Plunkitt becomes wealthy by practicing what he calls "honest graft" in politics. He's a cynically honest practitioner of what today is generally known as "machine politics," patronage-based and frank in its exercise of power for personal gain. In one of his speeches, quoted in Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, he describes the difference between dishonest and honest graft: for dishonest graft one worked solely for one's own interests, while for honest graft one pursued the interests of one's party, one's state, and one's personal interests all together.
This book about early 20th-century politics is all about getting rich through politics and having political success. The tactics and methods remain the same to this day.
