No Picketing

In New York City, every week, some 30,000 people attend meetings which Jews do well to avoid. At the meetings, held by groups with names like "Christian Front" and "Christian Mobilizers," the streets of upper Manhattan and The Bronx resound with cries of "Buy Christian," "Down with the Jews," "Wait till Hitler comes over here." Only the left-wing press has paid much attention to these gatherings, although in recent months they have resulted in more than 250 arrests and some 85 actual and suspended sentences. (Example last week: Patrick Kiernan, 38, reliefer; three months in the workhouse for an anti-Semitic speech--"disorderly conduct" on a Bronx street corner.)

Leadership of the "Christian" groups, if not their rank & file, is largely Irish Catholic. Among numerous Catholic priests who have been disturbed by the participation of Catholics in these groups is Rev. Paul B. Ward, Paulist father, editor of Wisdom (monthly Paulist organ). Few weeks ago the October Wisdom appeared with a brief story about how a leader of the Christian Mobilizers had gone south to a Ku Klux Klan meeting. Forthwith, Father Ward's office was ransacked. He was warned, anonymously, that his life was in danger. He was informed, by telephone, that his church would be picketed. Father Ward called the police.

Last week New York City's pugnacious little Mayor LaGuardia (an Episcopalian) banned the picketing of churches. He wrote his Police Commissioner: "There is no labor dispute involved, and in this country, where freedom of religion is guaranteed, theological differences or even philosophical controversies are not contemplated in the law permitting picketing. . . . There is nothing in the Norris-La-Guardia Act which permits the picketing of God. I ought to know."*

Ideological pontiff of the Christian Front, much as he today denies it, is the rabble-rousing baritone of Royal Oak, Mich., Rev. Charles Edward Coughlin. A successful phenomenon of Depression (during which he espoused inflation), a flop in Recovery (in 1936 he backed William Lemke to beat Franklin Roosevelt for President), Radiorator Coughlin began his comeback in Depression II. One Sunday in November last year, he shook his grey-flecked locks and launched into an explanation of why Hitler was renewing his persecutions of the Jews. Naziism, explained Father Coughlin, was a "defense mechanism" against Communism; and Communism was inspired by Jews.

Jews, left-wingers and some Catholics denounced Father Coughlin and his assertions, but his radio audience began to mount. During the winter, a Gallup poll indicated that he had 4,500,000 steady listeners, 15,000,000 occasional ones. At a Nazi Bund rally in Manhattan, Father Coughlin's name drew as many cheers as Hitler's. By summertime, Coughlinites in the East were organized and articulate enough to plan a parade into the "Jewish-Communist" enemy's territory, Manhattan's Union Square. Father Coughlin called them off. There were indications that he knew he had a bull by the tail. The word "Jew" appeared less often in his broadcasts, although it continued to sprinkle the pages of Social Justice, of which Father Coughlin pointed out he was only an "editorial counsel."

This week Father Coughlin celebrates his 48th birthday, in a new and spectacular way. For him will be held "Birthday Balls," like those for President Roosevelt. In Brooklyn, a Coughlin stronghold, an "American Citizens Committee" will hold a party whose proceeds (tickets 50-c-, box seats $1) will go to Father Coughlin, who will address the party by wire.

From Father Coughlin's critics the cry continues: Why doesn't the Catholic Church crack down on him? The answer is obvious. The Church's ranking leaders undeniably distrust and disapprove of the radio priest, but doing something about him might leave them with a schism on their hands. But what the Church will not do, the U. S. radio industry has attempted. The new National Association of Broadcasters code, if enforced by the 51 stations constituting Father Coughlin's pickup chain, would effectively bar him from the air as a lone-ranging controversialist. One station (WIRE of Indianapolis) has already barred Father Coughlin, but the showdown on all 51 may not come for some months. And before then there may be a new choosing-up of sides. Said the liberal, anti-Coughlin Christian Century last week: "We regard this as the worst possible way of dealing with his brand of demagoguery."

* The Norris-LaGuardia Act, of which Congressman LaGuardia was coauthor, merely restricts Federal Court injunctions against pickets; it does not forbid mayors giving orders to policemen.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.