He helps out with cash or credit the widow who is in straits, or the breadwinner who is crippled or for some other cause temporarily out of work.

He organizes clambakes and chowder parties and picnics, and is consulted by the local labor leaders when a cut in wages is threatened.

For some of his constituents he does proper favors, and for others wholly improper favors; but he preserves human relations with all.

He may be a very bad and very corrupt man, a man whose action in blackmailing and protecting vice is of far-reaching damage to his constituents.

But these constituents are for the most part men and women who struggle hard against poverty and with whom the problem of living is very real and very close.