The solution of the problem of trust control was not easy to discover. The amount of property involved was so great that forceful legislation would be fought to the last ditch; while legislation that was obviously weak, on the other hand, would not satisfy public opinion. Public officials were hopelessly divergent in their views. Cleveland had called attention to the evils of the trusts in his tariff message of 1887, but had laid his emphasis on the need of reduced taxation rather than upon control of the great combinations. Blaine was opposed to federal action. Thomas B. Reed had characteristically ridiculed the idea that monopolies existed: And yet, outside the Patent Office there are no monopolies in this country, and there never can be. Ah, but what is that I see on the far horizon's edge, with tongue of lambent flame and eye of forked fire, serpent-headed and griffin-clawed? Surely it must be the great new chimera "Trust." Quick, cries every masked member of the Ways and Means. Quick, let us lower the tariff. Let us call in the British. Let them save our devastated homes. More serious was the almost universal lack of knowledge of the elements involved in the situation. Industrial leaders were unenlightened and wrapped up in the attempt to outdo rivals who were equally unenlightened and absorbed; the nation needed instruction and leadership, and neither was to be found. Instead, the poorer classes became more and more hostile to big business interests; the capitalist class set itself stolidly to the preservation of its interests. The one saw only the abuses, the other only the benefits of combinations. Thoughtful men felt that industrialism was afflicted with a malady which would kill the nation unless a remedy were found. The legal and constitutional position of the trusts was almost impregnable. Ever since the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dartmouth College case, handed down in 1819, franchises and charters granted by states to corporations had been regarded as contracts which could not be altered by subsequent legislation. Moreover, the Court had so interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment, as has been seen, that the states had found great difficulty in framing regulatory legislation that would pass muster before the judiciary.[3] It was doubtful whether federal attempts at regulation would be more fortunate. More fundamental still, for public opinion underlies even constitutional interpretation, American industrial and commercial expansion had run ahead of our conception of the possible and proper functions of government. Government as the protector of property was an ancient concept and commonly held in the United States; government as the guardian of the individual against the powerful holder of a great deal of property was a new idea and not generally looked upon with favor.