orse,
in proportion to opportunities, than it was fifty years ago. I'll
explain what I mean by "in proportion to opportunities." A half
a century ago, our cities were small and poor. There wasn't many
temptations lyin' around for politicians. There was hardly anything to
steal, and hardly any opportunities for even honest graft. A city could
count its money every night before goin' to bed, and if three cents
was missin', all the fire bells would be rung. What credit was there in
bein' honest under them circumstances'? It makes me tired to hear of old
codgers back in the thirties or forties boastin' that they retired from
politics without a dollar except what they earned in their profession or
business. If they lived today, with all the existin' opportunities, they
would be just the same as twentieth-century politicians. There ain't any
more honest people in the world just now than the convicts in Sing
Sing. Not one of them steals anything. Why? Because they can't. See the
application?

Understand, I ain't defendin' politicians of today who steal. The
politician who steals is worse than a thief. He is a fool. With the
grand opportunities all around for the man with a political pull,
there's no excuse for stealin' a cent. The point I want to make is
that if there is some stealin' in politics, it don't mean that the
politicians of 1905 are, as a class, worse than them of 1835. It just
means that the old-timers had nothin' to steal, while the politicians
now are surrounded by all kinds of temptations and some of them
naturally--the fool ones--buck up against the penal code.

Chapter 8. Ingratitude in Politics

THERE's no crime so mean as ingratitude in politics, but every great
statesman from the beginnin' of the world has been up against it. Caesar
had his Brutus; that king of Shakespeare's--Leary, I think you call
him--had his own daughters go back on him; Platt had his Odell, and
I've got my "The" McManus. It's a real proof that a man is great when
he meets with political ingratitude. Great men have a tender, trustin'
nature. So have I, outside of the contractin' and real estate business.
In politics I have trusted men who have told me they were my friends,
and if traitors have turned up in my camp well, I only had the same
experience as Caesar, Leary, and the others. About my Brutus. McManus,
you know, has seven brothers and they call him "The" because he is the
boss of the lot, and to distinguish him from all ot