Mrs. Splivalo Gets The Job

The feeling between northern and southern California changes from contempt to hostility whenever there is a State appointment to be made. Last week Governor James ("Sunny Jim") Rolph had to choose a State Director of Social Welfare, a position which carries considerable prestige among the women/- of California. Harried by ladies of wealth and prominence in both ends of his commonwealth, unsmiling Governor Rolph had for some time considered appointing two social welfare directors to placate both sections. In the end, however, he took the bull by the horns, gave Mrs. Rheba Crawford Splivalo of San Francisco (his own end of the State) the job.

In 1922 Mrs. Splivalo, then unmarried, achieved prominence in Manhattan as the Salvation Army's "Angel of Broadway." Her evangelical fervor led to her arrest for blocking traffic. After that she left the

Army, saying that the organization had resented the publicity of the case. She went to Florida, married a newspaperman who later divorced her because of her "unswerving devotion to evangelistic work." Shortly thereafter in San Francisco she married rich, polo-playing Clubman Ray Splivalo, whose former wife, a niece of Mrs. Claus A. Spreckels (sugar), had divorced him because of his "unswerving devotion to sport and convivial companions." As Director of Social Welfare, Mrs. Splivalo will have charge of orphans and other dependents upon the State, also of juvenile delinquency, old age pensions. Announcing her appointment, Governor Rolph said that her candidacy had been urged by every church and social order in the State. With tambourine and exhortation she campaigned for him last year.

/- No man has ever held the post.

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