On Reading “The Power Broker,” Part 3
The Rise to Power
At the end of Chapter 5, Caro writes that New York governor Alfred E. Smith “was the very antithesis of Moses’ ideal of a politician” (87). Smith was an Irish-Catholic, Tammany politician who had never been to high school and bragged that he had never read a book. Yet Chapter 6, “Curriculum Changes,” gives truth to the tired cliche that politics makes for strange bedfellows. Al Smith and Bob Moses were unlikely bedfellows. They were unlikely to have had even a conversation. But politics, Moses’ desperate situation — and Belle Moskowitz, the wife of the Bureau’s Henry Moskowitz — brought them together.
Caro introduces Chapter 6 with an explanation of how Al Smith had come to rely on “Lady Belle” or “Mrs. M.” during his run for governor of New York. At first, Belle helped Smith because women had just been given the right to vote. But soon, Smith realized that Belle had transcendent political instincts.
Bob Moses came to the same realization.
Belle taught Moses invaluable skills: be practical, be willing to compromises, get things done. The young man learned to combine “practical politics” with scientific management (99). Practical politics, practiced by others, had almost destroyed him. He now was eager to learn the trade.
At this time, these skills were not employed for personal power. “Reorganizing government to make it more responsive to social needs” was the theme of his thesis and dissertation (101). And it became the theme of an historic state report on the reconstruction of government. But once again, Moses tasted the bitterness of defeat. Smith lost his re-election bid and Moses’ prodigious work was dashed.
Chapter 7, “Change in Major,” continues to metaphor of Moses being schooled in politics. Caro’s narrative appears to take a turn. Much of the narrative offers in-depth background on the life and times of Smith, the Irish immigrant who would become perhaps New York’s greatest governor, champion of the people — and hero and protector of Bob Moses.
After Smith’s 1920 defeat, Moses and Smith spent much time together in New York. And, in fact, the young, Jewish intellectual became part of the Irish-Catholic clan. Schooled by Belle Moskowitz and now Smith, Moses learned the practical art of politics.
Caro describes a transition from ideals to practicality and finally to politics, in which “getting things done” was paramount, even at the expense of the law, truth or others. He had joined the ranks of the politicians. “Bob Moses was scornful, in short, of what he had been” (135).
And on January 2, 1923, Al Smith was back as governor of New York with Moses at his side.
Moses now had, according to Chapter 8, “The Taste of Power.” And the taste was intoxicating. Smith had many ideas to help the people of New York, such as fixing state prisons, eliminating dangerous railroad crossings and ultimately, reorganizing the inefficient state government system. In Robert Moses, Smith had a man who could get things done. Moses was a prodigious worker and “the best bill drafter in Albany” (141).
Smith wanted to repay and support Moses and offered him a number of positions. None seemed interesting to Moses. Until he was offered a position with . . . parks.
Parks might seem an unlikely vehicle for Moses’ power and plans. Yet, in Chapter 9, “A Dream,” Caro depicts two dynamics: the push by idealistic reformers for parklands to provide “breathing spaces for the slums” of the city (143) and the new passion of Robert Moses for the beauty and tranquility of Long Island, where Moses was spending his summers.
In the 1920s, the teeming masses in Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens sweltered horribly in the suffocating heat of the city. Rich people “summered” out on Long Island or in upstate New York. The poor had nowhere to go. There was little open space in the city.
But on his train rides out to a summer home in Babylon, Moses saw that right on the edge of New York boroughs, in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, were some of the beautiful harbors and beaches in the world. And he began to dream again: of beaches and parks to bring respite to the people and parkways out from the city to these beautiful spots.
The lands, of course, were already owned — by the “robber barons” of New York who had their estates on the North Shore, the fiercely protective baymen of the South Shore and the farmers in the middle.
Moses did notice one tract in the middle of the island owned by Brooklyn, which retained a reservoir as a backup water supply.
From that small tract, Moses dreamed a huge dream of two parkways running from the city across north and south Long Island to a causeway that would lead to a huge beautiful beach, Jones Beach, name after Major Thomas Jones, who had bought the land from the Indians.
The dream was almost laughable. But Al Smith recognized its power. With parks, he could bring something important to the people of New York. And with parks, he could have a powerful electoral vehicle. Everyone loved parks.
Smith suggested Moses become president of the Long Island Park Commission. It would be a new position — and would change New York forever.
How could leading a park commission have such influence? In the masterful Chapter 10, “The Best Bill Drafter in Albany,” which concludes Part 3, Caro reminds readers that Moses had large, unfulfilled dreams for ten years but now had “learned what was needed to make dreams become realities. He had learned the lesson of power. And now he grabbed for power with both hands” (172).
In exacting detail, Caro shows how Moses conceived and crafted a legislative bill that would provide him with almost unlimited power — and keep him protected in power. Caro is unsparing in his view of Moses. He shows that Moses not only was “cementing himself in office” — an unelected office — but was doing so through “concealment and deviousness” (173).
“The best bill drafter in Albany” drafted and passed a bill filled with clauses and terms that would provide him with power and protect him for generations to come. “At the age of thirty-five,” Caro concludes the section, “Robert Moses had power. And no sooner did he have it that he showed how he was going to use it” (177).
