Box# 32

Folder# 627
Word's Fair: Remarks
by Robert Moses
1961- 1963
REMARKS OF ROBERT MOSES
UPON RECEIVING A PUBLIC AFFAIRS AWARD
FROM THE
BRONX BOARD OF TRADE
AT THE ANNUAL DINNER
CONCOURSE PLAZA HOTEL, NEW YORK
THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 20, 1961
Mr. Goldman, Ladies and GenUemen:
Thank you for your award which I value hiqhly because, whether
deserved or not, it expresses the opinion of those who lmow what has been
going on in the field of physical improvements here in the Bronx and may
be presumed to have some judgment about their contemporariesa
You are generous to overlook, ignore, gloss over or forget the
occasional differences and irritations which seem to me to be inescapable
ff we are to make progress in a democracy. Others, to be sure, regard
the tempests and rhubarbs of the day as avoidable by those skilled in the
Chesterfieldian or Machiavelian schools of diplomacy, states craft and
parlor society.
Let me, as the boys in the tavern say, take a plea. A friend told
me the other day about a poker game years ago at Canoe Place Inn attended
by Governor Smith and his cronies. After I had left, one of the players
made a caustic remark about me which the Governor pointedly ignored.
Judge James A. Foley, however, turned to the critic and said, "Leave that
fellow alone. He's a porcupine."
There is no place between the canape's and the dessert for a
disquisition on the old, the present and the future Bronx. My task and that
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of my loyal associates has been to save, restore, enhance and make easily
accessible its natural attractions. This task has been in part miraculously
aided by forqotten conservatives of the past and in part made appallingly
difficult by three-quarters of a century of ruthless, senseless
since rapid transit began. Much has been accomplished in the last thirty
or forty years to reclaim this magnificent gateway to the metropolis. Much
must stUl be done at this late date when the obstacles have multiplied and
the courage to face them seems at times non-existent.
Here is a startling example of the appalling cost of delay in
public works if you wait until the last critic has subsided. The price of one
mile of the Cross-Bronx Expressway - a half mile on each side of the
Grand Boulevard and Concourse - includinq land, is twenty-eight million
dollars. With the federal qovernment payinq ninety per cent, you can imagine
the reaction of members of Congress from states where they build a hundred
miles of qood road within this fiqure,
We can still pick up the remaininq attractive open spaces under
the terms of the State Park Bond Proposition adopted last Fall. Sewaqe ,
pollution along your matchless East River water front is an increasinq
menace and every plan to face it has been knocked down by shortsighted
politics, callous public indifference and lack of leadership. Of course
it's a touqh job. If this were not so, it would have been finished long aqo.
Just a word about housing. The Bronx will not be rebullt to
house middle income cooperative tenants, the only hope of large scale slum
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Clearance and reconstruction, until the jackals, critics, sensational journalists
and fanatical uplifters are subdued and there is sufficient support, official,
press and public, to induce men of courage to undertake the task.
I am happy to have lived to enjoy the pastoral, halcyon days of peace
in the Bronx, when the Morrises return to Morrisania, the little lambs and
the big Lyons lie down together in the Bronx Zoo, when Curran University opens
on the Chimneyislands off Orchard Beach, when Throgs Neck hangs by a single
G, and Al Goldman volunteers to help out his successor and personally deliver
the man.
Your Borough is not modest about its attractions. If Jim Lyons
puts up enough signs bearing his name and pointing to the universities, museums,
parks, Hall of Fame and other glories of the Bronx, I fear that most of the
seventy million visitors we expect at the Fair at Flushing Meadow wlll never
get there.
Newbold Morris, visiting the shrines of his ancestors, will have to
get accustomed to a new patriotism. For every school boy who recognizes
July Four, Seventeen Hundred and Seventy-Six, there are now a round dozen
who !mow Melrose Five, Five, Three Hundred. Even if the Minute Men are
no longer available, the Little Sachses are always at your service,
What a Borough you have I Read John Kieran about its natural
history and remaining wild life. Here a lad in an old tenement can lie awake
trembling at jungle roars from the Bronx Zoo and fall asleep dreaming he is
Ernest Hemingway 1n the Shadow of Kilimanjaro.
Thank you for including me among the recipients of tonight's
accolades. I am proud to be in their company and to have had a small part in
the remarkable advance of your great Borough.
NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR
1964-1965
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C 1961 New YOf Woricft Fair 1964.1965 Corporatiorl
COME TO THE FAIR/
APRIL 22, 1964
REMARKS OF ROBERT MOSES
AT A
LUNCHEON IN HONOR OF
EUGENE BLACK
WALDORF-ASTORIA
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1963
12:30 P.M .
My friends of the banks and braes of New York:
I come here not only as a Greek bearing a gift,
but armed with gratuitous advice. Let no one
say I am not singing for my lunch.
If he has not already accepted the honor, I
urge that Eugene Black be commissioned forth-
with to be our delegate at the United Nations
to collect the budget debts of all countries in
arrears, and to express polite scepticism as to
the attitude of those which combine a curious
disregard of past favors with a lively sense of
benefits to come.
