Father Charles Edward Coughlin (October 25, 1891 – October 27, 1979) was a Canadian-born Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower Church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as more than forty million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the 1930s. Coughlin used his radio program to promote Franklin D. Roosevelt and his early New Deal proposals, to issue antisemitic commentary, and later to rationalize some of the policies of National Socialist Adolf Hitler and Fascist Benito Mussolini.[1] The broadcasts have been called "a variation of the Fascist agenda applied to American culture".[2] His chief topics were political and economic rather than religious, with his slogan being Social Justice, first with, and later against, the New Deal.
Early broadcasts and political activism
Coughlin (pronounced /ˈkɒɡlɪn/ COG-lin) [3] was born in Hamilton, Ontario, to Irish Catholic parents, and was ordained to the priesthood in Toronto in 1916. He taught at Assumption College in Windsor, Ontario, before moving to Detroit in 1923. He began his radio broadcasts in 1926 on station WJR, giving a weekly sermon on a regular program. In 1931 the CBS radio network dropped free sponsorship, so he raised money to create his own national network, which soon reached millions of listeners. He strongly endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1932 Presidential election. He was an early supporter of Roosevelt's New Deal reforms and coined the phrase "Roosevelt or ruin", which became famous during the early days of the first FDR administration. Another phrase he became known for was "The New Deal is Christ's Deal."[4] In January 1934, Coughlin testified before Congress in support of FDR's policies, saying, "If Congress fails to back up the President in his monetary program, I predict a revolution in this country which will make the French Revolution look silly!" He further stated to the Congressional hearing, "God is directing President Roosevelt." [5]
Coughlin's support for Roosevelt and his New Deal faded later in 1934, when he founded the National Union for Social Justice (NUSJ), a nationalistic worker's rights organization which grew impatient with what it viewed as the President's unconstitutional and pseudo-capitalistic monetary policies. His radio programs preached more and more about the negative influence of "money changers" and "permitting a group of private citizens to create money" on the general welfare of the public.[6] He also spoke about the need for monetary reform. Coughlin claimed that the Depression was a "cash famine". Some modern economic historians, in part, agree with this assessment. [7] Coughlin proposed monetary reforms, including the elimination of the Federal Reserve System, as the solution.
Among the articles of the NUSJ, were work and income guarantees, nationalizing "necessary" industry, wealth redistribution through taxation of the wealthy, federal protection of worker's unions, and decreasing property rights in favor of the government controlling the country's assets for "public good." [8] Illustrative of his disdain for capitalism is his statement that, "We maintain the principle that there can be no lasting prosperity if free competition exists in industry. Therefore, it is the business of government not only to legislate for a minimum annual wage and maximum working schedule to be observed by industry, but also to curtail individualism that, if necessary, factories shall be licensed and their output shall be limited." [9]
By 1934 Coughlin was perhaps the most prominent Roman Catholic speaker on political and financial issues, with a radio audience that reached millions of people every week. When he began criticizing the New Deal that year, Roosevelt sent Joseph P. Kennedy and Frank Murphy, prominent Irish Catholics, to try to tone him down. Ignoring them, Coughlin began denouncing Roosevelt as a tool of Wall Street. Coughlin supported Huey Long until Long was killed in 1935, and then supported William Lemke's third party in 1936. As Coughlin turned into a bitter opponent of the New Deal, his radio talks escalated in vehemence against Roosevelt, capitalists and "Jewish conspirators". He was initially supported, and later – after turning on Roosevelt - opposed in his efforts by another nationally known priest, Monsignor John A. Ryan.[10] Kennedy, who strongly supported the New Deal, warned as early as 1933 that Coughlin was "becoming a very dangerous proposition" as an opponent of Roosevelt and "an out and out demagogue." Kennedy worked with Roosevelt, Bishop Francis Spellman and Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII) in a successful effort to get the Vatican to silence Coughlin in 1936.[11] In 1940-41, reversing his own views, Kennedy attacked the isolationism of Coughlin.[12]
In 1935, Coughlin proclaimed, "I have dedicated my life to fight against the heinous rottenness of modern capitalism because it robs the laborer of this world's goods. But blow for blow I shall strike against Communism, because it robs us of the next world's happiness."[13] He accused Roosevelt of "leaning toward international socialism on the Spanish question." Coughlin founded the National Union for Social Justice, an organization with a strong following among nativists and opponents of the Federal Reserve, especially in the Midwest. As Michael Kazin notes, Coughlinites saw Wall Street and Communism as twin faces of a secular Satan. Coughlinites believed that they were defending those people who cohered more through piety, economic frustration, and a common dread of powerful, modernizing enemies than through any class identity.[14]
One of Coughlin's campaign slogans was: "Less care for internationalism and more concern for national prosperity" which went well with the 1930s isolationist movement in the United States. Coughlin's organization especially appealed to Irish Catholics. In 1936, Coughlin helped found a short-lived political party, the Union Party, which nominated William Lemke for President. Coughlin promised to retire if Lemke did not get nine million votes, and when he received only 900,000 Coughlin stopped broadcasting briefly. He resumed in 1937.
