The power broker : Robert Moses and the fall of New York
Page 186
Inviting Lehman and not FDR: Shapiro. FDR tour: HT, Aug. 4, 1930. "Best money ever spent": FDR quoted in NYT, July 27, 1931.
Valley Stream grade-crossing elimination: Worst one on LI: NYT, Apr. 15, 1 93 1. FDR signing the petition: NYT, July 27, 1931. RM's work on the problem detailed in correspondence with FDR, Aug. 1, 1931-May 2, 1932, FDR Papers. "I must ask to be relieved" and FDR's reply: May 9, 1932 FDR Papers.
Torrey incident: Torrey's account of it in Torrey to FDR, Oct. 5, 1929, FDR Papers. RM's statement, issued Oct. 16, 1929, said, "There is a good deal of picturesque exaggeration in Torrey's reference to my language and conduct," but does not deny any specific point in Torrey's account. Newspaper accounts, which quote witnesses of the incident and contain the RM and FDR quotes, in NYT and HT, Oct. 7, 1929. Among his closest friends: Ann and Louis Lubin. Reducing Torrey's salary, ASHPS position. ASHPS Minutes, p. 1784.
Distaste for public: Perkins OHR. Bridges low: Shapiro. "Dirty": Shapiro, Windels. Permits, "flagging," pool temperature: Windels, Kern. FDR investigation: Mills to FDR, Aug. 24, 1932; Gorton to Cross, Sept. 2, 1932, FDR Papers.
"Badge of poverty": Daniel Mitchell of Enfield Falls to FDR, no date, FDR Papers. "Legitimate kick": FDR to RM, Aug. 19, 1930, FDR Papers. "I do not care to be associated": RM to FDR, Aug. 22, 1930, FDR Papers. FDR's veto: NYT, Mar. 22, 1932.
Special assignments: Among them was bulldozing through a bridge bypass to carry Northern Boulevard around Roslyn that had been stalled for years by the opposition of Roslynites to State DPW plans; thinking up a solution for frequent brush fires in Suffolk County pine barrens (RM's solution was the building of watchtowers staffed by an augmented state forest ranger force); and investigating a series of rapes at Girl Scout camps in Palisades Interstate Park.
"Do you know, by God": Josephson and Josephson, p. 435. Walker humiliating Smith: Cullman, confidential source. Farley and Flynn: Farley, Behind the Ballots, passim; Flynn, passim. "He felt . . . hurt": Perkins OHR. RM's recollections: In interview with author. "A fight to the death": Josephson and Josephson, p. 440; best account of Smith's defeat in Farley, Behind the Ballots, pp. 78-79, 80-95.
18. New York City Before Robert Moses
SOURCES
Books:
Lillian Brandt, An Impressionistic View of the Winter of 1930-31 in New York City; Ellis, The Epic of New York City; Garrett, The La Guardia Years; Mann, La Guardia Comes to Power; Mitgang, The Man Who Rode the Tiger; Rankin, New York Advancing, 1934-1935', Rodgers, Robert Moses; Schles-inger, The Age of Roosevelt, Vol. II: The Coming of the New Deal.
Author's interviews:
With two La Guardia officials, Paul J. Kern and Joseph D. McGoldrick; Iphi-gene Ochs Sulzberger; and Park Department officials John Mulcahy and Samuel White.
NOTES
New York during the Depression: Ellis, pp. 532-33; Brandt, p. v. Schoolteacher and nurse: Quoted in Brandt, pp. 6, 8, 18. Clinics: Brandt, p. 10. "Everywhere
Notes for pages 324^350
there seemed": Gellhorn, quoted in Schlesinger, p. 272.
Seabury investigation: Ellis, Mann, Mitgang books. "This is how we make Democrats": Ellis, p. 540.
City's debt: Harold Phelps Stokes, article in NYT, May 28, 1933; Rankin, p. 39-
"Engineers" without diplomas: Kern. "The city did not get"; subway: Mc-Goldrick. Schools: Garrett, p. 57.
Strangling: NYT, HT, various issues, 1931-33. West Side Highway: See RM brochures, quoted, Chapter 25. Also Stephen G. Bick to NYT, Oct. 24, 1933. Conditions on Queensborough Bridge: NYT, Aug. 8, 1930, July 18, 1933. Henry Hudson Bridge: RM's brochures. Narrows tube: Ina Joan Caro, "Building a Public Work in a Democracy: The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (unpublished M.A. thesis), pp. 13-28. Triborough history: Many articles; for example NYT, Aug. 15, 1934. A dozen accidents a day: NYT, Dec. 25, 1933.
