Q THURSDAY. DECEMBER 20, 1862
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD, OREGON
Robert Moses Gives Up Five State Jobs in Tiff With Governor
By FREDERICK H. TREESH
United Preii International
New York (UPD- To Robert
Moses, harnessing the power
of Niagara talis was oniy
partime job.
. Hp was simultaneously
park builder, architect and
operator ol a multiplicity of
hiehwavs. bridges and tun
nels. a slum clearer and
huildine creator and chief
planner of a world's fair.
Moses, a one-man bureau
cracv. at one time held 14 dif
ferent titles.
To enter New York across
any border is to be surround
ed by Moses" works in con
crete. steel and greenery.
In an amazing four-decade
narnnr nf nilhlic Service. MO-
ses has amassed an infinite
group of admirers. His list ol
enemies is formidable, too,
mri hp has been at swords.
point with officialdom at all
levels, up to the late rresi.
rtr.nl Franklin D. Roosevelt
In his latest and perhaps
most spectacular blowup,
Moses shucked five state jobs
two weeks ago In a tiff with
New York Gov. Nelson A.
Rockefeller.
Knows No Leisure
Timiiffh solllniz aside more
responsibility and authority
than most men unacriaiic in
b lifptlme. Moses, two days
away from his 74th birthday,
is not considering a inc oi
ease. He knows no leisure in
the conventional sense his
jobs are hobbies and he re
mains as president of the
1964-65 World's fair and in
two important New York
jobs.
Last month, Rockefeller
asked Moses to step out as
chairman of the State Council
of Parks, an unsalaried job
Moses created in 1924 when
Al Smith was governor. An
gered, Moses quit the post
through which he built a
magnificent park system for
New York State.
He also resigned as:
Chairman of the Stale
Power authority. In this, his
only paid $(10,000) state job,
Moses oversaw construction
of huge power projects on
the St. Lawrence and niagura
rivers. The Niagara project,
when fully operative, Is the
biggest hydroelectric power
facility in the western
world and It added measur
ably to the beautlfication of
NiaRara Falls. Both it and the
St. Lawrence project incor
porated vast pork and high
way improvements.
Chairman of the Long
Island Park commission.
Here Moses created a system
of 15 major parks on the
110-mlle island. Most Impres
sive was the transformation
of Jones beach from a nearly
Inaccessable sandbar to an
18-mile long "riviera" en
joyed by 10 million persons
a year.
Chairman of the Beth
page park and Jones Beach
t. '
ROBERT MOSES
Harnessing Falls Minor Job
Parkway authorities. He built
and presided over the 1,400
acre, four-golf course Beth
page park on Long Island and
the intricate system of park-
ways attendant to Jones
Beach State park.
Hide Ii Undented
Moses claims his "rhinoce
ros hide" is undented. Poli
tical observers say Rockefel
ler, who reportedly planned
to put his brother Laurance
in the Stale Park Job, may
have committed the biggest
political blunder of his ca
reer.
Moses was and is busy In
New York City affairs, too.
Until 19110, when he took on
the presidency of the 1964
World's fair, he had been city
commissioner of pinks for 26
years. As $25,000-a-y e a r
parks man (his only paid city
job), Moses Increased from
14,000 to 28,500 acres the
city's park areas, multiplied
lis playgrounds from 119 to
660, its beaches from one
mile to 18 and corresponding
ly increased golfing, tennis
and other recreational facili
ties. Because of Moses, the
city is dotted with tiny park
lets that otherwise might
have been gasoline stations.
As unsalaried head of a
long list of other authorities,
commissions and agencies,
Moses built and supervises the
Tnboro Bridge complex con
necting Queens, Manhattan
and the Bronx, the Brooklyn
Battery tunnel between
Brooklyn and Manhattan and
the Quccns-Mldtown tunnel
between Queens and Manhat
tan. Moscs-b u 1 1 1 parkways
circle and criss-cross all five
New York boroughs and link
them with Long Island and
Westchester and Connecticut.
