“THE RADIO PRIEST”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22831, 16 March 1936, Page 16

“THE RADIO PRIEST”

FATHER COUGHLIN FORCE IN AMERICA There is more than one paradox in the life of the Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower at Royal Oak, Michigan, writes A. B. Magil in the Cape Times. Alternatively denounced as a dangerous radical and a Fascist, an inciter of the poor, and an enemy of Labour, a (lag-waving Chauvinist, and a malevolent agent of the Pope of Rome, a subverter of organised government, and a tool of Wall Street, this Canadian-born son of Irish-American working' people is one of the most influential figures in American political life. Of all the “ success stories ” that have bloomed so lushly in American soil, perhaps none is more strange than: the tale of the obscure parish priest who has become the leader of an invisible choir of millions. It is a tale that is peculiarly modern, belonging not merely to the world of the twentieth century, but wholly and uniquely to the nineteen twenties and thirties—a tale in which one of the chief protagonists is the radio. For without the radio there would probably be no Father Coughlin, as America knows him to-day.

First, as to his extraordinary influence; in February, 1934, the conservative and authoritative Fortune Magazine estimated that Father Coughlin’s radio audience (he broadcasts every Sunday afternoon from 4 to 5 o’clock for six months of the year), averaged 10,000,000 people. Since then, this number has undoubtedly greatly increased, and may be nearer 20,000,000.

What this means in terras of political action was revealed in January, 1933, when, following an unprecedented campaign by Father Coughlin, and the Hearst newspapers, the proposal for American adherence to the World Court, which seemed headed for certain approval, was defeated in the United States Senate. Father Coughlin’s radio appeals “to keep America safe for Americans ” resulted in the sending of thousands of telegrams to various members of the Senate, urging them to vote against American adherence. To-day Father Coughlin is not merely an influential radio speaker; he is an outstanding political figure with whom the Government has to reckon, and leader of a movement, the National Union for Social Justice, which marks the beginning of a new phase of his activity.

It is only in the past three years, with the ascension of the New Deal, that he has become a political figure of first-rate importance. lie might have remained as he began, one of hundreds of radio speakers with nothing more than a local audience, had not the earthquake of the crisis undermined an entire world and given him a voice to reach the ear of millions. His castigation of the wealthy classes, particularly of the “ international bankers,” his attacks on the Hoover Administration, his ability to seize on popular issues and present them incisively and dramatically in a florid oratorical style, combining Christian homily with worldly polemics won him the support of poor people of every kind, particularly among farmers and the lower-middle class.

In the autumn of 1932, Father Coughlin began advocating various inflationary proposals as the only solution for the crisis. Those proposals remain the major and most concrete element in the sixteen-point programme he enunciated when he launched the National Union for Social Justice last November. With the election of President Roosevelt, the dynamic priest became an areh-erusader for the New Deal, and was regarded as a valuable ally by the national administration. President Roosevelt conferred with him personally on a number of occasions and there was more than one confidential long-distance telephone call between Washington and Royal Oak. Subsequently Father Coughlin’s ardour for the New Deal cooled perceptibly, particularly following revelations in April, 1934, by the United States Treasury Department of the names of large silver speculators.

The revelations disclosed that at a time when Father Coughlin was agitating for remonetisation of silver, which would have greatly increased its price, the largest holder of silver futures in the State of Michigan Was his personal secretary. Miss Amy Collins, who with his knowledge had speculated with funds of the Radio League of the Little Flower, an organisation that he controlled. $ Another source of embarrassment to Father Coughlin has been his relation* with the organised Labour movement. Labour leaders have charged that while the priest has been advocating “a just and living annual wage,” and urging workers to organise in trade unions, he has built his beautiful new 1,000,000dollar church with non-union labour, paying his men less than union wages, has had his printing done in non-union shops, and refused even to see a committee of the American Federation of Labour that came to discuss the matter with him.

In April, 1935, Father Coughlin apparently made his peace with organised Labour, agreeing to have his printing done in a union shop and letting out the

masonry work on his church to a contractor employing union labour. This truce was, however, short-lived. In recent months the priest has emerged as the sponsor of a new Automobile Workers’ Union in Detroit in opposition to the union of the American Federation of Labour. Federation officials accuse his new organisation of being initiated by employers. The most serious charge levelled at Father Coughlin, however, is that of being a Fascist or, at least, an incipient one. This charge was made in a radio talk in March by General Hugh Johnson, , former administrator of the National Industrial Recovery Act, who linked Father Coughlin with the late Senator Huey P. Long. It has been made by many others. A priest of Father Coughlin’s own church, the Rev. Wilfrid Parsons, S.J., in an article in th'6 Catholic weekly America, of which he is editor, declared that Father Coughlin’s “ proposals are typical of Fascism everywhere.” On the other hand, it cannot be denied that certain prominent Liberals, such as Senator Nye, of North Dakota, and the representative of the Farmer-Labour Party, Senator Shipstead, of Minnesota, regard Father Coughlin highly and have allied with him on a number of questions. Those who make the charge of Fascism also criticise the undemocratic structure of the National Union for Social Justice and Father Coughlin’s frequent mercurial about-faces on important issues. They point, too, to what appear to be close connections with William Randolph Hearst, who is one of the richest, men in the country, to Father Coughlin’s frequent defence of Henry Ford, his public praise of the brother-in-law of John D. Rockefeller, jun., Winthrop W. Aldrich, x>resident of the country’s largest bank, and his intimate relations with the wealthy capitalists of the Committee for the Nation, a group that has been campaigning for inflation. Just what the political future of Father Coughlin will be remains to be seen. The assassination of Huey Long brought to an end a threat to the Roosevelt Administration and what at one time seemed to be the beginnings of a, promising alliance between the country's two chief rabble-rousers. Recently Father Coughlin gave his blessing to Mr Hearst’s proposal for the organisation of a new “ Constitutional Democratic Party ” to defeat Mr Roosevelt in 1936. Tct this did not prevent the volatile priest from shortly after paying a visit to the President in what was rumoured to be a move to heal the breach between them and establish a political alliance for 1936.

It seems certain that for the Immediate future Father Coughlin is destined to play an important role. He denies any aspiration to public office. Yet in the National Union for Social Justice, though at present it is hardly more than a collection of names in a filing cabinet, he has a potentially formidable medium for influencing the course of events —a lobby, as he calls it, but one which can readily become the nucleus of a new political party.