Angelo Joseph Rossi

Infobox Officeholder
name = Angelo Rossi

---

caption =
order = 31^st
office = Mayor of San Francisco
term_start = January 7, 1931
term_end = January 8, 1944
deputy =
predecessor = James Rolph
successor = Roger Lapham
birth_date = birth date|1878|1|22|mf=y
birth_place = Amador County, California
death_date = death date and age|1948|4|4|1878|1|22|mf=y
death_place = San Francisco, California
constituency =
party = Republican
spouse =
profession = Florist
religion = Roman Catholic


footnotes =

Angelo Joseph Rossi (January 22, 1878 – April 4, 1948) was a U.S. political figure who served as mayor of San Francisco.

Rossi was born in Volcano, Amador County, California and came to San Francisco in 1889. He was a florist with his company Rossi & Rovetti before his election and kept his store throughout his tenure. He was first appointed when mayor James Rolph resigned to become Governor of California.

A Republican, he served as San Francisco's mayor from 1931 to 1944. Rossi was mayor when the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge were built, and he presided over the building of Treasure Island and the "Golden Gate International Exposition" (World's Fair) of 1939. Under his administration, the city resisted compliance with the Raker Act which required San Francisco to sell power from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite to municipalities or municipal water districts, and not to any corporations, a condition of use of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. He dedicated the Mount Davidson Cross in March, 1934.

Rossi was adamantly anti-Communist, and labeled labor organizing and strikes as the work of agitators. During the July San Francisco general strike of 1934, Rossi organized a committee to thwart the strike and move freight; he called on Governor Merriam to send the National Guard to quell the strike. Two strikers were killed by bullets, and eighty-five were hospitalized.

on July 19, 1934, Mayor Rossi spoke on national radio, "I congratulate the real leaders of organized labor on their decision and the part they have played in ending the general strike. San Francisco has stamped out without bargain or compromise an attempt to import into its life the very real danger of revolt... We will deal effectively with the small group who opposed peace and plotted revolution."

When his police force raided political offices and worker organizations after the strike, Rossi issued a statement: "I pledge to you that as Chief Executive in San Francisco I will, to the full extent of my authority, run out of San Francisco every Communist agitator, and this is going to be a continuing policy in San Francisco."

In an extended strike late in the late 1930s, Rossi attacked Harry Bridges, West Coast C.I.O. leader, saying the city is "sick of the alien" in a telegram to President Roosevelt, asking for federal intervention. During World War II, he called for "more detailed investigations of Japanese-Americans" than those of Germans, while requesting exemption of Italians.

During a period of publicized police scandal, he asked for and appropriated seventy thousand dollars to investigate corruption in the department. The District Attorney, Matthew Brady, hired Edwin Atherton, a private investigator, who published the Atherton Report on police corruption in 1937. He presided over groundbreaking ceremonies for the San Francisco City College in April 1937. He befriended and hosted Fiorello La Guardia in San Francisco and visited New York as La Guardia's guest.

According to the New York Times of May 26 1942, - "With tears in his eyes and a voice that broke with emotion, Mayor Angelo J. Rossi protested today his "100 per cent" loyalty to America and told a committee of the California Assembly that his presence before it as a witness was "based on the damnable lies of irresponsible people." He had been accused of making fascist salutes, most recently at pre-war right-wing rallies. Rossi testified that he removed a picture of Il Duce from his office before the war began. He was defeated for reelection the following year.

He died in 1948, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, California.A playground in the Richmond district of San Francisco is named for him.

References

Ward, Estolvo, "The Gentle Dynamiter - 1983 Ramparts Press LC# 382-80645 ISBN 0-87867-089-0
* [http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist5/treasis.html Treasure Island World's Fair - 1939 ] at www.sfmuseum.net
* [http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist4/maritime13.html San Francisco General Strike - Request for More Troops - 1934 ] at www.sfmuseum.org
* [http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/rossi.html/ Labor Day Speech Monday, September 4, 1939]