The final arguments of Mr. Williams' address are devoted to an attack on the plan outlined by the Interstate Commerce Commission for valuation, and on some of the accounting methods of the Commission—points not proper to be discussed in this paper—but it is difficult indeed to read them without noting the apparently studied misrepresentation of the real attitude of Professor Adams and the Commission, and the evident object of the entire address to create a wrong impression regarding what has been done, and a prejudice against the men who have been engaged on State appraisal work and those who advocate the appraisal of properties as a proper step in the way of securing such information as will enable an intelligent consideration of the great corporation problems that must be solved. ----- Footnote 12: _Proceedings_, Am. Water-Works Assoc., 1902. Footnote 13: Commencing with the issue of January 22d, 1909. Footnote 14: The _Railroad Gazette_, April 19th, 1901, Vol. XXXIII. No. 16. p. 271. Footnote 15: _Railroad Age Gazette_, April 2d, 1909, p. 761. Footnote 16: _Railroad Age Gazette_, January 29th, 1909, p. 219. THE DETERMINATION OF ELEMENTS OF VALUE AND METHODS OF VALUATION BY THE COURTS. The preceding narrative of methods of appraisal work logically leads up to the question: Will these methods that have been adopted in various appraisal undertakings stand the test of the Courts? After all, the final seal of approval must be stamped on a method by the highest Courts before it can be said to be a definitely fixed and determined principle for general use in valuation. In a careful perusal of many papers on this subject, quotations from judicial decisions will be noted which are literally correct as far as they go, but which are incomplete and often very misleading; and often such incomplete quotations are presented as to convey an entirely wrong impression of the full decision. In order that no such charge may lie against this paper, the quotations given are full enough to indicate clearly the intent of the Court, even at the expense of undue length. An examination of all Federal and Supreme Court cases which bear on the subject of property valuation has been made, and quotations at length from some of the older cases, establishing precedent, together with citations to more recent decisions, are submitted. It is believed that the points of principle and method, in so far as they have been determined by the highest Courts, are quite fully set forth.