Show Elsa E Maxwell New York Park Parle Commissioner Bequeaths Beauty to City When certain feudal barons of Long Island heard that Robert Robert Robert Rob Rob- ert Moses the park commissioner commission commission- er was planning Jones beach and other public parks in the general vicinity of their estates they shrieked Well be overrun with rabble from the city Al Smith speaking for Moses answered Rabble That's One me me Moses looks like a dark handsome handsome handsome hand hand- some Italian He is sensitive and shy yet completely absorbed in whatever he is doing thinking thinking thinking think think- ing or saying They say most men pay great attention to what women are wearing but not Bob Moses Moses his his eyes and mind a are e deep set on oth other r hills hillsand hillsand hillsand and finery He gets his greatest romantic thrills looking not at blessed but at his trees His girls are parks and bridges His dissipation on Is perfect tree planting And his cocktails consist of two roads perfectly mixed Moses is one of the principal reasons that the Tammany Tiger Is out in the cold The people of New York returned the LaGuardia administration to office on the basis of its accomplishments ac ac- ac- ac And as city park commissioner Moses is responsible responsible responsible re re- for no small part of these accomplishments At the same sam time times Moses is one of the leading reasons that the themen themen themen men in iii the armed forces wont won't be out in the cold when they get through their job of taking takingS care of Hitler Moses is convinced that there must be some sort of planning S if jf we are to adjust back from from froma a wartime economy to a peacetime peacetime peacetime peace peace- time planning Moses has little patience with political Polly- Polly annas who believe that a great industrial boom is going to get under way the day the fighting ceases Moses never pulls punches Even our own pocket tyrant the Little Flower bows to Bobs Bob's thunder He calls Moses His Grace S One letter I know of addressed addressed addressed ad ad- dressed to Moses began Dear Bob Youre You're right you always are are The other night I had the pleasure of going to an Bach all-Bach concert with Robert Moses who among his many Interests Is solidly devoted to music During the intermission we started talking politics Tell me Mr Moses I said what is the clue to your startling efficiency in getting things done how do you always manage to override political political political po po- po- po opposition Moses' Moses answer was typical I have a healthy instinct he said for the jugular and solar plexus The mayor now thoroughly Inured to Bobs Bob's periodic threats to resign from this or that keeps a form letter always on tap This Is Is- part of a perpetual S game of battledore and shuttle shuttle- cock Nothing drastic ever comes of it Of all the public men I know Robert Moses seems to me to tobe tobe tobe be the one most completely absorbed absorbed absorbed ab ab- ab- ab In his work A graduate of Oxford a Ph D D. from Columbia Columbia Columbia Co Co- Co- Co lumbia he has never let academic academic academic aca aca- demic ways impede his psychological psychological psychological psycho psycho- logical need for action Yet nothing else In life cuts In on this action He is ne no of ot th the ablest public administrators in inthe inthe inthe the country for the simple mason reason reason rea rea- son that he lets either nothing nothing either political personal or social social social-in- in interfere with his notion of ad ad- ministration He has bequeathed to New York an incredible beauty |