Driving Out the Money Changers

Charles E. Coughlin

THE SALVATION OF CAPITALISM

Standing upon the shore of life’s tempestuous sea, I have beheld through the mariner’s glass of history many political ships battered to pieces by the winds of passion and of greed.  Thus, I am too much of a realist to subscribe to any optimistic theory that our capitalistic democracy can escape the inevitable reefs of destruction unless it envisions the wreckage which time has strewn before it and then guides its course along the waters of the channel charted for it by the Great Mariner of Eternity

In last Sunday’s discourse I pointed out that capitalism must withdraw from its practice of usury or from hiring out money for unproductive and destructive purposes.  This is only one of the imminent dangers which threatens its existence.

Today, may I weave together a few thoughts relative to the salvation of Capitalism.  May I counteract a few current practices which are tending to destroy capitalism from within.

II

Possessed of a flourishing faith our forebears devised ways and means of borrowing from the future to expand the present.  In a short space of one hundred and fifty years, with scarcely any money at their disposal, both they and we have accomplished more for America than did our European ancestors in the past fifteen hundred years accomplish for their native lands.  Future historians well may marvel at the progress and prosperity which have marked the brilliant career of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Let them tell the story of the railroads whose pathways of steel have supplanted the trail of moose and deer.  Let them picture how forests have become cities teeming with culture and industry, or recount the epic of the motor car, the airplane or the radio.  But these mighty accomplishments pale into insignificance compared to the mutual faith which we, the citizens of this nation, placed in each other.  It was this mutual confidence which was responsible fqr our magnificent development.  It was this basic fundamental virtue of capitalism without which we could not have had our railroads and our development.

But evil days seem to have come upon capitalism—an economic system based upon mutual trust and confidence—as once evil days overshadowed Christianity—a religion builded upon mutual love.

In the early ages of Christianity pagans were accustomed to marvel at the love of those who chose to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.  “See how they love one another”, was the universal observation.  And in future days it shall be said of our dying generation :  “See how they trusted one another.”

The universal love of Christians for one another would have endured throughout the centuries had their leaders remained faithful.  Bloodshed, the desecration of the Thirty Years War, the bigotry and the mad antipathies which since have so often characterized the followers of Christ would not have come into being except through the doorway of internal abuses.

Nor would Communism or Socialism, strikes or discontent and above all a break-down of confidence have confronted us today had capitalism remained faithful to this fundamental principle upon which it was established.

My friends, that is why I am not afraid in the face of ignorant, superstitious criticism to place my finger upon the cancerous sores which are gnawing away at the vitals of our economic structure ;  festering sores which must be healed, before healthy confidence can be restored.

III

First, let me paint for you a verbal picture whose original has been multiplied, unfortunately, throughout our fair land.  Call it, if you will, “The Return of the Unknown Soldier.”

I wonder what would be the reaction of the Unknown Soldier should his spirit come back to this mortal life ?  He would seek out his mother and his father on the little farm where they lived.  The farm is still there.  The house is desolate.  The porch has sunken in.  The barn is empty.

He listens as the postman tells some stranger that the former dwellers in that place which was once called home went to the poor house five years ago.  Now they have died of broken hearts !

Disconsolate, the Soldier hurries off to the great city where his younger brother lives.  Surely there will be a vision of sunshine in Joe’s home.  Joe is married.  Joe has three kiddies who would be anxious to hear about France, about Foch, about Armentieres, about the scarlet wound where death entered in—anxious to hear could he but speak !

“Yes, this is Joe’s home.”

While he pauses before the door he sees a baby hand scratching away at the window panes which are silvered with frost.  There is a strange silence which hangs ominously over the entire street.  The Unknown Soldier enters through the closed door, unseen, unheard !

“Why there is Joe !  But it can’t be the same little brother !  How old he has become—that fearful cough, those deep wrinkles, such shabby clothes !”

There are signs of lean poverty everywhere he looks.

Three or four dilapidated pieces of furniture, a cold bleak floor, a sickly fire sputtering in a midget stove !  And in the bedroom lies Joe’s wife, thin and wan with cheeks stained with the pearls of suffering.

“What has happened to the sunshine ?”  “Where is the cheer, the laughter ? ”

May I tell you, Soldier Boy, what Joe would answer if he thought that he could address you ?

Oh Soldier, Joe would tell you that he and 12-million more sufferers, jobless, hungry and desolate, are living proofs that the Great War which was fought to make the world safe for democracy, for prosperity, was a damnable, money-mad hypocrisy.

