Robert Moses, Glutton for Power

In New York City Robert Moses is the most prominent exponent of the credo that the end justifies the means; that he, “the great doer” always knows best; that the public should shut up, or in any event not be heard, while the genius he personifies works for it generously. The image that emerges is hardly that of a leader of democracy; but then Moses, though giving lip-service to democracy, has never pretended to adhere to its methods. Never once has he been elected to public office; and throughout the years, he has expressed nothing but contempt for the public’s elected representatives.

Gifted with a forked tongue, Moses has indulged in the life-long pastime of shriveling with invective all officials who have had the temerity to get in his way, a list that includes virtually every prominent figure in the city and state. In New Deal days he described former Postmaster General James A. Farley as “that ineffable sand, mail and bag man….” A lon...