Since our Association was founded more than forty years ago, many things have happened under the head of political science. Men and women as political animals have supplied scholars with new data sufficient in volume and variety to satisfy the most exacting minds in the profession. At our annual sessions, numerous learned papers have been read and discussed. At our universities, new courses of studies have flowered luxuriantly. From the workshops of the guild, books and articles have poured forth in a copious stream. Several of our members have achieved distinction, indeed renown, in the public services; while, as far as I can discover, none has been sent to prison under the presidential decree of 1947 against that type of lawful dissent stigmatized as subversive activity. As if in testimony to our good works, it should be added that the amount of money now laid out per annum for political science is many times the sum expended long ago when we were young.

It might seem, then, an act of temerity even to suggest that anything under the sun has been neglected or less than perfectly disposed of in our golden age, our best of promised lands. Undoubtedly it is temerarious for one like myself, with eyes full of beams, to raise questions about stray motes in the eyes of members who may be properly satisfied with their accomplishments. Yet, on the other hand, there is some authority in our tradition and methodology, no less than in the practice of free enterprise, for occasional surveys or audits designed to find out whether in fact our liabilities are fully covered by assets, fixed and liquid.

In the times of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, there were no world problems, and there never had been; nor were any anticipated. But today the range of subject-matter dealt with in international conferences and treaties and by the United Nations, its commissions and the specialized agencies, is almost as all-inclusive as the domestic legislation of any nation, and the problems in some respects are even more complicated. Mankind did not plan it that way. Science and technology have given new meaning to the Chinese proverb, “All people are your relatives; therefore expect troubles from them.”

The greatest evils that afflict and threaten mankind spring from political conflict. The lag of the social sciences behind the physical and biological sciences is in part responsible for these unprecedented problems and for two indescribable world wars in a generation. The fear of other's bombs and ideas has led many nations to enter political struggles that had developed into a state of war in distant regions, impoverishing the whole human race and squandering the patrimony of the world's unborn generations. And the fear of more horrendous wars is strongest among those best equipped to wage them.

Although the need for such action had long been apparent in Washington, it was not until 1946 that a federal statute was enacted for the regulation of general lobbying activities. Prior to that year, Congress had, on a number of occasions, investigated lobbying practices, and as a result had enacted measures which reached a limited number of groups engaged in them. The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, the congressional act in 1936 affecting the shipping interests, and the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 were important regulatory measures, but they reached only a few of the groups exerting direct and continuous influence in Washington. The Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of August 2, 1946, is more general in its coverage; and it has been in force long enough for its effectiveness to be tested.

In this article, it is my purpose (1) to supply a brief historical background for the measure referred to; (2) to examine the statute's provisions; (3) to appraise the objections raised to it; (4) to examine the actual administration of the act and point out the difficulties of enforcement, particularly during its first year; and (5) to offer recommendations for strengthening the law.