Then, if he still has leisure time, we at the
World's Fair would like him to get after foreign
countries which are a bit slow in building their
pavilions. In return we shall broadcast the im-
pressive and hard-won achievements in the field
of international construction and development
to which Eugene Black has devoted so many
years of his life.
Let him also, as an avocation, lay up treasures
in heaven by accepting the chairmanship of
drives to raise modest funds for a thousand good
causes and bring the millennium to our doors.
e 1963 New Y o r ~ World's Fair 19641965 Corporation
After this modest starr as a many-sided con-
sultant, let Gene Black show the City and State
of New York how to raise more money pain-
lessly and without new taxes, perhaps by a for-
mula which will overcome the scruples of pious
folks who think on-track betting has heavenly
sanction and off-track betting is contrary to
divine law.
By these timely suggestions I am sure that
I have earned your applause, if not the undying
gratitude of the hero of this luncheon.
By accepting these responsibilities, he will
soon earn the honorable nicknames of Black
Death, Midas Muffler and World Almoner.
But seriously, Eugene Black, as a tremen-
dously successful worker in the field of interna-
tional cooperation and joint enterprise, a Gama-
liel to whom we look confidently for advice and
aid, we at the World's Fair offer you, as fellow
workers, this golden symbol of our efforts to
organize an Olympics of progress and to bring
peace through understanding on a shrinking
globe in an expanding universe.
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NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR
1964-1965
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C INI Mrw YOfl Wortcl' r.ir 1964-IM! Corporoliofl
COME TO THE FAIRI
APRIL 22, 1964
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STATEMENT BY ROBERT MOSES
AT THE
WORLD'S FAffi. ANNUAL MEETING
OF MEMBERS AND DIRECTORS
FLUSHING MEADOW
THURSDAY MORNING,
JANUARY 24, 1963
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1963 New Y o r ~ World's Foir 196-4 1965 Corporation
Robert Moses:
On the way co chis meeting you have seen
evidences of substantial physical progress. It is
Qur ambition to achieve the scared objectives of
the Fair- worldwide friendship and peace
through healthy, free competition in the arcs,
sciences and industries. We shall also offer
agreeable encerrainmenc and a look backward at
what New York City has done in three hundred
years.
On the financial side we expect co realize a
sufficient balance co pay all our obligations to
noreholders, remove temporary structures and
clear the ground, repay certain advances to the
City, rescore Flushing Meadow Park and make
it usable for the enjoyment of the people.
We do nor expect to accomplish these objec-
tives merely by conventional slogans, airy
gestures and circus superlatives, but by the ap
plication of all the imagination and ingenuity
we can muster, and the sustained efforts of
builders and labor, supported by an enthusiastic
directorate and citizenry.
The heads of our staff are here to summarize
briefly what you can read ar leisure in our cur-
rene report. Mr. Beach will represent Governor
Poletti, who is abroad. Not even the famous
Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech found our
as alarmingly as Charlie Poletti that it rakes all
kinds of people co make a world.
Before I call upon the staff, I am pleased to
introduce ro you Norman Winston, Commis-
sioner of the United States Commission for the
World's Fair.
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NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR
1964-1965
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C IMI Notw Y..-k World" r.lr 1964-1965 COJpotDiioft
COME TO THE FAIR/
APRIL 22, 1964
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REMARKS OF ROBERT MOSES
PRESIDENT OF
NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1964-1965
AT THE
GROUNDBREAKING FOR THE
FRENCH PAVILION
FLUSHING MEADOW
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1963
3 P.M.
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Robert Moses:
Allow me to express briefly the great pleas-
ure of the officers of the Fair that this French
Pavilion is to have an honored place in our
demonstration of world progress. We rejoice
that the French people will not be among the
few conspicuous absentees, but will join New
York City, our American states and industries
and the greater part of the globe in promoting
peace through understanding.
The Common Marker we offer at the Fair is
one based on the old Olympic ideal of healthy
rivalry far removed from all ideologies, the
meeting of strong men regardless of border,
breed and birth.
I shall sound no discordant notes here. As to
the BIE, we are not, and never could have been,
members. The New York Fair is not govern-
mental, and our country could not join the BIE
otherwise than by treaty approved by the Sen-
ate. Ours is a two, not a one-year Fair; it oper-
ates under a charter, rules and regulations
entirely out of the BIE jurisdiction. These facts
1963 Now York World's Fair 1964-1965 Corporation
have been certified and publicized over and
over again. The subject no longer constitutes
news.
One look about you at the multifarious ac-
tivities at Flushing Meadow will tell you that
we deal here with realities and the future, nor
with cliches, old, unhappy far off things and
battles long ago. We recognize past glories and
memories, but our faces are to the future.
We raise our voices at my Alma Mater, Yale
University, to the Spirit of Youth, alive, un-
changing, under whose feet the years are cast.
