George M. Rolph

George Morrison Rolph (February 6, 1873 – July 21, 1932) was an American sugar-industry executive, author, and federal administrator. He was the longtime general manager and later president of the California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining Corporation (C&H), chief of the Sugar Division of the United States Food Administration, a member of the wartime International Sugar Committee, and the first president of the government-owned Sugar Equalization Board.

After working in Hawaii's sugar industry, Rolph helped organize and operate C&H's cane-sugar refinery at Crockett, California. Under his management, C&H became one of the Pacific Coast's leading refineries and the principal economic institution in Crockett. He promoted employee housing, recreation, parks, community buildings, and an eight-hour working day, giving him a lasting place in Crockett's local history.

During World War I, Herbert Hoover selected Rolph to organize federal administration of the sugar supply. Rolph helped negotiate prices, regulate refining margins, allocate scarce supplies, supervise exports, and coordinate purchases and distribution for the United States and its Allies. Although Hoover was chairman of the Sugar Equalization Board, Rolph served as its president and operating executive.

Early life and family

George Morrison Rolph was born in San Francisco on February 6, 1873, the son of James Rolph Sr., a merchant and shipbuilder, and Margaret Nicol Rolph. His elder brother, James Rolph, became a shipping executive, mayor of San Francisco from 1912 to 1931, and governor of California from 1931 until his death in 1934. His younger brother, Thomas Rolph, served as a member of the United States House of Representatives.

Rolph married Lilian Ashton. They had two daughters, Dorothy Ashton Rolph and Elizabeth Rolph Shaw.

Career

By 1898 Rolph was working in the Hawaiian sugar trade. He served as secretary of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company, a Maui-based plantation and milling company.

His Hawaiian experience exposed him to plantation management, raw-sugar production, transportation, refining, and the marketing system through which island plantations sold their crops on the mainland.

California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining Corporation

In 1905 the Sugar Factors Company of Honolulu, representing Hawaiian plantation owners, acquired control of a refinery at Crockett on the Carquinez Strait. The plant had previously processed beet sugar but had been idle since 1903. It was converted into a cane-sugar refinery and reopened in 1906 as the California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining Corporation ("C&H").

Rolph came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1906 to manage the new operation and became its first plant manager. The corporation was owned by Hawaiian sugar-producing companies and was intended to give the plantations an alternative to refiners controlled by the Spreckels interests.

The refinery initially employed about 490 workers and produced approximately 67,000 tons of refined cane sugar annually. By 1917, a county history valued its annual production at more than $30 million, placed its annual payroll at $625,000, and described a workforce of nearly 700. The same account valued the plant and its improvements at approximately $7 million.

A later historical study credited Rolph with a major part in the successful organization and operation of C&H. He served for many years as general manager and was eventually elected president of the corporation.

Because C&H dominated Crockett's economy, the company's industrial policies also shaped the town. C&H financed roads, sewers, parks, playgrounds, schools, libraries, clubhouses, auditoriums, and recreation facilities. Rolph was credited with spearheading many of these projects and became known locally as one of Crockett's principal benefactors.

During Rolph's tenure, the company constructed the Hotel Crockett, Crockett Club, Crockett Community Auditorium, and Alexander Park. It also opened company-owned land for residential development, including Tenney Terrace and Crockett Heights, and assisted employees with home financing.

In 1914, C&H reduced the standard refinery workday from twelve hours to eight hours. The company also sponsored civic celebrations, including an annual May Day festival directed by the refinery's general manager. In 1916 the celebration coincided with the dedication of a YMCA building and the Carquinez Women's Clubhouse.

After World War I, Rolph and C&H supported construction of Crockett's Memorial Hall. In 1924 the company donated land for the building, which was dedicated in April 1925.

Writer

In 1917, Rolph published Something About Sugar: Its History, Growth, Manufacture and Distribution through John J. Newbegin of San Francisco. Written for general readers and school students, the book described the cultivation of sugar cane and sugar beets, the manufacture of raw sugar, refining, chemical testing, transportation, international production, and the historical development of the trade.

The volume included extensive illustrations of plantations, mills, machinery, refineries, ports, and workers in sugar-producing regions. It was later cited in scholarly literature on the history, geography, and technology of sugar production.

United States Food Administration

Appointment as sugar chief

Following the United States' entry into World War I, Congress enacted the Food and Fuel Control Act and President Woodrow Wilson appointed Herbert Hoover as United States Food Administrator. Sugar presented an unusually difficult problem because supplies came from domestic beet producers, Louisiana and other cane-growing areas, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Cuba, and other foreign sources, each with different harvest seasons, costs, and shipping requirements.

On August 15, 1917, Hoover appointed Rolph chief of the Food Administration's Sugar Division. Rolph served as a wartime "dollar-a-year man", temporarily leaving private business to perform federal service.

The division negotiated voluntary agreements with producers and refiners, set or approved prices and refining margins, administered licenses, allocated supplies geographically, and sought to prevent both shortages and speculative price increases. The administration also used export licensing to reserve supplies for domestic consumption and approved particular shipments to Allied and neutral governments.

