Iron County register., 1922-05-04
St. Louis Man Flays Hyde
Administration in Opening
Speech at Poplar Bluff
Many Prominent Demo
Gratis of Southeast Missouri
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, Breckinridge 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 q. 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
wayside. He characterized the Re
publican Administration as one that
| "hesitates and vacillates," 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-
ception to Longs speech, frequently
breaking out in prolonged applause,
were representative Democrats from
every section of Southeast Missouri,
and a number from other parts of the
state. Long spoke in part, as follows
! "The Democratic Party faces an op-
lportunity for service, both in the state
and in the nation, which is almost, 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 a
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
ernor 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
\ person all political authority. A recital
VI Ills dClS SOuuOo Inc Ol1 CI1lp VI 1tultGl
days. The governor of Missouri has
m 1re 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
4 tralize in his own hands control over
and power in the state which would
have been perilous in the extreme.
/ "Goyernor 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 sc
far as to intimate that he favored q
complete modification Of our present
form of government, and complained
because the Constitution provided fol
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 single re
sponsible individual,' the epitome 0.
centralized power, and the exact anti
thesis of Democratic government.
"At his direction there were intro
duced during the regular session of thu
51st General Assembly the Administra
tion bills, designed to carry out hi
remarkable recommendations, but the,
underwent many changes. These so
called Consolidation Bills undertook t,
create new departments which woul'
absorb many of the normal powers 0
constitutional and elective officers t
a point where it became evident tha
the Governor was seeking to reduc
officials elected by the people to mer
clerks, with powers that could be eS
ercised by the liberal use of the rub
Der stamp.
1.-THE departmental consolidation
bills provided for Department of AS
riculture with single head responsible
to the governor; a so-called Depart
ment of Public Welfare, combinin
with it existing bureaus, under a singl
head, with vast army of inspector
and agents, all responsive to the in
perious will Of the governor; a ID
partment of Labor to absorb existin
bureaus, but not reducing personnel
and the real purpose of the new d
partments was to enlarge the power
of the governor for the accomplish
ment Of his political ambitions,
ut was claimed by the governor ;
the time that these bills would resu
in saving to the state, but accordiI
to appropriations made for the fly
new consolidated departments, 1921
100, with the addition of the leftov'
appropriations from the old boards, Il
u total sum for state activities und
the Republicans amounted to approx
mately $2,676658 for the two-year p
riod or 81, ,224 ,210 more than the exis
ing bureaus cost under the last tv
years Of the Gardner administratio
u (