Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1911-04-20
Prophecy Of Congress S ma n
McDuffle in 1924. Has
Been Fulfilled
FRAUD AND DELUSION
Is Quoted in DR.. Goodwin
Smiths Political History
of the United States

Did you know that to the almost
forgotten statesman. George McDuffle,
belongs the distinction OF having
made the most powerful and most
prophetic speech that was ever made
in congress against our damnable tar
lift system?
Well, it does. Such men as Nelson
Dingley and Joseph H. Walker were
good judges in such a matter, and
they regarded McDuffle's argument
as the strongest ever made against
the New England scheme OF enrich
ing it's capitalists by plundering 9th
er sections. Dr.. Goodwin Smith
should also be competent Judge,
and you will find that McDuffe's
speech is the one he quotes from in
his political History OF the United
States"
Mr.. McDuffe's great speech against
the protective system is too long to
be reproduced here; but in the con-
cluding paragraphs he predicted with
such clearness of vision the reign of
rotten business and rotten politics
which now afflicts lis that his words
read like an inspired prophecy:
"Sir, when | consider. by a single
bill like the present millions of dol
one part of the community to anoth-
er; when | consider the disguise of
disinterested patriotism under which
the basest and most proflgate ambi
ton may perpetrate such an act of
injustice and political prostitution.
cannot hesitate, for a moment. to pro-
nounce this system the most stipend
GUS instrument of corruption ever
placed in the hands OF public func-
tiOnaries.
ut brings ambition and ayarice
and wealth into a combination which
it is fearful to contemplate, because
it is almost impossible to resist.
"Do we not perceive, at this very
moment, the extraordinary and melan-
chOly spectacle of less than one hun
dred thousand capitalists, by means of
this unchallenged combination, eNer-
cising an absolute and despOtic con
troll over the opinions of eight mil
lions of free citizens and the for
tunes and destinies of ten millions?
"Sir, | will not anticipate or fore
bode evil | will not permit myself
to believe that the presidency of the
United States will ever be bought and
sold But | must say that there are
certain quarters of this union in which
if the candidates for the presidency
should come forward with this Har-
risburg tariff in his hand nothing
could resist his pretentions if his ad-
versary We're opposed to this unjust
system OF oppression
"Ideed, sir. when | contemplate
the extraordinary infatuation which
a combination of capitalists and poll
ticians have had the heart to diffuse
over more than one-half of this union
when | see the very victims who
are about to be offered up to satiate
the voraciOus appetite of this devour-
ing Moloch, paying their ardent and
sincere devotiOns at his bloody shrine
] confess | have been tempted to
doubt whether mankind was not doom
ed, even in it's most enlightened state,
to be the dupe Of some form of i'm
posture, and the victim of some form
of tyranny.
Sir. in casting my eyes over the
history of human idolatry, | can find
nothing even in the darkest ages of
ignorance and superstition. which
surpasses the infatuation by which
a confederated priesthood of politi
clans and manufacturers have bound
the great body of the people of the
farming states of this union, as if by
spell, to this mighty scheme of
fraud and delusion.'
made in 1924.
Then look around you and see how
prophetically Mr.. McDuffie pictured
the future-Thomas Watson in the
Jeffersonian.