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(Father Coughlin was a lifelong opponent of both the
devious financial machinations of the ruling plutocracy's
"capitalism" and the international bankers'
controlled opposition, "communism" -- as
this early radio sermon of his clearly shows.)
"INTERNATIONALISM" DURING the past few Sundays the Golden Hour of the Little Flower has devoted its time to the discussion of some of the underlying causes which have helped to produce this critical situation of depression and unemployment. Our condition was traced back chiefly to uncontrolled mass production, to the wholesale tax-free exportation of money for competitive industrial purposes and to the usury or compound profit system which is practiced in many instances by the industrialist at the expense of a fair and living wage to the laborer. Lest you be under the impression that I am biased insofar as I place all the blame upon that class of men who are directly responsible for the above abuses, I wish to remind this audience that up to the present moment I have not touched upon the major and underlying cause which has been contributed not only by the capitalist class but also by the laboring class. Both are to blame in having produced this cause, the discussion of which will be deferred for another Golden Hour broadcast. As a prelude to this evening's discussion, may I mention one of the most lamentable phases of our national misery. I refer to the partisan attitude adopted both by many politicians and many journalists who evidently are forgetful of an incident which transpired in the history of the Jewish nation almost twenty-five hundred years ago. It is recorded in the prophetical writings of Jeremiah that a condition somewhat similar to ours was extant at that time among the Jewish people. For personal reasons, their leaders preferred to be blind to the situation, thinking that they could quell the disturbance in the public mind by the childish psychology trick of crying, " 'Peace, Peace': when there was no peace." (Jer. 8:11.) The scribes who depended for their livelihood upon the great men of the nation were content to remain silent lest their revenues be revoked. In fact they even co-operated in this childish diplomacy of propagating the lie "'Peace, Peace': when there was no peace." No wonder, therefore, that the prophet expressed himself in unmistakable language when he wrote that "the Iying pen of the scribes hath wrought our desolation." (Jer. 8:8.) A similar circumstance has arisen today. The modern scribe or journalist or publisher who depends for his livelihood only indirectly upon his circulation and directly upon his advertising too often finds himself openly partisan at the expense of honesty, and brazenly optimistic at the expense of truth, as he comforts himself with the sophistry that all the news is not good for the people. Only that news is good which benefits the apostles of privilege. Thus, it would be amusing were it not so tragic, when we read how a few thousand men were re-employed last week in the automobile industry while not one mention was made of the fact that over five-thousand-five-hundred were forced to take an extended vacation without pay. Or that approximately fifteen-thousand in one factory are to be laid off on the seventeenth of this month for a so-called Christmas vacation. If the prophet Jeremiah were to return he could truthfully ask the scribes: How do you say, 'We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us?'" And he could truthfully answer them: "And the Iying pen of the scribes hath wrought our falsehood." PATRIOTISM This evening's discourse deals with internationalism -- a heresy which strikes at the root of patriotism and prosperity; and aims not at elevating all peoples to the standard of American living, but rather at the leveling of our standard to the common denominator of foreign misery. Patriotism, my friends, holds the same relation between a citizen and his country as fidelity does between a man and his wife; as piety does between a child and its parent; as religion does between a creature and his Creator. It is a virtue by which a freed man so loves his country, its customs and ideals and constitution; is so enamored of its lakes and hills and rivers around which linger the sweet memories of bygone days; is so filled with devotion for the souls of those whose sacrifices have made home and its surroundings an immortal benediction, that he would die, if necessary, to defend that country where dwell these things because he loves it not equally with other countries -- though they be mightier and more eminent -- but more than all countries combined! The