The “fraternal attitude” of New York’s policemen toward Coughlinites, mounting terrorism by the followers of the “radio priest” and the failure of the New York press to report what is held to be a growingly dangerous situation are described by James Wechsler, a staff writer, in the current issue of The Nation, liberal weekly.
Mr. Wechsler, declaring that the Coughlinite in movement is still a “fringe” affair with whatever mass sympathy it has evoked largely passive and confined to the Catholic Church, points out that “six months of increasing effort have crystallized the major problems which New York has to face.”
“The first,” he writes, “is the inescapably violent emotion aroused by Coughlinite propaganda and the succession of violent incidents which have flowed from it. The second is the gradual division of some densely populated neighborhoods into warring camps, creating an atmosphere which will soon be explosive. The third is the uncertain role of a police force overwhelmingly Catholic in membership.” In an editorial accompanying the article, The Nation calls upon Mayor LaGuardia to take strong steps to liquidate the situation “for the safety of the city.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