If Joe only knew that you were standing here like a Lazarus come back from the tomb, he would say :

“This is not the same America from which you sailed in 1917.  Millions of farmers like mother and dad have forgotten how to smile.  Millions of workmen and their families like Mary and myself and the kiddies are fighting a worse war than you and your buddies ever dreamed of.

“And why this poverty ?  All because I can’t find work.  Why is there no work ?  Because there is no money.”

And so would dawn upon the Unknown Soldier the suspicion that perhaps he had helped make the world safe for—well, not for democracy, at any rate.

Oh, how vividly he remembers the day when he enlisted to go overseas ;  remembers how on the City Hall Steps of New York a smiling movie actress sold Liberty Bonds.  Billions and billions of dollars worth of them were purchased by those of us who stayed at home while the band played “My Country, ’tis of Thee” when it should have been playing “My Wall Street, ’tis of Thee”.

“Yes, Soldier Boy, you went to France, and fifteen years later our country went broke.  The big railroads have few passengers to carry.  Miles and miles of freight cars stand like ghosts upon sidings from here to San Francisco.  Down in the harbor there are hundreds of ships rusting at anchor.  The farmers out west can hardly give away their crops.  The Darkies have ceased singing in the cotton fields.  The country banks have their backs against the wall.  And the big metropolitan banks and many wealthy corporations and individuals are living on the profits of more than $12-billion worth of those war bonds, those Liberty Bonds and the like which you thought were going to help keep your dad and mother on the farm and your kid brother Joe and his family with a smile on their lips.

“Oh, we have been sorely distressed in America since you ‘went west.’  Billions of more dollars were borrowed from the people to help those railroads and banks.  But mighty few cents have been spent to keep the wolf from the door of the factory worker or the roof over the head of the farmer.

“You can hardly believe it, can you ?  You are trying to ask me what we are doing about it ?

“Why during these last four years we have been ostriches with our heads in the sand, practically refusing to admit that anything was wrong with the great United States of America.

“Well, really there isn’t so much wrong with the country.  The people are just as good as ever.  In fact they are better.  But I am afraid that the word ‘democracy’ has changed its meaning since you were here last.  I am afraid that it means ‘plutocracy’.  Too many financial institutions prefer to invest in war bonds, in our misery, rather than in our prosperity and industry.

“But things are looking brighter.  We have had a new deal promised to us.  We are awakening to the fact that we can’t borrow ourselves out of debt ;  that we can’t live on the debts of other people.  We are beginning to admit that the poor people, the factory worker and the farmer cannot be expected to make the rich richer for the billions of dollars which we spent in the name of the Great War to dig ourselves into the hole of the depression.

“Next spring when the cherry blossoms bloom along the shore of the Potomac, when the birds sing and when little children can romp out doors in God’s sunshine and warmth, there will be school boys mingling with Senators and Congressmen and silk-hatted diplomats visiting your tomb.  In their hands they will carry wreaths of flowers.  On their lips there will be words of praise for your valor.

“Buddy, I hope that within their hearts they will say an act of contrition not only for the sinfulness that cut short your life and the lives of 20-million other boys, but also for the hypocrisy which forced Joe and his fellow countrymen to suffer and hunger to preserve the sanctity of profiteering war debts—debts, which like nails, have crucified the world to the cross of gold ;  debts, which like a Barabbas are preferred to the happiness and comfort of the men and women of this nation, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.

“Go back to your tomb, Buddy.  And as you go, look not at the mud flats of Anacostia ;  for but a few months ago your more unfortunate buddies, who came back from overseas, went down there peacefully to encamp and to ask for bread or for a job.  Instead of getting a job they were scorched with fire.  Somebody called them the ‘B.E.F.’-the ‘Bonus Expeditionary Force’.  They were too late.  The other ‘B.E.F.’ got there first—the ‘Bankers’ Expeditionary Force’.”

“But as you pass by Lincoln’s monument, stop and look at his worried face which dreams in brooding bronze.  Look !  And enter again into your peaceful tomb.  There rest in peace !  For his immortal words shall not have been spoken in vain.  This country is ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’—it was not intended to be of the few and by the few and for the few !

“Soldier Boy, I swear, you have not died in vain.”

“Rest in peace, Soldier Boy.”

“Better days are coming.  While the sharp sword of winter’s piercing frost remains unsheathed, we will do our best to feed and clothe your Joe and his little family and all those who have suffered because of the “Great Mistake”.