Builds Coliseum
He built the New York
Coliseum, a $35-milllon expo
sition hall, and one of his
slum clearance projects made
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way for the S142 million Lin
coln Center for the perform
ing arts, potentially the
world's No. 1 cultural center.
Moses' good offices were in
strumental in the United Na
tions locating in New York.
Moses' slum clearing made
possible public housing proj
ects covering thousands of
acres in all of New York's
boroughs.
As remarkable as all the
hats Moses wears, is the way
he can wear them all at once.
If he builds a park, it usually
results in a highway being
built, too. If he cleared slums,
it also meant a park and some
public housing, if not an ex
pressway or an important
building.
Worth $5 Billion
The various enterprises
Moses planned, built and su
pervised were estimated con
servatively to be worth $5
billion.
How, an aide once asked
Moses, was he able to do all
these things at once?
"I work at it," he said.
To Moses, working at It
means keeping his active
mind operating like a well
oiled machine every waking
hour. When he reads, drives
in his automobile or fishes
from his boat on one of the
bays off Long Island, he
keeps a yellow scratch pad
handy, jotting memos to him
self and others as the
thoughts occur to him.
"He's always functioning,"
an associate said.
A contractor on one of the
Moses-supervised jobs recent
ly walked out of his office
with the report:
"This guy, I never saw any
thing like him, I was one of
17 contractors In there and
he laid down the law on
whose work was on time, who
was late and how far each of
us had progressed.
"It was astonishing. He
didn't have a note on his
desk."
It was an example of how
Moses keeps in touch with
minute detail while always
thinking of the big picture
far in advance. Any public
official who thinks only 10
years ahead is a fool, he
once said.
Bob Moses is a stubborn,
tough-minded man who al
most never can be deterred
once he makes up his mind
about something. He pushes,
promotes, stampedes his proj
ects, sometimes running
roughshod over those who get
in his way.
Prolific Letter Writer
Moses is a prolific letter
writer and his letters are
among the tools he uses to get
the job done.
If an opponent there are
many seems unsure in his
position, Moses may bombard
with him biting, multiple-carbon
letters until he gives way
to Moses' point of view.
However, a close associate
observed, "He rarely does
that to a little guy."
Moses' biting approach is
exemplified in one note he
dashed off to a public official,
starting:
"Dear . . .:
"Thank you very much for
your letter of September 15.
As much as I like you
personally, I don't know
what the hell you are talking
about . . ."
Symbol of Controversy
That Moses was successful
hardly can be argued, but his
way of cutting down opposi
tion like ripe wheat make
him a symbol of controversy
as well as accomplishment.
He's battled and usually
won over opponents ranging
from baby carriage-pushing
mothers to FDR, several gov
ernors, and "old curmudg
eon" Harold L. Ickes.
Moses started swinging
when an undergraduate edi
tor at Yale, winning an edi
torial page fight with foot
ball great Walter Camp
about whether football gate
receipts should help pay for
less prosperous varsity sports.
Born in New Haven, Conn.,
Dec. 18, 1888, the son of a
millionaire merchants, Moses
went from Yale, where he
was a Phi Beta Kappa, to Ox
ford for his master's and to
Columbia university for his
Ph.D.
His intimates say he was
set even in college on a ca
reer in public service and
since has spent some of his
inherited fortune pursuing it.
Brought Into Public Life
He was brought into public
life in 1942 by then Gov. Al
Smith and one of his trade
marks fierce loyalty to
those for whom he works and
those who work for him
was a well-known. Smith
trait.
Moses met his wife, the
former Mary Louise Sims,
when both were working for
an endowed mun.cipal re
search organization. They
have two married daughters
and five grandchildren. The
Moses live unpretentiously in
babylon, a Long Island South
Shore community.
Moses took a big step out
of public life in his tiff with
Rockefeller in the same man
ner he worked in the public
realm swiftly, bluntly and
absolutely.
But the evidence of Moses'
work is everywhere in New
York and the World's fair to
open in 1964 and the $325
million Verrazano - Narrow
bridge (the world's largest
suspension bridge) scheduled
for 1965 completion make the
point loudly: You don't speak
of Robert Moses in the past
tense, not yet.
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