circle which tends to keep in power corrupt officials who have once
got hold.

(2) But the power of unscrupulous politicians is made far greater by
the support of those whose personal interests they make a business
of furthering. Whole sections of the people are pleased and placated
and bribed by special legislation in their favor, and as many individuals
as possible are given positions. Behind every "boss" there are always
hundreds of men who owe their "jobs" to him, and many others who
cherish promises and hopes for personal favors. Jane Addams tells us
that upon one occasion when the reformers in Chicago tried to oust
a corrupt alderman they "soon discovered that approximately one out
of every five voters in the nineteenth ward at that time held a job
dependent upon the good will of the alderman." [Footnote: Twenty Years
at Hull House, p. 316.]

(3) Of especial importance are the great "interests" that are always
to be found behind a corrupt administration. These corporations are
so dependent upon the good will of the Government for their prosperity,
and even for their very existence, that from the primitive instinct
of self-preservation as well as from the greed of exorbitant profits,
they stand ready to give liberal bribes, or at least to back with money
and moral support the party machine that promises to favor them. They
control a large proportion of the newspapers and magazines, and are
thus able to distort facts, protect themselves from attack, and even
stir up a factitious distrust of would-be reformers. As every little
contractor naturally favors the "ring" that awards contracts to him,
so the great corporations publicly or secretly support it. The liquor
trade and the vice caterers-the keepers of gambling dens, illegal
"shows," and disorderly houses-back by their money and votes the