Catholic Church>Catholic| ordination = 1916| education = University of Toronto}}Charles Edward Coughlin ({{IPAc-en|Ëˆ|k|É’|g|l|Éª|n}} {{respell|KOG|lin}}; October 25, 1891 â€“ October 27, 1979), commonly known as Father Coughlin, was a Canadian-American Catholic priest based in the United States near Detroit. He was the founding priest of the National Shrine of the Little Flower. Dubbed "The Radio Priest" and considered a leading demagogue,PODCAST, Episode 5: His Cross to Bear, Radioactive: The Father Coughlin Story, PBS, 2022-03-09,weblink 21 February 2023, Lapin, Andrew, 3:15, he was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience. During the 1930s, when the U.S. population was about 120 million, an estimated 30 million listeners tuned to his weekly broadcasts.JOURNAL, Clements, Austin J., 2022, 'The Franco Way': The American Right and the Spanish Civil War, 1936â€“9, Journal of Contemporary History, en, 57, 2, 341â€“364 (here: p. 343), 10.1177/00220094211063089, 245196132, Coughlin was born in Canada to working-class Irish Catholic parents. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1916, and in 1923 he was assigned to the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan. Coughlin began broadcasting his sermons during a time of increasing anti-Catholic sentiment across the globe. As his broadcasts became more political, he became increasingly popular.Project MUSE - Radioactive: The Father Coughlin Story, by Andrew Lapin (review)Initially, Coughlin was a vocal supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal; he later fell out with Roosevelt, accusing him of being too friendly to bankers. In 1934, he established a political organization called the National Union for Social Justice. Its platform called for monetary reforms, nationalization of major industries and railroads, and protection of labor rights. The membership ran into the millions but was not well organized locally.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=232}}After making attacks on Jewish bankers, Coughlin began to use his radio program to broadcast antisemitic commentary. In the late 1930s, he supported some of the policies of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The broadcasts have been described as "a variation of the Fascist agenda applied to American culture".{{sfn|DiStasi|2001|p=163}} His chief topics were political and economic rather than religious, using the slogan "Social Justice". After the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, the Roosevelt administration forced the cancellation of his radio program and forbade distribution by mail of his newspaper Social Justice. Coughlin largely vanished from the public arena, working as a parish pastor until retiring in 1966. He died in 1979 at the age of 88.Why I made a podcast about Father Coughlin - Jewish Telegraphic Agency Detroiter's podcast on Father Coughlin reveals echoes of today's hate - Detroit Free Press Looking Back: 'Father of Hate Radio'|Judaism|thejewishnews.com

Early life and work

Coughlin was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the only child of Irish Catholic parents, Amelia (nÃ©e Mahoney) and Thomas Coughlin. Born in a working-class neighborhood, his modest home was situated between a Catholic cathedral and convent.{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|p=84}} His mother, who had regretted not becoming a nun, was the dominant figure in the household and instilled a deep sense of religion in the young Coughlin.{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|pp=84â€“85}}After his basic education, Coughlin attended the University of Toronto, enrolling in St. Michael's College, run by the Congregation of St. Basil, and graduating in 1911. After graduation, Coughlin entered the Basilian Fathers. He prepared for holy orders at St. Basil's Seminary and was ordained to the priesthood in Toronto in 1916. He was assigned to teach at Assumption College, also operated by the Basilians, in Windsor, Ontario.JOURNAL, Ketchaver, Karen, December 2009, Father Charles E. Coughlinâ€”The â€˜Radio Priestâ€™ of the 1930s,weblink Theological Librarianship, 2, 2, 82, EBSCO, In 1923, a reorganization of Coughlin's religious order resulted in his departure. The Holy See required the Basilians to change the congregational structure from a society of common life patterned after the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice to a more monastic life. They had to take the traditional three religious vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. Coughlin could not accept this.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}Leaving the congregation, Coughlin moved across the Detroit River to the United States, settling in the booming industrial city of Detroit, Michigan, where the automotive industry was expanding rapidly. He was incardinated (or formally enrolled) by the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1923. After being transferred several times to different parishes, in 1926 he was assigned to the newly founded Shrine of the Little Flower, a congregation of some 25 Catholic families among the largely Protestant suburban community of Royal Oak, Michigan. His powerful preaching soon expanded the parish congregation.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

Radio broadcaster

File:National Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak, Michigan - 20201213 - 04.jpg|thumb|Coughlin's church, the National Shrine of the Little Flower National Shrine of the Little FlowerIn 1926, disturbed by Ku Klux Klan-orchestrated cross burnings on his church grounds and aware that he was unable to pay back the diocesan loan which had paid for his church, Coughlin began broadcasting his Sunday sermons from local radio station WJR.{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|p=82}} Coughlin's weekly hour-long radio program denounced the KKK, appealing to his Catholic audience.{{sfn|Shannon|1989|p=298}}When WJR was acquired by Goodwill Stations in 1929, owner George A. Richards encouraged Coughlin to focus on politics instead of religious topics.{{r|RWCoughlin}} Becoming increasingly vehement, the broadcasts attacked the banking system and Jews. Coughlin's program was picked up by CBS in 1930 for national broadcast.MAGAZINE, Schneider, John, September 1, 2018, The Rabble-Rousers of Early Radio Broadcasting,weblink Radio World, Future plc, Future US, 42, 16â€“18, 22, August 12, 2022, August 12, 2022,weblink live, The tower from which he would broadcast his radio sermons was completed in 1931.

