Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-02-28
To the Members of the Eleventh Legislative assembly of
the State of North Dakota:


the State of North Dakota:
The tenth legislative assembly the of North d.
koa passed act providing for public service commits
son vz chapter 1884, page 313 Of the session laws of 1907
this consisting the governor lieutenant gov
ernor and Honorable Treadwell Twiche speaker of the
house of representatives the legislative assembly,
This required the public service commission to ascertain
the value of the property of all public service corporations
operating in the state of North Dakota and report of the
same be filed with the secretary of state the LIST day
of july 1908 in order that any information obtained by
such commission should be available for the state of
equalization at its next session thereafter we'll as for
the next legislative assembly.
In accordance with said law the said commission met at
the office of the the city of Bismarck the 10th
day of March, A. D. 1905 duly organized under said law
elecng Governor Burke chairman and Lieutenant Gov
S. Lewis secretary and for the purpose of obtain
ing the required information the commission prepared
list of seventy questions for each public
ton to Upon receipt OF the answers tins commls
sion prepared very voumnous report containing the in
other public service corporations IN TINS stae wcn re-
port duly fled provided by law with the secretary
of state on the LIST day of July, 1908.
All the questions asked not answered by of the
public service corporations to which they submitted
this board after receipt Of the replies went to the head
offices St. Paul and Minneapolis of the Great Northern,
Northern Pacific and the M St. P t& S. S. M Ry. to-
fer with the officers of the company and later the officers
furnished further information which was not re-
ceived in time to file with the report the LIST OF July but
received in time for at the meeting of the board OF
equalization in August 1908.
According to the received from the Great North
ern railroad that company has 69O63 miles OF main line
Of estimated value Of $37 per mile Branch lines,
miles of the value of 1914 4O503 per mile This value
is estimated on the of building the railroad and
from this it claimed by the report that there should be
onesxh deducted for and tear leaving the main lines
valued at $3 per mile and the branch lines at $4,000
per mile.
The supplemental report of the Northern Pacific rail-
road estimates the cost per mile of reproducing entire
tenn of branch lines and sdetracks at not less than
SCI liza per me and that the cost of reproducing 46253
miles of main and branch lines and sngs in the state OF
North Dakota would be not less than 79OO per mile
The Chicago Northwestern railroad has 128 miles OF
an estimated value of $17 ,946.OO per mile.
The Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul railroad has 1881
miles in the state and according it's report does not know
it's value.
The Farmers Grain Shipping Co. has 90 miles of road
that cost 1854 000 $780, .48 mile.
The Devils Lake Chatauqua railway has 5 13 miles,
capital of O0 Report does not give value or gross
earnings
The Minneapolis, St. Paul & SAUL Ste. Marie n.y. has
l0834 miles the state The to the questions
asked do not show the value the gross earnings within
the state
The Fargo Moorhead street railway has 924 miles, a
capital of 100000 Real property OF the value OF $l2Oo
and personal property Of the value of $37, 1881.
The Grand Forks Transit Co. has IA miles, with per
sona property the state of the value of $2O5O The
value of the road bed $4,000 and the gross earnings the
past four years $14, 422.56
The American Express Co. of New York operate over
148 miles, and have personal property in the state OF the
value of $780, a
The Great Northern Express Co. operates 259
miles Personal property in the state Of the value OF 3d.