He said,  We were incompetent. Perhaps some of us might, once upon a time, have been legislators; but boss rule was so old there that we didn't, we couldn't think for ourselves. We had lost the art of independent thought and work. We were dummies. We took orders, we waited for orders, we depended upon orders. Dummy legislators, that's what we were. Frustrated with their own party, Mayor Fagan and his corporation counsel George L. Record went to the Democrats who drew up a bill. The bill was buried in committee. Fagan went to Colby and asked him why he didn't have it reported. "I can't," Colby told him, "I'm not really a leader. I'm the real leader's dummy." A year later, at a Republican caucus, Colby asked why the bill could not be debated in the House. "Why, 'the Penn' (Pennsylvania Railroad) would raise hell," was the reply. "There was the reason, the real reason," said Colby in an interview later. "When the Mayor who represented the people of the second city in the state asked the legislature to consider a bill in their interest, that Jersey legislature couldn't because it represented 'the Penn,' a foreign corporation." Republican Mayor Fagan sent an open letter to Governor Murphy and it was read aloud in the House of Assembly. It said among other things,   ...The present session is drawing to a close. Its record is ... disgraceful. Its control by corporation interests ... has been absolute. ... For that condition the Republican party is responsible. ... What is the meaning of all this? The answer is plain! A Republican legislature is controlled by the railroad, trolley, and water corporations. And the interests of the people are being betrayed. Later Colby said, "I was sore at myself. It was true. We were dummies; we betrayed the people who elected us." In response, Colby threw himself into a study of taxation. In 1905, Colby wanted to run for Speaker of the House but was discouraged by his party leaders. His refractory ways troubled them greatly. But they told him that he could not be elected. He knew this was untrue because he had pledges from his colleagues. So he ignored them. He was summoned to a meeting with Senator Dryden, the president of Prudential Life Insurance Company. Dryden told him that if he ran for Speaker, it would weaken the prestige of their delegation to run and fail.