Stances

(File:George A Richards.png|left|thumb|175x175px|George A. Richards)In January 1930, Coughlin began a series of attacks against socialism and Soviet Communism, which were both strongly opposed by the Catholic Church. He criticized capitalists in America whose greed had made communist ideologies attractive.{{sfn|Marcus|1972|pp=31â€“32}} He warned, "Let not the workingman be able to say that he is driven into the ranks of socialism by the inordinate and grasping greed of the manufacturer."{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|p=95}}In 1931, the CBS radio network dropped Coughlin's program when he refused to accept network demands to review his scripts prior to broadcast, and several affiliates objected to the views of Coughlin.NEWS, January 6, 1931, Air to Sizzle when Coughlin speaks, 5, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Associated Press, Cincinnati, Ohio,weblink August 6, 2022, Newspapers.com, August 12, 2022,weblink live, With backing by Richards, Coughlin established his own independently financed radio network for the Golden Hour of the Shrine of the Little Flower, with flagship WJR and WGAR in Cleveland as core stations;{{r|RWCoughlin}} WGAR was established by Richards under the Goodwill Stations banner several months earlier.{{Unbulleted list citebundle

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ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20220420064348/HTTPS://SLATE.COM/TECHNOLOGY/2021/01/FATHER-COUGHLIN-DEPLATFORMING-RADIO-SOCIAL-MEDIA.HTML, live, Regional networks like the Yankee Network, the Quaker State Network, the Mohawk Network and the Colonial Network also carried the program. It became the largest independently run radio network of its type in the United States.Throughout the 1930s, Coughlin's views changed. Eventually he was "openly antidemocratic", according to Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, "calling for the abolition of political parties and questioning the value of elections".BOOK, Levitsky, Steven, Ziblatt, Daniel, How Democracies Die,weblink limited, January 16, 2018, Crown Publishing, 978-1-5247-6295-7, 31, First edition, ebook, His views were seen as mirroring those of Richards himself, who had held reactionary conservative beliefs.{{r|RWCoughlin}} Leo Fitzpatrick, who had given Coughlin his initial airtime over WJR in 1926 and was retained as a part-owner when Richards purchased the station,NEWS, September 17, 1971, Leo J. Fitzpatrick Is Dead at 77; Served on Forerunner of F. C. C., en-US, The New York Times, Associated Press, New York, New York,weblink August 15, 2022, 0362-4331, continued to serve as a confidant and advisor to Coughlin.MAGAZINE, March 21, 1938, Music: Musical Mayhem,weblink Time (magazine), Time, en-US, XXXI, 13, 0040-781X, August 7, 2022, August 12, 2022,weblink live, Coughlin was critical of Prohibitionism, which he claimed was the work of "fanatics".{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|p=96}}

Support for FDR

Against the deepening crisis of the Great Depression, Coughlin 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 entered common usage during the early days of the first FDR administration. Another phrase he became known for was "The New Deal is Christ's Deal".{{sfn|Rollins|O'Connor|2005|p=160}} In January 1934, Coughlin testified before Congress in support of FDR's agenda, 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 also said to the Congressional hearing, "God is directing President Roosevelt."NEWS, The Washington Post, 'Roosevelt or Ruin', Asserts Radio Priest at Hearing, January 17, 1934, 1â€“2,

Opposition to FDR

File:Elmer Thomas and Charles Coughlin on Time magazine 1934.jpg|thumb|Coughlin and Senator Elmer Thomas on the cover of Time in 1934]]Though he received them politely, President Roosevelt had little interest in enacting Coughlin's economic proposals. Coughlin's support for Roosevelt and his New Deal faded in 1934 when he founded the National Union for Social Justice (NUSJ), a nationalistic workers' rights organization. Its leaders grew impatient with what they considered the President's unconstitutional and pseudo-capitalistic monetary policies. Coughlin preached increasingly about the negative influence of "money changers" and "permitting a group of private citizens to create money" at the expense of the general welfare.{{sfn|Carpenter|1998|p=173}} He spoke of the need for monetary reform based on "free silver". Coughlin claimed that the Great Depression in the United States was a "cash famine" and proposed monetary reforms, including the nationalization of the Federal Reserve System, as the solution. Coughlin was also upset by Roosevelt's recognition of the Soviet Union.{{r|SlateCoughlin}}According to a 2021 study in the American Economic Review, Coughlin's broadcasts reduced Roosevelt's vote shares in the 1936 election.JOURNAL, Wang, Tianyi, 2021, Media, Pulpit, and Populist Persuasion: Evidence from Father Coughlin, American Economic Review, en, 111, 9, 3064â€“3092, 10.1257/aer.20200513, 0002-8282, free,

