Description
Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
Chapter 1. Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft
EVERYBODY is talkin’ these days about Tammany men growin’ rich on graft,
but nobody thinks of drawin’ the distinction between honest graft and
dishonest graft. There’s all the difference in the world between the
two. Yes, many of our men have grown rich in politics. I have myself.
I’ve made a big fortune out of the game, and I’m gettin’ richer every
day, but I’ve not gone in for dishonest graft–blackmailin’ gamblers,
saloonkeepers, disorderly people, etc.–and neither has any of the men
who have made big fortunes in politics.
There’s an honest graft, and I’m an example of how it works. I might sum
up the whole thing by sayin’: “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.”
Just let me explain by examples. My party’s in power in the city, and
it’s goin’ to undertake a lot of public improvements. Well, I’m tipped
off, say, that they’re going to lay out a new park at a certain place.
I see my opportunity and I take it. I go to that place and I buy up all
the land I can in the neighborhood. Then the board of this or that makes
its plan public, and there is a rush to get my land, which nobody cared
particular for before.