Who but Maurice Chevalier, master of song
and story, pur over, not with a leer, but with
economy of gesture, charm and a glance of the
eye, so perfectly illustrates, symbolizes and per-
sonifies this Spirit? He has that rare and pre-
cious combination of nostalgia and elan vital
which is the quimessence of France.
Again, welcome to the greatest show of our
times, and thanks again for coming to the
ground breaking.
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WES'"fERN UNION
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HONMAELE R__Q,gfiJJAOSES, RAD I 0 NEWSREEL TELEV I 51 ON WORK I NO PRESS r
527 LEXINGTON NY K -
I HAVE RECEIVED A COPY OF YOUR REMARKS TO THE ANNUAL DP.JNER
Cf" THE RADIO NEWSREEL TELEVISION WORKING PRESS ASSOCIA1"10N
AT THE IMPERIAL BALLROOM OF lliE HOTEL AMERICANA ON MONJAY.
APRIL 22NO TO SAY THE LEAST I AM OVERWHELMED, TO YOU ROBERT ,jl \
MOSES, I AM ETERNALLY GRATEFIJ.. FOR YOUR STATEMENT( WHEN A MAN \J \
IN PUS..IC LIFE HAS DONE ALL 1HAT HE CAN I N THE PUS- I C I NTERESTS 'j i j
HE USUALLY RECEIVES CRITICISM AK> FEW COMPLIMENTS,THANKS FOR
YOUR UMlERSTANJ I NG, YOU ARE IN A CLASS ALMOST BY SELF "\
HARRY S TRUMAN .
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REMARKS
OF
ROBERT MOSES
Dedication of Power Vista
Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant
July 19, 1963
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Mv PowEn, PARK AND Puauc WonKs FRIENDs:
I can do little more today than paraphrase
remarks made before, as the Niagara Frontier
plan has gradually progressed from dream to
reality.
Most of you are familiar with the history of
Niagara Falls and the Niagara Gorge. You know
the international complications. When some of
us in the early twenties of this century proposed
extending the Niagara Reservation upstream to
Buffalo and down to Fort Niagara, with a con-
tinuous park and parkway ribbon from Lake Erie
to Lake Ontario, we were regarded as dangerous
uplifters and crackpots. We avoided the biggest
industrial plants by jumping over to Grand Is-
land, an 18,000 acre wedge sitting in the middle
of the Niagara River, astonishingly untouched
and unsettled and affording a miraculous oppor
!unity for a short cut up the Gorge. Of course
when we got hack to the mainland, our troubles
began again.
In 1924, I became head of the state park sys
tern established by Governor Smith to carry out
a comprehensive program of state recreation to
replace scattered, sporadic and accidental park
acquisitions. We have translated the insubstan
tial dream of 1924 into the actualities of 1963.
This was made possible by Governor Dewey's
consolidation of the park and power program
which put in the same hands the resources, au.
thority and responsibility indispensable to the
realization of a continuous, comprehensive, in
tegrated program of power, parks, bridges, high
ways, railroad grade eliminations and other
improvements, the kind of thing professional
planners chatter about and rarely do.
When Paul Schoellkopf, Senior, father of the
present Paul, and I went to Washington with
Governor Smith as members of a eommission
appointed by Governor I . ~ I n n a n to obtain Re-
construction Finance Corpnration funds for New
York State workR projc('ts, we wer(' not too
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sanguine about Niagara. Our immediate objec-
tive was the financing of the Grand Island
bridges, one at each end of the Island. Our
success was largely due to the eloquence of
Governor Smith. Later it was necessary to add
two more bridges paralleling the original ones.
We did not lay impious hands on the St. Law-
rence in building our dams for power and navi-
gation. The St. Lawrence, like Old Man River
in the words of Abraham Lincoln, still flows un-
vexed to the sea. Neither have we done violence
to our side of the Niagara Frontier and to the
great spectacle of the Falls and Gorge in our
march from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. In
partnership with private utilities we have con-
nected the two power plants by a transmission
line, some 330 miles long, and have fed it into
the metropolitan grid that forms the backbone
of the entire state electrical system. We have
produced low cost power and insured jobs on the
Frontiers. The spirit of the International Treaty
has been scrupulously observed.
There is no place on the entire globe where
words are so inadequate. It is our proud boast
that we have worked harmoniously with our own
state government, with bondholders, with the
Dominion and Province across the Frontier, with
utility companies since they accepted the facts
of the Schoellkopf plant collapse, with the Vin-
centians at expanding Niagara University, with
innumerable public agencies, with Indians and
finally with organized labor which built our com-
plex structures on schedule. We are on the way
now to Fort Niagara and to the Ontario Park-
way which leads into another State park region.
It all adds up to teamwork under competent
direction to adapt the practical needs of man to
the preservation and enhancement of the beauties
of nature. We have aimed to reconcile here the
often conflicting laws and practices of numerous
public, quasi-public and private agencies, the
claims of utility and beauty, economics and aes-
thetics, of industry and the spirit, of the marvels
of man and those of nature. We have not suc
cumbed to the temptation to sell the future for
the day, or to ignore the present in chimerical
dreams of the millennium.
