may be moresurely and promptly corrected by facing them squarely. How Is Value to Be Ascertained? The value of any public utility at any particular timeis a fact which must be deduced from the application oftrained, intelligent, honest judgment to a great manyother facts. The Supreme Court said in the Minnesotarate cases (230 U. S. 434) that the ascertainment ofvalue is not a matter of formulas, but there must be areasonable judgment properly considering all relevantfacts. The knowledge which will enable one to distinguishthe relevant from the irrelevant facts and to assign toeach relevant fact its proper weight is something thatcannot be attained without experience. The fact thatvalue is the result of trained judgment should tend torestrict the field, if not to entirely eliminate the class, ofso-called experts, who are not experts at all but who are. N. T. GUERNSEY •Abstract of an address delivered at the mid-year meeting- ofthe American Electric Railway Association on Feb. 4. Discussionon this address by George Weston and P. J. Kealy appear later inthis issue. mere theorists, and who are danger-ous because of their eagerness to ap-ply to the property of others theirtheories, honest but absolutely un-supported by the results of practicalexperience, and therefore untrust-worthy. Relevant Facts to Be Considered The fact that value is somethingto be determined by the applicationof reasonable judgment to all of therelevant facts, leads naturally to tlieinquiry, What are the relevant fac-tors bearing upon the value of a,nelectric railway or of any other pub-lic utility? As long ago as 1898, inthe case of Smyth vs. Ames (169 466-546) the Supreme Courtcalled attention to the more impor-tant of these factors as follows:And in order to ascertain that value, the originalcost of construction, the amount ex
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