Honest & Dishonest Graft. According Essay

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Section 4: Plunkitt's Patriotism

It seems to me that the Plunkitt was the type of man whom Theodore Roosevelt was after with his big stick and gentler words. Plunkitt's gist from beginning to end centers on money and he addresses politics from that point. Rather than serving for the good of the people, he starts off his memorandum by discriminating between honest and dishonest graft, telling the people how he makes his money -- through betting on property -- and ends off quoting Croker (" a real Tammany statesman") who says that: "I'm in favor of all kinds of money -- the more the better." See also his section on Civil Law, where he deems it a waste of time for students of politics in engage in studying politics as subject.

Plunkitt avows his repugnance towards theories and towards laws that seek to regulate Big Business and, over and again, advises politicians how to accumulate more money and how to perceive their task as lying within that field. Politics, in other words, is instrumental towards acquisition of money and prestige, and the needs of the people and the Nation -- which should be uppermost to the genuine politician take secondary place, if at all, towards Plunkitt's own avaricious and narcissist goals.

If Plunkitt -- with his corrupt English and greedy morals, as well as apathy towards state of the Nation and justice -- could serve as politician and be considered a prominent one, no wonder Roosevelt opposed politicians in general and Tammany Hall in specific and no wonder that he fought against the big businessmen of his day. Politicians and businessmen were one and the same. Most of them were equally corrupt.

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Section 5 Reformers and difficulty with 'cleaning 'government

Plunkitt gives us some perspective into why reformers had such difficulty 'cleaning' government. Plunkitt himself was allied to major leaders such as the Charles F. Murphy, the chief of Tammany Hall. Murphy extolled Plunkitt for the "valuable services" that he performed for Tammany hall but these "valuable services' likely consisted in bribes that Murphy and related statesmen received from Plunkitt in return for providing him with "honest graft" opportunities.

The preface describes Plunkitt as one who occupied several prestigious offices. These offices were undoubtedly gained via his cunning and influential contacts as well as, and most prominently, through his wealth. For the America of that time it was Tammany vs. Nation ("Tammany the only lastin' democracy") and Tammany was comprised of astoundingly wealthy businessmen and some of the most powerful leaders of the nation. Plunkitt himself remained one of the great powers in Tammany Hall for a quarter of a century. Reformers would have had a tough time to 'clean up' government with people of his ilk in office.

Source

Riordon, W. Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, 1963. Project Guttenberg, 2001.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/plunkett-george/tammany-hall/.....

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