For Both Cross and Flag: Catholic Action, Anti-Catholicism, and National Security Politics in World War II San Francisco (Urban Life, Landscape and Policy)

216 Pages·2009·0.81 MB·English

by  William Issel

FOR BOTH CROSS AND FLAG
IN THE SERIES Urban Life, Landscape, and Policy,
EDITED BY ZANE MILLER, DAVID STRADLING, AND LARRY BENNETT
For Both
Cross and Flag
Catholic Action, Anti-Catholicism,
and National Security Politics
in World War II San Francisco
William Issel
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1601 North Broad Street
Philadelphia PA 19122
www.temple.edu/tempress
Copyright © 2010 by Temple University
All rights reserved
Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
This book is an expansion of the article by William Issel, “‘Still Potentially
Dangerous in Some Quarters’: Sylvester Andriano, Catholic Action, and
Un-American Activities in California,” Pacifi c Historical Review 75, no. 2
(May 2006), 231–270.
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Issel, William.
For both cross and fl ag : Catholic Action, anti-Catholicism, and
national security politics in World War II San Francisco / William Issel.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4399-0028-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Andriano, Sylvester, 1889–1963. 2. Italian Americans—California—
San Francisco—History—20th century. 3. Catholic Action—California—
San Francisco—History—20th century. 4. Catholic Church—California—
San Francisco—History—20th century. 5. Anti-Catholicism—California—
San Francisco—History—20th century. 6. Religion and politics—California—
San Francisco—History—20th century. 7. World War, 1939–1945—Italian
Americans. 8. Italian Americans—Civil rights. 9. San Francisco (Calif.)—
Ethnic relations. 10. San Francisco (Calif.)—Politics and government—
20th century. I. Title.
F869.S39I85 2009
305.6'827946108951—dc22 2009021168
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 Sylvester Andriano, a Catholic Attorney in
San Francisco 15
2 Anti-Catholicism in Little Italy 23
3 Catholic Action, from Rome to San Francisco 33
4 Catholic Action Theory and Practice in
San Francisco 43
5 Sylvester Andriano and Catholic Action in
San Francisco 55
6 The Catholic Action Social Apostolate 66
7 The Catholic Action Educational and Moral
Apostolates 77
8 Catholic Action and Communism 89
vi CONTENTS
9 Catholic Action, European Crises, and
San Francisco Politics 104
10 Andriano’s Ordeal: The Loyalty Hearings 122
11 Andriano’s Ordeal: Exclusion and Exile 146
Epilogue 165
Notes 173
Index 199
A photo gallery begins on page 7
Acknowledgments
T
his book could not have been written without the assistance
of Jeffrey M. Burns, the director of the Chancery Archives
of the Archdiocese of San Francisco; Susan Goldstein, Pat
Akre, Christina Moretta, Tami J. Suzuki, and their colleagues at the
San Francisco History Center of the San Francisco Public Library;
Susan Sherwood and Catherine Powell of the Northern California
Labor Archives and Research Center of San Francisco State Uni-
versity; and Linda Wobbe, the archivist of the College of St. Mary’s
of California. Thanks are also due to the librarians and staff of the
Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley; the Anne
Rand Research Library of the International Longshoremen’s and
Warehousemen’s Union; the Southern California Library for Social
Studies and Research; the California State Archives, for supplying a
copy of the Tenney Committee hearings shortly after they were made
available for research; and librarians and archivists at the National
Archives and the Library of Congress.
I thank Robert W. Cherny, Jeffrey M. Burns, Constance Holmes,
Mary Claire Heffron, and Marjorie Lasky for reading and comment-
ing on all or parts of the manuscript, and Kathleen Maggiora Rogers
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
of the Associazione Piemontesi nel Mondo of Northern California
for her interest in and support of my research about the Piemontesi.
Thanks are also due to Kenneth Burt for sending me copies of sev-
eral useful documents that he discovered in his own research on
Catholics and California politics. Further, I thank Andrew Canepa,
Peter D’Agostino, John P. Diggins, Stefano Luconi, Matteo Pretelli,
and Stephen Schwartz, who generously replied to my e-mail research
queries; David Cicoletti, who supplied information about the
Andriano family; Rose Marie Cleese, who provided information
about the close friendship between her grandfather, mayor Angelo
Rossi, and Sylvester Andriano; and my research assistants, George
Malachowski, Giovanna Palombo, and John Rosen.
A brief account of the subject of this book appeared in print as
“‘Still Potentially Dangerous in Some Quarters’: Sylvester Andriano,
Catholic Action, and Un-American Activities in California,” Pacifi c
Historical Review 75, no. 2 (May 2006), 231–270. I thank the Uni-
versity of California Press for permission to reprint some of the
text of that article, the editors of the journal and their readers for
comments on the manuscript for the article, and the readers who
commented on the book manuscript for Temple University Press.
Responsibility for any errors or omissions that may have escaped my
attention is mine alone.
I also thank Zane Miller for suggesting that I consider publishing
my book in his Temple University Press series, and I acknowledge
the friendly and professional assistance of the Temple team: Mick
Gusinde-Duffy, Lynne Frost, Gary Kramer, Emily Taber, Kimber-
ley C. Vivier, and David M. Wilson.
Introduction
M
assachusetts Congressman Thomas P. O’Neill once
famously remarked that in the United States, “all politics
are local.” O’Neill made a good point, but it was only
half true, because local politics in the United States, especially during
wartime, have also been shaped by the political and religious loyal-
ties that immigrants bring with them. Government offi cials who fail
to take account of such loyalties and rivalries may fi nd themselves
duped into becoming partisans on one or another side of local politi-
cal battles when they make decisions about who is and who is not
a security risk during wartime. Their commendable zeal to protect
the nation from harm can lead them to violate the constitutional
rights of citizens while doing nothing to protect domestic security.
That is exactly what happened in the case of Sylvester Andriano, an
Italian-born San Francisco attorney and local government offi cial
who was forcibly removed from the West Coast in 1942 on the basis
of politically inspired false charges that he was a Fascist agent. The
Andriano case provides a cautionary tale about the sometimes dele-
terious impact on our national life of religious and ideological zeal-
otry in our communities, no-holds-barred political competition in