Economic policies

Coughlin urged Roosevelt to use silver to increase the money supply and also reorganize the financial system. These and other such ideas did not find a receptive audience. However, investment in silver was increased for a limited period following the Silver Purchase Act of 1934, which resulted in U.S. silver mines being nationalized between 1934 and 1943 through stamp taxes.WEB, June 19, 2017, Silver Tax Stamps,weblink live,weblink January 2, 2021, August 12, 2022, Mystic Stamp Discovery Center, en-US, Among NUSJ's articles of faith were work and income guarantees, nationalizing vital industry, wealth redistribution through taxation of the wealthy, federal protection of workers' unions, and limiting property rights in favor of government control of the country's assets for public good.{{#tag:ref|"Principles of the National Union for Social Justice"{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|pp=287â€“288}}}}Illustrative of Coughlin's disdain for free-market capitalism is his statement:{{Blockquote|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 so to curtail individualism that, if necessary, factories shall be licensed and their output shall be limited.{{sfn|Beard|Smith|1936|p=54}}}}

Money supply should be controlled by Congress

In the 1930s, Coughlin called on Congress to take back control of the money supply, as it is given authority under (Article One of the United States Constitution#Section 8: Powers of Congress|Article I, Section 8), in the Enumerated Powers, to coin money and regulate the value thereof.WEB,weblink Charles E. Coughlin,

Radio audience

File:Radio Stars magazine May 1934 Father Coughlin.jpg|thumb|Father Coughlin at a WXYZ microphone (Radio Stars magazine, May 1934)]]By 1934, Coughlin was perhaps the most prominent Catholic speaker on political and financial issues with a radio audience that reached tens of millions of people every week. Alan Brinkley wrote that "by 1934, he was receiving more than 10,000 letters every day" and that "his clerical staff at times numbered more than a hundred."{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|p=119}} He foreshadowed modern talk radio and televangelism.{{sfn|Sayer|1987|pp=17â€“30}} However, the University of Detroit Mercy claims that Coughlin's peak audience was in 1932.WEB,weblink An Historical Exploration of Father Charles e. Coughlin's Influence, August 9, 2020, January 2, 2021,weblink live, It is estimated that at his peak, one-third of the nation listened to his broadcasts.WEB,weblink Father Charles E. Coughlin, Social Security History, Social Security Administration, January 24, 2021, December 14, 2020,weblink live, In 1933, The Literary Digest wrote, "Perhaps no man has stirred the country and cut as deep between the old order and the new as Father Charles E. Coughlin."{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|pp=83â€“84}} At its peak in the early-to-mid 1930s, Coughlin's radio show was phenomenally popular. His office received up to 80,000 letters per week from listeners. Author Sheldon Marcus said that the size of Coughlin's radio audience "is impossible to determine, but estimates range up to 30 million each week".{{sfn|Marcus|1972|p=4}} He expressed an isolationist, and conspiratorial, viewpoint that resonated with many listeners.In 1934, when Coughlin began criticizing the New Deal, Roosevelt sent Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Frank Murphy, both prominent Irish Catholics, to try to influence him.{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|p=127}} Kennedy was reported to be a friend of Coughlin's.WEB, Renehan, Edward, Joseph Kennedy and the Jews, History News Network, June 13, 1938,weblink August 11, 2019, January 2, 2021,weblink live, {{sfn|Bennett|2007|p=136}} Coughlin periodically visited Roosevelt while accompanied by Kennedy.BOOK, JoEllen M Vinyard, Right in Michigan's Grassroots: From the KKK to the Michigan Militia,weblink 2011, University of Michigan Press, 978-0-472-05159-5, 148, July 21, 2018, January 2, 2021,weblink live, In an August 16, 1936, Boston Post article, Coughlin referred to Kennedy as the "shining star among the dim 'knights' in the [Roosevelt] Administration".