1934. He was a strong proponent of the New Deal alphabet-soup roster of work programs and worked vigorously and constantly with Washington to bring as many dollars to the City as possible in order to create jobs and improve the City's infrastructure. Rossi was adamantly anti-Communist, and labeled the more militant 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, but argued successfully against the governor who wanted to declare martial law. 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." 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 City as La Guardia's guest. In an extended strike late in the late 1930s, Rossi lashed out at 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. In May 1942, six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, at the Tenney Committee hearings held in San Francisco, Rossi was subpoenaed, having been accused of supporting Italian fascism. According to the New York Times of May 26, 1942, "With tears in his eyes and a