Evening star., 1933-08-24
PRIEST TEST|F|ES
Of STOCK TAXING
Father CoughIin Says Paper
Changed Record to Name
Him as Buyer.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
DETROIT. August 24.-Rev. Father
Charles E. Coughlin on the witness
stand today accused the Detroit Free
Press of publishing a faxed record to
show that he had engaged in a stock
market transaction. The priest later
admitted under questioning. however
that the stock described had been
purchased for an organization con-
nected with his church.
The publication which the crusading
pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower
denounced came during q controversy
between him and the Free Press last
Winter shortly. after the Michigan bank
holiday He made his charge today
while discussing before the one-man
grand Jury investigating the closing of
two national banks here, his knowledge
of conditions in the Detroit Bankers
Co., holding company for the closed
First National Bank, Detroit.
The Free Press took the account
sheets of another person." shouted
Father Coughlin, hammering the wit
ness table, wiped out the real name,
had my name put in and then charged
me with being stock gambler. ,"
The priest brought the charges
against the newspaper during his morn
ing testimony. Selling volume which.
he said, was a history of his life, and
which contained the charges made
against him. he rose to his feet and
waved the book aloft.
Charges Name Substituted.
."E. D. Stair took the report Of the
Paine-Webber brokerage concern. wiped
out the name of the real person to
whom it had been sent and put my
name in" he shouted.
Brandishing the copy before the
court, he cried:
Here it is! Sent to the National
Bank Of Commerce.
WAS the Bank Of Commerce acting
as your agent?" interposed the Attorney
General.
"Never did I purchase stock in Paine
Weber," shouted Father Coughlin
This report concerns 500 shares of
Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Co., bought at $50
a share. bought no such stock. Here's
a letter from Paine Webber."
The letter stated the copy which ap-
peared in the Free Press was not taken
from any card record in their Office
and, further that no account of any
purchase of stock by the priest could
be found.
The same publisher that published
this damning thing about me- cried
the witness. signed and falsified the
report Of the Detroit Bankers Co."
Admits He Had Account.
did you have any such account
anywhere?" asked Chester P. OHara,
assistant attorney general
"Yes, I had an account" said Cough
lin. "and the Detroit Bankers Co. had
. greater account
Did you purchase through a bank?"
asked O'Hara.
''Of course, through bank" said the
priest. 1T was an investment account,
not a speculative account This thing
that appeared in the Detroit Free Press
had nothing whatever to do with It,"
WAS go shares of the Kelsey Hayes
Wheel Co. purchased for you?" persisted
O'Hara.
mo" said Coughlin, "for the Radio
League of the Little Flower" The
league, Father Coughlin previously had
stated, was an organization within his
church.
The priest then turned to testimony
in which he charged officials of the
Detroit Bankers Co. with being loot
ers," who. he said, borrowed vast sums
from subsidiary companies. paid in
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