Father
Charles Coughlin, the radio priest,
gradually grew disillusioned with President Franklin
D. Roosevelt and on 11th November, 1934, he announced the formation
of the National Union of Social Justice. At this time some observers
claimed that Father Coughlin was the second most important political
figure in the United States.
It was estimated that Coughlin's radio broadcasts were getting an
audience of 30 million people. He also claimed to be receiving 400,000
letters per week. As well as his radio broadcasts he also began publishing
Social Justice Weekly, a journal
which soon achieved a circulation of one million copies.
In
May 1935 Charles Coughlin began having
talks with Huey Long, Francis
Townsend, Gerald L. K. Smith, Milo
Reno and Floyd B. Olson about a joint
campaign to take on President Franklin
D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential elections. Long was expected
to the candidate but he was assassinated on 8th September, 1935.
After
the death of Long Joseph Kennedy attempted
to reconcile Father Coughlin and Roosevelt. The conference in September
1935 was a failure and the following year Coughlin joined with Francis
Townsend, Gerald L. K. Smith and
followers of the late Huey Long to take
on Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election.
The
National Union of Social Justice selected William
Lepke from North Dakota, as the party's candidate, but he won
only 882,479 votes compared to Franklin
D. Roosevelt (27,751,597) and Alfred Landon
(16,679,583). Lemke polled 13 per cent of the vote in North Dakota
but less than 6.5 per cent in other areas such as Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where he was
expected to do well.
(1)
Charles
Edward Coughlin, Principles of the National
Union of Social Justice (1936)
Establishing my principles upon upon this preamble, namely, that we
are all creatures
of a beneficent God, made to love and serve Him in this world and
to enjoy Him forever in the next; and that all this world's wealth
of field and forest, of mine and river has been bestowed upon us by
a kind Father, therefore, I believe that wealth as we know it originates
from the natural resources and from the labor which the sons of God
expend upon these resources. It is all ours except for the harsh,
cruel and grasping ways of wicked men who first concentrated wealth
into the hands of a few, then dominated states and finally commenced
to pit state against state in the frightful catastrophes of commercial
warfare.
With this as a preamble,
then, these following shall be the principles of social justice towards
whose realization we must strive.
1. I believe in the right
of liberty of conscience and liberty of education, not permitting
the state to dictate either my worship to my God or my chosen avocation
in life.
2.1 believe that every
citizen willing to work and capable of working shall receive a just
and living annual wage which will enable him to maintain and
educate his family according
to the standards of American decency.
3. I believe in nationalizing
those public necessities which by their very nature
are too important to be held in the control of private individuals.
By these I mean banking,
credit and currency, power, light, oil and natural gas and
our God-given natural resources.
4. I believe in private
ownership of all other property.
5. I believe in upholding
the right to private property yet in controlling it
for the public good.
6. I believe in the abolition
of the privately owned Federal Reserve Banking
system and in the establishment of a Government owned Central Bank.
7. I believe in rescuing
from the hands of private owners the right to coin and
regulate the value of money, which right must be restored to Congress
where it belongs.
8. I believe that one
of the chief duties of this Government owned Central Bank
is to maintain the cost of living on an even keel and the repayment
of dollar debts with
equal value dollars.
9. I believe in the cost
of production plus a fair profit for the farmer.
10. I believe not only
in the right of the laboring man to organize in unions but
also in the duty of the Government which that laboring man supports
to facilitate and
to protect these organizations against the vested interests of wealth
and of intellect.
11 . I believe in the
recall of all non-productive bonds and thereby in the alleviation
of taxation.
12. I believe in the abolition
of tax-exempt bonds.
13. I believe in the broadening
of the base of taxation founded upon the ownership
of wealth and the capacity to pay.
14. I believe in the simplification
of government, and the further lifting of
crushing taxation from the slender revenues of the laboring class.
15. I believe that in
the event of a war for the defense of our nation and its
liberties, there shall be a conscription of wealth as well as a conscription
of men.
16. I believe in preferring
the sanctity of human rights to the sanctity of property rights. I
believe that the chief concern of government shall be for the poor
because, as it is witnessed, the rich have ample means of their own
to care for themselves.
These are my beliefs.
These are the fundamentals of the organization which I present to
you under the name of the NATIONAL UNION FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE. It is
your privilege to reject or accept my beliefs; to follow me or repudiate
me.
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