Omaha daily bee., 1902-07-13
COURT

as to the valuatIonf Ayes. siri we aid.
Q.-You exercised your best judgment as
a board as TO the valuation TO be placed
upon itf Al exercised my best Judgment
in the matter.
o.-You did the best you could and acted
upon II, didn't your Ayes, sir.
o.-And that was your tudsmentl A.
Yes, sir.
o.-And you made me assessment ac-
c~ordingly? Al aid. yes, SIR.
Q.-Now as bearing upon your good faith
In the transaction, you took into consid-
Grafton, didn't you. the standar OF valua
ton Of other properties other than rail-
roads, IN this statei Ayes, sir; I did.
o-You had Information upon that sub
ject? Al aid: yes. sir.
Q.-And you found that all property
other than railroads, was assessed on a
ratio or valuation OF about one-tenthH A.
Well, there was a difference in the board
in regard to that, but that was my esti-
mate, that 1t was probably about one
tenth.
Q.-And you arrived at a standard of
valuation of the properties of the railroad
at between one-sixth and one-seventh, did
you not? Al think that was the view OF
the board; yes, sir.
Redirect Examination by Mr.. Howe
You say that you considered the earnings
Of these companies7 How did you get at
the earnings Of the Omaha & Southwest
ern7 A.-The earnings Of the Omaha &
Southwestern, I think, are reported In the
auditors biennial report. My recollection
lie we aid not have the earnings for the
present year.
Judge B~ald%in-Your attention was
called to one Of these statements by Mr..
Harrington in reference to the fact OF the
miles owned and miles operated by the
Union Pacific in this state, one is 947
miles, and the other is 1,020 miles; the
report shows that the e47 are the miles
owned by the Union Pacific In this state,
and the 1920 miles operated by the Union
Pacific? Ayes sir.
Q.-That is the lire from Norfolk to
Sioux City2 Ayes, sir.
(Which It doesn't own, but operates
and is therefore returned by some other
company.
Mr.. Howe-Now go on and tell us how
you arrived at the earnings of each OF
these fifteen companies called the B. & M.
company? A.-The financial report Of the
b. & NJ. not being before us at the time
the board was in session, the most that
we could do was to refer to their earn
ings in previous years. as we found them
in the biennial reports of my predecessor
in once.
Odd you look at more than one bien.
NAL report Of you predecessor? Al thini
not. ! think we considered his last bien-
NAL report, which included the assessment
Of the railways for 1898 and 1899.
Q.-Do you mean to say hat you car
turn to the page In the report that shows
the earnings OF each of these fifteen com
panles? Al think so. think that q
is on page 100 Of that report, II i am not
. mistaken.
. o.-when did you see It iastf A.
don't remember.
. Q.-So you think by looking back into
formers years transactions you can as
. certain what the earnings or expense &C
!, count was of these fifteen different com
- panies for those yearsf Ayes, sir.
a Q.-Then you say you assessed the prop
: erty as an entirety? What do you mean b!
that7 Did you assess the e." road as al
' entirety? Al mean all the property, tn
> rolling stock, depots, sidetracks, right-of
way and everything was added together.
: o.-That is, the physical property? A.
= Yes. sir; the physical property added to
. gether. And then that aggregated an,
divided by the total mileage Of the corpora
. ton and distributed to the different coun
ties In proportion to the mileage in thos
counties.
y Q.-Was not the property Of the Oman
& Southwestern, that atty and eighty eight
ono-hundredth miles, part of 1t is north o
! us and part south Of us at the present time
A.-Tha is my recollection, l don't re
member positively the number Of mile
= contained in that part Of the road.
Q.-Do you know where Saline and Gag
counties are? Ayes. sir.
Q.-The Omaha & Southwestern road
In all OF those counties, is it. not? A
= don't know positively. know there Is
break in the line somewhere.
Q.-How far are they separatedf A
Well, l can't say positively. for ] don
know.
Q.-In speaking of an entirety" 20
don't mean to include In that the franchis
except as you have stated here? A.-Tha
is all, only as / have stated here.
Q.-Now taking the Union Pacific, takin
that az an entirety, do you mean the entir
property Of the main line and branch lines
do you call that the entirety. or do 20
" separate them into three properties7 A
We separated according to the return
made by the roads; that Is, assess the prop
erty Of each incorporation separately.
Citizen as an entirety you did not con
slider that part OF the Union Pacific that
outside Of Nebraska? A.-No. sir, we di
not. We simply included the property /
, the state Of Nebraska.
o.-Now you say this answer was unani
mously agreed upon by the members OF tn
board? Al so understood 1t. at the TIM
o.-Where was it agreed upon?
Objected to as incompetent, irreievar
i and immatertal. Witness excused.
Mr.. simeral-The plaintiff offers In evI
n dence the fourth annual report OF the Unto
Pacific Railroad company for the year end
ing June 80. 1901, marked Exhibit ~.
Mr.. Harrington-We ofer In evidence th
twenty-nrst annual report OF the Missoui
* Pacific Railway company for the year end
. ing December 81. 1901. marked exhibit 4;
the annual report Of the Northern Pacin
Railroad company for the year ending Jun
ID so. 1901, marked exhibit A; the twelfth an
= nual report Of the Great Northern Railroa
company. marked exhibit IS; the annual re
l. port Of the Chicago q Northwestern Raj
road company for its forty-second hsei
70 year, marked exhibit i6; the twenty-nr
annual report Of the Chicago. st. Pau
10 Minneapolis & Omaha railroad. marked e.
A. hibit al the annual reports Of the Inter
state Commerce commission for the year
~ 1900 and 1901, marked exhibits As and 4
and the preliminary report Of the ineom
IL account OF the railways as published BY Ii
. statistician OF the Interstate CommerS
u commission under an act OF congress fC
Al. uaaH auagnU lima an 1901 marke0 ~