Political Machines
- Rise in government corruption and organized crime
- Graft
- Bribing of government officials, made office-holding a source of economic gain
- Bosses
- Used legal and illegal means to win elections
- “King Richard” Croker, N.Y., Tammany
- James Michael Curley, Boston
- Construction contracts went to the highest bidder
- Protected gamblers, pimps, urban vice
- Required city employees to contribute to campaign chests
- Rounded up new immigrants and paid them to vote a certain way and stuffed ballot boxes
- John Fitzgerald, Patrick Kennedy (JFK’s grandfathers)
- Fitzgerald was a Boston city councilor, state congressman, senator, U.S. congressman, mayor of Boston
- North End ward boss, supervised trading of jobs for votes and favors for cash
- Kennedy owned a tavern in East Boston, ran Democratic Party’s affairs, served on Strategy Board (devised policies, divide graft, etc)
- Sicilian Mafia, gangsters, Chinese Tongs
- Tongs supposed to strengthen communities, crossed into crime
page revision: 3, last edited: 22 Sep 2009 21:04