Moses refused the patronage sinecure Smith offered him in 1923

Evidence

Al Smith was a man who believed in paying his debts. In 1923, he found for Moses a state sinecure with high pay and a low work load: the directorship of a board that would supervise the industries that, thanks to Moses, had been installed in state prisons. Moses told Smith he didn’t want the job. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 623

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why turn down guaranteed high pay for low work? Caro suggests it is not selflessness but calculation—Moses wants real power, not sinecures—worth confirming against later biography detail.
• XREF: connects to: Smith offered Moses a commission presidency he had not solicited — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 756; Moses once refused political land deals even at the cost of his ambition — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 913; Moses rejected famous architects in favor of an unknown staffer’s designs — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 981

Broader Connections

• Smith offered Moses a commission presidency he had not solicited #corroborates (0.92) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 756
• Moses once refused political land deals even at the cost of his ambition #exemplifies (0.80) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 913