Early reformer Moses was valued for scrupulous reliability more than for winning fights

Evidence

The association’s members approved of that tone. To them, the failure of the association to win even a single major fight was secondary. In the world of these idealists, there were other factors to be considered. “Moses was a very scrupulous researcher,” Childs recalls. “He was very reliable. You could always be certain of the facts you read in the Bulletin.” In 1921, when more than three hundred of New York City’s most influential reformers formed a fusion “Coalition Committee” in an abortive effort to prevent Red Mike Hylan’s re-election as mayor, they selected Moses as its secretary. … He seemed, to most of them, the very model of the reformer, even down to the shabbiness of his tiny office and the fact that, to supplement his salary and Bella’s subsidy, he lectured on political science at New York University. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 584

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the arc Caro establishes across the biography: the principled reformer who becomes the power broker — echoes the opening chapters’ portrait of young Moses. — connects to: Ambition was not the whole motive driving young Moses — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 274

Broader Connections

• Ambition was not the whole motive driving young Moses #expands (0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 274