road recently acquired and constructed, important terminal property, treasury securities, and cash.
In passing upon the findings of the master, Judge Sanborn used the following language: “The master found the original cost of the acquisition and construction of the entire railroad systems of each of the companies and the proportion thereof assignable on a track mileage basis to Minnesota. The amounts thus found prove to be much less than the values ultimately found by the master, and for this very good reason: These railroads were pioneers; they were built in large part over the prairies of Minnesota before they were settled and before many of the existing towns, villages, and cities along their lines came into existence. A large part of the right of way of the Northern Pacific Company was granted to it by the nation. The cost of rights of way from five to forty years ago through wild lands, and through towns and villages whose population and the value of the property in which have since been multiplied by from two to ten,
