Can Rivers and Men be controlled?

In Machiavelli's The Prince, he states "rivers and men can be controlled, but cannot be trusted". I interpret this to mean that men can be controlled, be nice: be polite: don't shout: don't burp ect. But that they cannot be trusted, in either a general sense or meaning they cannot be trusted to stay controlled. I believe that this statement is false, in a general, today’s average Joe descriptive way. I do not believe that men cannot be trusted. 

Although statistics show that men commit more crimes than women, and one may argue that committing a crime is a break in the justice systems trust towards society to do the right thing; I do not necessarily believe that all men especially in the political / leadership field need to be controlled and not trusted. The general idea of a leader especially in democratic terms is to be the voice of the people, a figure head, the 'leader of the pack', as Machiavelli infers throughout his references to lions and foxes. And in being a leader thier needs to be a large amount of trust. I don't think that trust is given, I believe that it must be earned even if its just half halfheartedly. 

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Men, often fall victim to the forces of power, but this does not deem them incapable of being trust worthy. Thus men, though it may be prior to their corruption, may be trusted, and must be trusted in this current day and age when there is so much power and so much room for error.

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” -http://www.acton.org/research/lord-acton-quote-archive