and pendergast had already taken care of it. it was those things that earned peoples lifelong loyalty. because in days when times are tough and people are poor, it's they don't care about the politics so much. they don't care who the office holder. they care how am i going eat today. how will i feed my family. how can i find a job. and they did that through pendergast. >> now we return to c-span tour of kansas city, missouri. author explores wealth inequality in the u.s. including fees charged for housing, work, transportation and school. >> payment for a service rendered. or a good provided. that's basically what in effect a fee is. for much of recent sort of history 20th century we thought of fees covering an administrative cost. so you go to dmv and it's a price for what you have to pay for the them providing you a driver's license. it's cover that cost with nominal revenue or profit. for the gov

and jim pendergast had sal loans, aloan -- salons. and he went precinct to precinct building this machine that was based on favors. basically helping people get jobs in exchange for votes, helping people through giving them loans that you didn't have to get a formal bank loan. and jim would loan the money, settle gambling debts, skimming money off of the top of illegal activities such as gambling and

pendergast. before the 1940 election, sir pendergast is an prison -- mr. pendergast is in prison. this is one of the most fascinating senatorial elections i've ever come across. brian: why? a.j.: because no one expected him to win. he had no allies. pendergast was everything in his career and now he was gone. 'sarts term in the -- stark term in the governor's office was of -- up. he won miraculously and ran this campaign with no money. the only thing he could say is, "hey, i am harry and i am an honest guy." brian: how did he become vice president? a.j.: let's tackle the first part. they did not know each other very well. roosevelt was even quoted as when they would talk about who would be the next vice -- saying, "i barely know him." officially, they met twice. there is a wonderful picture i have in the book of the two men sitting under a tree. they are having tea. they are talking but the election. it is a great photograph because there are so few of them that exist that show the two of them in the same room. they barely knew each other. year: this is the first that the inaugura

pendergast. >> now we return to c-span tour of kansas city, missouri. author explores wealth inequality in the u.s. including fees charged for housing, work, transportation and school. >> payment for a service rendered. or a good provided. that's basically what in effect a fee is. for much of recent sort of history 20th century we thought of fees covering an administrative cost. so you go to dmv and it's a price for what you have to pay for the them providing you a driver's license. it's cover that cost with nominal revenue or profit. for the government it's revenue. increaseingly fees has been used as a form of profit strain. that's the material difference i would say in the recent development. no longer just simply to cover revenue cost or expenses. but it's a form of revenue or profit for the government. profit for the private sector. we see they take off in a 1970s 1980s. you may hear about fees here or there in terms of hotel fees and airline fees. my research looks different. looks at fees in the consumer financial industry. the rise of fees parti

the senator from pendergast. republican for, george w. norris from nebraska, characterized hari as, quote, ohio son, and refused to -- poison, and refused to speak to him. it was rough going for harry once he made into it the senate. but he heard respect of his fellow senate colleagues, and by 1937 he was hicking out on the -- speaking out on the issues of the day. we were in me middle of a great depression. he said in his maiden senate speech, we worship money instead of honor. it is a pity that wall street, with its ability to control all the wealth of the nation and to hire the best law brains in the country, has not produced some statesman, some men who could see the dangers of beingness and of the concentration and control of wealth. instead of working to meet the situation, they are still employing the best law brains to serve greed and self-interest. people can stand only so much, and one of those days, there will be a settlement. of course that is ancient history. none of that ever happens. today. well, as you know, harry truman b