subs. (colloquial).—Co-operation in the pursuit of money, business, or praise. See quots.
1848. BARTLETT, Dictionary of Americanisms, s.v. LOG-ROLLING. For instance, a member from St. Lawrence has a pet bill for a plank road which he wants pushed through; he accordingly makes a bargain with a member from Onondaga, who is coaxing along a charter for a bank, by which St. Lawrence agrees to vote for Onondaga’s bank, provided Onondaga will vote in turn for St. Lawrence’s plank road.
1855. Washington Union, 10 Feb. The legislation of Congress is controlled by a system of combination and LOG-ROLLING.
1872. DE VERE, Americanisms, p. 260, 1. Vote for my bill and I will vote for your bill; and this is called LOG-ROLLING.
1875. American English, in Chambers’s Journal, 25 Sept., p. 610. When a group of members supports a bill in which they have no direct interest, in order to secure the help of its promoters for a bill of their own, they are said to be LOG-ROLLING, a term taken from the backwoods, where a man who has cut down a big tree gets his neighbours to help him in rolling it away, and in return helps them with their logs.
1887. Lippincott’s Magazine, July, p. 162. And first as to that question of literary LOG-ROLLING which has of late been harped upon so much.
1888. Globe, 17 Oct. One has always a suspicion that LOG-ROLLING is at work.
1889. Town and Country, 14 Dec., p. 18, col. 4. Votes which have been obtained by no end of trouble, and Heaven knows how much of LOG-ROLLING, will disappear as a dream.
