“RADIO PRIEST”

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 May 1935, Page 12

“RADIO PRIEST”

TWO MILLION SYMPATHISERS.

. When the. United States Senate prepared to vote recently on the question of joining the World Court everyone assumed that the result would be favourable. The Roosevelt Administration was supporting the measure, and the President’s influence with the precent Congress was greater than any other occupant of the White House has enjoyed for many years. All preliminary tests of strength showed that the friends of the Court would muster the required two-thirds majority by a safe margin. But then something remarkable happened (writes the Manchester Guardian’s New York correspondent). A short time before the vote was to take place a Roman Catholic priest, living in a small suburban village near Detroit, Michigan, -spoke over a chain bf wireless stations in opposition to the Court, and advised his listeners to telegraph, their protests to their-senators. Within a few minutes after he had finished speaking, the first of these telegrams was on the way. Within the next twenty-four hours more than 70,000 of them had been received and had frightened certain members of the Senate so badly that when the vote was taken the proposal for adherence was seven votes short of the necessary two-thirds. Probably not all of these 70,000 telegrams were inspired; by the Catholic priest jn question, the Rev. Charles Coughlin; Will Rogers, the cowboy philosopher,” also spoke on the wireless against the Court, and . the Hearst newspapers conducted a vigorous campaign against it. It seems likely, however, that at least half or two-thirds of the protests came from followers of Father Coughlin, who is one of the three or four most influential men in America to-day and a political and social portent of the greatest importance. Once a week, on Sunday afternoons, Father Coughlin speaks on the wireless for a period of one hour. His remarks are broadcast by a chain of stations in all parts of the country, and, like any other user of the radio in the United States, he buks his time and pays cash for it —roughly £2BOO a week. He discusses national affairs exclusively, and from what is on

the whole a progressive point of view. He is in favour of drastic redistribu'■'k tion of wealth, with heavy taxes on

the rich, and he advocates large Gov•y eminent expenditure, if necessary, to ameliorate the lot of the common man. In monetary questions he is something 'of an inflationist. His general views •are not dissimilar from those of Sena- ’ tor Huey Long, of Lousiiana, with whom he is generally supposed to be on rather friendly terms. He pro- „■ fesses to be a supporter of the “New Deal” of President Roosevelt and to be a personal friend of the President, though his support of the Administration has been far from enthusiastic during the past few months, when the President has seemed to swing more markedly to the Right than he had previously done. Rather Coughlin’s rise, to his commanding national position has been entirely the result of the wireless, andhas all taken place within nine years. In 1926- he was appointed by Bishop Michael Gallagher to serve a small church, now called the Shrine of the Little Flower, in Royal Oak, a suburban village* near Detroit. Almost at

once he began to broadcast his service through a wireless station near by. The response was immediate and striking; letters began to flood in / upon him, many of which contained contributions to support the broadcasting, which was even then fairly 1 expensive. From that day to this his Vise has been amazingly rapid. Out of the voluntary contributions of his wireless listeners (they are never asked directly for funds) he has built a new church at a cost of £200,000, and maintains a working force of 145 typists and many other persons. VAST CORRESPONDENCE. His postbag is heavier than that of any other individual in the United States; he has received as many as 1,250,000 letters as the result of a single broadcast, and even his out- * going mail consists sometimes of

30,000 letters a day. When, some - months ago, he launched a sharp attack upon- Al Smith, former Presidential candidate, and the outstanding , Catholic layman in the United States, ho received 600,000 letters, of comment, which, according to his own statement, supported his position, in a ratio of 6000 "to 1. In a series of steel filing cabinets—he employs all the paraphernalia of a high-pressure business enterprise—are the names and addresses of more than 2,000,000 men and women who he knows are in general sympathy with his views. He is a violent opponent of birth control, and to him is attributed a large part of the responsibility for the failure to repeal the Federal anti-birth-control law passed in the eight-een-seventies, which, still makes its il- . legal to transmit birth-control information through the post, lie denounces Socialism and Communism, although he is himself denounced by the reactionaries as belonging to one or the other of these parties, if not both. He says proudly that he was responsible for forcing the resignation of Dr Clarence Little as president of the University of Michigan, after Dr Little, a distinguished biologist, had publicly supported the birth-control movement.

Father Coughlin disclaims any political ambitions for himself, and in this he is doubtless wise; although there is every reason to believe that many thousands of non-Catholics support him, they would hardly be likely to do so if he sought public office, or even tried to lay his mantle on the shoulders of someone else. He has recently taken what many persons regard as a step towards the political area by forming a “League for Social Justice,” which already has many

.thousands of members, pledged to sup- . port Father Coughlin’s financial, economic, and other views in every possible way.

PRIVATE LIFE

In his private life Father Coughlin is a mild-mannered person with a plump, oval face, gold spectatcles. and a quick and nervous manner. He indulges in only two mild dissipations: he smokes innumerable cigarettes and he drives a rather luxurious motorcar at high rates of speed. In the tower of his church he has a retreat where he spends much of his time alone or with a few carefully chosen companions. Here he has a telephone a wnohich: , 1

phone on which he can call anyone, but no one can call him. In the tower fire food and cooking utensils, and Father Coughlin can, and sometimes does, stay several days without any contact with the outside worl.l. It might be added that only once has even a breath of scandal attach-

ed itself to him. Some time ago, while he was campaigning earnestly for the valorisation of silver, it was discovered that his confidential agent had previously bought a large amount of silver at the then very low market price. It was explained, however, that this agent had acted without Father Coughlin’s knowledge or consent, and that he had purchased the silver merely because it was a good investment.

Father Coughlin’s views . are his own, and he makes ho attempt to commit the Church to them: I 'indeed, it is well known that some important ecclesiastics, such as Cardinal O’Connell, disagree with him as sharply ■as could be. However, the "Radio Priest’’ is responsible only to Bishop Gallagher, who shows every sign of being sympathetic with his views. Father Coughlin, like Senator Huey Long, is a symptom of the depression. If it should end, his importance in the American scene would undoubtedly diminish with great rapidity. If, however, times become worse, many independent observers believe that lie will play an important part in the drastic changes which will then ensue.