one born of Godliness and Christliness; the other, the offspring of atheism and greed! COMMUNISM Approximately one year ago there was occasion to discuss on the Golden Hour of the Little Flower the growth in our midst of the modern political and religious heresy called communism. At that time whoever made mention of this was considered to be a peddler of perils. Those were the days when many of our great American industrialists, greedy for gold, were stumbling over themselves in their anxiety to sign contracts with the outlawed government of Soviet Russia. Whatever was said in disparagement either of sovietism or communism was regarded as inimical to the best interests of American commerce and finance. For fear lest this government of Russia, which refused to honor their just war debts, would likewise dishonor the international law regarding patents; for fear that the Soviets would begin to produce the highly protected and patented articles of certain American industries, many of our American manufacturers deemed it advisable to trade with them, believing that it was better to make hay while the sun shone even though there was danger of assisting an industrial and military force which was openly hostile to America and every other civilized country. Those were the days when whosoever suggested the existence and the growth of communistic principles in America was regarded either as injudicious or as a patriotic racketeer. Meanwhile, the Fish Investigation Committee has made the rounds of America and has discovered beyond all argument that there are approximately five-hundred-thousand adult men and women within our borderlands who actually advocate the overthrow of our own government, the desecration of the Stars and Stripes, the abolition of all religion and the substitution for these of the flag of terrorism. Radicalism has certainly made rapid advances in labor circles. It is not difficult to visualize, therefore, how there is an awakening interest in this subject of communism since it is so vitally connected with the world-wide depression in which we are submerged. Portugal and Spain have felt its lash. Berlin has raised aloft its red flag by the majority of its voters choosing that standard. India is filled with its turmoil. China has practically succumbed to it, while Russia with its slave labor and military rule is preparing to flood the markets of the world with produce so cheap that neither we nor any other nation can hope to compete with them unless we level our laboring class to the condition of theirs, or else build up our morale and patriotism to such a degree that the efforts of the Stalin Government are helpless. TWO KINDS OF RADICALS In the United States of America at this moment we have two separate kinds of radicals. To the first class belong those men who have sworn allegiance to the red flag of Russia and whose sole ambition is the overthrow of our government and the subjugation of our people. These unmolested revolutionists, in one sense, are to be congratulated because of their open honesty and straightforwardness. The other class of radicals, who throw up their hands in unholy horror of the red flag, carry no card which proclaims their identity with the Third Internationale. Unlike their Russian cousins they do not preach sabotage, neither do they proclaim openly against religion nor scoff at patriotism. Both are desirous, however, of building up a world-wide rule of class ascendancy. Both are international. The former are less feared than the latter because, due to their power and their wealth, they are the greater menace to the American public's prosperity. THE RED KIND Before proceeding further in the distinction between these two classes in their beliefs and in their activities, may I remind you that ex-President Coolidge said: "In this contest between Americanism and communism there is but one place for a real American to stand." Charles Evans Hughes has warned us that "against this most insidious assault of communism we must build our redoubts and man them with the patriots of peace." Frank B. Kellogg has not been silent. "I am not an alarmist," says he, "but I cannot be blind to the forces which are working in our self-governing country." And the immortal words of our late lamented Ambassador to France, Myron T. Herrick, have sounded a warning to which we cannot be deaf: "We intend to protect our country as vigorously from bolshevism as our ancestors defended it against tyranny; and the fact that a government secretly sends against us the germs of a loathsome disease instead of openly dispatching armies, does not make the invasion less felonious or alter our duty to repel it."
