Catholicism and the San Francisco Labor Movement, 1896-1921 by Richard Gribble (review)

318 BOOK REVIEWS After analyzing the Columbian myth present in the White City and the contrast presented by the exhibits of the Midway, the author then examines the papers presented at the Parliament of Religion. His perspective in this analysis is always the East/West encounter. As he puts it, the talks served "as a broad ideological landscape against which the East/West encounter can be read" (p. 46). First,he studies the papers presented by theWestern delegates. Consciously endorsing a theme of inclusivism, the Protestant and Catholic speakers considered all the world's religions as good in their own way, but they "found their ultimate fulfillment in Christianity" (p. 54). It was this exclusively Christian focus that severely limited the inclusivism and quest for religious unity that the Parliament sought to promote. In another chapter the author analyzes the papers delivered by the Asian delegates; they too promoted the ideal of world religious unity while selectively endorsing American patriotic ideals and placing them at the service of their cause. But their theology only intensified the intellectual ambiguities that mingled with the grand visions and dreams that the Parliament encouraged. The goal of world religious unity never resulted from the Parliament despite the hope of the delegates. The reality oftheological differences and the conflict that this engendered shattered the dreams of the Parliament's organizers. Seager attributes this mainly to the cultural and religious imperialism of the Western delegates, whose vision of world unity was too Christian for the Asians. Surely this was a key reason for the failure of the Parliament to achieve its goal. But the theological division among the Christians themselves precluded any hope of achieving unity among the world's religions. This was true in 1893 and is still true today. According to Seager the Parliament was an important event for Asian religions since it brought these religions to the United States and provided a"large-scale public forum that served as a formal debut for the Asian mission to the West" (p. 169). In his opinion it also provided an important occasion for discussions about religious pluralism that would become so significant in the twentieth-century ecumenical movement. Jay P. Dolan University ofNotre Dame Catholicism and the San Francisco LaborMovement, 1896-1921. By Richard Gribble. (San Francisco: Mellen Research University Press. Published by the Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, NewYork. 1993- Pp. xii, 182. $59.95.) Because Progressivism in American history has been meticulously scrutinized by scholars, historians have felt compelled to refer to this period as the "Age of Progressivisms." Richard Gribble's book, Catholicism and the San Francisco Labor Movement, exemplifies the pluralistic nature of this historiography by choosing the unique geographical setting of San Francisco in conjunction with the influence of Catholic social thought in Pope Leo XhTs encyclical, BOOK REVIEWS 319 Rerum Novarum. Gribble attempts to demonstrate that San Francisco's reforms intended to create a more equitable relationship between organized labor and capital were led by two Catholic clerics between 1896 and 1935, Father Peter Yorke and Archbishop Edward Hanna, whose major catalyst for action was Pope Leo's call for social justice in the guise of a living wage, better working conditions, and the right of workers to form associations. This is the primary focus of Gobble's case study concerning the American progressive movement in San Francisco. Unlike the Social Gospel movement on the East Coast that was dominated by Protestants, Gribble maintains, the Pacific Coast movement was not dominated by Protestant leadership and had at its forefront Catholic Church leaders who attempted to address the economic and social ills for impoverished workers by acting as the Catholic conscience ofa society that was to reform itself for the benefit of all. Father Yorke, concludes Gribble, interjected these principles oí Rerum Novarum by becoming the "Champion of Labor" in the Teamster Strike on the Waterfront in 1901 and then again for the Streetcar Strike in 1906-1907. In both of these strikes,Yorke publicly demanded better wages, improved working conditions , and the freedom to organize. As the mouthpiece for labor, he was successful in 1901 in beginning the meteoric rise of organized labor that was to last for five years...