{{sfn|Maier|2009|p=498}} Increasingly opposed to Roosevelt, Coughlin began denouncing the President as a tool of Wall Street; Coughlin opposed the New Deal with growing vehemence, his radio talks attacked Roosevelt and capitalists and alleged existence of Jewish conspirators. Another nationally known priest, John A. Ryan, initially supported Coughlin but opposed him after Coughlin turned on Roosevelt.{{sfn|Turrini|2002|pp=7, 8, 19}} Joseph 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's and "an out and out demagogue". Kennedy worked with Roosevelt, Bishop Francis Spellman and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII) in a partly successful effort to get the Vatican to silence Coughlin in 1936.{{sfn|Maier|2009|pp=103â€“107}} Coughlin ended his radio broadcasts, but continued to publish Social Justice. In 1940 and 1941, reversing his own views, Kennedy attacked the isolationism of Coughlin.{{sfn|Smith|2002|pp=122, 171, 379, 502}}{{sfn|Kazin|1995|pp=109, 123}}{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|p=127}}Coughlin proclaimed in 1935: "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."{{sfn|Kazin|1995|pp=109}} He accused Roosevelt of "leaning toward international socialism on the Spanish question" (referring to the Spanish Civil War). Coughlin's NUSJ gained a strong following among nativists and opponents of the Federal Reserve, especially in the Midwest. Michael Kazin has written that Coughlinites saw Wall Street and Communism as twin faces of a secular Satan. They believed that they were defending those people who were joined more by piety, economic frustration, and a common dread of powerful, modernizing enemies than through any class identity.{{sfn|Kazin|1995|pp=112}}The priest supported populist Huey Long as governor of Louisiana until Long was assassinated in 1935. At a campaign rally for the NUSJ at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on May 11, 1936, Coughlin predicted the organization would "take half of Ohio" in the upcoming primary election, citing multiple congressional candidates that had the NUSJ's backing.NEWS, May 11, 1936, Coughlin Expects Victory Tuesday; Coughlin Addresses 25,000 At Cleveland, 23, Akron Beacon Journal, Associated Press, Akron, Ohio,weblink August 7, 2022, Newspapers.com, August 7, 2022,weblink live, Coughlin teamed up with Francis Townsend and Long associate Gerald L. K. Smith in support of William Lemke's Union Party 1936 campaign for president.NEWS, Hill, Edwin C., June 22, 1936, 'Pinks,' Brains, Politicians Make Strange Mixture, 23, Akron Beacon Journal, International News Service, Akron, Ohio,weblink August 7, 2022, Newspapers.com, August 7, 2022,weblink live, Coughlin presided over two additional high-profile events in Cleveland during the summer of 1936: the Townsend Convention held at Cleveland Public Hall during mid-JulyNEWS, Collatz, E.C., July 23, 1936, Townsend Convention Account Given By Elsinore Delegate, 3, Lake Elsinore Valley Sun-Tribune, Lake Elsinore, California,weblink August 7, 2022, Newspapers.com, August 7, 2022,weblink live, and the Union party convention at Municipal Stadium on August 16; at the latter, Coughlin fainted near the end of his speech.NEWS, Peasron, Drew, Drew Pearson (journalist), Allen, Robert S., August 30, 1936, The Daily Washington Merry-Go-Round, 4, The Tribune, Coshocton, Ohio,weblink August 7, 2022, Newspapers.com, August 7, 2022,weblink live, One of Coughlin's campaign slogans was "Less care for internationalism and more concern for national prosperity",{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|pp=}} which appealed to the 1930s U.S. isolationists and especially to Irish Catholics.{{sfn|Marcus|1972|p={{page needed|date=October 2022}}}}Lemke's candidacy was a failure, with Coughlin taking a brief two-month hiatus after the election.NEWS, Doran, Dorothy, January 22, 1937, John Held, Jr., To Debut In Network Radio Series At Michigan University, 15, Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, Ohio,weblink August 6, 2022, Newspapers.com, August 7, 2022,weblink live, Coughlin had promised to convince nine million people to vote for Lemke, but only one million did.Maddox, Rachel (2023). Prequel (1st ed.). Crown. pp. 153-158. {{ISBN|978-0-593-44451-1}}. FDR, who Coughlin strongly opposed, won by a landslide.