What is this called communism? According to its founder,
Adam Weishaupt, from whom Karl Marx drew his inspiration,
communism is necessarily identified with atheism. "Destroy
Christianity and civilization," said he, "and
we will be happy." Following his master, Karl
Marx emphasized the fact that "religion is the
opium of the people." This accounts for the fact
that every form of religion has been practically banned
from Russia. Hundreds of its churches have been converted
into theatres or factories. Catechism is forbidden
to be taught to the children. Last year more than two
million copies of atheistic books were spread over
Russia; ten thousand anti-religious clubs are flourishing;
seminaries are established to teach atheism; and under
the direction of Commissar Lunatcharsky there is at
this moment being conducted a series of atheistic lectures
from the Komitern broadcasting station. This accounts
for the fact that in the year 1923 alone twenty-eight
bishops were murdered; one-thousand-two-hundred-and-fifteen
priests; six-thousand-five-hundred and seventy-five
teachers; eight thousand-eight-hundred doctors; This is the first tenet of communism, because as its founders have said: "Christianity has failed." No wonder the unspeakable Lenin once boasted: "We have rid the earth of its false kings. Now let us rid the sky of its false God." The second general belief of communism is expressed by the word "internationalism." As a matter of fact, the founders of this new communism are neither Russian, nor English, nor American. As a matter of fact, it was the Imperial German Government in 1917 which sent into Russia the revolutionary leaders who had been gathered from the gutters of every nation. It is international in that it hopes to amalgamate the workers of the world in one great nation known as the human race. Trotsky from New York, Lenin from Germany, Bela Kun from Hungary -- men from every nation who long since had devoted themselves to the anarchy, the atheism and the treachery preached by the German Hebrew, Karl Marx. As Lenin himself writes on page sixty-one, volume XVI, of his "Complete Works": "The complete world revolution will be obtained only when the proletariat has won victory in the majority of advanced countries . . . the existence of the Soviet Republic alongside imperialist states cannot long continue." And lastly, as its name suggest, communism strikes at the right of private ownership. All property, all children, all men and women, all intellectual and material goods are the possession of the State. As you observe, my friends, the first word in the vocabulary of a communist is "down". "Down with God and religion!" "Down with country and patriotism!" Because it is a negative you cannot define it. Communism is the negation of God, of morality and of nationalism. It is a fester of negatives. One might describe it as a maggot which feeds on the ulcers of civilization. Wherever society has decomposed communism appears. When the bulwarks of religion break down the slimy thing grows fat on the doctrines of atheism. When rulers become oppressors the followers of Marx and Lenin are multiplied on the open sores of tyranny. Where the greed of capitalism and mass production beget idleness and hunger and discontent, the doctrine of "down with private ownership" becomes the doctrine of the laborer. Yes, and I might also add that wherever the integrity and fidelity of matrimony is treated like a scrap of paper, vows becoming a parody on truth, the free love of communism becomes the bible of unleashed passions of every man. Behold the maggot and upon what it feeds! No wonder it waxes fat in America. Last year more than one-hundred and ninety-five-thousand divorces or licenses for infidelity were granted. All about us the oppression of the poor, is almost on a parallel with that which oppressed the peasants of czaristic Russia. And God knows how many of the sixty-three per cent of Americans who profess no religion whatsoever or who have surrendered it for one reason or the other are preparing to breed a generation of atheists. Truly communism is the undefinable offspring which we have permitted to wax fat especially on the wounds of our economic civilization. My friends, men are not communists by nature. It is an expedient policy to which in their ignorance they cling as they see no hope in their present civilization to remove the burdens which oppress them. Perhaps you are in wonderment why I have made this seeming digression into a discussion on communism. Before I shall offer an explanation may I suggest to you that in these broadcasts I have tried to manifest a spirit of Christian justice and charity to the working man and to the oppressed whom I have characterized as "more sinned against than sinning." The attitude of the Catholic Church is not one of partisanship. Nevertheless, she is always quick and anxious, even in the face of criticism, to emulate her Divine Founder, Who Himself was a working man, a poor man, and the victim of injustice. If the voice of the downtrodden is weak, hers is strong. If their breast is bared to the sword of injustice, hers is impregnable, protected by the shield of immortality. Lest there be some who think that I was radical-minded in my utterances, when I enunciated the truth which restrains the owner to use inhumanly and unjustly his goods when his fellow citizens are clamoring for bread, for shelter, and for honest labor, may I corroborate my position by quoting for you what my eminent fellow townsman and fellow priest, the Reverend John A. McClory, of the Society of Jesus, has written in yesterday's Detroit Times: "TURKEYS AND BULLETS" "Shortly before Thanksgiving Day we read in one of the dailies that two men, long out of work, took two turkeys, to give their families a much-needed meal; and were shot to death for doing