FREE ESSAY ON THE POLITICAL CARREERS OF HUEY LONG AND FATHER COUGHLIN

THE POLITICAL CARREERS OF HUEY LONG AND FATHER COUGHLIN

Throughout the Great Depression the United States went through tremendous change. When
there is a time of great change, there are always people who oppose it, whether the
change is good or bad. The issue of this report is not to discuss if the changes in
America throughout the depression were positive or negative, but to discuss the people
who opposed it; primarily focusing on Huey Long and Charles Coughlin, or Father Coughlin,
and their reasoning and methods of protest.
Huey Long and Father Coughlin were extremely influential politicians who opposed the
creeping new society of Big Business and high technology. They blamed certain companies
and they're owners (Carnegie, Rockefeller, Pullman, ect.) of Big Business for the
financial distraught of America, and were very successful in conveying their argument.
However, they were not so successful in achieving their goal in the destruction of this
new technological society, for the simple reason that they were too late. The society of
America and the world had already turned towards this economic change. 
To understand the views of Long and Coughlin you must understand the people that they
are. Huey Long was a fiery young man from the start. At the age of twenty he made the
prophecy that he would run for election "first to secondary stated office in Louisiana,
then for governor, then for United States Senator, and finally for president" (page 8).
He had the combination of ruthless ambition, along with compassion of the downtrodden.
Throughout his life he completed all of his predictions, except for the most prestigious:
the presidency. Many believe the only reason he did not succeed in becoming president is
because he was assassinated before he got the chance. He was known to many as "the
Kingfish," referring to his near dictatorship on Louisiana. He constantly went off into
filibusters during congressional meetings, whether it be to pursuade against or in favor
of a new bill. He killed many bills in this way, many being essentially "dangerous" to
the common people. He lived a very flamboyant lifestyle, constantly headlining in the
newspaper in one way or another. Even after all the graft and controversy in the
Louisiana political system was finally proven after his death, people of Lousianna
generally still supported him. His impromptu speeches and campaigning were very appealing
to his audiences, as mobs of twenty thousand people clustered to hear him. Longs beliefs
that Big Business was corrupting the society were the main platform throughout his
political life. At times he was known to filibuster for twelve hours on the injustices
that "Mr. Morgan and Mr. Rockefeller" spread on the society. His speaking abilities and
his use of radio made him known all over the nation. And finally, he was, if anything,
very hard to ignore.
Coughlin, although fundamentally different than Long, used many of the same tactics and
ideas as Long. Coughlin was born into a Catholic family in Canada. He virtually had no
choice but to become a priest. He went to many very accomplished Catholic schools. He
finished top in his class in college, and he taught at the college of Assumption for
seven years. These years were rewarding, and he first got involved in society at this
time. He soon decided to go the distance and become a parish priest. He made a life time
friendship with Bishop Gallagher, who first realized Coughlin's rare skills. Father
Coughlin was given his own parish in a tiny village of North Branch, Michigan. This
church is the sight of Coughlins ingenious idea to use radio as a unit of advertising.
His first goal in the use of radio was to get people to attend his church, but he soon
realized what a gold mine he had run into. As little as two years later the "Radio
Priest" had as many as six million people listening to his Sunday sermons at a given
time. His charismatic speeches, carefully drawn up each week, caught the United States on
fire. Coughlin also started using his newly found power to express some of his political
views. He spread his influential opinion on the danger of Big Business and was known to
tell tales of "the Carnegies and the Rockefellers." He denounced "greed, corruption, and
the concentration of wealth in the hands of few" (page 96). He also made reference to the
plight of farmers, and sometimes even the League of Nations for its international ties.
Coughlin had an absolutely huge audience, and he used it to spread upon his ideals for
the nation. 
All of Huey Long and Father Coughlins ideals stemmed from the then ancient Jeffersonian
and Jacksonian times. They, along with Jefferson and Jackson, believed in the common man.
They felt that power should be distributed among the masses and not amongst a few select
men. They believed a "Nobel Yeoman" or a "Horatio Alger" existed in everybody. They often
argued that "no citizen should be allowed to accumulate so much wealth that his ownership
of it became injurious to the rest of the community;" (page 145-145). Alan Brinkley so
brilliantly states when referring to the Big Businesses as "Large, faceless institutions;
wealthy, insulated men; power and controlling wealth that more properly belonged in the
hands of ordinary citizens." Long and Coughlin hailed all these ideals to the public, and
like Long and Coughlin the public believed the solution lay in the businesses themselves.
But, what most people either failed to understand or failed to admit is that the real
problem lay even deeper in the society. The real problem, which obviously does not
exclude Big Business, lay deep in the roots of the economic system, and could not be so
easily fixed. The Big Businesses and their technology were already a part of American
society, and that could not be changed. Coughlin and Long were too late for the issue,
although they so brilliantly stated their case. 
Long and Coughlin played a huge role in the protest movements during the Depression.
Although being somewhat unsuccessful in their overall goal, they did complete many
beneficial things. They brought rise to the monopolies during the Depression. They
revolutionized the radio. They provided "an affirmation of threatened values and
institutions, and a vision of a properly structured society in which those values and
institutions could thrive" (page 143). Long and Coughlin were "creations of the moment",
which rested on "some of the oldest and deepest impulses in American political life"
(page 144). They gave immediate hope to their followers that the depression could be
ended soon. They represented the peoples hopes and dreams, and although both men's'
dreams ended tragic, they earned their respective place in history. 
Bibliography
Bibliography
Brinkley, Alan. Voices of Protest. First Vintage Books Series. Random House Inc., New
York, 1983.