The attempt so far has been fruitless, nor will it be otherwise as long as the courts persist in approaching with abstract legal maxims a question which, above all things, requires the light of experience and the exercise of sound discretion. The question of railroad rates will never be satisfactorily settled until it is definitely referred to expert administrative State and National boards empowered and prepared to meet the many contingencies that will always arise in the transportation business. It is not difficult to account for the inability of the courts to properly adjudicate the question of reasonable rates. The legislature, or a board to which it has delegated its power, prescribes for a railroad company a classification and tariff. The company claims that the rates so fixed are unreasonably low and applies to the courts for redress. Now, if the rates were based upon the cost of service only, it might, perhaps, be possible for a court to determine whether the prescribed rates are adequate or not. But even in such a case the question would arise whether the capitalization and the operating expenses of the road are not excessive, and its determination would require expert knowledge and sound discretion rather than legal lore. However, since the cost of service is not the only, and with railroad men not even an essential, factor in rate-making, it is evident that the rates upon single commodities can not be reviewed upon their individual merits, but the tariff must, in the judicial determination of the question whether it is reasonable or not, be viewed as a whole. But as it is impossible to foretell what effect a readjusted tariff would have on the revenues of a road, even courts are forced to admit that an actual trial of the tariff is necessary to establish its merits or demerits.