Moses held subordinates to exacting analytical standards through brutal written criticism.

Evidence

Moses would criticize staffers’ reports mercilessly. When he returned them, they would be adorned with large, angry double question marks. Sloppy phrasing would be slashed through. “Most essential question not discussed at all,” Moses scribbled on one report. “What overhead organization do you propose? Do you believe in a commission or a single commissioner? If the latter, should a rules-making board be attached to him?” Staffers became accustomed to seeing Moses’ handwriting filling the margins and spilling over their type and, scrawled across the top of the first page, heavily underlined: “REVISE ALL!” — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 439

Categorization

• XREF: Moses’ ‘REVISE ALL’ margin style prefigures how Caro will show him treating both reports and, later, entire civic projects and public input — nothing is ever good enough. — connects to: Moses buried a devastating insult in an allusion no one decoded — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 1935; Moses treated near-equals democratically but subordinates with drill-sergeant peremptoriness. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 446

Broader Connections

• Moses buried a devastating insult in an allusion no one decoded #exemplifies (0.85) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 1935