Excerpt from Railroad Valuation by the Interstate Commerce Commission The Transportation Act of 1920 recognizes the dual problems involved in fixing railroad rates. The Interstate Commerce Commission is granted "reasonable latitude to modify or adjust any particular rate which it finds unjust or unreasonable." But the significant contribution of the new act is the standard directed for measuring total income: In the exercise of its power to prescribe just and reasonable rates, the Commission shall initiate, modify, establish or adjust such rates so that carriers as a whole (or as a whole in each of such rate groups or territories as the Commission may from time to time designate). will, under honest, efficient and economical management and reasonable expenditures for maintenance of way, structures and equipment, earn an aggregate annual net railway operating income equal, as nearly as may be, to a fair return upon the aggregate value cf the railway property of such carriers held for and used in the service of transportation. From a rule of negation designed to protect the railroads from "confiscation" an affirmative program has been evolved. This directs a conscious effort to regulate total railroad earnings. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.