WALL STREET TRUST

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1935, Page 5

WALL STREET TRUST

ATTACK BY RADIO PRIEST.

OWN PROGRAMME PUT FORWARD.

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 7.25 p.m. Detroit, March 11. To-night Father Coughlin,. the “Radio Priest,” followed Senator Hewey Long in publicly answering- the charges made against him by General Hugh Johnson, former chief N.R.A. administrator. For 45 minutes over a nation-wide radio network he divided his remarks between vigorously, attacking “the Wall Street money trust,” for which he claimed General Johnson was spokesman and advocating his own programme for “social justice and economic liberty,” the principal feature of which was the creation of a Governmentally controlled central bank to supersede the nation’s private banking structure. Most of his address was in the form of direct queries and statements to General Johnson as if addressing him face to face.

After defending the right of churchmen to discuss political questions, Father Coughlin unleashed a flow of invective against General Johnson, at various times calling him “a chocolate soldier,” “a prince of bombast” and “the first casualty of the ‘new deal.’ ” He added, however, that General Johnson was only speaking for his “masters," often naming Mr. Bernard Baruch, with whom General Johnson was associated for many years. In concluding Father Coughlin reaffirmed his support of President Roosevelt, alleging, however, that General Johnson, Mr. Baruch and other “Wall Streeters” were attempting to wreck the administration and not him. He retained the right to criticise some features of the ‘new deal.’