This is an essay for my English 1 course. Enjoy! :-)
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In the autobiography of George Washington Plunkitt, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, not much attempt is make to conceal the way that Plunkitt made his money. He calls it, 'honest graft', but I think most people would call it, 'typical politician'. (He would get inside information on where city projects were going to take place, and would go and buy up all the land and property around the area up. The city project would cause the property value up, so Plunkitt could sell the houses for more than he paid, and make a buck.)
I would attribute the utter 'openness' not to Plunkitt, but instead to Riordan, the man who helped him write the autobiography. I think it was probably a stab at Plunkitt, by Riordan. (Riordan was a reformer...and Plunkitt did not like reformers. However, the reformers were the book's intended audience.) I think it would be funny to the reformers, and also a bit of ammunition, to have Plunkitt's primary source of revenue so blatantly stated. Also, if people found out, which they did, once the book was published, that Plunkitt was making his money in this way, they would stop voting for him. And they did! The very next election, Plunkitt lost to a well-educated reformer.
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