It is, nevertheless, no easy matter always to determine what are reasonable rates. It is easier to tell what rates are unreasonable. Rates are unreasonable that bring an income in excess of sufficient to keep the road in proper condition, to pay operating expenses, including taxes and a fair rate of interest on the amount, not including donations, actually invested in the road. The patrons of a road should not be taxed to pay interest on their own donations, or on public donations, to the road, as the donations were made for the benefit of the public, and not for the benefit of private individuals. A rate which may appear reasonable to the carrier is apt to be regarded as too high by the shipper; and, again, one that seems reasonable to the shipper is denounced as too low by the railroad man. Each is tempted to consult only his own interests and to disregard the just claims of the other side. Thus, while the shipper will claim that his rates ought to be low enough to enable him to compete with other shippers more advantageously located than he is, the railroad manager will demand a rate which would enable him to declare high dividends on largely fictitious values. The owners of roads which were built merely for purposes of speculation or blackmailing insist on being permitted to charge exorbitant rates to bring up their earnings to the level of those roads for whose construction there was a legitimate demand. It is a settled principle of common law that all rates must be reasonable, but no uniform rule has as yet been adopted by which the question of reasonableness is to be determined. The doctrine laid down by Judge Brewer, that "where the rates prescribed will not pay some compensation to the owners, then it is the duty of the courts to interfere and protect the companies from such rates," and that "compensation implies three things: cost of service, interest on bonds, and then some dividends," is absurd. A question is never settled until it is settled right, and this rule is certainly open to very serious objections. A road may be bonded for several times its cost or its real value, it may be managed with such recklessness or extravagance that its operating expenses may be twice what they would be under a careful and economical management, yet under this rule the shipper must pay the premium which bond-watering and bad management command. The general enforcement of such a rule would place the public at the mercy of scheming railroad manipulators. No matter to what extent the business of a road may increase, a reduction of rates can always be prevented by the issue of new bonds and the doubling of the already lordly salaries of its managers. Again, under the operation of this rule a road which entirely suffices to do the business between two points may be paralleled by another and the public be compelled to pay excessive rates to maintain both. It might be said that the public cannot be forced to