The most common objects of such prohibitions are, of course, the corporations. As early as 1894, Mr. Elihu Root, speaking in the New York Constitutional Convention in favour of an amendment prohibiting contributions from such sources, said:—“It strikes at a constantly growing evil which has done more to shake the confidence of the plain people of small means of this country in our political institutions than any other practice which has ever obtained since the foundation of our government.” Even now that the turning point has been passed and we are clearly on the way to better things there are few students of our public life who would dissent from Mr. Root’s judgment of the seriousness of the question raised by corporate contributions to campaign funds. Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Florida, were pioneers in acting on this conviction, all four having passed laws in 1897 absolutely forbidding such gifts.[85] Several states followed in a desultory fashion until in 1907 a sudden burst of legislative activity occurred as a result of the New York insurance revelations. In that one year no fewer than eleven states passed laws forbidding life insurance companies to contribute, and five other states forbade all corporations of whatever sort to make contributions to campaign funds. It is frequently objected to laws of this character that they are worthless because they can readily be evaded. A corporation may secretly direct one of its officials to make a large contribution with the understanding that the money is to be returned to him later, concealed, it may be, in the price paid for some property which he sells the corporation. No doubt evasion of this sort is possible, but it will hardly become common because it involves the collusion of so many men not only in the management of the corporation but also in the party management, all of whom will fully understand the criminal nature of the transaction. On the corporation side, moreover, the act remains a gift, and withal a gift of a much more hazardous nature and one much less certain to bring returns than such gifts are reputed to have been in the past. Now even under the most favourable circumstances giving, whether by corporations or by individuals, is a somewhat painful process. The absence of souls in the case of the former does not seem to make their feeling of sacrifice any the less keen. It is highly improbable, therefore, that in addition to this natural obstacle and other disadvantages corporations are likely to run the risks of penal law frequently in order that they may bestow their surplus wealth upon party organisations.