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