the top five largest holding companies. The stock of AG&E peaked at $61 a share, and about 500,000 people invested over $1 billion in the company. Scandal In 1935, senator Hugo Black began investigating multiple utility companies who may have influenced the vote on the Wheeler-Rayburn Act. The bill, which would have imposed a 'death sentence' on holding companies (unless they could justify their existence), was heavily opposed by members of the Committee of American Utility Executives, who sent about 97,000 telegrams to members of the house in the days preceding the vote on the bill. The investigation began studying large propaganda campaigns that had occurred beginning in 1919. A study undertaken by the Federal Trade Commission in 1934 stated that "measured by quantity, extent, and cost, this was probably the greatest peace-time propaganda campaign ever conducted by private interests in this country." Black uncovered 250,000 telegrams, many of which were forged. Uncovered by Denis J. Driscoll, the investigators were clued into the forgery by the high prevalence of last names in the beginning of the alphabet, with B's making up 14% of the total. The forgery was discovered when a Western Union operator testified that "During the time the bill was between the House and the Senate, Mr. Herron [an official of Utilities Investing Corporation, which itself was a subsidiary of A. G. & E., a prominent holding company] would come in almost daily for a period of an hour... or two ... and he would dictate these messages to me and the signatures, and his signatures were obtained from a list which he had in his hand, or from the city directory." Signatures were also gained by bribing messenger boys, with them often being paid 3 cents per signature. The corporations paid for many lobbyists, and oftentimes bought controlling interests in newspapers, or dropped them from their advertising list. In August 1935, Hopson admitted to attempting to change the policy of major newspapers. He threatened to drop advertising from The New York Times, the Hearst companies, Scripps Howard and many local papers as well. Hopson also sued newspapers for libel, including suing the Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, and Survey Graphic. It was found that AG&E had spent $875,531.95 on lobbying, and furthermore had not paid out dividends in several years. It was revealed that, though AG&E ended cash and stock dividends in 1931-32, the income of Hopson