years at least, an opinion founded on increasing gold supply, which of course means belief in the quantity theory of money in its baldest terms.
If this were going to be so, we should express valuations in present terms, not in those of 1913 and should write up the national wealth materially. In fact there is a good deal of confusion about this, which is a matter of practical concern. Popular opinion does not permit any writing up in the valuation of the railways of the country, but there is a strong tendency toward writing up the valuation of real estate for taxation purposes.
In my own estimates of the national wealth I plead guilty to charges of inconsistency. Absolute uniformity was impossible. In attempting such an estimate the best that can be done is to formulate a principle and conform to it as nearly as the means permit. I think that this is adequately explained in my original text.
Irrespective of whether the value of property be influenced by inflation or by temporary scarcity or superfluity the subject must be taken into careful consideration in an engineering valuation, which from this standpoint is bound to differ from a non-discriminating statistical summary such as a census enumeration. Many companies capitalized new plant in 1920 at actual costs which have subsequently proved to be excessive and unrealizable. There are industrial companies possessing physical assets almost as wide in variety as those of the national assets. The engineer is constantly called upon to make such valuations and broadly he employs the methods that I have done in this book. Industrial companies not uncommonly possess assets to the aggregate of 25 to 30 million dol-
