Besides all this it may be possible to make the law so clear that the courts cannot twist it out of shape, and the States might be got to pass laws in complete harmony with the Federal statutes. Railroads and trusts can be subjected to public inspection, and to the pressure of damage suits, injunctions, and progressive taxation. If need be the public could demand representation on the boards of direction of all the railroads, or the traffic managers could be made public servants and required, as receivers are now, to report semi-occasionally to the Federal courts, and to State courts also, perhaps, with the power of judicial removal in case of misconduct. There is a practical warrant for demanding representation in the management of the roads, in the fact that the franchises bestowed on them by the public represent a large part, probably half, of their market values. The public is entitled, as we have said, to be regarded as a partner in the railroads. If after thorough trial, regulation proves insufficient or unsatisfactory, public ownership remains.[417] The movement of thought in that direction in the last few years is very remarkable. In whatever way relief may come, whether by regulation or public ownership, _the essential fact is the dominance of public interest over private interest at the points where private departs from public interest, and the essential instrumentality for the realization of this fact in a republic is the actual, complete, and continuous control of the Government by the people_.