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 explo~ta.tion

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

...... -· ~ Unlllll SIJta Sleet 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 forth­with 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 im­pressive 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 Yor~ World's Fair 1964·1965 Corporation

• After this modest starr as a many-sided con­sultant, let Gene Black show the City and State of New York how to raise more money pain­lessly and without new taxes, perhaps by a for­mula 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 tremen­dously successful worker in the field of interna­tional cooperation and joint enterprise, a Gama­liel 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

...._.._.@U..IIIIIISIIII 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 Yor~ 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 objec­tives 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 cur­rene 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, Commis­sioner 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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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 pleas­ure 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 govern­mental, and our country could not join the BIE otherwise than by treaty approved by the Sen­ate. Ours is a two, not a one-year Fair; it oper­ates 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 ac­tivities 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, un­changing, 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 per­sonifies this Spirit? He has that rare and pre­cious 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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HONMAELE R__Q,gfiJJAOSES, RAD I 0 NEWSREEL TELEV I 51 ON WORK I NO PRESS r 527 LEXINGTON NY K - ~ ~n

I HAVE RECEIVED A COPY OF YOUR REMARKS TO THE ANNUAL DP.JNER z~ · Cf" THE RADIO NEWSREEL TELEVISION WORKING PRESS ASSOCIA1"10N · ~~

AT THE IMPERIAL BALLROOM OF lliE HOTEL AMERICANA ON MONJAY. EVENI'~p · 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 \ '\~ l'~ 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 ~~ ~l~ YOUR UMlERSTANJ I NG, YOU ARE IN A CLASS ALMOST BY YO~ SELF · "\

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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 con­tinuous 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 Is­land, 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.~·Innan to obtain Re­construction Finance Corpnration funds for New York State workR projc('ts, we wer(' not too

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sanguine about Niagara. Our immediate objec­tive 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. Law­rence in building our dams for power and navi­gation. The St. Lawrence, like Old Man River in the words of Abraham Lincoln, still flows un­vexed 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 con­nected 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 Vin­centians at expanding Niagara University, with innumerable public agencies, with Indians and finally with organized labor which built our com­plex structures on schedule. We are on the way now to Fort Niagara and to the Ontario Park­way 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 aes­thetics, 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 Park­way 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 ac­tuarial 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

....... ~. (!§) IIIIIIIIISbliiStlet C 1961 H... Yo,lt World'1 fe~ir 1964·1PO~ 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 super­latives. I said recently that a Fair must, like Caesar's

wife, be aU things to aU men. This was so old a chest­nut 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 peo­ple 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 di­vision 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 melior­ist, 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 be­fore 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 eve­ning. I am most appreciative of the goodwill of my friends in this Valley and in the vast ro­mantic 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 be­lieve 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 in­tensive 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 car­ried on in cooperation with the United States St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corpora­tir)n, The Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario and the Canadian St. Lawrence Seaway Authority.

We approached the St. Lawrence task, espe­cially 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. Lawrt·n.-t· m~.:ht ap,n111 11111 1111/tllf•t-drd ro the.se<l. :\~ i''"''rn•sed, \\"(' tr~t11n•d 1111d (•trhNI!N·d

the s._·('nNv 1'1 tlw 1\1\'t'l and 1'111\'idr·rl ft•t tnt~>

ation t•H masses 111 '1~1lnr~ \Vr· ill~lltl'd :t ~""

~""Y na' t~ahk hv lar~(' 'htp'<, h1in~ifl~ tlrr t•l•tf~ of the <..;rear Lakes h\ lh<' At l:urlit, nnd p.,avr t•irr

two (',')untne~ il llt'\1 se;h·nast of 7,000 rrtifl"~

\\·e tM.-cd ;I mt~ht y sl renlll 111lo the pen­stocks wht.-h turned the turhuws of n hur~eM1 ing mdustnal emp1re unlfna].(med hy (.artier

and Champlam. \'fc JOilled the piof!('r.tq wh(1

bridged the _gap lxtwecn the age ol .~team !Hid the age ot atomr..: energy.

It was said that only strictly pnvatc enter­prise, 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 te.~e h,l\·~

closed mmd~. A~ tu the far nght, there .u~:

,·anous tyLv()rush f ru:nJ~ uf llllllt' wlhl llll(t:

thought we had horns, houb anJ lo~tls, but ll1l\\

alluw th;.tr \\ t art: pretty f:oud t d lu\1 s .md lll•t

beyund ~alvati••rL

Ttl!~ ~~ Lmrut<<· Ji''''t·r, ~l'.m.Iy .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.

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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

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loyal construction workers. We asked no sym­pathy for our toil and trouble. We were l!fcky indeed to have such an opportunity at so pro­pitious a time.

I suppose you expect me to say something sig­nificant 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 facili­ties 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 inves­tors, 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, prop­erly 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 pros­perity 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 pre­pared 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 eve­nings and silenced the old wives' tales of hide­bound 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 sport­ing 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, prac­tical 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 be­fore 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 eve­nlllg. I am most appreciative of the goodwill of my friends in this Valley and in the vast ro­mantic 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, ijlte­grated, 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. Law­rence Power and Seaway system is not neces­sarily 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, an­other 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-Revolution­ary interest in Barnhart Island, and with as­sorted 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 bright­ened our days.

St. Lawrence State Park of 2,700 acres, in­cluding 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 headquar­ters, overlook shelters, concession stands, and camping and picnicking areas, including related structures, have been established and will be extended and amplified to meet inevitable in­creasing 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 construc­tion of such large works there is a tendency on the part of practical engineers to postpone, minimize and sometimes forget natural restora­tions and beautification such as trimming, re­foresting, landscaping, recreation, that is es­thetics 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 constr~c­tion, 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 na­ture and man working in harmo~y for the common good.

I thank you again for this compliment, and hope never to lose sight of my park friends and associates.

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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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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 concern­ing 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 Com­mittee of the Fair Corporation points out the follow­ing facts and announces its views towards such state­ments and demands.

1. The World's Fair Corporation is not a govern­mental agency which can raise funds or make up deficits by levies on taxpayers. It is a private non­profit 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 pur­chased by private individuals and corporations, monies borrowed from banks, rentals from exhibits, con­cessions 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 pay­ing its statutory 10% of all of the permanent high­ways 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 con­tributed 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 investor~ that these obligations will be paid in full.

4. The City of New York has appropriated S24,-000,000 for permanent City improvements m Flush­ing 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 revenue~ 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 1964·196.5 Corporation

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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 admis­sion prices to nominal sums at the behest of each group that thinks itself entitled to special consiuera­tion. There have already been a number of these. Among those who will certainly demand similar treat­ment are the high schools, parochial schools, subur­ban 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 Janu­ary 1963 meeting. This provided for discounts of 32 1/z% on tickets purchased before March I, 1964 in lots of 50 or more, reducing the adult adrnis~ion 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 attrac­tions 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, leader­ship 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 cer­tain 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 great­est Exposition ever seen.

In the present world of turmoil. the Fair will shine as an example of what nations and peoples can accom­plish working together for mutual welfare and im­provement rather than self-destruction.