There does not seem to be any clear connection between efficiency and the form of ownership. The private roads of America are the most efficient and the private roads of Italy[418] the least efficient I have examined. The public roads of Germany and Belgium, though less efficient than our private roads, are more efficient than the private roads of France and England. In the same country, under like economic conditions, either private ownership or public ownership may secure the best management and most efficient service according to the stage of development. In the United States under existing political conditions the managers of our railways have many facts on which to base an argument that Government operation of railroads would be less efficient than private operation; and the fact that our adverse political conditions are due in large part to the private ownership of public service monopolies does not destroy the whole force of the argument, since our rings, bosses, party machines, spoils system, etc., are due in part to other causes. But where public affairs can be managed with the purity and business sense that characterize the railway managements of Germany, Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, and South Africa, there is equally little reason to doubt that public operation is the more economical and efficient. The low average freight rate in the United States is often adduced as conclusive proof of the efficiency of private management. But the average freight rate in England and France is higher than in Germany or Belgium. If it is a valid argument to say that the low average freight rate in the United States under private ownership proves the case as against the higher average freight rate under the public systems, then why is it not fair to say that the high rates in Great Britain and France under private ownership in their turn prove the case for public ownership. The average passenger rate in the United States and in Great Britain is twice as high as in some of the public systems of the continent. If the low freight rate proves the case for private ownership, why doesn’t the low passenger rate in Germany and Belgium prove the case for public ownership? The fact is that such comparisons of average rates prove nothing as to the management. Differences in the density of traffic, grades, curves, length of haul, wages, capitalization, etc., enter as plural causes and make it impossible to ascertain the effect of the element under consideration. Mr. Fink found that the ton-mile cost varied eightfold on different lines in his own system, all under the same management—700 percent more in some cases than in others. In view of that fact, of what use is it to try to draw inferences from the average rate?