Antisemitism

File:Coughlin-Social-Justice-NYC-Lange.jpeg|thumb|Coughlin's Social Justice magazine on sale in New York City, 1939]]Jewish television producer Norman Lear recounts in his autobiography how his discovery of Father Coughlin's radio broadcasts at the age of 9 disturbed him deeply and made him aware of the alarming and widespread antisemitism in American society.{{Unbulleted list citebundle|WEB, Raz, Guy, Guy Raz, June 23, 2012, Norman Lear: 'Just Another Version of You',weblink live,weblink January 2, 2021, August 9, 2020, NPR, |WEB,weblink A Television Giant Comes into Focus, NPR, July 7, 2016, August 9, 2020, January 2, 2021,weblink live, Lapin, Andrew, |WEB, Schneider, Michael, September 17, 2019, How Norman Lear Devoted Himself to a Lifetime of Advocacy,weblink live,weblink January 2, 2021, August 9, 2020, Variety, |WEB, Eshman, Rob,weblink Norman Lear on race in America, Judaism, World War II and his bright future, December 17, 2014, August 9, 2020, January 2, 2021,weblink live, Jewish Journal, }} After the 1936 election, Coughlin expressed overt sympathy for the fascist governments of Hitler and Mussolini as an antidote to Communism.{{sfn|Marcus|1972|pp=189â€“90}} He believed Jewish bankers were behind the Russian Revolution,{{sfn|Marcus|1972|pp=188â€“89}} backing the Jewish Bolshevism conspiracy theory.{{sfn|Tull|1965|p=197}}{{sfn|Marcus|1972|pp=256}}{{sfn|Schrag|2010}}At this time, Coughlin also began to support a far-right organization called the Christian Front, which claimed that he was an inspiration. He urged the formation of a national Christian movement to violently rebel against the U.S. government, and personally selected John F. Cassidy to lead it. After the Front's New York City unit was raided by the FBI in January 1940 for plotting to overthrow the government, it was revealed Coughlin had never officially been a member.NEWS,weblink The New York Times, Coughlin Supports Christian Front, January 22, 1940, February 18, 2010, January 2, 2021,weblink live, BOOK, Gallagher, Charles, 2021, Nazis of Copley Square: Forgotten stories of the Christian Front, Coughlin promoted his controversial beliefs by means of his radio broadcasts and his weekly rotogravure magazine Social Justice, which began publication in March 1936.{{sfn|Marcus|1972|pp=181â€“82}} During the last half of 1938, Social Justice reprinted weekly installments of the fraudulent, antisemitic text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.{{sfn|Marcus|1972|p=188}} Despite this, Coughlin denied on various occasions that he was antisemitic,{{sfn|Tull|1965|pp=195, 211â€“12, 224â€“25}} yet he received indirect funding from Nazi Germany during this period.{{sfn|Warren|1996|pp=235â€“244}} A New York Times report from Berlin identified Coughlin as "the German hero in America for the moment" with his sympathetic statements towards Nazism as "a defensive front against Bolshevism".MAGAZINE, December 1, 1938, Three Stations Refuse Coughlin Talks For Allegedly Inciting Race Prejudice,weblink live, Broadcasting, 15, 11, 17, 79,weblink January 2, 2021, August 11, 2019, In February 1939, when the American Nazi organization the German American Bund held a large rally in New York City,{{sfn|Bredemus|2011}} Coughlin immediately distanced himself from the organization, and in his weekly radio address he said: "Nothing can be gained by linking ourselves with any organization which is engaged in agitating racial animosities or propagating racial hatreds. Organizations which stand upon such platforms are immoral and their policies are only negative."{{sfn|Coughlin|1939}}On November 20, 1938, two weeks after Kristallnacht (the Nazi attack on German and Austrian Jews, their synagogues, and businesses), Coughlin, referring to the millions of Christians who had been killed by the Communists in Russia, said, "Jewish persecution only followed after Christians first were persecuted."{{sfn|Dollinger|2000|p=66}} After this speech, three radio stationsâ€”WMCA in New York City, WIND in Gary, Indiana, and WJJD in Chicagoâ€”dropped the program the following week on grounds of inciting racial prejudice, with Coughlin accusing them of being under "Jewish ownership". WMCA made their displeasure immediately known, with their booth announcer saying on-air after his November 20 speech, "Unfortunately, Father Coughlin has uttered many misstatements of fact".{{r|3StationsRefuse}} Station president Donald Flamm viewed an advance copy of the sermon and pressured Coughlin to edit it twice but did not see the final text, which he said "was calculated to stir up religious and racial hatred and dissension in this country".MAGAZINE, December 1, 1938, Flamm Explains Refusal to Broadcast Coughlin,weblink live, Broadcasting, 15, 11, 79,weblink January 2, 2021, August 11, 2019, {{efn|WHN, also in New York City, had dropped the program several weeks earlier; as a result, Coughlin's programs were only broadcast on part-time Newark station WHBI.}} When WIND and WJJD also requested an advance copy of Coughlin's next sermon for prior review and approval, his refusal prompted them to drop the program.{{r|3StationsRefuse}} On December 18, 1938, thousands of Coughlin's followers picketed WMCA's studios in protest, with some protesters yelling antisemitic statements, such as "Send Jews back where they came from in leaky boats!" and "Wait until Hitler comes over here!" The protests continued for 38 weeks.{{sfn|Warren|1996|pp=165â€“169}} Coughlin was present at some of the protests.

