One Honest Man

In 1915, a 38-year-old banker from rural Pennsylvania named Louis Thomas McFadden was seated in the US House. Well-read, intelligent, and diligent, he quickly made his mark in Washington. Appointed chair of the House Banking Committee in 1920, and as author of the "McFadden Act" in 1927, he soon became one of the leading financial figures in the US.

And yet, by the late 1920s, McFadden had become disillusioned about the government-specifically, about the newly-created Federal Reserve and about the role of both Hoover and Roosevelt in evident political corruption. He was not shy about naming the source of the problem: "international financiers," "international bankers," and eventually, "Jews." Thus it happened that, between 1930 and 1934, McFadden made a number of astonishing speeches on the floor of the House, frequently naming Jews and the Jewish Lobby as profound dangers to America.

Every word that McFadden spoke was recorded in the Congressional Record; the most relevant parts of 14 speeches are reprinted here, many for the first time. Collectively, they indicate a deep and far-reaching corruption at the heart of the American financial system.

McFadden's words have many implications in the present day. We cannot brush him aside with thoughts of "but that was 90 years ago" or "that can't happen today." Every problem that he identified in the 1930s is vastly worse today; we deal with all the same issues and with the same malicious Jewish Lobby. There are lessons here for us all.