302 VALUATION, DEPRECIATION AND THE RATE-BASE
charges for service or for the output of a public utility is in
question, and it is for this reason that the embarrassment plainly
evidenced by these quotations has resulted.
In the Spring Valley rate case already referred to the Master
refers to the difficulty of determining going value when he says:
“It is the intangible nature of the going value which makes it
difficult to prove. . . . A large part of the aggregate wealth of
the world is intangible, without separate market value or ascer-
tainable reproduction cost. In Adams Express Company us.
Ohio, 166 U. S. 185, the Supreme Court sustained the taxation
of an express company upon an assessment of property largely in
excess of the value of tangible property. The intangible property
is at one place ascribed to franchises, and in another to good will;
the name is not important.”
Justice Brewer, in delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court
in this case, uses the following language in discussing intangible
property:
“ To say that there can be no such intangible property, that
it is something of no value, is to insult the common intelligence
of every man. . . . This is eminently a practical age; courts
must recognize things as they are and as possessing a value which
is accorded to them in the market of the world.”
In the light of such opinions by our highest tribunals, universal
recognition of the fact that a business may have going value is
to be expected. Whether or not it is logical or wise to include
such value in the rate-base of a public utility is another question
elsewhere considered.
Determination of Going Value. — How can this value be
measured? This is the problem for immediate consideration
and it may as well be stated at the outset that no acceptable
solution thereof has yet been offered.
In comparing two business enterprises alike in all respects
except that the one already enjoys a fully developed business
while the other has just emerged from the construction stage and
is about to begin operation, a difference in value is readily recog-
nized, and the appraiser of the first, which is already a going