Backlash

While members of the Catholic hierarchy did not approve of Coughlin, only Coughlin's superiorâ€”Bishop Michael Gallagher of Detroitâ€”had the canonical authority to curb him, and Gallagher supported the "Radio Priest".{{sfn|Boyea|1995}} Owing to Gallagher's autonomy and the prospect of the Coughlin problem leading to a schism, the Catholic leadership took no action.{{sfn|Boyea|1995}} Gallagher died in January 1937. In 1938, Cardinal George Mundelein, archbishop of Chicago, issued a formal condemnation of Coughlin: "[Coughlin was] not authorized to speak for the Catholic Church, nor does he represent the doctrine or sentiments of the Church."{{r|SlateCoughlin}}Coughlin increasingly attacked the president's policies. 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 as a result was regulated as a publicly owned commons.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} The authorities imposed new regulations and restrictions for the specific purpose of forcing Coughlin off the air. For the first time, the authorities required regular radio broadcasters to seek operating permits.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}When Coughlin's permit was denied, he was temporarily silenced. Coughlin worked around the new restrictions by purchasing air time and playing his speeches via transcription. However, having to buy the weekly air time on individual stations severely reduced his reach and also strained his financial resources.{{efn|During this period, The Golden Hour typically ran in intervals of 13 to 17 weeks per contract with occasional hiatuses in between.{{r|50Affilates}}}} Meanwhile, Bishop Gallagher died and was replaced by a prelate, Edward Aloysius Mooney, who was less sympathetic to Coughlin than Bishop Gallagher had been. In 1939, the Institute for Propaganda Analysis used Coughlin's radio talks to illustrate propaganda methods in their book The Fine Art of Propaganda, which was intended to show propaganda's effects against democracy.BOOK, Lee, Alfred McClung, Lee, Elizabeth Briant, The Fine Art of Propaganda: A Study of Father Coughlin's Speeches,weblink 1939, Harcourt Brace, 9885192, August 11, 2019, January 2, 2021,weblink live, After the outbreak of World War II in Europe in September 1939, Coughlin made an on-air appeal for listeners to travel to Washington as "an army of peace" to stop the repeal of the Neutrality Acts, a neutrality-oriented arms embargo law, leading opponents to accuse Coughlin of stoking incitement bordering on civil war.{{r|SlateCoughlin}} This resulted in an intervention to finally remove Coughlin from the air, not by a federal agency but by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the industry's lobby group.{{sfn|Marcus|1972|pp=175â€“176}} The NAB formed a self-regulating Code Committee that imposed limits on the sale of air time to people deemed to be controversial.{{sfn|Marcus|1972|p=176}} Ratified on October 1, 1939, the code required manuscripts for programs to be submitted in advance and effectively prohibited on-air editorials or the discussion of controversial subjects, including non-interventionism, with the threat of license revocation for radio stations that failed to comply.NEWS, October 15, 1939, Text of First Ruling of Code Compliance Committee, 17, 13, Broadcasting, 8,weblink August 7, 2022, World Radio History, August 7, 2022,weblink live, NEWS, October 6, 1939, Code Compliance Under Way, 7, 3753â€“3754 (1â€“2), NAB Reports, National Association of Broadcasters, 40, Washington, D.C.,weblink August 7, 2022, World Radio History, August 7, 2022,weblink live, This code was drafted specifically as a response to Coughlin and his program.{{r|SlateCoughlin}} WJR, WGAR and the Yankee Network threatened to quit their memberships in the NAB over the code,NEWS, October 6, 1939, Air Ruling Seen As 'Censorship', 3, The Evening Review, Associated Press, East Liverpool, Ohio,weblink August 6, 2022, Newspapers.com, August 12, 2022,weblink live, but acquiesced and adopted it,{{Efn|Only four stations rescinded their memberships to the NAB, all of them owned by Elliot Roosevelt.{{r|AkronB19391101p 17}}}} with the majority of affiliate contracts running out at the end of October.NEWS, November 1, 1939, C.I.O. Asks Union's Support in 'Voice' Issue, 17, Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, Ohio,weblink August 6, 2022, Newspapers.com, August 7, 2022,weblink live, In the September 23, 1940, issue of Social Justice, Coughlin announced that he had been forced off the air "by those who control circumstances beyond my reach".{{sfn|Marcus|1972|pp=176â€“177}}

Newspaper shutdown and end of political activities

Coughlin said 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. After the devastating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. declaration of war in December 1941, anti-interventionist movements (such as the America First Committee) rapidly lost support. Isolationists such as Coughlin acquired a reputation for sympathizing with the enemy. The Roosevelt Administration stepped in again. On April 14, 1942, U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle wrote a letter to the Postmaster General, Frank Walker, in which he suggested that the second-class mailing privilege of Social Justice be revoked, in order to make it impossible for Coughlin to deliver the papers to its readers.BOOK, Leonard Dinnerstein, Dinnerstein, Leonard, Antisemitism in America,weblink 1995, Oxford University Press, 978-0-19-531354-3, February 13, 2016, December 29, 2019,weblink live, Under the Espionage Act of 1917, the mailing permit for Social Justice was temporarily suspended on April 14,NEWS, Mails Barred to "Social Justice",weblink Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 15, 1942, 1â€“2, January 1, 2010, January 21, 2022,weblink live, JOURNAL, Stone, Geoffrey R., 2004, Free Speech in World War II: When are you going to indict the seditionists?, International Journal of Constitutional Law, 2, 2, 334â€“367, 10.1093/icon/2.2.334, free, WEB,weblink weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20101014180328weblink">weblink dead, October 14, 2010, The Press: Coughlin Quits, May 18, 1942, March 13, 2011, Time, confining distribution to the Boston area, where it was distributed by private delivery trucks.JOURNAL, Stephen H., Norwood, Stephen H. Norwood, American Jewish History, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Marauding Youth and the Christian Front: Antisemitic Violence in Boston and New York During World War II, 2003, 91, 2, 233â€“267, 10.1353/ajh.2004.0055, 23887201, 162237834, Walker scheduled a hearing on permanent suspension for April 29, which was postponed until May 4.{{sfn|Marcus|1972|pp=209â€“214, 217}}Meanwhile, Biddle was also exploring the possibility of bringing an indictment against Coughlin for sedition as a possible "last resort".{{sfn|Tull|1965|p=235}} Hoping to avoid such a potentially sensational and divisive sedition trial, Biddle arranged to end the publication of Social Justice by meeting with banker Leo Crowley, a Roosevelt appointee and friend of Bishop Mooney. Crowley relayed Biddle's message to Bishop Mooney that the government was willing to "deal with Coughlin in a restrained manner if he [Mooney] would order Coughlin to cease his public activities".{{sfn|Marcus|1972|p=216}} Consequently, on May 1, Bishop Mooney ordered that Coughlin should stop his political activities and confine himself to his duties as a parish priest, warning him that his priestly faculties could potentially be removed if he refused to comply with the order. Coughlin complied with the order and was allowed to remain the pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower. The pending hearing before the Postmaster General, which had been scheduled to take place three days later, was canceled.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Later life