Antisemitism
After the 1936 election, Coughlin increasingly expressed sympathy for the fascist policies of Hitler and Mussolini as an antidote to Bolshevism.[15] His CBS radio broadcasts became suffused with antisemitic themes. He blamed the Depression on an "international conspiracy of Jewish bankers", and also claimed that Jewish bankers were behind the Russian Revolution. On November 27, 1938, he said "There can be no doubt that the Russian Revolution ... was launched and fomented by distinctively Jewish influence."
He began publication of a newspaper, Social Justice, during this period, in which he printed antisemitic polemics such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Like Joseph Goebbels, Coughlin claimed that Marxist atheism in Europe was a Jewish plot. The December 5, 1938 issue of Social Justice included an article by Coughlin which closely resembled a speech made by Goebbels on September 13, 1935 attacking Jews, atheists and communists, with some sections being copied verbatim by Coughlin from an English translation of the Goebbels speech. At a rally in the Bronx in 1938, he gave a Nazi salute and said, "When we get through with the Jews in America, they'll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing." [16]
On November 20, 1938, two weeks after Kristallnacht, when Jews across Germany were attacked and killed, and Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues burned, Coughlin said "Jewish persecution only followed after Christians first were persecuted."[17] After this speech, and as his programs became more antisemitic, some radio stations, including those in New York and Chicago, began refusing to air his speeches without pre-approved scripts; in New York, his programs were cancelled by WINS and WMCA, leaving Coughlin to broadcasting on the Newark part-time station WHBI. This made Coughlin a hero in Nazi Germany, where papers ran headlines claiming "America Is Not Allowed to Hear the Truth". On December 18, 1938 two thousand of Coughlin's followers marched in New York protesting potential asylum law changes that would allow more Jews (including refugees from Hitler's persecution) into the US, chanting, "Send Jews back where they came from in leaky boats!" and "Wait until Hitler comes over here!" The protests continued for several months. Donald Warren, using information from the FBI and German government archives, has also argued that Coughlin received indirect funding from Nazi Germany during this period.[18]
After 1936, Coughlin began supporting an organization called the Christian Front, which claimed him as an inspiration. In January 1940, the Christian Front was shut down when the FBI discovered the group was arming itself and "planning to murder Jews, communists, and 'a dozen Congressmen'"[19] and eventually establish, in J. Edgar Hoover's words, "a dictatorship, similar to the Hitler dictatorship in Germany". Coughlin publicly stated, after the plot was discovered, that he still did not "disassociate himself from the movement", and though he was never linked directly to the plot, his reputation suffered a fatal decline.[20]
Cancellation of radio show
At its peak in the early 1930s, Coughlin's radio show was phenomenally popular. His office received up to 80,000 letters per week from listeners, and his listening audience was estimated to rise at times to as much as a third of the nation. Coughlin is often credited as one of the major demagogues of the 20th century for being able to influence politics through broadcasting, without actually holding a political office himself.
