From the point of view of an organisation politician, therefore, the determination of the limits within which corruption seems safe is a serious and ever present problem. Certain features of the situation may be noted as exerting an influence in favour of a moderate policy. One of these is the contractual nature of many corrupt practices that are alleged to be common. For example, franchises sought by dishonest means usually possess a value which is pretty exactly known to the intending purchasers. The amount which they are actually willing to pay may be determined only after close bargaining and the allowance of a large discount owing to the danger inseparable from this method of acquisition. Immunity to carry on businesses under the ban of the law is subject to the same rule. The “Gambling Commission” which was said to exist in New York in 1900-’01, and to have been “composed of a Commissioner who is at the head of one of the city departments, two State Senators, and the dictator of the pool-room syndicate of this city,”[37] owed its partial exposure to a violation of this rule. The “Commission” was alleged to have established a regular tariff for the various forms of gambling as follows:—Pool Rooms, $300 per month; Crap Games, and Gambling Houses (small), $150 per month; Gambling Houses (large), $1000 per month; Envelope Games, $50 per month. These rates would seem sufficiently high to provoke complaint from those who had to pay them. Nevertheless the exposure, which came from the gamblers themselves, was not so much due to the size of the exactions as to the great increase in the number of the gambling houses which the “Commission” licensed in order to secure larger revenues. In the end, as one member of the sporting fraternity phrased it, “there were not enough suckers to go ’round.” The whole incident illustrates the principle, if the word can be used in such an unhallowed connection, that in order to enjoy any permanent success, corruption must by all means avoid extreme rapacity; it must endeavour to keep alive that which it feeds on. Castro, for example, was a highwayman rather than a grafter. He lacked the moderation, the fine sense of proportion, necessary to qualify one for success in the latter rôle. To paraphrase a familiar principle of taxation, a part of income may be taken but corrupt encroachments on capital sums are dangerous.