Parks: Brooklyn Park Department: HT, Apr. 11, 1934; June 26, 1934. Beach front rented out: HT, Jan. 11, 1931; NYT, Feb. 28, 1934; Mrs. Sulzberger, PD official John Mulcahy. Not a single structure, statues: Park Association survey quoted in NYT, June 6, 1934; also NYT Magazine, July 15, 1934. Bryant Park: NYT, Feb. 3, 1932; July 23, 1932; Nov. 26, 1932; HT, Feb. 17, 1934. Central Park: Eugene Kinkead and Russell Maloney, "Profiles—Central Park," The New Yorker, Sept. 13, 20, 27, 1941. Zoo: The New Yorker, Dec. 1, 1934. "A player standing on line": HT, Jan. 26, 1934. "You couldn't tell the difference": Mulcahy. Curtaining off toilets: PD official Samuel H. White. Chopin nocturne: The New Yorker, Sept. 20, 1941. Hoovervilles: Various newspaper articles, 1932-33; HT, Apr. 27, 1934. Lack of park land: Architectural Forum, Dec. J 936, p. 503. No parks in slums: Author's study of borough park department maps, pre-Moses. One reformer: Allen Jacobs to NYT, printed Mar. 8, 1931. "The wistful faces": Dorothy Bromley in NYT, May 6, 1934.
Casino: The New Yorker, Sept. 20, 1941; various newspaper articles, I93 2 ~ 1933.
Pleading with officials for roads: RM. Triborough Bridge: RM quoted in Rod-gers, p. 98.
RM's plan: Metropolitan Conference on Parks, "Program for Extension of Parks and Parkways in the Metropolitan
1197
Region," Feb. 25, 1930. Among those watching in the audience who recall details of ins appea Paul \ u (La Guardia'a 1 rporatioo Counsel), Shapiro, Madigan md Childs. Lad of cooperation from city officials. KM
Lehman's admiration for RM: ( onfr dential sources. State Emergency Public Works Commission: Rodgers, pp. 76 77. City wasting Triborough funds: Rodgeri p. 98.
City's financial situation worsening: Garrett, pp. 142-50.
19. To Power in the City
SOURCES
Books and documents:
Garrett, The La Guardia Years; Mann, La Guardia Comes to Power; Mitgang The Man Who Rode the Tiger; Moscow, What Have You Done for Me Lately?; Rodgers, Robert Moses; and the collections of personal papers of three key Fusion figures—Maurice P. Davidson, W. Kingsland Macy and Joseph M. Price.
Oral History Reminiscences:
Joseph M. Price, Paul Windels.
Author's interviews:
Adolf A. Berle, Jr., Richard S. Childs, Paul J. Kern, William Latham, Reuben A. Lazarus, Michael J. Madigan, Joseph D. McGoldrick, Sidney M. Shapiro, Iphi-gene Ochs Sulzberger, Paul Windels.
NOTES
Seabury hearings: Mitgang, pp. 158— 310. O'Brien's gaffes: Mann, p. 90. Reformers viewing RM paternally: Tone of letters and memos in Price and Davidson Papers; Childs, Windels.
"Only partially valid": Garrett, p. 20. McGahen: Quoted in Mann, p. 81.
Wald: Lillian Wald to RM, Oct. 30, 1936, Price Papers. Didn't know details of those triumphs: The author's conclusion from his interviews with Childs, McGoldrick and other reformers and from his study of Price and Davidson Papers. "High purpose": Childs. "Starry-eyed": Windels. Favorable publicity: "No man has gotten more praise recently," the Brooklyn Eagle noted on Jan. 14, 1933. "If Moses ran, they believed": New York Evening Post, July 15, 1933-RM contacted by Price, assures him he will accept nomination; an almost unani-
Notes for pages 350-366
1198
mously favorable response: Draft of proposed Price press release (never released), undated but probably May 18, 1933, Price Paper. See also WT, July 6, 1933.