Boyea (1995) shows that the Roman Catholic Church did not approve of Coughlin. The Vatican, the Apostolic Delegation in Washington, D.C., and the archbishop of Cincinnati all wanted him silenced. They recognized that only Coughlin's superior, Detroit Bishop Michael Gallagher, had the canonical authority to curb him, but Gallagher supported the "Radio Priest". Due to Gallagher's autonomy and the prospect of Coughlin leading a schism, the Roman Catholic leadership did nothing.
A radio battle was fought in the late 1930s between The Reverend Walton E. Cole, a Unitarian minister in Toledo, Ohio, and Coughlin. Cole tried to prevail upon the Roman Catholic hierarchy to have Coughlin's inflammatory broadcasts stopped. Walton Cole’s widow, Lorena M. Cole, donated his papers to the Claremont School of Theology with personal notes and reminiscences about this tense episode.
In spite of his early support for Roosevelt, Coughlin's populist message contained bitter attacks on the Roosevelt administration. The administration decided that although the First Amendment protected free speech, it did not necessarily apply to broadcasting, because the radio spectrum was a "limited national resource" and regulated as a publicly-owned commons. New regulations and restrictions were created to force Coughlin off the air. For the first time, operating permits were required of those who were regular radio broadcasters. When Coughlin's permit was denied, he was temporarily silenced.
Coughlin worked around the restriction by purchasing air time and having his speeches played via recordings. However, having to buy the time on individual stations seriously reduced his reach and strained his resources.
According to Marcus' book, Coughlin's opposition to the repeal of a neutrality-oriented arms-embargo law triggered more successful efforts to force him off the air. In October 1939, one month after the invasion of Poland, the Code Committee of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) adopted new rules which placed "rigid limitations on the sale of radio time to spokesman of controversial public issues". Manuscripts were required to be submitted in advance. Radio stations were threatened with the loss of their licenses if they failed to comply. This ruling was clearly aimed at Coughlin due to his opposition to prospective American involvement in World War II. As a result, the September 23, 1939 issue of Social Justice stated that he had been forced from the air "...by those who control circumstances beyond my reach" (pp 173-177).
Coughlin reasoned that although the government had assumed the right to regulate any on-air broadcasts, the First Amendment still guaranteed and protected freedom of the written press. He could still print his editorials without censorship in his own newspaper, Social Justice. However, the Roosevelt administration stepped in again, this time revoking his mailing privileges[clarification needed] and making it impossible for Coughlin to deliver the papers to his readers. He had the right to publish whatever he wanted, but not the right to use the United States Post Office Department to deliver it. The lack of a conduit to his followers seriously reduced his influence, and after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war in December 1941, the anti-interventionist movement (such as the America First Committee) began to sputter out, and isolationists like Coughlin were seen as being sympathetic to the enemy. In 1942, the new bishop of Detroit ordered Coughlin to stop his controversial political activities and confine himself to his duties as a parish priest. Coughlin complied and remained the pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower until retiring in 1966. He refused most interview opportunities, and continued to write pamphlets denouncing Communism until his death in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1979, at the age of 88.
Coughlin was reported by an occasional parish visitor to have kept his rectory in Hazel Park, Michigan.
References in popular culture
- Coughlin was mentioned in a verse of Woody Guthrie's pro-interventionist song "Lindbergh": "Yonder comes Father Coughlin, wearin’ the silver chain, Cash on his stomach and Hitler on the brain."
- Coughlin was vilified in the press as a Nazi sympathiser by cartoonist Theodor Seuss Geisel, best known for his children's books written under the pen name of Dr. Seuss.[21]
- Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel about a Fascist coup in the USA, It Can't Happen Here, features a "Bishop Prang", an extremely successful pro-Fascist radio host who is said to be "to the pioneer Father Coughlin" "as the Ford V-8 [was] to the Model A".