The Niagara River is an extraordinary gut
between two great Lakes eroded in geological
ages, an incident in the flow of unceasing western
waters to the Atlantic. The views of the Gorge
south and north from the new parkway as it rolls
over the top of the Power House at Lewiston arc
if anything finer than the storied spectacle of
the Falls as Father Hennepin saw them. I doubt
whether General Brock atop his lonely column
in Canada has a wider view of the countryside.
The early priestly explorers are depicted here
at the Power Vista in loving detail and lively
colors by that authentic recorder of American
history, Thomas Hart Benton, to delight the
millions who prefer real red Indians to bloodless
abstractions.
I am most happy to have the Niagara Park-
way named after me and to accept this honor
for the goodly company who did the work and
deserve the credit. I have at most provided the
central rallying point for the diverse elements
whose cooperation and loyalty in the crucial final
years was the price of success.
I believe that those who have defied the ac-
tuarial tables which measure the expectation of
official life are lucky to have had this magnificent
opportunity. We have taken a lot of punishment
in the process but we have had a whale of a
time, and nobody really owes us a thing.
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NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR
1964-1965
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C 1961 H... Yo,lt World'1 Corpctotion
COME TO THE FAIR!
APRIL 22, 1964
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REMARKS OF ROBERT MOSES
PRESIDENT OF THE
NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1964-1965
AT THE ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE
EQVIT ABLE BUILDING
OF THE
EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE
SOCIETY PAVILION
AT THE WORLD'S FAIR
TUESDAY NOON, JULY 30, 1963
I am not much at hyperbole, ballyhoo and super-
latives. I said recently that a Fair must, like Caesar's
wife, be aU things to aU men. This was so old a chest-
nut that I could hardly believe it when the New Yorker
thought that out of sheer ignorance I misquoted and
mixed up Shakespeare, Plutarch and the Apostle Paul.
.After this, no more feeble jokes.
Without hope of reward or fear of punishment,
and under no compulsion to sing for hors d'oeuvres,
Vodka martinis and free lunch, I am here to testify
today to the remarkable usefulness of the Equitable
exhibit at the World's Fair. It will feature and explain
what is far and away the most vital subject before the
people of the world. Not even the threat of nuclear
war is so important, and in fact there is a relationship,
however grim and foreboding, between the incidence
of increase in population and the holocausts which
have traditionally regulated the strength and numbers
of the tribes that inherit the earth.
Yours is to be a factual exhibit. You present the lig-
ures graphically as they change kaleidoscopically
from day to day. You call the shots as they are fired.
You are neither pollsters, prophets nor Swamis. I can
think of no greater service to mankind than to present
what we at the Fair call the shrinking globe in the
expanding universe.
I am a conservative and a skeptic in this field, but
I want all the facts I can get, without bias or prophecy.
When an ordinary fellow teJis me he knows what
New York will look like in the year 2063, I know he
is either a colossal egotist, a demon paper planner or a
licensed busybody. Where there is no vision the peo-
ple perish. Where there is too much vision they perish
twice as fast.
We can see just so far into the future. In the game
of population guesses - for it is a game, not a sci
@ 196] New York World'o Fair 196<1-1965 Corpor41ion
ence - we deal with imponderables. If we continue
the upward curve of the last decade to the year 2000
-- not so far off and well within the life span of
present teen-agers - we reach a total world popula
tion far beyond the present resources of society to sus-
tain in comfort. The line of the graph will, however,
be deflected. It will be bent. It will wobble. It will
go up suddenly like a rocket, swing off into a parabola
or drop like the fever chart of a Stock Exchange panic.
One thing alone is certain. You can't bank on it.
You can trust to population facts, but not to popu
lation predictions. No matter how thin you slice them,
they are still prosciutto. Can we actually count on and
budget the shelter, food, schools, utilities and what
not for the huge numbers confidently prophesied for
the year 2000? Where is the money coming from?
.And what of the insistent rising demands of under
privileged and newly emancipated people, promised
by the communists immediate prosperity and equal di-
vision of everything? Or shall we think about the
Four Horsemen of the .Apocalypse, birth control,
reclamation of waste places by atomic desalination,
new sources of cheap food like plankton, all factors
which enormously influence the graph of population?
Equitable will give all points of view. The melior-
ist, the optimist, the pejorist, the pessimist will enjoy
an equal opportunity to get the lowdown. Those who
welcome with cheers and those who view with alarm
can then confirm or confound their convictions and
prejudices, go right or left or stay in the middle. At
any rate, a great insurance company will give them
dramatically at the Fair the actuarial evidence which
all honest minds must seek. In this spirit we who
direct the Fair welcome the Equitable Life Assurance
Society today and present our silver medallion to its
head man, James F. Oates, Jr.
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youngsters and the lot of average folk not nearly
as pleasant and promising as right here at hoJne.