International Sugar Committee

In September 1917 the Food Administration and Allied purchasing authorities established the International Sugar Committee to coordinate the purchase and distribution of sugar from the West Indies and American insular possessions. Rolph was the committee's fifth member and its administrative head. The other members were British representatives Sir Joseph White-Todd and John Ramsay Drake, and American refiners Earl D. Babst and William A. Jamison.

The committee arranged purchases and allocations for the United States and Allied governments and attempted to use centralized buying to prevent purchasers from bidding against one another. Archival records preserve Rolph's correspondence concerning the 1917 and 1918 Cuban crops, export authorizations, shipping, brokers, and negotiations with foreign representatives.

Congressional investigation and controversy

The Food Administration's reliance on executives drawn from the industries it regulated was controversial. In late 1917, sugar refiner Claus A. Spreckels accused Rolph, Babst, and the Food Administration of favoring refineries associated with C&H and the American Sugar Refining Company. Spreckels alleged that some independent refineries had been unable to obtain raw sugar while favored companies retained or received supplies.

Rolph testified before a Senate subcommittee investigating the sugar shortage on December 20 and 21, 1917. He defended the price agreements and argued that without federal intervention sugar might have risen to approximately 15 or 20 cents per pound. Hoover publicly defended Rolph and maintained that the administration's policies had reduced prices and improved distribution during wartime scarcity.

Contemporary economic studies found that the Food Administration succeeded in preventing an uncontrolled rise in consumer prices, although its system depended heavily on voluntary agreements and cooperation from established refiners. Later historians have nevertheless examined conflicts of interest inherent in placing industry executives such as Rolph in regulatory positions.

United States Sugar Equalization Board

In July 1918 President Wilson approved the incorporation of the United States Sugar Equalization Board under Delaware law as an agency of the Food Administration. Wilson supplied $5 million in capital from presidential emergency funds. The corporation could buy, sell, store, and distribute sugar in order to equalize the costs of supplies obtained from regions with different production and transportation expenses.

Hoover served as chairman and Rolph as president. Directors included economist Frank William Taussig, Theodore Whitmarsh, George Zabriskie, and Robert A. Taft.

The board purchased and distributed the 1918–1919 Cuban crop and made agreements governing sugar from domestic beet producers, Louisiana cane growers, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. It sold sugar to refiners at standardized prices and used the differences between acquisition costs to reduce regional price disparities.

The board also approved changes in refiners' margins when higher prices for domestic beet and cane sugar threatened to create inequalities in the market. Its policies were intended to maintain production while keeping consumer prices below the levels that might have resulted from wartime scarcity and competitive purchasing.

The board's activities extended beyond the immediate Armistice. Wartime conservation rules and most commodity licensing requirements were phased out during 1918 and 1919, but the corporate board remained in existence to settle transactions, claims, and accounts.

Rolph eventually resigned because of illness and was succeeded as president by Zabriskie. The corporation continued winding up its affairs after its principal purchasing work ended and was formally abolished in 1926.

The board's control over exports produced litigation. The Federal Sugar Refining Company alleged that Rolph had withheld approval for an export license covering 4,500 tons sold to a Norwegian government commission, after which the commission purchased sugar through the Equalization Board. The disputed transaction yielded the board a reported net profit of $219,744. The dispute was later settled for $165,000. Later litigation concerned the board's remaining assets and its responsibility for losses incurred during government-directed efforts to import Argentine sugar in 1920.

Return to private industry

After leaving Washington, D.C., Rolph returned to C&H and resumed his role as president. He remained one of the best-known sugar executives on the Pacific Coast.

Rolph participated in national sugar-industry organizations and became a director of the Sugar Institute, a trade organization formed by major refiners in 1928. In March 1931 the federal government brought an antitrust action against the institute, C&H, other refining companies, and numerous officers, including Rolph.

The district court later concluded that the institute and participating companies had maintained an unlawful combination restraining interstate sugar commerce. Because Rolph had died before the final decree, the action against him individually was dismissed without a determination of personal liability.

Illness forced Rolph to resign as president of C&H in October 1931.

Death and legacy

On July 15, 1932, Rolph suffered a paralytic stroke while returning from the annual encampment at the Bohemian Grove. He died in San Francisco on July 21, aged 59. Private funeral services were held in San Francisco. He was survived by his wife and two daughters and was buried at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Colma.

Contemporary obituaries emphasized his dual career as head of C&H and as one of Hoover's principal wartime sugar administrators. Time noted that the government sugar organization he headed had conducted its operations without requiring continuing appropriations and had returned a surplus.

In the community of Crockett, Rolph was remembered for combining industrial expansion with a paternalistic program of housing, recreation, and civic improvements. "Rolph Avenue" in Crockett was named in his honor.

Selected work

See also

• United States Food Administration
• Sugar Equalization Board
• California and Hawaiian Sugar Company
• History of sugar

Further reading

External links

• Something About Sugar at Project Gutenberg
• George M. Rolph photographs at Wikimedia Commons
• National Archives Catalog
• Contra Costa County Historical Society collection