Sublime

Moses also lavished attention on top editors.

Following the trail left by those overlooked documents in Moses’ files, the hard-riding reporters had come at last upon the secret that would destroy the heart of the Moses legend: the fact that this man who supposedly scorned politicians had allowed the top echelon of New York’s politicians to reap fortunes from his Title I program.

Joseph

Already predisposed to be friendly toward Moses because he was creator and defender of parks, the city’s thirteen daily newspapers had that friendship cultivated with customary Moses thoroughness.

Gleason and Cook could see that Moses’ relationship with publishers and top editors was as close as ever. Not only had they been the recipients of his charm and his favors, they had been the key figures in making the Moses myth; they had a psychological vested interest in it. To dispatch investigators to dig into it would be an admission on their p

“Without his loyalty to me,” Moses was to say about Al Smith, “I could have done nothing.” He had had Al Smith—and his loyalty—for ten years. But now he was to have Al Smith no more. And the man who was to follow Moses’ greatest friend into the Governor’s chair was Moses’ deadliest enemy.

Moses’ use of the technique was a totally conscious one. Knowing precisely what he was doing—“the first rule is to stay on the side of the angels”—he continually urged reporters, under the guise of modesty, to “stick to the parks and playgrounds and bridges, and don’t write about me.” And he had consistently made sure that his instructions were fol

The explanation for Moses’ independence of La Guardia was as complex as the Little Flower’s many-petaled character and as simple—and ineluctable—as the basic realities of the political game at which the Mayor excelled.

When Moses announced that he was fighting not only crooks but something that to the American mind loomed as a menace of approximately equal proportions—politicians—new highlights were added to his sheen.