so. "One is shocked by the disproportion between the offense (if it was one) and the punishment. Two men were killed and their families made desolate and helpless, for the protection of a brace of turkeys. "One wonders at the zeal of policemen in safeguarding turkeys by shooting down decent men, while grave violence in a hundred forms goes unpunished. Is it not enough for thousands of honest men to go hungry and cold, without their misery being increased by the unseemly violence of the law? All this is nice fodder for Communism and Bolshevism! If the people should rise in force to get bread, who could blame them; especially when wholesale thefts, perpetrated quietly, in a business way by respectable citizens, go unpunished. "But going deeper into this matter, may we ask: Did not those two slain men in Chicago have a right to the turkeys? It is a principle of Catholic morals (and, I dare say, of Protestant morals, though I am not certain of this) that, because the earth, with its exuberant supplies, was given by God for the support of ALL men, therefore any one in dire need of the necessities of life may legitimately help himself from the abundant stores of his neighbor. True, the neighbor has a right to his stores; only his right must yield, for the time being, to the urgent and more fundamental right of direfully needy men to live by the products of the earth. "If it be objected that such a principle would breed general and violent seizure of goods, I answer: If so, that would be too bad; but men have a right to live; to eat, drink and be clothed. Moreover, lay the responsibility for such untoward conditions where it belongs, at the door of those who occasion unemployment, starvation and nakedness. "It must, however, be noted with emphasis, first that the need must be direful; second, that the needy person may appropriate only so much as is required to relieve the direful need of himself and his family. This principle, therefore, does not justify the 'holdups' we read of in the press; the seizure of valuables by thugs who are passably fed and clothed. "If the press report of the turkey incident in Chicago is correct, I would say the two men in question were murdered for asserting a fundamental right. "Probably I shall be called by some a parlor Socialist or pink Communist for making such an assertion. But that does not matter. I am only expressing a commonplace of orthodox theology." (End of Quotation.) Certainly, this is a commonplace in theology. But if you or I reject Jesus Christ and His principles and adopt in their stead the divinity of Karl Marx and the doctrine of Lenin; if we turn traitor to the flag of Christ's cross and adopt in its stead the reeking, bloody flag of communism or any of its principles -- what shall it avail us except that we will have destroyed faith, government and liberty only to find ourselves the pawns and slaves of an unscrupulous, militaristic rule called communism. If the flag of Christ which conquered death cannot save you, what strength has the puny force of communism! THE GOLDEN KIND Undoubtedly, one of the first doctrines of communism is political internationalism. Alexander the Great was imbued with it when he desired to Persianize the entire world and wept by the banks of an oriental river because there were no more nations to conquer. So was Augustus Caesar. So was Napoleon whose secret ambition was to make the world his footstool and France his throne. The most loathsome after-birth of the World War has been the revival of this internationalism which in its last analysis is nothing more than universal class rule. On the one hand the Soviet desires to control the entire world by the military arm of an enslaved laboring class. And on the part of certain captains of industry and finance there seems to be a determination to rule the universe through the agency of wealth. If Russia established its Third Internationale, conservative Europe kept step with it in the establishment of a League of Nations. If Russia clumsily renounced its foreign obligations, the League of Nations adroitly accomplished the same thing through its establishment of a League Court which claims the authority to legislate for all its members on matters of immigration, of tariff and of other affairs of international character. This internationalism is a greater menace to our prosperity than is the type advocated by the Soviet. Identified both with the League of Nations and with the World Court, whose correct name, bear in mind, is "The Permanent Court of International Justice of the League of Nations," is this new Colossus called the International Bank, which to all advertised purposes exists to facilitate the payment of war debts. But in the minds of many there is another story behind its illegitimate birth. It is a story in which are woven the name of the J. P. Morgan Banking Company, the company who are the fiscal agents of Great Britain, of France, of Belgium and of Italy; the name of Montague Norman, Governor of the Bank of England; the names of certain gentlemen in our Federal Reserve Bank which is a depository for practically eight thousand smaller banks throughout the United States. Acting in collusion, these men succeeded in lowering American money to three-and-one-half-per-cent; then exported more than five hundred-million dollars in gold to Europe despite the fact that the Honorable Louis T. McFadden, the Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency of the United States House of Representatives, calls this last transaction very questionable insofar as it appears to be beyond the spirit of the law which created the Federal Reserve System. If victory belonged to one man, it is due to Montague Norman, the Governor of the Bank of England. He has served his country well. He has succeeded in having our bankers establish the international bank