The Reconstruction Commission Report and Robert Moses
One hundred years ago today, Robert Moses, then a young (32 years old) reformer, was trying to get his ideas turned into practice, “with the greatest energy.”
The previous Fall, Moses had spearheaded a team that had submitted the Report of the Reconstruction commission to Governor Alfred E. Smith on retrenchment and reorganization in the state government, October 10, 1919.
By January of 1920, Al Smith was publicly backing the plan, and Moses was put in charge of a committee to help the governor push its ideas through the state legislature. His purview included fundraising; he needed $2,000. On February 9th, he wrote, "the campaign for adoption must be pushed through with the greatest energy."
The burgeoning, consolidating relationship between Moses and Smith in 1920 would have far-ranging consequences.