e coincided with the
centralization of power in the Democratic and Republican national
machines. In 1911 and 1912 a "money trust" investigation was conducted
by the Senate and a comfortable entente was revealed between a group
of bankers, insurance companies, manufacturers, and other interests,
carried on through an elaborate system of interlocking directorates.
Finally, in 1912, the Senate ordered its Committee on Privileges and
Elections to investigate campaign contributions paid to the national
campaign committees in 1904, 1908, and 1912. The testimony taken
before this committee supplied the country with authentic data of the
interrelations of Big Business and Big Politics.

The revolt against "Cannonism" in the House had its counterpart in the
Senate. By the time the Aldrich tariff bill came to a vote (1909),
about ten Republican senators rebelled. The revolt gathered momentum and
culminated in 1912 in the organization of the National Progressive party
with Theodore Roosevelt as its candidate for President and Hiram Johnson
of California for Vice-President. The majority of the Progressives
returned to the Republican fold in 1916. But the rupture was not healed,
and the Democrats reelected Woodrow Wilson.

CHAPTER IX. THE AWAKENING

In the early days a ballot was simply a piece of paper with the names of
the candidates written or printed on it. As party organizations became
more ambitious, the party printed its own ballots, and "scratching"
was done by pasting gummed stickers, with the names of the substitutes
printed on them, over the regular ballot, or by simply striking out a
name and writing another one in its place. It was customary to print the
different party tickets on different colored paper, so that the judges
in charge of the ballot boxes could tell how the men voted. When later
laws required all ballots to be printed on white paper and of the same
size, the parties used paper of different texture. Election officials
could then tell by the "feel" which ticket was voted. Finally paper of
the same color and quality was enjoined by some States. But it was not
until the State itself undertook to print the ballots that uniformity
was secured.

In the meantime the peddling of tickets was a regular occupation on
election day. Canvassers invaded homes and places of business, and even
surrounded the voting place. It was the custom in many parts of the
country for the voters to prepare the ballots before re