Al Smith’s closeness to Robert Moses stemmed from recognizing a fellow master of government

Evidence

The reason for the attachment was uncertain. As one of Smith’s cronies put it, “They were opposites, two exact opposites, opposites all the way down the line.” Was it, as some Fourth Warders, given to cliché, speculated, a “father and son” relationship? Given the affection Smith bore for his own three sons, this seemed too pat an explanation, although it was not difficult to understand why some believed it. Emily Smith would recall how, one night after dinner, her father, who had been making pointed remarks for weeks about the pale-blue Brooks Brothers shirts that seemed to comprise Moses’ entire shirt collection, suddenly heaved himself out of his chair at the dinner table and strode into the bedroom. Returning with a large box, he said to Moses, “I’m tired of looking at your blue shirts, so I bought you some.” And, opening the box, he spilled out, in striped and silken profusion, a dozen of Sulka’s best. The Smiths certainly began to treat Moses like one of the family. “He was like an artist in a way,” Emily would recall. “He was dressed, not dirtily, but as if he didn’t care. His suits might be okay, but they were obviously quite old or not very well pressed. We always kidded him about his clothes. One night after dinner he started to leave and Dad said, ‘Emily, you go down with Bob and see he doesn’t take one of my hats and leave his here.’ And I can still see Dad and Bob laughing there.” Or was the reason for the attachment, as other old acquaintances speculated, that Al Smith, who outwardly laughed at his lack of formal education and never seemed to mind his lack of money, actually felt both lacks keenly and was thus ready to be impressed by a man he thought had such a wealth of both? Was it, as some reformers thought, that, since Smith preferred to get his information from people rather than from books and memos, he needed around him advisers who could talk fluently on concepts of government and who could describe situations and projects so vividly that he could see them in his mind’s eye—and that Moses, with his gift for words, was simply the most fluent and descriptive of talkers? Or was it that the man who had worked so hard to learn the art of government was able to tell exactly how hard another man had worked to learn that art—and knew that Bob Moses had, in different circumstances, worked as hard as he? Was it that the man who had learned the art so thoroughly that it must have been boring for him to talk with even the most knowledgeable of his advisers had found a man who had learned it as well as he? — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 575

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the theme of mentorship and master-craftsman recognition running through the earlier chapters’ portraits of Moses’s rise; also the gift-theory of deep personal bonds seen elsewhere in Caro. — connects to: Robert Moses and Al Smith shared a bond ended only by death — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 493; Moses persuaded Al Smith through vivid graphic verbal description, not argument — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 737; Al Smith invoked direct democracy to defeat Moses’ enemies — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 860

Broader Connections

• Moses persuaded Al Smith through vivid graphic verbal description, not argument #complicates (0.80) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 737