IV

“Sentiment,” do you call this ?  There is no sentiment about it.  I have picturized what is really transpiring in our midst.

It is the cruelest, most destructive fact in all America.

If we are honest, we will admit it.  We will admit that this picture has been reproduced twelve million times too often.  We will admit that both the copies and the original of it must be destroyed if that mutual confidence upon which capitalism exists, can continue to survive and flourish.

V

Let us pass, now, from verbal pictures to prosaic facts to see if confidence is really being destroyed and if we can help restore it before it is too late.

For the past four years we have been patiently awaiting for some definite solution to be proposed as a curative for the economic and financial evils from which we are suffering.

For the past four years we have been anticipating that our national budget would be balanced and that the personal budgets of corporations and of individuals would likewise be balanced in order that prosperity can return.

The only solutions offered up to date were negative.  In the face of 9-million unemployed men, it was proposed to cut wages and to cut operating costs of production.  That is the way to get back prosperity !  This resulted in the increasing of unemployment to 12-million and in slowing down production 36 per cent.

Then there was an effort to meet the situation by an increase in taxation.  What happened ?

Prices fell ;  the budget became more unbalanced ;  national and private debts became more burdensome.

Finally within the last few months came a multitude of suggestions aimed at increasing the purchasing power of the nation ;  aimed at circulating more currency dollars among its citizens.

In this classification of suggestions we were advised by radicals to forsake the gold standard and by conservatives to revaluate or normalize our gold through the recalling of the usurious bonds, which more than anything else have destroyed the practical functioning of our money system.  The other policies had ended in failure.  This new policy held out a fresh hope.  But like everything new it was scoffed at.  Like the steam engine, the motor car, the radio !  Shallow critics said it could not work.

Now when practically every person in this nation has diagnosed our economic illness as one associated with the famine of money, it is also akin to tragedy to discover so much ignorant opposition which has been marshalled like toy soldiers to oppose what inevitably must follow.

First of all, it is distressing to discover that some bankers, many Congressmen and even a few Senators have not grasped the fundamental laws associated with the word “money” or “standard of money.”

Let us get this point clear :  A standard of money, be it a gold standard or a silver standard or an ivory standard, must work on the same principles under the system of capitalism.  It means that if the structure of money wishes to endure and function under the system of capitalism, this money first shall be divided into three parts, namely basic money ;  secondly, spending money, and thirdly, borrowing money.

Capitalism demands that there be a sane extension of credit money.  Civilization demands that there be a sane amount of currency money.  And honesty demands that there be a sane existence of basic money.

Now, these three parts of money must be related to each other in the proper proportion: namely, 1 unit of basic money, 2½ units of spending money and, at the most, 12 units of borrowing or credit or debt money, as you will call it.

That is what we mean by the standard of money, namely 1 to 2½ to 12, just as we mean by the standard of measurement 1 yard equals 3 feet or 36 inches—1 to 3 to 36.

I repeat that I am amazed at the ignorance of this fundamental thought—the colossal ignorance which exists in the minds of so many ordinarily well-informed men.

Thus, if gold happens to be our basic money it certainly must exist in the proportions of 1 to 2½ to 12.  If silver happens to be our basic money it must exist in the proportions of 1 to 2½ to 12, etc.  It makes no difference what the basic money is.  The proportion, the relativity of basic to spending to borrowing, that is what constitutes the standard of money.

VI

Now I am tremendously pleased with the progress this country has achieved since it has dedicated itself to regulate its finances with gold as its basic money.

More than that :  I have that hope in the future to realize that since our nation is so well equipped with gold—possessing 47 per cent of the entire amount that exists in the commercial world today—I have that hope in the United States to foresee that by retaining gold as our basis of financial activities, we will be able to accomplish more in the next one hundred fifty years than was accomplished during the past one hundred fifty years provided that while we adhere to gold as our basis, we shall not forget the common standard of 1 to 2½ to 12 upon which gold or silver or any other kind of money must operate.

Thus then, if gold happens to be valuated at $20.67 an ounce—that is not the gold standard.  That valuation of gold is an accident that has no substantial relation whatsoever to the real standard of money.

