“The integrity of State Legislatures is at a low ebb. Their action is looked upon as largely controlled by the business interests and by political bosses.... Charges of direct bribery are frequent.... It has been well recognized that the Legislatures of certain States, notably New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and California, have been controlled through a long series of years by great railway corporations.... A number of the members of Legislatures are ‘owned,’ that is, controlled by some outside interest. Usually there is a political leader, or boss, to whom the member is indebted for his seat. In other cases a member is serving some particular interest to which he is bound by the fact that his campaign expenses have been paid or other substantial favors given him.” (Appleton’s _Cyclopedia of American Government_, 1914, Corruption, Legislative.) In an article on “Phases of State Legislation,” Theodore Roosevelt stated that about one-third of the members of the New York Legislature wherein he sat were corrupt or open to corrupt influences. He had been a member of that legislature three times and in his _American Ideals_ (1897) he gives some account of his experiences there. While careful not to attack manhood suffrage, he pictures these legislative bodies as very inferior and corrupt assemblies whose best men were commonplace and narrow-minded; whose worst men were venal, ignorant and semi-barbarous. The best he could say was that among its one hundred and fifty members, “there were many very good men”; but he added “that there is much viciousness and political dishonesty, much moral cowardice and a good deal of actual bribe taking in Albany, no one who has had any practical experience in legislation can doubt.” After a careful examination, he and some fellow members learned “that about one-third of the members were open to corrupt influences in some form or other.” (Pp. 64-68.) He mentions four other states which are equally as badly off in the character of their legislators, if not worse. Mr. Godkin writing on the subject says: