Louis McFadden

Louis McFadden   (banker, politician)
Born	July 25, 1876 Granville Center, Troy Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Died	October 1, 1936 (Age 60) New York City
Cause of death	"intestinal flu"
Victim of	premature death
Interests	US Federal Reserve
Party	Republican
U.S. politician who at the end of his career opposed the US Federal Reserve. Died unexpectedly of "intestinal flu" in 1936, after two previous attacks against his life.  US/Senate/Committee on Banking and Currency/Chair In office June 7, 1920 - March 4, 1931  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 14th district In office March 4, 1915 - March 3, 1923 Succeeded by Louis McFadden  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 15th district In office March 4, 1923 - January 3, 1935 Preceded by Louis McFadden

Louis Thomas McFadden was a U.S. politician who at the end of his career opposed the US Federal Reserve. He criticized Henry Morgenthau Jr. as secretary of the Treasury under FDR, who, in his words, "instigated a monetary policy by the money Jews of Wall Street and foreign parts."

McFadden died unexpectedly of "intestinal flu" in 1936, after two previous attacks against his life.

Career

McFadden was elected to Congress in 1914 and sat there until 1934. Though a Republican, he moved to impeach President Herbert Hoover in 1932 and introduced a resolution to bring conspiracy charges against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

He also made a 25-minute speech on the House floor accusing the Federal Reserve of deliberately causing the Depression. At the time, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board was Eugene Meyer ,who resigned after Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as president in 1933 and purchased the Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction.

Later, in 1933, McFadden introduced House Resolution No. 158, Articles of Impeachment for the Secretary of the Treasury, two assistant Secretaries of the Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, and the officers and directors of its twelve regional banks.

This was the end of McFadden political career. In the election of 1934, he lost his reelection bid to Democrat Charles E. Dietrich by 561 votes.

Death

After he lost his congressional seat in 1934, he remained in the public eye as a vigorous opponent of the financial system; that is, until his sudden death on October 3, 1936, of a "dose" of intestinal flu" after attending a banquet in New York City.

Reporting his death in its October 14 issue, Pelley’s Weekly stated that it had "became known among his intimates that he had suffered two [previous] attacks against his life. The first attack came in the form of two revolver shots fired at him from ambush as he was alighting from a cab in front of one of the Capital hotels. Fortunately both shots missed him, the bullets burying themselves in the structure of the cab." Next, "He became violently ill after partaking of food at a political banquet at Washington. His life was only saved from what was subsequently announced as a poisoning by the presence of a physician friend at the banquet, who at once procured a stomach pump and subjected the congressman to emergency treatment."

Federal Reserve

In his June 10, 1932, address on the House floor, he declared:

“Mr. Chairman, we have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Board, a Government board, has cheated the Government of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt. The depredations and the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks acting together have cost this country enough money to pay the national debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the United States; has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through defects of the law under which it operates, through the maladministration of that law by the Federal Reserve Board and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it.

From the Atlantic to the Pacific our country has been ravaged and laid waste by the evil practices of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks and the interests which control them … This is an era of economic misery, and for the conditions that caused that misery, the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks are fully liable.

The imperial power of elasticity of the public currency is wielded exclusively by the central corporations owned by the banks. This is a life and death power over all local banks and all business. It can be used to create or destroy prosperity, to ward off or cause stringencies and panics. By making money artificially scarce, interest rates throughout the Country can be arbitrarily raised and the bank tax on all business and cost of living increased for the profit of the banks owning these regional central banks, and without the slightest benefit to the people. The 12 Corporations together cover and monopolize and use for private gain every dollar of the public currency and all public revenue of the United States. Not a dollar can be put into circulation among the people by their Government, without the consent of and on terms fixed by these 12 private money trusts.'”
Louis McFadden (1934) 

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