PUBLIC ATTITUDE TOWARD BLOC 121 



uted to the influence of this group. Had its 

 members been disposed to do so, they might 

 easily have taken credit for many things which 

 they were in no wise responsible for. However, 

 the accomplishments of the year were relatively 

 few outside of matters having a primary inter- 

 est to agriculture. In one instance, a small 

 group of Senators chanced to meet at my home 

 for an evening conference on a matter not of 

 particular agricultural importance. The re- 

 porters immediately assumed that this was a 

 meeting of the Bloc, and proceeded to note the 

 actions of all those who were present and attrib- 

 ute them to an imaginary agreement reached 

 in this meeting. 



After a time the more discerning newspaper 

 writers seeking for a new angle from which to 

 treat what was now becoming a familiar story, 

 began to discover that there was nothing so very 

 dangerous coming out of the Bloc's activities 

 and that its program on the whole was inclined 

 to be constructive. One writer in the Annalist 

 of New York said : 



"As yet there is nothing ultra-radical about the move- 

 ment, but it is distinctly against the acceptance of a stand- 

 pat administration program, and the plain facts up to this 

 time supply the proof that more than one monkey wrench 



