Once more the vital conclusions seem to be, the necessity of the dominance of public interest, and the value of being in possession or having your own servants in possession instead of merely giving orders to the servants of another in possession who may or may not obey, and who are in no danger of losing their positions by disobeying you and may gain greatly by it—the value of having public interest at the helm to steer the vessel in a safe course, instead of keeping private interest at the wheel while public interest stands on a steam tug with a big whistle and shouts orders through the fog to the steersman on the passenger liner who is more than half inclined to steer the ship as he pleases, and gets his pay and employment from men who do not wish the public orders carried out, and whose instructions vary widely therefrom. You cannot expect the servants of others to obey your orders as well as your own servants, especially if the said servants of others are employed by persons whose interests are largely contrary to your own. Neither can a commander be as sure of winning a victory at the head of an army trained in the camp of the enemy owing allegiance to them, and constantly receiving orders from them, as he could at the head of his own proper troops.[424] Is it fair to try to control in your own interest property that does not belong to you? It is fair to try to exert sufficient control to secure impartial treatment of persons, places, and industries; but can this be done without fixing rates, and if this is resorted to will it not result either in squeezing the life out of railway enterprise or in a vicious struggle for mastery with new evasions of law and further intensification of political evils, and corporate control of Government? You will either deprive the owner of the right to determine the price at which the product of his plant shall be sold, thus controlling his profit and sapping his energy and incentive, or you will put a premium on political corruption by making it necessary for the railroad owner to control the Government in order to control his business and its profits. You will check the development of railways and drive capital into industries where the owners are free to fix prices, or you will check the movement toward political purity. Public control in some form is absolutely necessary in order to safeguard the public interest. The only question relates to the form and degree. Is effective and adequate public control of transport, with the unity, freedom, and hearty co-operation that should characterize all business ventures, possible without public ownership? And if not, isn’t it true that the economic and governmental changes necessary to make public ownership safe and successful constitute the essence of the ultimate railroad problem?