Roosevelt also had led in the onslaught on that corporation influence which, after all, constituted the great problem of American politics.

But Mr.Taft's administration had impressed many men, and especially Page, as a discouraging slump back into the ancient system.
Page was never blind to the inadequacies of his own party; the three campaigns of Bryan and his extensive influence with the Democratic masses at times caused him deep despair; that even the corporations had extended their tentacles into the ranks of Jefferson was all too obvious a fact; yet the Democratic party at that time Page regarded as the most available instrument for embodying in legislation and practice the new things in which he most believed.

Above all, the Democratic party in 1912 possessed one asset to which the Republicans could lay no claim--a new man, a new leader, the first statesman who had crossed its threshold since Grover Cleveland.
Like many scholarly Americans, Page had been charmed by the intellectual brilliancy of Woodrow Wilson.

The utter commonplaceness of much of what passes for political thinking in this country had for years discouraged him.

American political life may have possessed energy, character, even greatness; but it was certainly lacking in distinction.