May I clarify that statement by using another example :  A human being is defined as a rational animal.  He is an animal with a body and with a soul that is capable of thinking.  That is the standard.  If he happens to be a Chinaman or a Frenchman or an American ;  if he happens to be 12 years old or 50 years old or 100 years old ;  if he happens to be 3 feet tall or 5 feet tall or 6 feet tall ;  or if he should weigh 100 or 130 or 190 pounds—these things are accidents.  They do not constitute the standard of what a man is any more than the valuation of gold at $5.00 an ounce or $20.00 an ounce or 100.00 an ounce constitutes the gold standard.

The word gold is only an adjective which describes the substantial thing called money.  And the common standard of all capitalistic money must conform to the definition of 1 basic unit to 2½ spending units to 12 units of debt or of credit.

Thus, my friends, when we behold the financial picture which confronts us today, what is the truth of the matter ?  Are we adhering to the standard, or has it been set aside ?  Is capitalism preserving itself when it so openly disregards the standard of its own money ?

Here is the answer :  We have 4½-billion units of gold money retained within our nation.  We should have 11-billions of spending or currency units.  We should have no more than 54-billion units of debt money.  But instead we have in reality only 3-billions of spending money and 235-billions of the debt money instead of 54 billions.  Somebody had upset the applecart! The debts are a fact.  Christianity orders us to pay them.  So does Law.  So does the voice of civilization.  Let us adjust the value of an ounce of gold to make possible the payment of these debts.  Let us “regulate” the value of gold so that the formula of Capitalistic money can be restored 1 to 2½ to 12 !

Thus, I am sure that this audience has sufficient intelligence to understand that those who are advocating most strenuously that we must not leave the gold standard are the very ones who have really forced us off the gold standard.  Revaluating or normalizing the dollar is merely a sane attempt to restore the logical standard of money, without which capitalism cannot endure two years longer.

And what is my suggestion ?  First of all, let us return to the real standard of money by a process or revaluation or restoration or normalization, whatever word you care to use.  The point is, let us return to the scientific standard of money without which unemployment will not cease, industry will remain crippled, and distress shall not depart from us, and revolution shall absolutely come among us.

When this happens, blame not the Communists or the Socialists.  Blame those who are impeding the restoration of the standard of money upon which capitalism can operate.

VII

Now we are confronted with certain facts which neither optimism nor wishing can remove.  Action is required.

The first fact is that we have accumulated $235-billion worth of national and private debts which either must be paid or else repudiated.

Since these debts have upset and unbalanced the scientific standard of money, what will happen ?  Well, one of two things can logically happen.  The first is this :  By a legal process these debts will be melted down either through individuals or corporations going into bankruptcy and saying that they cannot pay them.  Then the law will step in and decree the inability of the debtor to pay anything more than 10 cents on the dollar or 15 cents on the dollar.  Then, the law will wipe off the books the outstanding debt, to the loss of the person or persons to whom they are owed.  Or else the farmers of this nation, the householders who are paying on contract and all such similar persons will say :  “We are not going to pay our debts.  Try and collect.”

Is this not being done practically in every State in the Union today ?  Is this not the repudiation of which I have been talking ?

Now, I ask you to answer this most important question :

Do not both these things which I have mentioned—bankruptcy and repudiation—do not both these things tend to destroy the confidence and the credit upon which the structure of capitalism has been built ?  Do not the closed banks which in one sense have either become bankrupt or, if you care to say, have repudiated their obligations to their depositors—do not these closed banks destroy more confidence in a day than the sweet words of oratory and optimism can ever upbuild in a century ?  And in turn, have not the banks lost confidence in the citizens insofar as they dare not execute the customary loans ?

Because we have upset the standard of money, we have attempted to destroy confidence.

When confidence goes the structure of capitalism tumbles.

But, my friends, all this is not necessary.  There is a safe way, a sane way of restoring our money standard to normalcy and thereby restoring confidence.

It is the method which can save capitalism from a certain destruction which awaits it within the next ten years.  It is this :  Let us revaluate not the gold standard :  that is beyond the power of any human man as much as it is beyond the power of any chemist to revaluate the standard elements which enter into the nature of water.  But let us theoretically revaluate the gold itself, which is only another way of saying, let us practically restore the standard of money as it should be under the system of capitalism.

As we have only approximately $3-billion of currency money in real circulation when we should have $11-billions of it, therefore, by legislation put forth as much more money, namely, approximately $8-billion, into the hands and pockets and purses of our people, but through legitimate channels.  What method can we use to do this ?

For the past few Sundays I have been pointing out how unintelligent, how immoral it was for us to have builded up such tremendous unproductive debts against which there are heavy interest bearing obligations.

