ficient sum annually to provide not only for current repairs, but for making good the depreciation and replacing the parts of the property when they come to the end of their life. The company is not bound to see its property gradually waste, without making provision out of earnings for its replacement. It is entitled to see that from earnings the value of the property invested is kept unimpaired, so that at the end of any given term of years the original investment remains as it was at the beginning. It is not only the right of the Company to make such a provision, but it is its duty to its bond and stockholders, and, in the case of a public service corporation at least, its plain duty to the public. If a different course were pursued * * * this course would lead to * * * a disaster either to the stockholders or to the public, or both."
The Court properly deals with replacement "value" and not merely "price"; and exactly the same rule necessarily applies to "stock" that applies to machinery or any other property. Stock is the real thing, not the counters by which it may at any moment be measured, and the wasting away of that real thing brings the predicted and certain ruin that follows its continuance.
In view of these vital principles, investigation has been made to ascertain the various questions—the "thousand other accidents" spoken of by Adam Smith—that must and only can be guessed at in the sale of commodities. In view of the fact that there has been discussed the opinion of Judge Faris in United States vs. Cohen[1] relating to an indictment under the Act for an alleged unfair price in a sugar sale, an examination has been made into the un-
- ↑ United States vs. Cohen, 264 Fed. Rep. 218. 1920.
