valuation is the best of evidence that there is no water in the securities of this particular company.
Four Western States have made careful valuations of the railroads within their borders, and the commissions, if they err at all, have not made mistakes in favor of the railroads. The results were as follows:—
| Cost of reproduction | Capitalization | |
| Washington (1905) | $194,057,240 | $161,582,000 |
| South Dakota (1908) | 106,494,503 | 109,444,600 |
| Minnesota (1907) | 360,961,548 | 300,027,676 |
| Wisconsin (1909) | 296,803,322 | 225,000,000 |
| Total | $958,316,613 | $796,054,276 |
In Minnesota and Washington the valuations made by the railroads at the same time were considerably in excess of those made by state authority, and there is good reason to believe that they were made more thoroughly and accurately than those made by the States. Even on the lower valuations made by the States the capitalization is less than the cost of reproduction.
There is every reason to assume that a similar careful calculation and computation
