fixed, the market price of property and work is affected by so many and such varying factors as to make it impossible to lay down a rule by which to determine what any article or service is worth.
In the Lincoln Gas Company case,[1] the Supreme Court says: "As early as the month of January, 1909, this Court, in two notable rate cases, indicated its view of the importance, in any but a very clear case, of subjecting prescribed rates to the test of practical experience before attacking them in the Courts. * * * There are too many doubtful items for us to adjudge the ordinance void, in the absence of an actual and timely test. * * * It is a matter of common knowledge that, owing principally to the world war, the costs of labor and supplies of every kind have greatly advanced since the ordinance was adopted, and largely since this cause was last heard in the Court below. And it is equally well known that annual returns upon capital and enterprise the world over have materially increased, so that what would have been a proper rate of return for capital invested in gas plants and similar public utilities a few years ago furnishes no safe criterion for the present or for the future." As before in these cases the Court modified the decree of the Court below to be without prejudice.
Remembering what has already been pointed out as to the burden of proof and necessary evidence, it was impossible that a Court, having such knowledge upon the subject, could have possibly thought otherwise than as it did in the Harvester and Collins cases, or could require citizens, at the peril of financial ruin and imprisonment, to guess what they could only guess at; and hold them to a correct guess where all experi-
- ↑ Lincoln Gas & Electric Light Company vs. City of Lincoln, 250 U. S. 256 (see page 262). 1919.