Once more, I repeat, let us recall those war bonds and if necessary, sufficient government bonds upon which $400-million are being paid in taxes to our Government who in turn, hands this $400-million over to its bond holders.

Give to the banks and to the wealthy individuals who hold these bonds currency money, which bears no interest when it is idle or when it is resting in the vaults of a bank.

Then the bankers or the millionaires who hold these bonds will be forced when they receive the currency money to invest it or else pay the penalty for keeping idle money in idle vaults.

My friends, that is the most conservative, scientific and moral proposal which I can suggest.  That is the practical way of revaluating the gold ounce.  That is the safe and sane way of rescuing capitalism from the enemies who dwell within its ranks.

VIII

I do not pretend that this proposal is a cure-all for the many ailments from which capitalism is suffering.  But I do know that those who are arguing against the restoration of a standard of money which the war profiteers have destroyed—I do know that they refuse to face this argument but rather they content themselves with harping upon such words as “inflation” which no one is proposing.  And in harping on it, they are surrendering the confidence which the American people have placed in public utterances.  Dishonest or ignorant propaganda has overreached itself to such a degree that it is discrediting what it is hoping to save.

For instance, Mr. Walter Lippmann, who enjoys such a tremendous and well-earned reputation among the reading public of this nation, seemingly misconstrues the entire subject when he writes as follows :  “When a currency inflation gets under way the ordinary man, the small farmer, the man with a few savings, the wage-earner, the small business man, finds himself utterly bewildered as to what to do.  He does not know how to take advantage of a wildly fluctuating currency.”

That is the opinion which he has expressed, forgetful that the wildly fluctuating currency of which he talks is that which exists today when a dollar contains 163 cents and when a farmer is forced to pay $203.00 on his $100.00 mortgage.

Inflation of currency only begins when the standard of money which is 1 to 2½ to 12, has been destroyed.  There is no inflation in bringing things back to normal.  The American people know this.  They are beginning to suspect that those who oppose normalization are using unfair tactics to uphold a dishonest dollar.

Others, like Senator Reed of Pennsylvania, denounce the proposals of those who would normalize our money standard which today lies stricken and maimed upon the doorsteps of our nation, denounce it by stating that it is “stealing from one class to help another.”

What kind of philosophy is that ?  Is the Senator not forced by logic to admit that, therefore, he wishes the continuance of the present unsound standard of money which forces us to pay 163 cents for every dollar’s worth of commodities we buy ;  which forces the farmer to expend 203 cents for every dollar of debt that he owes ?

My dear Senator, the stealing is on the other side !

The present dishonest dollar buys too much labor, too much wheat, too much real estate.  It is a highwayman’s dollar which robs the laborer, the farmer and the home-owner.

And again there is that third type who is opposed to the suggestions which I have here expressed.  They are men who find themselves in the same category as Representative Luce of Massachusetts.  These clumsy defenders of capitalism do the most harm.  Because of his public radio utterances, it may, be well to answer the Congressman more at length.

IX

Last Monday evening there was a banquet held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City, at which were present approximately 450 of the financial leaders from Wall Street.

The real purpose for holding this banquet was to discuss whether or not it was proper to normalize our present dishonest dollar.  Senators Thomas and Smith spoke at this banquet as did ex-Senator Robert L. Owen, advocating the immediate normalization of the dollar until it contains only 100 cents.

According to “The New York Herald Tribune”, the journal partly owned by Mr. Ogden Mills, Representative Luce evidently upheld the main argument for the negative side.

By the way, Representative Luce hails from Massachusetts.  He is a most erudite man, a graduate from Harvard College, a member of the bar, a Member of Congress for a period of sixteen years.

He came to argue against revaluation.  Unfortunately his arguments preferred to divorce themselves from facts and figures and to center upon personalities.

Representative Luce, this most eminent defender of the present economic policy which, by the way, is known by the fruits which it bore for the last three years, turned his eloquence, his learning, his legal training and his experience of sixteen years of debating in the United States House of Representatives upon an insignificant clergyman who dwells at Royal Oak, Michigan.

In a way I feel honored in having been selected as the target for the remarks which spilled from the lips of this gentleman.

In one hand I have the speech delivered by Representative Luce actually as he uttered it.

In my other hand I have the copy of the speech which he was supposed to have delivered and which he handed to the newspapers for them to print.  I am sorry that the distinguished member from Massachusetts forgot his lines and digressed so greatly from the original copy.

