The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1922-05-05
St. Louis Man Flags Hyde
Administration in Opening
Speech at Poplar Bluff
Many Prominent Demo
Gratis of Southeast Missouri
Attend Big Meeting.

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
iperity, Breckenridge Long Of st. Louis,
candidate for the Democratic nominal
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 81 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 of 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-
ception 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 in part, as follows:
"The Democratic Party faces an op-
portunity for service, both in the state
and In the nation, which is almost, If
mot 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 1t 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 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
of his acts sounds like an echo Of feudal
days. The governor. Of Missouri has
IN IRE 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.
governor Hyde began his admins
tration by dlsapprOval 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
none of them has the governor any
control whatever He even went 81
far as to intimate that he favored Il
complete modification of our present
form of government, and complained
because the Constitution provided for
the creation of Board control Of yafi-
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 OF
centralized power, and the exact anti.
thesis of Democratic government.
cat 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 tC
create new departments which wOulG
absorb many Of the normal powers Of
constitutional and elective officers t.
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.
"The departmental consolidation
bills provided for Department of Az
riculture with a single head responsible
to the governor; so-called Depart
ment Of Public Welfare, combining
with it existing bureaus, under singh
head, with a vast army Of inspector
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 power
of the governor for the accomplish
ment of his political ambitions.
at was claimed by the governor .
the time that these bills would resul
in a saving to the state, but according
to appropriations made for the fiv
new consolidated departments, $1.927
I12O, with the addition of the leftove
appropriations from the old boards, tn
total sum for state activities unde
the Republicans amounted to approx
lmately $2876,85S for the two-year pc
Rod, or 81 ,224,210 more than the exist
ing bureaus cost under the last tw
years of the Gardner administration
The Hyde Gerrymander.
"But even more Ubiquitous was hi
attempt to so gerrymander the stat
that the Republican party, and particl