In this story my aim has not been primarily to depict conditions in
American politics. This work has already been done far better than I
could do it by several writers, among others, by Mr. Brand Whitlock,
whose novel, “The Thirteenth District,” shows a remarkable insight and
fidelity. I have merely used a familiar condition for the purpose of
tracing some of its purely social and human complications. The contrast
between the standards a man may follow in public life or in business
and those he maintains at home, with his wife and children, seemed to
me to afford material worth the attention of the story-writer.