Wellington Roe Explained

Wellington Roe (May 27, 1898 - February 3, 1952) was an American author and political activist with the American Labor Party.

Biography

Roe was born in Danbury, Connecticut and attended Wesleyan University.[1] He moved to Florida in the 1920s, where he was involved in the advertising business and was accused of check forgery in 1921.[2] In 1924, Roe was involved in a real estate partnership in Fort Lauderdale, where he gained a reputation as the "gaudiest local character of the boom".[3] Following a hurricane in September 1926, the firm's properties were destroyed and Roe abandoned his business partners.[4] In 1937, he published The Tree Falls South, a novel about Kansas farmers during the Dust Bowl.[5] The following year he published Begin No Day, a novel about labor relations in the hatting industry in Connecticut.[6] Eleanor Roosevelt wrote that "the difficulties of labor and management are truthfully pictured" in the novel.[7] Roe was a member of the League of American Writers.[8] Roe attempted to discredit Jan Valtin, writing an expose of him for the newspaper PM that was never published.[9]

Roe was a founding member of the American Labor Party in New York.[10] Bella Dodd wrote that she had "not known him as a [Communist] Party member but as a liberal...one who did not mind being used for their campaigns."[11] He ran for election as an American Labor Party candidate for Congress in 1940.[12] He received 5.5% of the vote, losing the election to James A. O'Leary.[13] Roe became a member of Lodge 598 of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen in 1944 but was expelled in 1946.[14] During his time in the union he was the special assistant to Alexander F. Whitney.[15] Despite his early support of railroad unions, he later became critical of labor unions, believing they were "often dictatorships in which labor bosses are the autocratic rulers of the dues-paying members".[16] His 1948 book Juggernaut expressed these views on unions through profiles of labor leaders like David Dubinsky and Samuel Gompers.[17] He resigned from the American Labor Party in 1948, stating that he could not support the candidacy of Henry Wallace.[18] Roe died in February 1952.[19]

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Book: Supreme Court of the State of New York, In the Matter of Bernice Young...against J. Wellington Roe. . 1942 . 242.
  2. News: June 18, 1921 . J. Wellington Roe Released at Jax as Checks are Made Good . The Miami News . 3.
  3. News: Stout . Wesley W. . December 12, 1952 . J. Wellington Roe . Fort Lauderdale News . 6.
  4. News: Kemper . Marlyn . March 18, 1979 . Katz: '26 Hurricane, Prohibition Fizzled City's Early Boom Years . Fort Lauderdale News . 73.
  5. News: Squire . Tom . May 30, 1937 . American Tragedy: 'The Tree Falls South' by Wellington Roe . The Brooklyn Daily Eagle . 48.
  6. News: Mabry . Verne . July 2, 1938 . A Novelist's Solution of the Labor Problem . St. Louis Globe-Democrat . 9.
  7. Web site: My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, May 19, 1938 . 2024-06-24 . The George Washington University.
  8. Book: Folsom, Franklin . Days of Anger, Days of Hope . 1994 . University Press of Colorado . 9780870813320 . 122.
  9. Book: Fleming, John V. . The anti-communist manifestos : four books that shaped the Cold War . 2009 . W.W. Norton & Company . 9780393069259 . 133.
  10. News: February 5, 1952 . Wellington Roe Dies; Wrote UE-IUE Series . June 27, 2024 . The Berkshire Eagle . 1.
  11. Book: Dodd, Bella . School of Darkness . 1954 . The Devin-Adair Company . 224.
  12. News: August 9, 1940 . Primary Candidates of ALP Progressives . The Daily Worker.
  13. Book: Guide to U.S. Elections . CQ Press . 2005 . 9781568029818 . 5th . 2 . 1119.
  14. Book: United States Congress Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare . Hearings, March 5-13, 1947 and appendix . 1947 . U.S. Government Printing Office . en.
  15. News: January 12, 1947 . Many Labor Unions Become Dictatorships Under Which Members are Deprived of Rights of Free Citizens, Says Labor Editor . The Knoxville News-Sentinel . 35.
  16. Book: Richards, Lawrence . Union-free America: Workers and Antiunion Culture . 2008 . University of Illinois Press . 9780252032714 . 50.
  17. Rosenfarb . Joseph . January 22, 1949 . Labor - From IWW to Taft-Hartley . Saturday Review . 32 . 4.
  18. News: 1948-09-03 . ROE, AUTHOR, QUITS ALP; Says He Cannot Back Wallace, Attacks Communists in Party . 2024-05-23 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
  19. News: February 5, 1952 . Noted Deaths in the News . The Independent . 16.

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