Word: grafter
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Dates: during 1900-1909
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...Gentle Grafter," O. Henry...
...find "graft," said Mr. Steffens, is to go to a "grafter" for it. The board of aldermen in every city of the country are corrupt, and betray the confidence of the people whom they represent. The American government no longer represents the whole nation, but only its worst and most unscrupulous part...
Although municipal government in America has not been so drastic a failure as some would have us believe, our cities have been badly managed, and the out grafter has held the ascendency with ineffectual reformers combating against him. In politics there has been an element of respectable men, who have been but machine tools. Reformers have failed principally because they have held the power without knowing how to give the community what it needed...
...human nature and an absolute revolution in the manner of conducting the city's affairs. If such a change is possible it ought to come before municipal ownership is adopted and the most valuable transportation system in the world has been turned over to the spoilsman and the grafter...