(File:Grave of Charles Edward Coughlin (1891â€“1979) at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Southfield, Michigan 1.jpg|thumb|right|Coughlin's grave at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery)Although he had been forced to end his public career in 1942, Coughlin served as a parish pastor until his retirement in 1966. On May 30, 1951, he attended the funeral of George A. Richards,NEWS, June 4, 1951, George Arthur Richards: 1889â€“1951, 40, 25, 91, Broadcasting-Telecasting, 23,weblink August 29, 2021, World Radio History, August 30, 2021,weblink live, who died following a long legal fight to keep his broadcast licenses amid accusations of antisemitismNEWS, Crosby, John, John Crosby (media critic), March 9, 1948, Radio In Review: Freedom Of Speech On The Air, 16, The Evening Review, New York Herald Tribune, East Liverpool, Ohio,weblink August 29, 2021, Newspapers.com, August 29, 2021,weblink live, and using the stations to further his political interests.NEWS, May 31, 1951, Pastor Calls G. A. Richards Death 'Murder', I-9, Los Angeles Times, United Press, Los Angeles, California,weblink August 30, 2021, Newspapers.com, August 30, 2021,weblink live, Coughlin died in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1979 at the age of 88.NEWS, October 28, 1979, The Rev. Charles E. Coughlin Dies: Noted as 'The Radio Priest',weblink live,weblink January 2, 2021, November 12, 2018, The Washington Post, en-US, 0190-8286, Church officials stated that he had been bedridden for several weeks.NEWS, Krebs, Albin, October 28, 1979, Charles Coughlin, 30's 'Radio Priest',weblink live,weblink January 2, 2021, November 12, 2018, The New York Times, en, He was buried in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan.WEB,weblink Holy Sepulchre {{!, Locations|website=cfcsdetroit.org|language=en-gb|access-date=November 12, 2018|archive-date=January 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102195121weblink|url-status=live}}

References in popular culture

Sax Rohmer's novel President Fu Manchu (1936) features a character based on Coughlin named Dom Patrick Donegal, a Catholic priest and radio host who is the only person who knows that a criminal mastermind is manipulating a U.S. presidential race.
In his song Lindbergh, Woody Guthrie references Coughlin, stating "yonder comes Father Coughlin wearing the silver chain, cash in his stomach and Hitler on the brain."WEB,weblink Lindbergh, genius.com, December 2, 2023, WEB,weblink Mister Charles Lindbergh, woodyguthrie.org, December 2, 2023,
Coughlin served as the inspiration for Bishop Prang in Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here.MAGAZINE,weblink Getting Close to Fascism with Sinclair Lewis's "It Can't Happen Here", Alexander, Nazaryan, The New Yorker, October 16, 2022, December 2, 2023, WEB,weblink Radioactive: Ep. 6: Social Justice, PBS, March 9, 2022, December 2, 2023, WEB,weblink LitCharts, Prang endorses Huey Long-parody Buzz Windrip, who defeats President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1936 U.S. Presidential election and sets up a fascist government.
Coughlin served as the inspiration for influential anti-semitic radio priest Father Crighton in Arthur Miller's 1945 novel Focus. The novel was later adapted into a movie in 2001, which also maintained the Father Crighton character.NEWS,weblink Trying to Keep Plausibility in 'Focus', Los Angeles Times, November 2, 2001, December 4, 2023, NEWS,weblink Focus' an obvious look at bigotry, Michael, Wilmington, Chicago Tribune, November 9, 2001, December 4, 2023,
Joe Steele by Harry Turtledove briefly features Coughlin as an outspoken critic of President Steele, an alternate universe Joseph Stalin. Steele silences Coughlin by accusing him of spying for the Nazis and has him sentenced to death. Ironically, Coughlin's defense attorney in the trial is Jewish.
Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) attacked Coughlin in a series of 1942 political cartoons.WEB,weblink Dr. Seuss Went to War, Libraries.ucsd.edu, February 9, 1942, May 24, 2017, January 2, 2021,weblink live,
The producers of the HBO television series CarnivÃ le (2003â€“2005) have said that Coughlin was a historical reference for the character of Brother Justin Crowe.WEB,weblink Carnivale press conference, December 26, 2013, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090429041919weblink">weblink April 29, 2009,
Philip Roth's novel The Plot Against America (2004) mentions Coughlin and his anti-Semitic radio addresses of the 1930s in several passages, and also portrays him as helping Charles Lindbergh form a pro-fascist United States government.NEWS, Roth, Philip, The Story Behind 'The Plot Against America', The New York Times,weblink April 12, 2021, September 19, 2004, April 10, 2021,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20210410185525weblink">weblink live,
In the MASH episode "The Bus" (S4E6), Frank Burns discusses meeting his first love during a high school debate as to whether Father Coughlin should be president.
In her podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow describes Father Coughlin's radio show and publications at length, mainly in the context of his support of the Christian Front during the failed attempt to convict them for their plans of a violent coup to overthrow the federal government.

