Father Coughlin Before the 1936 Election

"Radio Priest" Father Charles Coughlin became increasingly controversial and anti-Semitic in the 1930s before the Church silenced his broadcasts. He initially supported Roosevelt's New Deal but quickly turned against it. Coughlin had various monetary theories that were common in that era and opposed the Federal Reserve. An alliance began to form between Coughlin's Social Justice movement, the California-based pensionite movement of Dr. Francis Townsend, and Louisiana Senator Huey Long's Share-the-Wealth movement. It appeared that the combined groups would run Long on a third-party campaign that Roosevelt feared would undermine his re-election. As it turned out, after the assassination of Long, the combined movement had no one to run. It ultimately ran an obscure congressman for president in 1936 who received a negligible vote. At the time this newsreel was made, however, all of that was yet to come. Because of the economic distress during the Great Depression, such movements attracted large followings.

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