- The producers of the HBO television series Carnivàle have said that the character of Brother Justin Crowe was inspired by Coughlin.[22]
Notes
- ^ John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett The Myth of the American Superhero (2002), Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing, page 132
- ^ Lawrence DiStasi. Una storia segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Interment During World II, Heyday Books, page 163
- ^ "Priest in Politics," Time, Dec. 11, 1933.
- ^ Peter C. Rollins and John E. O'Connor. Hollywood's White House: The American Presidency in Film and History (2005), University Press of Kentucky, page 160
- ^ Washington Post. " 'Roosevelt or Ruin', Asserts Radio Priest at Hearing". Jan 17, 1934, pp.1-2
- ^ Ronald H. Carpenter, Father Charles E. Coughlin (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998), p. 173.
- ^ Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz. A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (1963), Princeton University Press (for the National Bureau of Economic Research
- ^ Principles of the National Union for Social Justice, quoted in Brinkley, "Voices of Protest", pp. 287-88.
- ^ Charles A. Beard and George H.E. Smith, eds., "Current Problems of Public Policy: A Collection of Materials" (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1936), p. 54
- ^ Turrini, Joseph M.. "Catholic Social Reform and the New Deal". http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/annotation/march-2002/catholic-social-reform.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-02.
- ^ Thomas Maier, The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings (2003) pp 103-107
- ^ Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune.(2002) pp 122, 171, 379, 502; Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest (1984) p 127; Michael Kazin, The Populist Persuasion (1995) pp 109, 123.
- ^ Kazin p 109
- ^ Kazin p 112
- ^ http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcoughlinE.htm
- ^ William Manchester The Glory And The Dream, 1974, Bantam Books, p. 176.
- ^ Marc Dollinger (2000): Quest for Inclusion. Princeton University Press. p.66
- ^ Warren, Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin, The Father of Hate Radio, 1996.
- ^ Father Charles Edward Coughlin (1891-1971) by Richard Sanders, Editor
- ^ New York Times, January 22, 1940
- ^ Untitled Document
- ^ Carnivale press conference
Sources
- Athans, Mary Christine. "A New Perspective on Father Charles E. Coughlin". Church History. 56:2 (June 1987), pp. 224-235.
- Athans, Mary Christine. The Coughlin-Fahey Connection: Father Charles E. Coughlin, Father Denis Fahey, C.S. Sp., and Religious Anti-Semitism in the United States, 1938-1954. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0820415340
- Boyea, Earl. "The Reverend Charles Coughlin and the Church: the Gallagher Years, 1930-1937." Catholic Historical Review. 81:2 (1995), 211-225.
- Brinkley, Alan. Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression. New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 1982. ISBN 0394522419
- General Jewish Council. Father Coughlin: His "Facts" and Arguments. New York: General Jewish Council, 1939.
- Hangen, Tona J. Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion and Popular Culture in America. Raleigh, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. ISBN 0807827525
- Kazin, Michael. The Populist Persuasion: An American History. New York: Basic Books, 1995. ISBN 0465037933
- Marcus, Sheldon. Father Coughlin: The Tumultuous Life Of The Priest Of The Little Flower. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1972. ISBN 0316545961
- O'Connor, John J. "Review/Television: Father Coughlin, 'The Radio Priest.'" The New York Times. December 13, 1988.
- Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M. The Age of Roosevelt: The Politics of Upheaval, 1935-1936. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. (Originally published in 1960.) ISBN 0618340874
- Sherrill, Robert. "American Demagogues." The New York Times. July 13, 1982.
- Smith, Geoffrey S. To Save A Nation: American Counter-Subversives, the New Deal, and the Coming of World War II. New York: Basic Books, 1973. ISBN 046508625X
- Tull, Charles J. Father Coughlin and the New Deal. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1965. ISBN 0815600437
- Warren, Donald. Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin The Father of Hate Radio. New York: The Free Press, 1996. ISBN 0684824035
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