A failed wartime shipbuilding assignment taught Moses to always stay near top power.

Evidence

Bob Moses in 1918 was a man, not so young any more, looking for a job. Offered an army commission as a lieutenant, he decided after some hesitation not to serve in the war. A friend, Benjamin Van Schaick, was an executive of the government’s Emergency Fleet Corporation, which had recently been created to build a new American merchant fleet, and Van Schaick got Moses an executive job with the corporation. But when Moses arrived in Washington, he found he had no clearly defined duties. Temper flaring, he demanded a new assignment and was sent to the huge shipbuilding works on Hog Island in the Delaware River. Too late, he realized he had made a mistake. “That was a stupid move,” he was to say. “The place to be was with the top people in Washington.” — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 378

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the recurring Caro theme of Moses learning positional power lessons — connects to how Moses later always positioned himself in government offices close to key figures. — connects to: Decades in power taught Moses he could outlast any challenger. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 4549

Broader Connections

• Decades in power taught Moses he could outlast any challenger. #expands (0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 4549