According to stenographic report here is what he actually said :

“I do not like to inject religion into a discussion of economics of this sort, but the addresses of Father Coughlin make it necessary that I should do so.  This is particularly dangerous because these addresses are delivered to millions of people who have not the intelligence (perhaps I should say the training) to grasp the full significance.”

Ladies and gentlemen, the Congressman believes that you have intelligence enough to vote for him but not enough intelligence to understand the basic principles of bread and butter, of home and fireside.

That is the fine tribute, Walthamites, which your congressman pays to you, his constituents.

Personally I do believe in the intelligence of the American public.  I do believe that they have risen up in their wrath against this kind of high-browism, of holier-than-thou intelligence, which for the past few years has taken great care to permit an immoral inflation of debts ;  which has protected gambling on the stock markets ;  which has connived with the culpable misdemeanors of banking houses ;  which has been guilty of the multitude of crimes associated with the proflicacy of prohibition ;  which has stood idly by while the American farmer and laborer have been exploited.  Finally, when the crash came, when their paper castle of cards tumbled to the ground, they tried to persuade us that all is well, to soothe us with the sophistry that prosperity was just around the corner while they were in the act of doling out billions of dollars to those who were most responsible for the plight in which we find ourselves.

Congressman Luce is an able exponent of that school of philosophy and of economics which has been repudiated by the American people.

In his speech he goes on with this :  “His (Father Coughlin’s) pleas are filled with prejudice.  He is arraying class against class in this country”.  I think I have heard that once before.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would not bemean myself to speak disparagingly of any sacrosanct Representative.  But I will pause to remind him that the day before he gave vent to his courageous utterance I devoted an hour over this microphone endeavoring to uphold the very system of capitalism which he and his kind are endeavoring to destroy by pampering and petting the abuses which have crept into it.

Of old it was said of Jesus Christ by those who set forth to crucify Him that “He stirreth up the multitudes.”  It is the cheapest argument found in the pages of history.  And it loses none of its cheapness even though repeated nineteen centuries later.

Personalities must never find their way over any microphone.  But when one considers that here is the noble, learned, exponent of our present economic system unsheathing his sword to defend capitalism in honest battle ;  when one beholds him standing before the microphone of Station WOR of Newark, New Jersey, choosing such ridiculous weapons of defense, the so-called unintelligent people of this country cannot help but wonder whether or not he possessed any valid arguments in his armory when he is forced to use the stink bomb of vituperation.

One more reading from the speech which Congressman Luce delivered in defense of the present system of economics he says :  “This (meaning Father Coughlin’s discourses) is the strangest mixture of economics and religion which I have ever read.  It appeals at once to man’s highest hopes and to his basest passions and to the worst elements in the life of America by combining religion with economics.”

It is regrettable that such an eminent economist and friend of the international banker has committed himself in such a manner.

Evidently I take it that religion should not be mixed with economics.  Evidently the Bible is in error when it says that “the laborer is worthy of his hire.”  Evidently, the Scriptures are infiltrated with deception when they condemn usury or when Christ bespeaks Himself as having “compassion on the multitude!”

They banned religion from politics in Soviet Russia.  Does he wish the philosophy of Bolshevism adopted here in America ?

To whom else can the people of the country turn their broken hearts except to their priests and their ministers and their rabbis ?

Are they not disgusted with the financial philosophy which has emanated from Wall Street and which has found parrot expression for the past four years on Capitol Hill ?

Religion ante dated economics.  The Catholic religion will continue to flourish and to defend the people of all nations and all creeds long after the last Nero will have tried to put the blame upon Christianity for the conflagration of a Rome which he himself ordered to be destroyed.

“Appealing to the basest passions” says he when we are asking for simple justice ;  when we are demanding that human rights take precedence over financial rights, and when we are merely trying to preserve the structure which our ancestors built and which some are endeavoring to destroy from within !

Capitalism must begin to admit its faults ;  must begin to clean its own house.  Let capitalism admit that its entire structure is builded upon confidence and credit.  Let it set forth then instead of discountenancing evil to eradicate it by kneeling down, humbly saying its act of contrition and admitting its many faults.

Unemployment, dishonest currency and feeble leadership, to which three weaknesses I have referred this afternoon, must depart from our midst if capitalism and the confidence which sustains it will endure.

I would welcome Congressman Luce or Senator Reed or Mr. Lippmann to share with me some Sunday a half hour of this program to express their views with facts and figures and not with fancies.