at the back door of Great Britain. Now that our gold has been poured into Europe, these same international bankers of Wall Street and of Washington are anxious that our nation shall surrender its independence by becoming a member of "The Permanent Court of International Justice of the League of Nations." This means that we become identified with that same useless tool during whose brief existence we have experienced so many revolutions and so much unrest. I refer to the League of Nations, whose future is very questionable. My friends, this internationalism leads only to one thing. It means that the laboring class of this country will be reduced to the same status as that of the worn out European nations. Our ancestors came to these shores to be rid of the persecutions both financial and political and religious which were so common before the XVIII Century. Under brighter skies and with hearts filled with new hopes we and our forefathers built up a standard of living where poverty had practically ceased; where cheap charity was not required and where every man was guaranteed sufficient honest labor and such far-reaching opportunity for advancement that it surpassed the wildest dreams of the peasant class and the middle class of Europe. So today, we are on the verge through a decade of internationalistic philosophy of lowering our standards to meet those of war-torn Europe. The organized effort to accomplish this has been in no little sense responsible for the sadness and sorrow and misery in which we now find ourselves. Near the close of our great Civil War, in reply to a letter from a friend in Illinois, President Lincoln is reported to have said: "Yes, we may all congratulate ourselves that the cruel war is nearing its close. It has cost a great amount of treasure and of blood. But I see in the near future, a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. "As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." Lest you are forgetful, Washington said: "The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop." It were high time to heed Lincoln's warning and Washington's advice that we refrain from entering into foreign entanglements -- entanglements which throw patriotism to the four winds; which are bent on enthroning the basic principle of communism, and reducing the American common people to the status of a Persian peasant. Ladies and gentlemen, the present depression has witnessed the reappearance of many old and well-known characters upon the stage of time. There is the banker who tells us of the decline and scarcity of gold in some quarters and the necessity on the part of America to reconstruct its balance. There is the professional business booster who charges it to a depressed psychology. And lastly, there is that type of statesman who blames it on the Russians. Meanwhile, while words flow thick and fast the depression still remains with us. Meanwhile, at the very peak of it we are about to witness our Seventy-first Congress tomorrow enter upon, perhaps, a prolonged debate whether or not we shall practically sign away our national rights to the World Court of the League of Nations and be satisfied to become identified with Europe with our lisping voice which shall cry in the courts of its wilderness in vain. Less care for internationalism and more care for national prosperity; less concern for the welfare of Europe and more concern for the welfare of our millions to whom are not given the opportunity of earning a livelihood is more palatable to the taste of the American people. At this moment I have a mental picture of those wily scribes and pharisees who accosted Jesus Christ trying to catch Him in His speech. They were not forgetful of His beautiful sermon preached on the mountainside. They still remembered His Divine doctrine of charity. Thus, they thought within themselves that He Who preached the doctrine of the universal brotherhood of mankind would be quick to deny the virtue of patriotism. "Is it lawful, therefore, to give tribute to Caesar?" was their question. You remember the classic reply which confounded them all: "Render to God the things that are God's and to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." Christianity, therefore, which insists that we love our fellowman whether he be Jew or Gentile, black or white, does not intimate for a moment that we shall jettison the cargo of our patriotism nor jeopardize the lastingness of our country. In these days when approximately seventy-six million of our population hold no affiliation whatsoever to any church; in these days when religion has ceased to be an integral part in the lives of everyone of us, is it to be wondered at that the sound principles upon which a lesser virtue of patriotism was built should likewise be held in question? In things spiritual let us be international. Let there be one God and Father, one faith and baptism and one spiritual domain under which every nation can live. But in things temporal let us render to Caesar the things that are his. Thus, the Catholic Church, mindful of the incident when John the Baptist sent a committee to discover the identity of Jesus Christ -- mindful of it, we are still proud to conclude this discourse with the words which Christ commanded these men to carry back to John: "The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again and the poor have the Gospel preached to them. And blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in Me!" (Matt. 11:5.) Moreover, without desire to crave favor or fear to escape criticism, this same Gospel will always be sounded to the poor, who are the victims of those who have forgotten both Christ and country and whose one cry is that of "radical," while they themselves are the greatest radicals which the world has produced.
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