James Rolph

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Distinguish Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder James "Sunny Jim" Rolph Jr. (August 23, 1869 – June 2, 1934) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected to a single term as the 27th governor of California from January 6, 1931, until his death on June 2, 1934, at the height of the Great Depression. Previously, Rolph had been the 30th mayor of San Francisco from January 8, 1912, until his resignation in 1931 to become governor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rolph remains the longest-serving mayor in San Francisco history.

Life and career

Rolph during his tenure as Mayor of San Francisco

Annie M. Rolph at dock

Rolph was born in San Francisco, the son of Margaret (née Nicol) and James Rolph.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He had four brothers, including Thomas Rolph, and two sisters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After attending school in the Mission District, he went to work as an office boy in a commission house. He married Annie Marshall Reid (1872–1956) and had at least one son: James Rolph III (1904–1980).

Rolph entered the shipping business in 1900 by forming a partnership with George Hind. Over the next decade, he served as president of two banks, one of which he helped establish. Although he was asked to run for mayor in 1909, he chose to wait until 1911 to run for mayor—a position that he would hold for nineteen years. As mayor, he was known as "Sunny Jim", and his theme song was "There Are Smiles That Make You Happy". In 1915, he appeared as himself in an early documentary film titled Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco, which starred Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand and was directed by Arbuckle. In 1924, Rolph appeared as himself in a Slim Summerville comedy short film, Hello, 'Frisco.

Rolph knew of the power in San Francisco of the Roman Catholic Church. Italians, Irish, French and Germans made up the majority of the population of the city. He established a deep friendship with Archbishop Edward Joseph Hanna.

In addition to his mayoral duties and overseeing his shipping interests, he directed the Ship Owners and Merchants Tugboat Company and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. He also was vice-president of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition and president of the Merchants' Exchange. He resigned in 1931 to assume the office of governor of California.

Rolph received considerable criticism for publicly praising the citizens of San Jose following the November 1933 lynching of the confessed kidnapper-murderers of Brooke Hart, a local department store heir, while promising to pardon anyone involved, thereby earning the nickname "Governor Lynch."<ref name="Dreams">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Four days before the lynching, he had announced he would not call on the National Guard to prevent the lynching, which was already being discussed locally.<ref name="Dreams" />Template:Rp

After violence erupted during the San Joaquin cotton strike in October 1933, Governor Rolph appointed a fact-finding committee to investigate the deaths of several strikers. When the committee met in Visalia on October 19, 1933, Caroline Decker, a labor activist who had taken part in other California agricultural actions, took testimony from the strikers who testified about the growers' assaults on striking workers.

Death

After suffering several heart attacks, Rolph died in Santa Clara County on June 2, 1934, aged 64, three years into his term. He was the second California governor to die in office, the first being Washington Bartlett in 1887. Rolph is buried at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was succeeded as governor by Lieutenant Governor Frank Merriam.

Legacy

On September 7, 1934, the California Toll Bridge Authority passed a resolution "that...the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge be dedicated as a lasting memorial to the memory of James Rolph Jr."<ref>"Rolph Bridge! Span Named for Governor," San Francisco Examiner, September 8, 1934, p. 6., Newspapers.com. The headline is a misnomer. The article quotes the full resolution, which never mentions naming in any way.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web Notes on p. 126 that the Bay Bridge is "unofficially dedicated to James R. Rolph."</ref>

A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the University of Illinois at Chicago ranked Rolph as the twenty-third-best American big-city mayor to have served between the years 1820 and 1993.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

See also

• 1911 San Francisco mayoral election

Further reading

• Chan, Loren B. "California During the Early 1930s: The Administration of Governor James Rolph, Jr., 1931-1934." Southern California Quarterly 63.3 (1981): 262-282. online
• Htnes, William M. "Our American mayors XVI. James Rolph, Jr., of San Francisco." National Municipal Review 18.3 (1929): 163-167. https://doi.org/10.1002/ncr.4110180304
• Leikin, Steve. "Governor James Rolph And The Great Depression In California." California History 84.4 (2007): 79-81.
• Segal, Morley. "James Rolph, Jr., and the Early Days of the San Francisco Municipal Railway." California Historical Society Quarterly 43.1 (1964): 3-18. online
• Starr, Kevin. Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California (1996).
• Worthen, James. Governor James Rolph and the Great Depression in California (McFarland, 2010).

External links

• Biography from the State of California
• James Rolph, Jr. at The Political Graveyard
• Biography from the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco
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