National Union for Social Justice

Reverend Charles E. Coughlin (1891–1979) was a Canadian-born Roman Catholic priest and radio celebrity based in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, Michigan. His sermons, aired on Sundays, often featured populist, anti-Communist, and antisemitic claims. At the peak of his popularity, Coughlin had as many as forty million devoted weekly listeners. [...] Coughlin remained a parish priest until his retirement in 1966.

National Union for Social Justice (NUSJ) was a United States political movement formed on 11 November 1934 by Father Charles Coughlin in response to the Great Depression. It heavily criticized communism, capitalism, and the presidential administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, while also advocating for the nationalization of utilities and banks. The unions's weekly radio program became famous as the "Hour of Power".

History

Preamble and principles

Social Justice

Father Coughlin first took to the airwaves in 1926, broadcasting weekly sermons over the radio. By the early 1930s the content of his broadcasts had shifted from theology to economics and politics. Just as the rest of the nation was obsessed by matters economic and political in the aftermath of the Depression, so too was Father Coughlin. He began as an early Roosevelt supporter, coining a famous expression, that the nation's choice was between "Roosevelt or ruin." He gradually grew disillusioned with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and on 11 November, 1934, he announced the formation of the National Union of Social Justice.

I am not boasting when I say to you that I know the pulse of the people. I know it better than all your newspaper men. I know it better than do all your industrialists with your paid-for advice. I am not exaggerating when I tell you of their demand for social justice which, like a tidal wave, is sweeping over this nation. Nor am I happy to think that, through my broadcasts, I have placed myself today in a position to accept the challenge which these letters carry to me--a challenge for me to organize these men and women of all classes not for the protection of property rights as does the American Liberty League; not for the protection of political spoils as do the henchmen of the Republican or Democratic parties. Away with them too! But, happy or unhappy as I am in my position, I accept the challenge to organize for obtaining, for securing and for protecting the principles of social justice.To organize for action, if you will! To organize for social united action which will be founded on God-given social truths which belong to Catholic and Protestant, to Jew and Gentile, to black and white, to rich and poor, to industrialist and to laborer.

At this time some observers claimed that Father Coughlin was the second most important political figure in the United States. The group claimed 7.5 million members clustered into thousands of local units. The NUSJ purpose was the betterment of all people regardless of race or religious background. In a "Questions and Answers" column of the paper Social Justice it was revealed that “colored persons” who are register voters were permitted to join the NUSJ. The claim was also made that some units of the NUSJ in larger urban areas were made up entirely of colored persons. In addition “all creeds” and non-religious persons were permitted to join.

On 13 March 1936, the NUSJ was dissolved and became the foundation of the Union Party, a third political party with William Frederick Lemke formed to unseat President Roosevelt. The Union Party was disbanded shortly after the 1936 elections. Father Coughlin announced his retirement from the airwaves immediately after the disappointing returns of the 1936 election, but returned to the air within a couple of months, the paper Social Justice continued to be published.

Principles

My friends, the outworn creed of capitalism is done for. The clarion call of communism has been sounded. I can support one as easily as the other. They are both rotten! But it is not necessary to suffer any longer the slings and arrows of modern capitalism any more than it is to surrender our rights to life, to liberty and to the cherished bonds of family to communism. The high priests of capitalism bid us beware of the radical and call upon us to expel him from our midst. There will be no expulsion of radicals until the causes which breed radicals will first be destroyed! [...] It is for the youth of the nation. It is for the brains of the nation. It is for the farmers of the nation. It is for everyone in the nation. Establishing my principles upon this preamble, namely, that we are creatures of a beneficent God, made to love and to serve Him in this world and to enjoy Him forever in the next; that all this world's wealth of field, of forest, of mine and of river has been bestowed upon us by a kind Father, therefore I believe that wealth, as we know it, originates from natural resources and from the labor which the children 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. Following this preamble, these shall be the principles of social justice towards the realization of which we must strive:

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.

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.

I believe in nationalizing those public resources which by their very nature are too important to be held in the control of private individuals.

I believe in private ownership of all other property.

I believe in upholding the right to private property but in controlling it for the public good.

I believe in the abolition of the privately owned Federal Reserve Banking system and in the establishment of a Government owned Central Bank.

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 belong.

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.

I believe in the cost of production plus a fair profit for the farmer.

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.

I believe in the recall of all non-productive bonds and therefore in the alleviation of taxation.

I believe in the abolition of tax-exempt bonds.

I believe in broadening the base of taxation according to the principles of ownership and the capacity to pay.

I believe in the simplification of government and the further lifting of crushing taxation from the slender revenues of the laboring class.

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.

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. Hitherto you have been merely an audience. Today, in accepting the challenge of your letters, I call upon every one of you who is weary of drinking the bitter vinegar of sordid capitalism and upon everyone who is fearsome of being nailed to the cross of communism to join this Union which, if it is to succeed, must rise above the concept of an audience and become a living, vibrant, united, active organization, superior to politics and politicians in principle, and independent of them in power. This work cannot be accomplished in one week or two weeks or in three months, perchance. But it must begin today, at this moment. It shall be a Union for the employed and the unemployed, for the old and the young, for the rich and the poor, independent of race, color or creed. It is my answer to the challenge received from the youth of the nation; my answer to those who have dared me to act!... This is the new call to arms — not to become cannon fodder for the greedy system of an outworn capitalism nor factory fodder for the slave whip of communism. This is the new call to arms for the establishment of social justice! God wills it! Do you?

See also

• Christian Front

External links

• More on the National Union, November 1934, in: A Series of Lectures on Social Justice, 1935–1936