I know how many of you must have felt
when the ghostly army of builders had stoler ..
away, when solitude descended once more on
the Valley, and it seemed almost as if the great,
solid, enduring dams and dikes, locks and
plants, like Solomon's temple, had risen by
magic without the sound of hammer or axe or
tool of iron. But energy remains, electric and
human, and your people, with this example be-
fore them, will not go to sleep.
I should hardly rate as much of a salesman
if I did not embrace this opportunity to urge
you to save your dimes and dollars for visits to
the World's Fair at Flushing Meadow in 1964
and 1965. There will be a St. Lawrence, Niagara
and tie-line power exhibit in the New York
State Pavilion and a thousand other sights to
remember. You will find much there to enlarge
your pride as Americans and to stimulate your
curiosity as citizens of a new world.
Well, that's enough sage advice for one eve-
ning. I am most appreciative of the goodwill
of my friends in this Valley and in the vast ro-
mantic North Country. Keep the latchstring out
for an occasional return visit and don't forget
me altogether, for I shall never forget you.
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REMARKS OF ROBERT MOSES
ATA
TESTIMONIAL DINNER
OF THE
ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY
ASSOCIATION
SCHINE INN
MASSENA
MONDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 16, 1963
Mr. Stever, Governor Poletti,
Preiident BewkeJ and FriendJ:
When we began power construction in 1954,
in the face of much local misunderstanding, 1
told the people of the North Country that it was
the aim of the New York Power Authority to be
respected and not to be instantly popular. I be-
lieve that by now we have your friendship as
well as your respect.
Construction of the St. Lawrence River
started in August 1954. After four years of in-
tensive effort the pool was raised and water
backed up for thirty-five miles to create Lake
St. Lawrence. First power was produced in July
1958 and all facilities were completed in July
1959, two years ahead of the original seven-year
schedule. Financing involved approximately
$350 million of revenue bonds sold without
Federal or State credit. Construction was car-
ried on in cooperation with the United States
St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corpora-
tir)n, The Hydro Electric Power Commission of
Ontario and the Canadian St. Lawrence Seaway
Authority.
We approached the St. Lawrence task, espe-
cially in t!te International Rapids section, with
humility. It seemed at first almost like an affront
to nature. It looked like arrogance for, as I said
when Governor Dewey made me chairman, we
pitted against the rush of a mighty stream,
clogged with ice in winter, little more than the
audacious brains and brawn, the ant-like men
and toy machinery and the vaulting ambitions
of two democracies.
In any event, we subdued the Rapids so that
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the St. Lawrtn.-t ap,n111 11111 1111/tllft-drd ro
the.se<l. i''"''rnsed, \\"(' 1111d (trhNI!Nd
the s._('nNv 1'1 tlw 1\1\'t'l and 1'111\'idrrl ftt
ation tH masses 111 \Vr :t
na' hv 'htp'<, tlrr
of the <..;rear Lakes h\ lh<' At l:urlit, nnd p.,avr tirr
two il llt'\1 se;hnast of 7,000
\\e tM.-cd ;I y sl renlll 111lo the pen-
stocks wht.-h turned the turhuws of n
ing mdustnal emp1re unlfna].(med hy (.artier
and Champlam. \'fc JOilled the piof!('r.tq wh(1
bridged the _gap lxtwecn the age ol !Hid
the age ot atomr..: energy.
It was said that only strictly pnvatc enter-
prise, m this ..:ase the utility (ompanics, subjiXt
of course to regulation and taxes, could build
the mternattonal St. Lawrence power, seaway,
park and consenation wmplex. That was sheer
nonsense. Surrender to the utilities here and at
Niagara could only have been at the sacrifice
of maLenable basic publiC rights and of higher
plannmg ob)tCtJves. Beyond these basic rights I
have no preJudiCes. I am no socialist. I am .1
pragmatist \\'htchever agency or combination
of agenoes, public. pnvate, or quasi-publK, c.1n
do the Job best m my book is the one to Jo ic.
The cooperatJve arrangement whi(h we adupteJ
is hailed today by all but a few right ,mJ Ide
wmg fanauo The left-wiugers I
closed tu the far nght, there
,anous tyLv()rush f uf llllllt' wlhl llll(t:
thought we had horns, houb anJ but ll1l\\
alluw th;.tr \\ t art: pretty f:oud t d lu\1 s .md lllt
beyund
Lmrut<< Ji''''tr, .Iu,l p.nk.
undtrti!btJ}! h .. tr,lll)f.l'IH!cd l'll,l!,llll'l'Illl,!; \\'<.:
celebrated it in the presence of a British Queen
as a symbol of our North American unity. of
our common language and traditions, and as a
tribute to more than a century of unbroken.
peace between two great democracies in a
troubled and divided world. It is a pity that
since then so many unnecessary, illogical and
frustrating differences between Canada and the
United States have arisen.
