In the first place a thoroughgoing policy of concealment and silence would seem absolutely essential on the part of those who engage in corrupt practices. Our most astute leaders and manipulators realise this fact. All observers agree, however, that among the initiated, which usually means a pretty large circle, corrupt transactions are discussed with comparative freedom. It is a matter of no great difficulty for an ordinarily capable reporter to learn in a general way what has been done by the boss or gang in certain instances, although this, of course, is sufficiently far from being legal evidence. And it is notorious that our politicians of the baser sort often indulge their cronies with boasting accounts of their own achievements in grafting. No one has commented upon this fact with greater vigour than Professor H. J. Ford of Princeton in his admirable review of Mr. Steffens’ _Shame of the Cities_. “The facts with which Mr. Steffens deals,” writes Professor Ford, “are superficial symptoms. Hardly any disguise of them is attempted in the ordinary talk of local politicians. One of the first things which practical experience teaches is that the political ideals which receive literary expression have a closely limited range. One soon reaches strata of population in which they disappear, and the relation of boss and client appears to be proper and natural. The connection between grafting politicians and their adherents is such that ability to levy blackmail inspires the same sort of respect and admiration which Rob Roy’s followers felt for him in the times that provided a career for his particular talents. And as in Rob Roy’s day, intimate knowledge finds in the type some hardy virtues. For one thing, politicians of this type do not indulge in cant. They are no more shamefaced in talking about their grafting exploits to an appreciative audience than a mediæval baron would have been in discussing the produce of his feudal fees and imposts. Mr. Steffens has really done no more than to put together material lying about loose upon the surface of municipal politics and give it effective presentation. The general truth of his statement of the case is indisputable.”[104]