ESSENTIALS OF VALUE
fact that the company does not own the connections between
the pipes in the streets and the buildings — such connections
being the property of the individual property owners — does not
militate against the proposition last stated, for who would care
to buy, or at least give a large price for a waterworks system
without a single connection between the pipes in the streets
and the buildings adjacent. . . . It (the city) should pay there-
fore not merely the value of a system which might be made to
earn, but that of a system which does earn.”
According to this view of the court there is no question about
the inclusion of intangible elements among the properties which
have value. The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine in its in-
structions to the appraisers of the properties of the Maine
Water Co. (1902) in the Kennebec Water District Case (97
Maine 185; 54 Atlantic 6) said:
“In addition to structure values, the appraisers should allow
just compensation for all the franchises, rights, and privileges to
be taken.”
Here, too, the court recognizes the fact that franchises and
privileges may have value.
Intangibles as a Protection to the Owner. — The courts and
the public service commissions must protect the investor whose
enterprise is developing the latent resources of the country and
who is, therefore, to be encouraged, and they must at the same
time prevent as far as may be the robbing of the public by over-
capitalization and over-bonding with consequent over-charging
for the service rendered. But in protecting the public they
should not lose sight of the fact that the owner of the utility is
entitled to fair compensation for his time and his business ability,
and for the risks which he assumed in embarking upon a venture
for general benefit.
To do this adequately, in conformity with the rulings of
public service commissions and the decisions of the courts, the
appraiser has frequently had recourse to intangible elements of
value under such names as “ unification of properties,” “ going
value,” “solidification of road-bed,” ‘appreciation of land ”
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