Let me repeat what I have said before. Canada
is even younger than we, with vast and as yet
untapped resources, and a relatively sparse pop-
ulation. We are alike in temperament, equally
youthful in spirit, free from the disillusionment
and bone weariness of the exhausted civiliza-
tions and great cultures of Europe, from its ob-
session with the past, and from the ancient
wrongs, feuds and sullen rivalries of the Old
World which have proven such fertile ground
for Communist blandishments. The St. Law-
rence is not the Rhine or the Danube. We need
no Prussian watch here, no racial barriers, no
border patrols.
Let us not forget that the Power Authority of
New York and Ontario Hydro jointly con-
structed the St. Lawrence power project at a
cost of $650,000,000 without a signed contract
or agreement. It sounds incredible, but so it
was. This project stands as a monument to
American-Canadian accord. It should serve as
an example to all the world that loyalty and
mutual trust cross all borders, surmount all bar-
riers and foreshadow an era of international
goodwill.
Let us get back to our old friendship without
qualifications and reservations. It is high time.
4
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Only our common enemies can profit from our
diffc;rences. Annually, in the olden days, they
celebrated with colorful pomp and panoply the
wedding of Venice and the Adriatic. In this
spirit and with this example, we should declare
a holiday and celebrate here each summer the
Union of the St. Lawrence Valley and the St.
Lawrence River, and raise on the banks of this
continental stream the standard of American
brotherhood.
We did not build this River complex by meta-
phors, but metaphors help to explain our prob-
lems to laymen not versed in the language of
hydrographic charts. The simplest conception
is that of a moving water road which we were
blocking and bypassing. Our obstacles were
not merely physical. They were human in the
sense that we had to move people, and build
plants and transmission lines. They included
obscure laws, unusually complex, overlapping
administrative agencies, conflicting personali-
ties, private selfishness, and the stilted termi-
nology of diplomatic usage.
When questions of lake and lawsuit levels
and divisions of cost of dredging and whatnot
reached the rarified atmosphere and sublimated
surroundings of our national capitols, those of
us who were mucking around in cofferdams and
worrying about material shortages, strikes and
the acts of God and the Queen's enemies, found
ourselves repeating with the Rabbit in Alice in
Wonderland, "My ears and whiskers, how late
it's getting." Somehow we survived and in the
process, beyond the fascination of the job itself,
we formed lasting friendships with the best en-
gineers, the boldest contractors and the most
5
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loyal construction workers. We asked no sym-
pathy for our toil and trouble. We were l!fcky
indeed to have such an opportunity at so pro-
pitious a time.
I suppose you expect me to say something sig-
nificant about the future of the Adirondacks,
the North Country and the St. Lawrence Valley.
I wish I could honestly predict a big industrial
empire here, but even with the seaway, it is not
in the cards. I still believe the Power Authority
is the best agency to represent the State in the
coming field of atomic energy, that an economic
combination of atomic, hydraulic and steam
power with more powerful transmission facili-
ties is in the offing and that the State's efforts
should not be confined to by-products. Ontario
Hydro, across the River, is launched in the
atomic business.
When we sold our bonds to prudent inves-
tors, it had been decided that it would be thirty
years before atomic power was competitive with
energy from falling water. By that time, with
our private debts extinguished and no profits
to share, the price of our kilowatts will be very
low. All in all, a public power authority, prop-
erly led and staffed, with the incidental benefits
no private utility company, however affected
with a public purpose, could have provided has
been a boon to all the people of our State, and
it should not be allowed to languish and become
a mere bureaucracy.
For the future major attractions and pros-
perity of the North Country, I would look not
so much to farming and industry-although
both are important-as to scenery, tourism and
vacationing on a much larger and even year-
6
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round basis. I can remember when Switzerland
anq the Alps were frozen in winter, when skiing
was an almost unknown sport, when even young
people went south and the natives stoically pre-
pared to be isolated for five months in the year,
when half the houses were not weatherproofed
and were boarded up against ice, wind and
snow, when superstition ruled out winter gaiety
- long before the mountainsides and lakes
echoed the shouts of vigorous youth, and banjos,
guitars and mouth organs enlivened the eve-
nings and silenced the old wives' tales of hide-
bound local armchair philosophers.
Prosperity, better access, the longer span of
years and the rising enthusiasm for sports have
wrought immense changes. The Adirondacks
must be opened to reasonable year-round usage.
It is high time that the fanatics who chatter
"forever wild" in their clubs and parlors, and
pretend to a monopoly of interest in nahlfe, the
conversational hunters and fishermen who never
set foot in the remote wilderness, and the sport-
ing goods sportsmen, were put in their places,
and that those who speak for millions who could
easily be accommodated and offered magnificent
vacations at low cost, were listened to. You have
acres of diamonds buried in your Adirondack
backyards.
I urge you to have a new, shrewd, hard, prac-
tical look at your resources. Bring to bear the
same ingenuity, ambition and daring which
drew the rural folks to the big cities. You have
plenty of talent coming along. Encourage it.
Give it scope. Don't drive it away to distant
cities where the opportunities are great for an
exceptional minority of very smart or very lucky
7
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yuun,listcrs and the lot of average folk not nearly
as pleasant and promising as right here at ho,me.
