The Butler weekly times and the Bates County record. (Butler, Mo.) 1918-1950, 1922-05-04
St. Louis Man Flags Hyde
Administration in Opening
Speech at Poplar Bluff
Many Prominent Demo-
Gratis of Southeast Missouri
Attend Big Meeting.


Attend Big Meeting.
There is before the Democrats today
an almost Unprecedented opportunity
for service in state and nation, but
we must get back on the main high
way that leads to progress and pros
perity, Breckenridge Long of st. Louis,
candidate for the Democratic nomina-
ton for United States Senator from
Missouri, to succeed James A. Reed,
the present encumbent, declared in his
opening speech at Popular Bluff Thurs
day night, April e., Long said the
trouble with us today Is that we have
wandered from the paths laid out by
Woodrow Wilson and are mired by the
waysde He characterized the Re-
publican Administration as one that
"hesitates and vacilIates," and he took
the hide off of the Hyde regime in Mis-
souri,, citing facts and figures to prove
his assertions.
In the gathering of men and women
from Butler and surrounding coun-
ties who gave an enthusiastic re-
cepton to Longs speech, frequently
breaking out in prolonged applause,
were representative Democrats from
every section of Southeast Missouri.
and number from other parts Of the
state. Long spoke 4 part, as follows:
"The Democratic Party faces an OPP
portunity for service. both in the state
In, In yuIinh iS al n1nSt If
not quite, unprecedented. Our party
has always been the agent of the peo-
| pie, has always tried to be the means
of giving effect to the needs of the
masses. We are faced now with Il
crisis, and it is the good fortune Of our
party to offer relief to the people-to
| point the way to the future and to be
the instrument through which relief
will be brought.
"Here in Missouri we have for gov
lor a political despot who has tried
to subordinate all the institutions of
| the state to his own designing power
| and to concentrate in his own official
of his acts sounds like an echo of feudal
days The governor of Missouri has
m re power than the governor of any
ether state in the Union, but not con-
tent with that, nor satisfied with the
authority vested in him by the Consti-
tuition, this particular governor set
| about to violate in spirit the very laws
which created him, and tried to CEN
tralize in his own hands control over
and power in the state which would
have been perilOus in the extreme.
"Go> ernor Hyde began his admins
tration by disapproval of the forma-
| ton of the state government of Mis-
| souri, as provided In our Constitution.
| He objected to the distribution Of the
functions of the Executive Department
among six elective officers. His COM
plant was summarized in the follow
ing statement contained in his In
augural address: Each of these Off
GERS was elected by the people. Over
none of them has the governor any
control whatever He even went so
far as to intimate that he favored a
complete modification of our present
form of government, and complained
because the Constitution provided for
the creation of Board control of vari-
Gus powers of the state. instead of al
lowing him to control them all. He
declared he favored a replacement of
all executive boards with Il single re-
sponsible individual the epit0me of
centralized power, and the exact anti
thesis of Democratic government.
AT his direction there were intro
duced during the regular session Of the
51st General Assembly the Administra-
ton bills. designed to carry out his
remarkable recommendations, but they
underwent many changes. These So
called Consolidation Bills undertook to
create new departments which would
absorb many of the normal powers of
constitutional and elective officers to
a point where it became evident that
the Governor was seeking to reduce
officials elected by the people to mere
clerks with powers that could be eX-
ercised by the liberal use of the rub
Der stamp.
1.-THE departmental consolidation
bills provided for Department of Ag-
riculture with single head responsible
to the governor; a so-called Depart
ment of Public Welfare, combining
with it existing bureaus, under a single
head, with vast army of inspectors
and agents, all responsive to the i'm
perious will of the governor; De-
partment of Labor to absorb existing
bureaus, but not reducing personnel;
and the real purpose Of the new de-
partments was to enlarge the powers
of the governor for the accomplish
ment Of his political ambitions
ut was claimed by the governor at
tn, time that these bills would result
In q saving to the state, but according
to appropriations made for the five |
new consolidated departments, $1,027,-
l2O, with the addition Of the leftover |
appropriations from the old boards, the |
total sum for state activities under |
the Republicans amounted to approx
mately $2,678,65S for the two-year Pc
Rod or 81 .2C4 30 more than the exist |