bribetaking

To look the dishonors straight in the face; to flay bribe-sanctioning at the top, as we flay bribetaking at the bottom; to see that the corrupting of a legislature is a darker and a meaner sin than the slugging of a scab; to ask for "law and order" among the mighty as we ask it among the obscure; to set ourselves grimly and a little sadly — as if with a sense of common frailty — to the great task of national house cleaning, is the solemn beginning to which we are committed in these early days of the twentieth century.

1909, John Graham Brooks, As Others See Us: A Study of Progress in the United States, page 344

The union representing New York City carpenters, one of the area’s largest construction trades, continues to be roiled by turmoil after years of investigations into corruption and organized-crime influence and, since 2007, the federal convictions of four shop stewards for fraud, conspiracy or bribetaking.

2009 May 7, Paul Von Zielbauer, “New Fines Pit Carpenters Against Union Leaders”, in New York Times