Posted on 05/02/2009 8:00:15 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan
FWIW, here’s a link to a transcript of the famous speech where Coughlin “defended” the Nazis after Crystal Night.
http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/kristallnacht/CoughlinTranscript.pdf
Make up your own mind whether it’s anti-semitic.
Personally, I think the guy, at least in this speech, made a good deal of sense when read in context. Certain segments, when viewed in isolation, are certainly anti-semitic, but I’m not sure the whole speech in context comes across as such.
He’s certainly far too unconcerned about the growing power of the Nazis, however, IMO.
He also suffers from the disease of the partisan. He only sees the crimes committed against his own side, as in his description of the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and of the Church/State troubles in Mexico. There was plenty of blame to go around in those conflicts, but Coughlin could see only one side.
The U.S. population during Coughlin’s time on the radio was 110-120 million. Coughlin broadcast from 1926 to 1940-41. He became a major public figure in Detroit in 1926 when the KKK burned a cross on his front lawn.
In response to the November 10, 1938, "Kristallnacht" attack on Jews in German-controlled territory, Coughlin began by asking, "Why is there persecution in Germany today?" He went on to explain that "Jewish persecution only followed after Christians first were persecuted."
http://www.authentichistory.com
The Common Good.
It is a term from Catholic moral theology, that has been in steady use for at least 700 years.
Guess y’all have to throw in the 30 million who listened to Fr. Coughlin’s radio show weekly as all that too!
They were very turbulent times.
Charles Coughlin was a great man. He was against the World Federal Reserve banking system and inevitably it was to be he’d rail against the WASPS and Jews who ran and so benefitted. He and Henry Ford were the great voices of the time against the Bank Overlords.
Not to be a Axis sympathizer, but have y’all ever asked yourselves what bound Germany, Italy and Japan (and also Spain-now let’s not get into that one)? It was that these countries openly fought the World Federalist Banking system.
WWII was godless and had NO winners.
It appears that Mr Coughlin was anti-Semite. You, Arthur, support him because he is Roman Catholic, from what I read. I guess that makes sense in the Vatican, but it doesn't reflect reality.
Glenn Beck is a Mormon, I think. I disagree with his theology. But, he speaks with a lot of truth, and there is no error on this pronouncement by him.
You’re the last of the Coughlin defenders; he was a pretty well documented anti-Semite, at the very least. In any event, congratulations to your preserverence.
Of course he was notorious. And it isn’t slander to say he was notorious.
He was also Irish. And it isn’t slander to say he was Irish.
So what does that prove?
Here’s the tricky part: obtaining text of Coughlin’s many radio addresses would be an exhaustive task -if it were even possible; so the David Duke crowd can get away with peddling this nonsense to the ignorant/arrogant youngsters who make up so much of their following.
A lot of Irish had sympathies with the Nazis because out of their hatred of England.
i WOULD SAY u.s. POPULATION WAS MORE LIKELY LESS THAN 125 MILLION. tHE u.s,. POPULATION DIDN’T REACH 200 MILLION UNTIL THE 1970’S AND TOOK ANOTHER 10 - 15 YEARS TO REACH 250 MILLION. 40 MILLION LISTENNERS AT THAT TIME WOULD HAVE BEEN A SUBSTANTIAL PORTION OF THE TOTAL POPULATION
Yes I recall the number at 40 million now you have it. I stated 30 million.
Beck’s a prot, along with many FReepers here.
If you’re interested, see post 41 for a link to the entire speech you reference.
As I’m sure you’re aware, sound bites taken out of context can be unfair to the speaker.
Why not read the whole speech and see what he really said?
I’m a Catholic and I think Coughlin was scum.
Following this preamble, these shall be the principles of social justice towards the realization of which we must strive:
1. I believe in 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. I believe that every citizen willing to work and capable of working shall receive a just, living, annual wage which will enable him both to maintain and educate his family according to the standards of American decency.
3. I believe in nationalizing those public resources which by their very nature are too important to be held in the control of private individuals.
4. I believe in private ownership of all other property.
5. I believe in upholding the right to private property but 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 arrange for 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 protect these organizations against the vested interests of wealth and of intellect.
11. I believe in the recall of all non-productive bonds and therefore in the alleviation of taxation.
12. I believe in the abolition of tax-exempt bonds.
13. I believe in broadening the base of taxation according to the principles of ownership 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; for 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 to accept my beliefs; to follow me or to repudiate me.
Obtaining text of his radio addresses might be a task, but I found sites with links to audio.
Coughlin was a very strange person. He had actually started out very brilliantly, but he seems to have veered off and gotten more and more extreme as time went by. FDR initially tried to use him, but they had a parting of the ways and Coughlin became an enemy (particularly of the Democratic Party, which of course “owned” all of the Catholic world at that point).
Was he anti-Semitic, or was this simply part of the attack on him? I don’t know; to me, his case has always seemed like the crash-and-burn of somebody who was mentally ill or had had a nervous breakdown. It would certainly be interesting to know more about him.
Did you listen to him and read his articles, or were you “there” in the sense that you heard what was said about him.
I have listened to several dozen broadcasts (as far as I know, all the ones available). There is not one anti-Semitic or racist statement in all the broadcasts I’ve listened to. Regarding persecution of Jews or anyone else, there is nothing but condemnation.
Among the broadcasts that are available are those of late 1838, in the wake of new Nazi confiscation laws and Kristallnacht, which are the ones most often CLAIMED to be anti-Semitic. What they contain are complaints against the silence of FDR concerning the genocides of Lenin and Stalin, and the atrocities and mass murder committed by the Communist Republicans in Spain. It is those complaints that provoked smears against Coughlin. His broadcasts contained only condemnation of ALL persecution—whether against Christians or Jews.
It was Coughlin’s enemies who had a double standard—as the Left still does. The Left is never critical of atrocities and genocide committed by Communists. Note how our current leader snuggles up to the Castros, Ortega, Chavez, etc.
“What they contain are complaints against the silence of FDR concerning the genocides of Lenin and Stalin,”
Thats the truth and there were very few that spoke out on communist genocide including Ford, Hearst,Patton, and Lindbergh - they all got the “antisemite” treatment too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.