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from her that they'd debated for two or three nights and canvassed all the possibilities.

They wanted a good mayor, they wanted a smart mayor. They wanted a man who knew his business. They didn't want a numb-skull like Hylan. Some of them had been very much embarrassed by “Red Mike.” He didn't show off very well. Mayors of New York had been pretty important people. There was no question of the Democrats wanting to run Hylan again, though there may have been some people who wanted him. I don't think the regular Tammany Hall organization wanted him. Certainly Al Smith didn't want him and Al was very important and very powerful in the councils of Tammany Hall at that time.

So they canvassed everybody who had been suggested. Some of them were just dumb. Some of them were corrupt. Some of them had had a finger in “honest graft,” as they called it. George Plunkett was the man who invented the term “honest graft,” There was a man, whose name was thought of as mayor, about whom they said, “Oh, well, he's had his finger in ‘honest graft.’” He'd never taken anything out of the public treasury, but he was mixed up in something. They were very careful. They didn't want anybody like that. They wanted a good person. They wanted a smart man. They