The Valuation of Public Service Corporation Property: Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers,; vol. LXXII, June, 1911, ASCE 1190Riggs, Henry Earle
General
The Valuation of Public Service Corporation Property: Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers,; vol. LXXII, June, 1911, ASCE 1190
The statement is made again and again that the Michigan work was a
physical valuation; that no attempt was made to secure a "fair value"
(the language of the Courts), and that the value as a going concern was
not attempted to be given. In no case is the statement made that
Professor Cooley had charge of the physical valuation in Michigan, and
that Professor Adams took this physical valuation, and, under his
method, treated it as one element, and with it and other data derived
from a study of the reports and earnings of the company, undertook to
determine a "non-physical," "intangible," "franchise," or "going
concern" value, which included all tangible elements, and which, added
to the physical value, was assumed by Professor Adams to give the true
value. Had such a statement been fairly made, no possible objection
could be raised to the making of any number of points against the
correctness of the methods used by Professor Adams.
"Certainly it cannot be denied that a road between New York and Chicago,
950 miles in length, passing through a manufacturing district, is of
greater value than a road 1,200 miles in length, between the same
cities, but passing through a hilly and undeveloped territory a portion
of the distance, and through a farming section for a greater portion of
the remaining distance; yet the advocates of a physical valuation would
have us believe that there is no difference in the value of the two if
they can be reproduced to-day at the same cost."
This statement is entirely unfair to every man who has been in
responsible charge of valuation work in recent years in the United
States. No theory has ever been favored by any honest-thinking advocate
of a valuation. In the first place, no interstate valuations have ever
been made, and no parallel case to the one assumed is to be found,
except for very short sections of roads, a very marked instance having
been referred to elsewhere in this paper. Such a condition as assumed
would be reflected in the earnings of the companies to such an extent as
to cause the non-physical element of Professor Adams as used in Michigan
to correct largely or wholly the inequality and inaccuracy of the
physical valuation; such at least was the theory, and, if carried to its
logical end by the use of negative non-physical values, such would be
the result.
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