Seabury's opinion of RM: RM; Garrett, p. 101; Mann, p. 83; Mitgang, pp. 316-18; Price press release: "Statement of Reason for Joseph M. Price's Withdrawal from Fusion Conference: Judge Seabury's Objections to Robert Moses's Availability as Mayoral Candidate" (un-released and undated but probably July 1933), Price Papers; Price to reformer Richard Welling, July 18, 1933, RM to Price, July 29, 1933, Price Papers.
Seabury biography: Mitgang book; Mann, pp. 38-46.
"Reserve all personal liberty": RM. "I am not a candidate": RM quoted in NYT, July 12, 1933. RM feels Seabury will back him: RM. Five reformers: The judges were John C. Knox and Clarence J. Shearn, the business executive Richard C. Patterson, Jr., vice president of NBC. Davidson on Straus: Davidson Papers, memo entitled: "Wanted: A Mayor," pp. 54-59. LaG "standing in the wings": Davidson Pap
ers, quoted in Mann, p. 79. LaG biography: See "Sources" for Chapter 23. Reformers' attitude toward him: Mann, pp. 67-72. Seabury's attitude: Mann, pp. 72-75, 80. 18 for RM, 5 for LaG: Price Papers.
Seabun-Davidson lunch: Seabury quoted in Davidson, "Interview as Recorded," p. 26, Davidson Papers. RM tells Price not to nominate him: RM. O'Ryan episode: Mann, pp. 84-85. "Sit down, Sam": Mann, p. 86.
RM's participation in campaign: Win-dels. His statements: NYT, Oct. 26, 28, Nov. 3, 1933.
WT editorial: Nov. 4, 1933. "Sidewalks of New York": Windels gave the order to play it; Windels.
"It was like he owned the United States": Marie La Guardia quoted in Mann, p. 20. Driving around on Sundays: Kern. Hated lawyers: Kern, Lazarus. LaG feared Smith: Windels. "I told the Mayor": RM in NYT Magazine, Aug. 16, 1936.
"I'm appointing the best man": Mrs. Sulzberger. Drafting his own bill: Raymond P. McNulty to LaG, Dec. 27, 1933. Letter obtained from confidential source.
Neither man considered the Triborough appointment particularly significant: Windels, Lazarus, RM, Madigan. "No man is big enough": Senator Thomas F. Burchill, quoted in NYT, Jan. 16, 1934. RM tells LaG not to worry: Lazarus.
"The finger": Moscow, p. 199. Reformers influencing legislators: NYT, Jan. 10; HT, Jan. 17, 1934. "No possible conflict of interest": LaG quoted in NYT, Jan. 7, 1934. "Nothing to get excited about": RM quoted in WT, Jan. 6, 1934.
CWA was ruining the parks: Summary, Rodgers, p. 83. Marine Park: HT, Feb. 1, 1934.
Orchard Beach: NYT and HT, Feb. 28, 1934; Shapiro, Latham. The notebook: "Pattern for Parks," Architectural Forum, Dec. 1936. "His orders just poured out": Shapiro. RM standing at Orchard Beach: Latham, confidential source.
20. One Year
SOURCES
Books, articles and documents:
The basic source for this chapter is the hundreds of articles on Robert Moses, his rebuilding of New York City's parks and his building of parkways and the Triborough Bridge that appeared on almost a daily basis, month after month, in New York's newspapers during 1934.
Rodgers, Robert Moses; Moses, Dangerous Trade; Phillips, From the Crash to the Blitz; Rankin, New York Advancing, 1934-35, pp- 127-36; Moscow, What Have You Done for Me Lately?; Talese, The Bridge; Reed, Central Park; WPA, New York Panorama; PWA, Moses, "Report on Accomplishments of Park Department in First Two Years of Fusion Administration," 1936 (hereafter referred to as "Two Years"); Moses, Four Years of Park Progress, 1937 (hereafter referred to as Four Years). Triborough Bridge Authority, "The Triborough Bridge, a Modern Metropolitan Traffic Artery, July 11, 1936"; "Fifth Anniversary of the Opening of the Triborough Bridge," July 11, 1941.
"Pattern for Parks," Architectural Forum, Dec. 1936; "Robert (Or-I'll-Re-sign) Moses," Fortune, June 1938; Hubert Herring, "Robert Moses and His Parks," Harper's, Dec. 1937; Moses, "Municipal Recreation," American Architect and Architecture, Nov. 1936; Moses, "The Changing City," Architectural Forum, Mar. 1940; The New Yorker's 1941 series on Central Park.
