Excerpt from Combination, Not Competition of Railroads It may be remarked at the outset that the idea that the earnings of the strong lines must be kept down at all events, is far from com forting to people who have invested their money in the railroad business, and most discouraging to those who are invited to invest new money in it. In one of the recent Treasury Decisions, Honorable David A. Gates had occasion to remark that unless a public utility like a rail road company earned eight per cent. Upon its investment, its stock could not be kept at par - a conclusion which was reached from an examination of many income tax schedules. In an investigation made in connection with the Fifteen Per Cent. Rate Case, the Illinois Central Railroad Company discovered that in the unusually pros perons year ending June 30, 1916, it had in fact received a return on its investment in road and equipment of only The opin ion oi the Interstate Commerce Commission in this case shows that, taking the railroads of the country as a whole, the return for this same most prosperous year for the carriers in the Eastern Dis trict was Southern District and the Western District The net operating income for 1916 is the largest which the railroads have ever had, and was more than but it was less than 6% upon the Value of the railroad property devoted to_2. 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.