Father Charles E Coughlin
Principles of the National
Union of Social Justice (1936)
Establishing my principles upon this preamble, namely, that we are all
creatures of a beneficent God, made to love and serve Him in this world
and to enjoy Him forever in the next; and that all this world's wealth
of field and forest, of mine and river has been bestowed upon us by a
kind Father, therefore, I believe that wealth as we know it originates
from the natural resources and from the labor which the sons 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.
With this as a preamble, then, these following
shall be the principles of social justice towards whose realization we
must strive.
1. I believe in the right of 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.
2.1 believe that every citizen willing to work and capable of working
shall receive a just and living annual wage which will enable him to
maintain and educate his family according to the standards of American
decency.
3. I believe in nationalizing those public necessities which by their
very nature are too important to be held in the control of private
individuals. By these I mean banking, credit and currency, power,
light, oil and natural gas and our God-given natural resources.
4. I believe in private ownership of all other property.
5. I believe in upholding the right to private property yet in
controlling it for the public good.
6. I believe in the abolition of the privately owned Federal Reserve
Banking system and in the establishment of a Government owned Central
Bank.
7. 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 belongs.
8. 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 the
repayment of dollar debts with equal value dollars.
9. I believe in the cost of production plus a fair profit for the
farmer.
10. 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 facilitate and to protect these organizations against the
vested interests of wealth and of intellect.
11 . I believe in the recall of all non-productive bonds and thereby in
the alleviation of taxation.
12. I believe in the abolition of tax-exempt bonds.
13. I believe in the broadening of the base of taxation founded upon
the ownership of wealth and the capacity to pay.
14. I believe in the simplification of government, and the further
lifting of crushing taxation from the slender revenues of the laboring
class.
15. 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.
16. I believe in preferring the sanctity of human rights to the
sanctity of property rights. I believe that 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 accept my beliefs; to follow
me or repudiate me.