in response to roosevelt's call, senator benjamin tillman of south carolina sponsored the bill that became known as the tillman act. the bill passed the senate on june 9, 1906. on june 17, 1906, "the new york times" reported that "one 'great financial authority who is a republican' gave assurance that 'he and all the financial men with whom i have talked have welcomed this legislation with very much the same emotions with which a serf would hail his liberation from a tyrannous autocrat'." the article further stated that if the bill passes the house, "it will not bring about the millennium, but will lessen a very mean and sordid practice of blackmail... the great number of corporations that have suffered extortion through weakness and cowardice will have their backbones stiffened, and parties will be put to it to fill their coffers by really voluntary contributions."