Thus every "Boss," even those whose influence did not extend beyond an election district, was more or less completely identified with the corporations who occupied within his bailiwick any important relation to the state.
This alliance between the political machines and the big corporations--particularly those who operate railroads or control municipal franchises--was an alliance between two independent and cooerdinate powers in the kingdom of American practical affairs.

The political "Boss" did not create the industrial leader for his own good purposes.

Neither did the industrial leader create the machine and its "Boss," although he has done much to confirm the latter's influence.
Each of them saw an opportunity to turn to his own account the individualistic "freedom" of American politics and industry.

Each of them was enabled by the character of our political traditions to obtain an amount of power which the originators of those political ideas never anticipated, and which, if not illegal, was entirely outside the law.
It so happened that the kind of power which each obtained was very useful to the other.

A corporation which derived its profits from public franchises, or from a business transacted in many different states, found the purchase of a local or state machine well within its means and well according to its interests.