I know how many of you must have felt
when the ghostly army of builders had stoler,
away, when solitude descended once more on
the Valley, and it seemed almost as if the great,
soliJ, enduring dams and dikes, locks and
plants, like Solomon's temple, had nsen by
magic without the sound of hammer or axe or
tool of iron. But energy remains, electric and
human, and your people, with this example be-
fore them, will not go to sleep.
I should hardly rate as much of a salesman
if I did not embrace this opportunity to urge
you to save your dimes and dollars for visits to
the World's Fair at Flushing Meadow in 1964
and 1965. There will be a St. Lawrence, Niagara
and tie-line power exhibit in the New York
State Pavilion and a thousand other sights to
remember. You will find much there to enlarge
your pride as Americans and to stimulate your
curiosity as citizens of a new world.
Well, that's enough sage advice for one eve-
nlllg. I am most appreciative of the goodwill
of my friends in this Valley and in the vast ro-
mantic North Country. Keep the latchstring out
for an occasional return visit and don't forget
me altogether, for I shall never forget you.
8

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REMARKS OF ROBERT MOSES
AT THE DEDICATION OF
ROBERT MOSES STATE PARK
MASSENA, NEW YORK
TUESDAY MORNING,
SEPTEMBER 17, 1963
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Frank Pellegrino, Laurance Rockefeller,
James FitzPatrick, Charlie Poletti and
Park and Power At'r1mni:
Let me first thank my State park friends for
this compliment. If it promotes imaginative and
unselfish service to conservation and outdoor
recreation and stimulates comprehensive, ijlte-
grated, long-range public works combining
beauty and practicality, this example may not
be without justification.
Such tributes to individuals I suppose are
logical because almost any large objective has
to be personified. The person selected is not
necessarily as noble as he is pictured, but he
serves a purpose and should not swell on that
account or believe that cubits are really being
added to his stature.
Your action today in naming this strategic
island interval of green in the great St. Law-
rence Power and Seaway system is not neces-
sarily permanent and irremediable. Some years
ago I noted with amazement that a New York
City ferryboat previously named for a Borough
President who had run afoul of the law and
had been removed, had suddenly been changed
to "Gold Star Mother". By the same token, an-
other generation may find a happy euphemism
for Robert Moses. The Romans and Greeks and
their successors in Europe often switched names
when they got tired of the current heroes. It is a
sobering thought, and not without its comic
aspects.
This job indeed had its humors. In addition
to those who supervised the supervisors, exe-
2
cuted the executives and watched the watchmen,
we had to contend with St. Regis Indians who
asked the tidy little sum of $34,000,000 for
their alleged and supposititious pre-Revolution-
ary interest in Barnhart Island, and with as-
sorted odd characters who steamed up distant
owners on the Great Lakes shorefront to sue us
for. the rise and fall of their tides. These merry
li:tle incidents tickled our risibilities and bright-
ened our days.
St. Lawrence State Park of 2,700 acres, in-
cluding Barnhart Island and the area between
the St. Lawrence River and the Seaway, was
designed with particular emphasis on the use
of the lake formed by the great International
power dam. Swimming, boating, picnicking and
camping facilities, a permanent park headquar-
ters, overlook shelters, concession stands, and
camping and picnicking areas, including related
structures, have been established and will be
extended and amplified to meet inevitable in-
creasing public demand. This park will serve
countless thousands of visitors to the Power
and Seaway facilities and provide recreation for
people from distant parts as well as from the
locality.
I have often remarked that in the construc-
tion of such large works there is a tendency on
the part of practical engineers to postpone,
minimize and sometimes forget natural restora-
tions and beautification such as trimming, re-
foresting, landscaping, recreation, that is es-
thetics in the broad sense. There has been no
such neglect on the St. Lawrence. Power and
navigation were the prime objectives, but the
beauty of the River and its benefits beyond com-
3
rnerce, industry and utilities have, as all can see
now, been preserved and enhanced.
In our zeal to begin operation, we did not
forget reforestation of huge dikes and spoil
areas, topsoiling and landscaping of roads,
waterfront and parks, attractions for visitors to
the power and seaway projects, promotion of
high standards of zoning and building
tion, and protection against eyesores, shacks,
billboards and other scenic exploitations. For
example, between the Power Dam and Long
Sault Dam and along many miles of the river,
earth embankments have been constructed to
form the huge reservoir now named Lake St.
Lawrence. These embankments were blended
into the natural topography of the valley and
their slopes landscaped to conform to adjacent
areas. The St. Lawrence River has risen to its
new banks and construction scars have long
since disappeared.
Our original integrated power and park plan
has given the Thousand Islands Commission
what it was created for. Our dream, dating back
to Governor Smith almost forty years ago, has
moved to reality. The Park you rededicate today
has already become one of the great attractions
of the State, rivalling Niagara. There is no more
'dramatic panorama to glorify the works of na-
ture and man working in for the
common good.
