"People’s Lobby"

On October 14, 1906, there was talk of creating a "People’s Lobby" in Congress. In the wake of the muckraking magazines’ attacks on "the Treason of the Senate," prominent reformers called for the establishment of such a citizens’ lobby, to scrutinize legislation, detect any "snakes," and warn the public about them.

Charles Thompson, a New York Times Washington correspondent, responded that in fact a "People’s Lobby" already existed. It consisted of 150 trained professional observers, who were "weighing, doubting, scrutinizing, [and] suspecting" congressional behavior every day. He was referring to the Senate and House press galleries.

According to Thompson, "Not a week goes by that some bill is not billed or some departmental error corrected by the People’s Lobby." He cited the example of the Hepburn railroad rate bill, which had recently been enacted after a long and bitter congressional debate, as follows :

At every step of the way every proposition that was offered was scrutinized and its character shown up. Every attempt to hamstring the bill met instant and wide publicity…. when the bill came over from the House it was to be an easy matter to emasculate it and turn it back to the president in a harmless condition. That no such effort succeeded is due to the People’s Lobby. So closely did it watch the game that day after day senators, red with indignation, were obliged to rise in their places and hurl back some new charge that had appeared in the morning’s paper. The People’s Lobby was unmoved by such spectacular denial: it went right on with its work.

Eighty-three years later, it is good to report that the "People’s Lobby" is still on the job, keeping a watchful eye on the Senate’s proceedings.