Park Department Files; La Guardia and Davidson Papers.
Author's interviews:
With ten of RM's top aides—William S. Chapin, Ernest J. Clark, Gilmore
Notes for pages 368-387
11
Clarke, James A. Dawson, Richard Guthridge, William Latham, Michael J. Madigan, Sidney M. Shapiro and two who cannot be identified; three of his personal secretaries—Hazel Tappan, Nettie Greenberg and one who cannot be identified; nineteen architects who worked for the Park Department—Simon Brines, Isaiah Ehrlich, Harry Gould, Richard Korchien, David Levine, Irving Levine, George Levy, Joshua Lowenfish, Janet Patt, Bernie Rosen, Allen Saalberg, Carl Schilling, Clarence Stein, Robert Weinberg, Henry Wright, Michael Zimmer and three who prefer not to be identified (most of the interviews with these architects were conducted by Mrs. Pris-cilla Worland Burton); Mrs. Lidia Nelson, executive secretary of the Architects Emergency Committee; also Adolf A. Berle, Jr., John A. Coleman, Howard S. Cullman, Emily Smith Warner, Paul Windels.
NOTES
The weeding out: Dawson, Latham, Madigan, confidential source. Confronting CWA: PD Files, LaG Papers, Latham.
Proportion of architects and engineers out of work: W. A. Shoudy, "The Engineer and the Depression," The Nation, Sept. 13, 1933; Talbot Faulkner Hamlin, "The Architect and the Depression," The Nation, Aug. 9, 1933. "When you got inside": Clark. Scene at Arsenal: Interviews cited above.
"I see to it": RM quoted in Brooklyn Eagle, May 9, 1935. The firings: NYT and HT, Feb. 1, 1934. Scenes among laborers: Interviews cited above. "We expect the men to work": RM quoted in NYT, Feb. I, 1934 (italics added). The winter of '34: Phillips, pp. 317-18, says: "For brutish, man-killing, soul-destroying weather the years between 1934 and 1938 probably cannot be matched in the climatological annals of the United States." Embury: article in NYT, Feb. 27, 1934. Tablecloth: Clarke.
Every structure: Rankin, pp. 127-136; "Two Years"; Four Years. Park benches: "Topics of the Times" in NYT, May 18, 1934. Bryant Park opening: HT, Sept. 9, 1934. The speaker was John Finley, a leading conservationist. Central Park: The New Yorker, Sept. 13, 20, 27, 1941; Dorothy Dunbar Bromley, "New Vistas Open for Manhattan's Oasis," NYT Magazine, Apr. 15, 1934- Creating new parks: Latham, Shapiro. RM asked LaG: PD Files, LaG Papers. Chrystie-
lorsyth: X) /
lation: Architectui I 1
Unappropriated state lands: Moses, /
gerous Trade, p. m
ncss of their potential tj ;is city pari
documented in Smith I'.ipeis as far back as 1927 (RM to Smith. Apt. 13, n;27). Red Hook swampland: RM to LaG, Mai 26, 1934, LaG Papers, War Memorial Playgrounds: HT and NYT, Mai NYT, Mar. 20, 23; Berle, in inter. with author, contended that he conceived the switch from monument to pi grounds, but this contention is not supported by evidence in the LaG Papers Two tennis courts: RM to LaG, Mar. 26. Consolidated Gas: NYT, Dec. 1. Roth-stein estate: RM to Delehanty, July 23; Delehanty to RM, July 25; RM to LaG, July 27; LaG to RM, Aug. 5; Earle Andrews to La Guardia aide Lester Stone, Sept. 27; Stone to Andrews, Oct. 1; LaG Papers. Rockefeller: NYT, June 23, 1935. Dreier-Offerman: "Two Years," p. 2.
The city cheered: "New Deal": NYT, Feb. 11, 1934. "100 Days": Brooklyn Eagle, May 6. "An urban desert bloom": WT, Dec. 14. "Hercules": NYT, Mar. 20. NYT editorial: Sept. 13. Murray Davis interview: WT, Jan. 30. "The people own the parks": HT, May 26. "2, 4, 6, 8": HT, Dec. 3.
