158 THE GREEN RISING 



ernmental regulations. Influential lobbies were 

 maintained at the national and state capitals dur- 

 ing the sessions of Congress and the several state 

 legislatures, and aggressive attempts were made to 

 control political conventions, nominations for politi- 

 cal offices, and not infrequently public officials were 

 intimidated and sometimes bribed in an effort to 

 defeat all forms of legislation intended to promote 

 social justice between all classes. 



The objective of all organized effort was relief 

 through class legislation. Industrial labor and agri- 

 cultural producers had realized that for nearly a 

 century special interests had appealed to Congress 

 for advantageous tariff duties for manufacturing en- 

 terprises and for all kinds of subsidies for transporta- 

 tion companies and other corporate interests. The 

 belief had spread to all elements of the population 

 that legislation was the only means for equalizing 

 economic opportunity. "The idea that permanent 

 relief from oppressive conditions could be obtained 

 only through governmental intervention/' says B. 

 P. DeWitt, "slowly gained ground. Those who pro- 

 posed the idea at first were called revolutionists and 

 socialists and were regarded as visionaries. Soon, 

 however, the government was appealed to in various 

 ways to change existing conditions. Railroads could 

 be curbed by commissions, the tariff could be low- 

 ered, corporations could be dissolved, incomes could 

 be taxed. The people were under the delusion that 

 they owned the government; they had used it little: 



