Skinner—Appraisal of Railroad Property. . 821 
would be relatively small), a small committee comprising per¬ 
haps a chief inspector, the local assessor and one or two men 
familiar with local conditions could make a special determina¬ 
tion of the value at small cost. This would be carrying out 
for the whole state, with slight modifications, the plan adopted 
by Mr. Marston for the city of Milwaukee. 
It ought not to be difficult to arrange for local assessors to 
turn in to some county or city official their estimate of the 
right of way as compared with that of adjacent property, and 
for such official in turn to forward the estimates to the state 
board of assessment. By the state board, these figures could be 
treated exactly as the assessments on any other real estate. 
It seems likely, however, that under any scheme that may be 
devised the cost of the appraisal will be relatively high as com¬ 
pared with the value of the right of way as an element in the 
value of the railroad property. Bor, after all, the relation of 
the value of the right of way to the earning capacity of the 
road, either present or prospective, is ordinarily exceedingly 
small, and it is precisely the ability of a road to bring in re¬ 
turns that has more to do with its value to investors than any 
or all other factors. Nevertheless, while it may be true that 
for purposes of taxation the value of the physical property 
of a railroad is less important than some other factors, it must 
be noted that in problems involving an equitable adjustment of 
rates it is a factor of great importance. It is probably 
true, also, that for most roads the value of the right of way 
will constitute in the future a relatively larger part of the phvs- 
ioal value. This fact is at once evident when one considers 
the sharp advance that has taken place in the value of farm 
lands in the middle West in the last twenty years and the great 
increase that is taking place in the area covered by our cities. 
Bor reasons similar to the foregoing, it is desirable that the 
right of way should be appraised certainly as often as other 
parts of the physical property and probably oftener. In any 
case, the appraisal should be made often enough so that the ap¬ 
praised value can be adjusted to the fluctuations in the value 
of contiguous real estate. Under normal conditions, there will 
