Alex Rose

Background

Alex Rose was born in Warsaw, Russian Poland, the son of Hyman Royz and Faiga Halpern. Rose's father, a well-off tanner and trader in raw hides, provided a comfortable life.

Education

He was educated at the high school.

Career

Discrimination against Jews prevented Rose from continuing his education and he immigrated to the United States in 1913. In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, his parents no longer were able to send money, so Rose abandoned his plan to become a doctor and sought employment.

Using his anglicized name, he worked as a millinery operator for $6 per week and joined the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers' International Union (CHCMW), becoming recording secretary of its Local 24 in 1916. Active in the Labor Zionist organization, Rose enlisted in 1918 in the British army's "Jewish Legion, " serving as a private in Palestine, Egypt, and Syria.

Returning to the United States in 1920, Rose resumed his union involvements, becoming Local 24's secretary-treasurer in 1923 after a three-year campaign he led to oust the local's Communist party-affiliated leadership. In 1927, Rose was elected vice-president of the CHCMW, remaining in that post when his union merged with the United Hatters of North America to form the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union in 1934. The union represented about 40, 000 workers when Rose was elected president of the United Hatters in 1950, succeeding Max Zaritsky.

At the time of Rose's death, the union represented about 16, 000, a decline from a peak of nearly 100, 000 members that was due in large part to foreign competition and Americans' decreasing inclination to wear hats. During the 1930's, Rose encountered organized crime in the garment industry, sustaining personal attacks that led him to carry a gun for protection. He called at the 1953 American Federation of Labor and 1956 AFL-CIO conventions for the expulsion of unions controlled by organized crime. AFL-CIO president George Meany appointed Rose head of the Appeals Committee at the 1957 AFL-CIO convention; it considered a recommendation that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters be ousted from the federation if it did not reform itself.

When Rose's attempt to negotiate a compromise reform plan failed, his committee's recommendation of ouster was approved by a convention vote. Rose believed that it was the role of the union to help stabilize industry. Even though Rose led a strike in 1953 and 1954 against the Hat Corporation of America, he wrote in a column in the New York World-Telegram of August 25, 1949, that "the class struggle is a thing of the past in my union and in many others. " Throughout the 1950's, the United Hatters invested union funds in corporations employing its members to keep the businesses afloat. Rose's renown reached considerably farther than the presidency of a relatively small union might suggest because of his significant role in politics.

In 1936, Rose, along with David Dubinsky, leader of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), and others, organized the American Labor Party (ALP), originally formed as the New York chapter of John L. Lewis's Labor's Non-Partisan League. Established specifically to give socialists and others a way to vote for the pro-labor Franklin D. Roosevelt without voting Democratic, the ALP tallied almost 300, 000 votes for Roosevelt and also drew votes for the victorious Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Herbert Lehman.

After the 1936 election, Dubinsky and Rose agreed that the ALP should be permanent, and Rose served as its state secretary and director from 1936 to 1944. According to Dubinsky, Rose was a born political strategist. In the 1937 New York City mayoral race, the ALP backed the victorious Republican-Fusion candidate Fiorello La Guardia, garnering almost half a million votes on its line for him. When ALP legislators turned to Rose for direction on state labor legislation, George Meany, then president of the New York State Federation of Labor, was angered and broke politically with Rose and the ALP. Rose and Dubinsky, both leaders of moderate AFL unions, broke with the ALP in 1944 when their faction was defeated in party primaries by the Left-CIO contingent.

They formed the Liberal party, which was confined to New York State, with Rose as vice-chairman. It became a major force by championing Harry Truman's underdog presidential bid in 1948. In 1954, using the threat of a Liberal party endorsement of an Independent or Republican candidate for governor, Rose helped secure the Democratic nomination for W. Averell Harriman, who won in November. Similarly, rebuffing President Lyndon Johnson, the Liberal party refused to back the 1966 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Frank O'Connor, running on its own line Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. , who drew more than 500, 000 votes, throwing the election to Nelson A. Rockefeller.

Rose was a prime mover in getting Dubinsky and the ILGWU, then the backbone of the Liberal party, to support John F. Kennedy early for the presidency. He also promoted Lyndon Johnson for the 1960 vice-presidential slot and brought Johnson into closer contact with labor and liberals. Arriving at a November 1963 AFL-CIO convention, a hatless President Kennedy, aware of Rose's practice of sending hats to presidents, said to Dubinsky, "Tell Alex I left the hat in the car. " In New York City mayoral politics, under Rose's leadership the Liberal party in the 1960's asserted its power and disapproval of the Democratic party machine by backing for a third term Democratic mayor Robert F. Wagner, who ran as a reform candidate after being spurned by the Democratic organization. Rose viewed Wagner's 1961 victory as one of his major successes.

In 1965, the Liberal party supported the successful Republican mayoral candidate, John V. Lindsay. Such was the vote-getting power of the Liberal party that Lindsay ran successfully for a second term on the Liberal party line alone in 1969, after losing the Republican primary. Rose was a close confidant of New York governor Hugh Carey, being one of the few notable political leaders to endorse Carey in the 1974 Democratic gubernatorial primary. The Liberal party enjoyed the benefits of patronage from the administrations of Wagner, Lindsay, and Carey. Rose's backing of Republicans like Lindsay and Jacob Javits and moderate Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan against liberal Bella S. Abzug in the 1976 Democratic senatorial primary was not without controversy. The party's lateness in coming out against the war in Vietnam grew out of Rose's closeness to Johnson. Building on a party enrollment of only 108, 000 and his union and labor movement base, Rose demonstrated a political astuteness that led to his being elected a presidential elector five times. Speaking with an accent and combining the mien of a tall and courtly Victorian gentleman with the savvy adeptness of a political tactician, Rose remained active in politics until his death in New York City. He was succeeded in the Liberal party leadership post by Raymond B. Harding, a key lieutenant during Rose's later years.

Achievements

• Rose was known as one of the most brilliant political strategists of the 20th century. He managed to build the Liberal Party into a significant force in New York City. His greatest triumph was in the New York City mayoral election of 1969. John V. Lindsay was elected mayor as a fusion candidate (Republican-Liberal) in 1965.

Connections

In 1920 he married Elsie Shapiro, a Russian immigrant also active in Zionist politics, on July 7, 1920. They had two children.

Father:

Hyman Royz

Mother:

Faiga Halpern

Spouse:

Elsie Shapiro