That the railroads have little to fear, in regard to capitalization, from a properly made valuation, is shown by the results in the State of Washington, where the valuation was undertaken solely for the purpose of fixing rates, the result being a determination of the market value of the three principal railroads of the State—the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company—at an amount considerably in excess of their capitalization.[26] It is true that rates were lowered in this case on some commodities, but it does not necessarily follow that every change of rates on the basis of valuation must be toward a lower scale. Railroad rates are low and have stayed low while the cost of everything else has been raised, and yet, while this fact is well known to the general public, they still believe that, in some way or another, the railroads are getting or have been getting more than their proper share of profits. Evidently there is something wrong somewhere, and it is not going to be set right by calling the public fools and ridiculing their presumption for meddling in any way with railroad affairs. Mr. F. W. Whitridge, the Receiver of the Third Avenue Railroad, of New York, while stating[27] that he had only just discovered that there was such a thing as valuation, at the same time held up the whole scheme to ridicule, though he admitted that: "The people of this country have, I think wisely, made up their minds, in consequence of great corporate abuses, that public service corporations should be subject to regulation, etc." He nevertheless ridicules the efforts of the authorities, particularly their endeavors in the matter of valuation, with its "irreverence for facts." They seem, he says, "to be singing the song of the Banderlog who dreamed of "'Something noble, grand, and good Won by simply wishing we could.'" Valuation, however, has gone far beyond the point where it can be considered a visionary scheme, or can be held up to ridicule; and it has been worked out far enough to show, at least, that there is a rational basis, on which a determination of values can be made, which will do justice to both sides; furthermore, the Supreme Court of the United States has not only ruled that valuation must necessarily be precedent to rate regulation, but has gone so far as to specify at least some of the elements which must be taken into account, and it may be worth while noting that, in spite of the author's criticisms of the Washington State Valuation, it is the only one, thus far, in which an attempt has been made to comply with the rules laid down by this Court. The results in Washington, however, indicate clearly the need of regulation of the railroads, as a whole, and not varied regulation by individual States of the parts of systems within the borders of each.