John R. Commons’ failure to drive the Walsh Commission’s conclusions underscores the vagaries of professional economists’ influence in the early decades of the twentieth century. The passive approach to reform, which depended on lawmakers to tap recognized experts for advice while crafting economic policy, assumed that lawmakers’ desire to deliver sound policy would trump political pressure. Leading economists’ continued support for the American Economic Association’s role as a passive facilitator of the exchange of economic thought reflected this noble commitment to democratic ideals, but left the discipline’s relevance to the American economic policymaking process uncertain at best.