Smith begging FDR for leases: RM. Central Park Zoo: Smith asking RM to improve Zoo: RM, Emily Smith Warner. Bear pacing: HT, Apr. 22, 1934. Smith had had no hint: Warner. Smith visiting the Zoo at nights: Coleman, Cullman, Warner. CWA cramping RM's style: PD Files. "Gay and amusing": Fortune, June 1938. "The finest eating view": Architectural Forum, Dec. 1936. Attendance: PD Files.
Triborough Bridge: Statistics (dwarfed any other single enterprise he had undertaken; the ultimate cost would be $60,-300,000, more than the combined total he had spent during the previous ten years on the construction of all his Long Island projects; comparison of anchorages with pyramids, etc.; "to make the girders," etc.): Public Works Administration, "Case No. 1: New York-Bridge," pp. 226-31. Enough concrete for four-lane highway: 1936 TBA brochure, p. 21. "Largest vertical-lift bridge": HT, July 12, 1936. "Largest batch," 5,000 men working at site, etc.: "Case No. 1," pp. 226-31; HT, July 12, 1936. Description of islands: WPA, New York Panorama, pp. 77, 421; NYT, Apr 21, 1946; HT, Feb. 6, 1935. Scene from air in 1934: The author is indebted to H. I. Brock,
Notes for pages 389^413
1200
who described it in NYT Magazine, Apr. 28, 1935. The image of the streets rushing together is his. The only hope: RM. 85%: Windels. Moses' traffic studies: Madigan. Lanes too narrow: RM in NYT, Apr. 12, 1934, interview. Hearst deal: RM's contention that this is the reason for placing the Manhattan approach at 125th Street is supported in Moscow, p. 197, and by Windels, first Triborough counsel under RM. Burkan's only interest: RM, Windels, confidential source. "I sent for the chief engineer": RM quoted in Rodgers, p. 98. Othmar Ammann: For
a biographical sketch, see Talese, pp. 3 iff. Loeser "a Prussian and a Nazi": RM quoting LaG in Dangerous Trade, p. 164. The most experienced bridge builders: NYT, Feb. 28, 1934.
Cost reduced from $51,000,000 to $30,000,000: Burkan in NYT, Apr. 4, 1934. Moses 9 plans for using the money: RM, Shapiro, Windels. The forgotten lease: HT, July 26. Washburn Co.: HT, Oct. 12; NYT, Oct. 30.
$6,000,000 loan: NYT, July 7. Con Ed.: Confidential source. Another trip to Washington; LaG finding another $1,-300,000; LaG Papers.
Wanting a huge stadium: RM interview in the New York American, Apr. 22,
1935.
Central Park Casino: Restaurant owners' offers: NYT, Mar. 19, 1936. Char-pontier: NYT, Dec. 26, 1935. "Not going to confer": NYT, Feb. 21, 1934. Advised by Windels: Windels. Court fight: Various newspapers, Mar. 12, 13, 27, 1936. "The right to do": HT, Mar. 25, 1936. Carew's decision: NYT, Mar. 27, 1936. RM's answer; Appellate Court's reversal: NYT, May 2, 1936.
21. The Candidate
SOURCES
Books:
Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Triumph; Mitgang, The Man Who Rode the Tiger; Moscow, Politics in the Empire State; Moses, Dangerous Trade; Nevins, Herbert H. Lehman and His Era; Schlesinger, The Age of Roosevelt, Vol. II: The Coming of the New Deal.
Author's interviews:
With RM's campaign chairman, F. Trubee Davison, and Long Island Democratic leader Richard Mayes, and with Senate Majority Leader George R. Fearon, Joseph D. McGoldrick, reporter Warren Moscow, Joseph M. Proskauer,
Aaron Rabinowitz, Emily Smith Warner and Paul Windels.
NOTES
"More or less forced on me": Moses, Dangerous Trade, p. 882. "He encouraged me": Davison. "He was hungry for it": Windels. The barons' domination of the Republican Party: Davison, Windels; Freidel and Moscow books. Snell: Schlesinger, p. 480. A picture of the Old Guard's thinking was obtained from interviews with Davison and Mayes, and from the Macy Papers. "Anybody who amounted to anything": Moscow, p. 71, W. Kingsland Macy: Freidel.
"That was all we had to hear": Davison. What was wanted was a front man: Davison, Mayes; Macy Papers.