Notes

References

Citations and references

Works cited

BOOK, Charles A., Beard, George H.E., Smith, Current Problems of Public Policy: A Collection of Materials,weblink registration, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1936, 54,
BOOK, Bennett, William J., America: The Last Best Hope, Vol. 1, New York, HarperCollins, 2007,
JOURNAL, Boyea, Earl, The Reverend Charles Coughlin and the Church: the Gallagher Years, 1930-1937, Catholic Historical Review, 81, 2, 1995, 211â€“225, 10.1353/cat.1995.0044, 163684965,
WEB,weblink American Bund - The Failure of American Nazism: The German-American Bund's Attempt to Create an American "Fifth Column", Jim, Bredemus, TRACES, March 2, 2011, 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110518142641weblink">weblink May 18, 2011, dead,
BOOK, Brinkley, Alan, Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression, New York, Vintage, 1983, 1982, 0-394-71628-0,
BOOK, Ronald H., Carpenter, Father Charles E. Coughlin, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998, 173,
NEWS, Coughlin, Charles, Column, The New York Times, February 27, 1939,
BOOK, Marc, Dollinger, 2000, Quest for Inclusion, Princeton University Press,
BOOK, Lawrence, DiStasi, Una storia segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment During World II,weblink registration, Heyday Books, May 1, 2001, 163, 978-1-890771-40-9,
BOOK, Kazin, Michael, The Populist Persuasion: An American History,weblink registration, New York, Basic Books, 1995, 0-465-03793-3,
BOOK, David M., Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929â€“1945,weblink registration, Oxford University Press, 1999, 232, 978-0-19-503834-7,
BOOK, Lawrence, John Shelton, Jewett, Robert, The Myth of the American Superhero,weblink registration, Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002, 132,
BOOK, Marcus, Sheldon, Father Coughlin: The Tumultuous Life Of The Priest Of The Little Flower,weblink registration, Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 1972, 0-316-54596-1,
BOOK, Maier, Thomas, The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings: A Five-Generation History of the Ultimate Irish-Catholic Family,weblink 2009, Basic Books, 978-0-7867-4016-1, October 10, 2018, January 2, 2021,weblink live,
BOOK, Peter C., Rollins, John E., O'Connor, Hollywood's White House: The American Presidency in Film and History, 2005, University Press of Kentucky, 160,
JOURNAL, Sayer, J., 1987, Father Charles Coughlin: Ideologue and Demagogue of the Depression, Journal of the Northwest Communication Association, 15, 1, 17â€“30,
BOOK, University of California Press, 978-0-520-25978-2, Schrag, Peter, Not Fit for Our Society: Nativism and Immigration, 2010,weblink
BOOK, Severin, Werner Joseph, Tankard, James W., James W. Tankard, Jr., Communication Theories, 5th revised, 2001, 1997, Longman, 0-8013-3335-0,weblink
BOOK, Shannon, William V., William V. Shannon, The American Irish: a political and social portrait, Univ of Massachusetts Press,weblink registration, Ku Klux Klan shrine of the little flower., 1989, 1963, 978-0-87023-689-1, 19670135, 298,
BOOK, Amanda, Smith, Hostage to Fortune, 2002, 122, 171, 379, 502,
BOOK, Tull, Charles J., Father Coughlin and the New Deal,weblink registration, Syracuse, N.Y., Syracuse University Press, 1965, 0-8156-0043-7,
JOURNAL, Turrini, Joseph M., Catholic Social Reform and the New Deal, Annotation, National Historical publications and Records Commission, 30, 1, March 2002, 7, 8, 19,weblink February 2, 2013, September 21, 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120921164238weblink">weblink live,
BOOK, Warren, Donald, Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin The Father of Hate Radio, New York, The Free Press, 1996, 0-684-82403-5,weblink
BOOK, David B., Woolner, Richard G., Kurial, FDR, the Vatican, and the Roman Catholic Church in America, 1933â€“1945,weblink limited, 2003, 275, 978-1-4039-6168-6,

External links

{{Internet Archive author |sname=Charles Coughlin |sopt=t}}
WEB,weblink Father Charles E. Coughlin; Social Security History, ssa.gov, Social Security Administration, August 26, 2016,
Father Coughlin & The Search For "Social Justice" Text
weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20101223070750weblink">Brief information on Coughlin, including an audio excerpt
Video of Father Coughlin attacking Roosevelt
weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090224203858weblink">History Channel Audio File- Father Coughlin denouncing the New Deal
American Jewish Committees extensive archive on Coughlin; includes contemporary pamphlets and correspondence
Father Charles Coughlin FBI Files at the Walter P. Reuther Library
Am I An Anti-Semite? by Charles Coughlin at archive.org
Father Charles Coughlin radio broadcasts at archive.org
{{PM20|FID=pe/003510}}
The 8-part podcast series Radioactive: The Father Coughlin Story by Exploring Hate on PBS
- Official podcast trailer

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Charles Coughlin

Early life and work

Radio broadcaster

Stances

Support for FDR

Opposition to FDR

Economic policies

Money supply should be controlled by Congress

Radio audience

Antisemitism

Backlash

Newspaper shutdown and end of political activities

Later life

References in popular culture

See also

Notes

References

Citations and references

Works cited

Further reading

External links