I thank you again for this compliment, and
hope never to lose sight of my park friends and
associates.
4
REMARKS OF ROBERT MOSES
AT THE DEDICATION OF
ROBERT MOSES STATE PARK
MASSENA, NEW YORK
TUESDAY MORNING,
SEPTEMBER 17, 1963
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STATEMENT OF THE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OF
NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR
1964-1965 CORPORATION
OCTOBER 16, 1963

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A number of statements have been made concern-
ing the management and operation of the World's Fair
Corporation and reduced prices for admission of
children to the Fair.
These statements, if continued, will be repeated
by news media outside the City and abroad. They
will damage the confidence in management upon
which the success of the Fair depends. They will do
harm to the prestige of The City of New York, the
home of the Fair. Accordingly, the Executive Com-
mittee of the Fair Corporation points out the follow-
ing facts and announces its views towards such state-
ments and demands.
1. The World's Fair Corporation is not a govern-
mental agency which can raise funds or make up
deficits by levies on taxpayers. It is a private non-
profit membership corporation, governed by officers,
Executive and Finance Committees, a Board of
Directors, and Members, and supported wholly by
its own funds.
2. All structures built by the Fair Corporation and
all of its operations are paid for out of the proceeds
of Promissory Notes issued by the Fair and pur-
chased by private individuals and corporations, monies
borrowed from banks, rentals from exhibits, con-
cessions and licenses, and principally admissions to
the Fair.
The Fair is not being subsidized at all by either the
State of New York or the Federal Government. The
State of New York is building its exhibit and is pay-
ing its statutory 10% of all of the permanent high-
ways leading to and from the Fair.
With the growth in population, it was necessary to
build these roads to accommodate the increased
traffic. They had been planned long before the Fair
was conceived. The Federal Government has con-
tributed only the cost of its own exhibit, its statutory
90% of the highway improvements. and its statutory
share of the water approaches to the permanent
Marina.
3. It is our obligation that the Fair Corporation
repay its Notes and these other borrowed monies and
fully protect those who have made these substantial
investments in the Fair. We have assured our
that these obligations will be paid in full.
4. The City of New York has appropriated S24,-
000,000 for permanent City improvements m Flush-
ing Meadow Park, not for World's Fair structures or
for operating expenses. All of the contracts with
respect to this $24,000,000 have been let by the City
under its usual procedures. The Fair Corporation,
after meeting its Notes and other obligations, will pay
for these City improvements out of its by
reimbursing the City for the $24,000.000. It expects
also to spend at least $18,000,000 out of its proceeds
to restore and finish the Park after the Fair. Thus,
0 1963 Now York World' Foir 1964196.5 Corporation
\
the Fair Corporation, out of its revenues, will leave
a great legacy to the City-another Central Park for
the future-wholly without cost to the public. It will
assist the economy of the City through the hunureds
of millions of dollars expended by participants in the
Fair and millions of visitors to the Fair. It is the City
who will be the beneficiary of the Fair rather than
its benefactor. The Fair can only achieve these aims
if it is allowed to operate on a business-like basis. It
cannot do so if it is compelled to reduce the admis-
sion prices to nominal sums at the behest of each
group that thinks itself entitled to special consiuera-
tion. There have already been a number of these.
Among those who will certainly demand similar treat-
ment are the high schools, parochial schools, subur-
ban schools, civil service employees, veterans and
organizations of senior citizens.
5. The admission charges were determined lly
unanimous vote of the Executive Committee at the
November 1961 meeting and reaffirmed at the Janu-
ary 1963 meeting. This provided for discounts of
32
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/z% on tickets purchased before March I, 1964
in lots of 50 or more, reducing the adult
to $1.35 and the children"s admission to 67'/z cents.
6. At the October Executive Committee meeting,
the following resolution was adopted:
"On each Monday of July and August, all children,
ages two through twelve, no matter where they live
or whether they come singly or in groups, will be
admitted to the Fair on payment of 25 cents each
at the gates. This reduction applies to admissions to
the Fair only. The great bulk of exhibits and attrac-
tions within the Fair are free but the prices to paid
attractions will remain as contractually stipulated in
the Fair Corporation's agreements with exhibitors
and concessionaires as will prices for intramural
transportation, food and the like."
7. The World"s Fair, with its legacy of a great
park for future generations of New Yorkers, is now
well on the way to completion. It will be ready on
time. It will mean more to our City than the dollars
added to the economy or the many visitors or even
the great park. It will mean prestige. culture, leader-
ship and the promotion of international understanding.
8. Robert Moses has perhaps had the outstanding
record of accomplishment in this country as a public
servant. We have full confidence in him. We are cer-
tain the Fair will he a success-financially, culturally,
educationally and internationally. Mr. Moses and his
associates built the World"s Fair from the ground up.
By April 22, 1964 they will have produced the great-
est Exposition ever seen.
In the present world of turmoil. the Fair will shine
as an example of what nations and peoples can accom-
plish working together for mutual welfare and im-
provement rather than self-destruction.