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Coughlin, the Demagog The Rev. Father Charles E. Coughlin, the political radio haranguer, went far beyond his usual flamboyant demagoguery in his Sunday afternoon address. This man, who already stands rebuked by Cardinal of his Church for his political activities, after slandering the directors of the two outstanding banking groups of Detroit, directly charged that these holding companies were organized to "cheat the widow, rob the orphan and to oppress the poor"; that they were created to escape possibility of double liability in case their banks failed. As to the men assailed, the list of their names, printed elsewhere, is sufficient testimony as to their characters. They are known to all Detroit. Let the people judge between them and the demagog Coughlin. Many of them are outstanding members of the Catholic faith: in fact, pillars of the Church from whose teaching Coughlin has wandered so far afield. They have been the largest contributors to the Church and were carrying its burdens when Coughlin was a boy in Canada. As for the organization of the holding companies to dodge liability, the law itself will answer that slanderous utterance. By no stretch of the imagination could double liability be dodged, nor has there been any such idea on the part of the holders of Detroit Bankers stock or of that of the Guardian Group. The attorneys for the United States conservators have made that quite clear. Nobody is confused by it except Coughlin and those he seeks to dupe. Judge Robert S. Marx, Federal counsel for Conservator C. O. Thomas, of the First National Bank-Detroit, frequently has explained the liability of stockholders in holding companies. He said: procedure in such cases is to obtain judgment against the holding corporation. That entitles the conservator to dispose of its assets. If, when these assets have been disposed of, there are still insufficient funds to meet depositors' demands, suits may be instituted against the stockholders of such a holding company. This was the procedure in the case of the Bank of Kentucky, liquidated by Federal receivers at Louisville." Judge Frank E. Wood, counsel for Conservator B. C. Schram, of the Guardian National Bank of Commerce, has concurred in this opinion. Judge Wood said: "In the case of the Bank of Kentucky, the holding company's entire interest amounted to about 70 per cent interest in the bank. When judgments were obtained against these stockholders, 70 per cent of the amount collected was turned over to depositors in the bank. The remaining 30 per cent went to subsidiaries of the holding company." The political animus and the sinister newspaper influences guiding Coughlin are shown in his bitter personal assaults upon E. D. Stair, the publisher of The Detroit Free Press. Hiding behind his priestly garb, using the strength of the Church to give him prestige, Coughlin pulls the chestnuts out of the fire for political and newspaper interests the Free Press has always combatted and always will. The truth of Mr. Stair's connection with the Detroit Bankers could have been easily found if Coughlin had been seeking the truth-which he was not. There have been three presidents of the Detroit Bankers. The first was the late Julius Haass, who conceived it and organized it. The name of Mr. Haass needs no defenders. After his tragically untimely death, the presidency went to John Ballantyne. Upon his resignation, Mr. Stair was induced to take the presidency by the other directors of the company. This was last May. Mr. Stair took the office with great reluctance and only on the urging that it was civic duty. He consented to serve only on the condition that there would be no salary attached to the office. Mr. Haass was paid $100,000 year. Mr. Ballantyne was paid $50,000. Mr. Stair refused to accept cent. He took the office only on the agreement that the holding company would be little more than an auditing concern to cut down the expenses of the constituent bodies. This was accomplished by slashing millions from the overhead and reducing all executive salaries. He went in, against his own desire, to save the institution if he could, and the money of the depositors. The demagog Coughlin, raving over the radio for two years with his attacks on the banks, did much to bring about the present condition. He robbed the people of confidence in these directors and their banks and was one of the chief causes of withdrawals of funds from them during the past two years to total of over two hundred million dollars. And it is ironically true that while priest of the Church did his best to destroy the First National Bank with his radio bombast, the Church he misrepresents was the largest single debtor to that institution. One of the main reasons for the bank's troubles was the fact that tried to carry the load of the Catholic Diocese's with other churches, fraternal bodies and, above all, the hundreds of thousands of homes and little businesses. The directors of that institution, with many of the leading Catholic laymen in Detroit its board, considered the Catholic Church the finest risk that any bank could take. They still do. Nobody knows that better than Bishop Gallagher, who is supposed to have some degree of control over the Royal Oak firebrand. Read the names of these directors. They sat on the board. They elected Mr. Stair against his own desires. He has been singled out for attack for vicious political purposes. The Church is being used to sorry ends. If Coughlin spoke as a man and were not priest, with the prestige of his office to give him prominence, he would not be listened to. How long will this ecclesiastical Huey Long be allowed to slander decent citizens of this city in the name of God?
