Footnote: The corruption of corruption

Sam Smith - In an article I wrote last fall on the corruption of corruption I noted:

One of the ways you can get a handle on earlier mayors is to check out their homes. Some were humble, some were pretty nice, but part of the deal was you stayed close to your ‘hood. Curley built an 18 room home in 1915 in his first term and was still living their 41 years later when he sold it to for $60,000 to the Society of Oblate Fathers for Missions Among the Poor. Daley died in a modest brick bungalow just a few doors from his birthplace. Young mayor Marion Barry lived for over a decade in a house in the poorer part of town... As for Philly mayor Berrnard Samuel, Dick Dilworth once campaigned next to the mayor's home, telling his supporters: "Over there across the street is a house of prostitution and a numbers bank. And just a few doors further down this side of the street is the district police station. . . The only reason the GOP district czars permit Bernard Samuel to stay on as mayor is that he lets them do just as they please." True, but his neighborhood was definitely not the Hamptons.

Since that article, Marion Barry has passed and his estate was worth all of $16,000.  Old time power and the corruption that came with it was not only more modest than we find today, but it was based on providing services to the community. Today, you can be corrupt and not help anybody.