Leonidas C. Dyer
Encyclopedia
Leonidas Carstarphen Dyer (June 11, 1871 – December 15, 1957) was an American politician, reformer, civil rights activist, and military officer who served 11 terms in the U.S. Congress as a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 from Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 from 1911 to 1933. In 1898 enrolling in the U.S. Army as a private, Dyer served notably in the Spanish–American War; and was promoted to Colonel at the war's end.

Working as an attorney in St. Louis, Dyer started an anti-usury
Usury
Usury Originally, when the charging of interest was still banned by Christian churches, usury simply meant the charging of interest at any rate . In countries where the charging of interest became acceptable, the term came to be used for interest above the rate allowed by law...

 campaign and was elected to Congress as a Republican in 1910. As a progressive reformer, Dyer authored an anti-usury law in 1914 that limited excessive loan rates by bank lenders in the nation's capital, then still governed by Congress.

Horrified by the race riots in Saint Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 and East Saint Louis in 1917 and the high rate of reported lynchings in the South, in 1918 Dyer was notable for proposing the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, introduced by Representative Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican from Saint Louis, Missouri, in the US House of Representatives in 1918, was directed at punishing lynchings and mob violence....

. In 1920 the Republican Party supported such legislation in its platform from the National Convention. In January 1922, Dyer's bill was passed by the House, which approved it by a wide margin due to "insistent countrywide demand". The bill was defeated by the white Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 voting bloc of the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

 in filibusters in the Senate in December 1922, in 1923 and 1924.

In 1919, Dyer authored the motor-vehicle theft law, which made transporting stolen automobiles across state lines a federal crime. By 1956, the FBI reported that the law had enabled the recovery of cars worth more than $212 million. In terms of Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

, Rep. Dyer voted against various anti-liquor laws, including the Eighteenth Amendment
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution established Prohibition in the United States. The separate Volstead Act set down methods of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition...

.

Dyer served in Congress from the 62nd Congress to the 72nd Congress. He was defeated for re-election during the 1930s of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. The Republican Party's failure to gain passage of an anti-lynching bill since 1920 contributed to his defeat. In addition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

 programs to put people to work and extend social welfare during the Depression helped attract voters to Democratic candidates.

Early life and education

Dyer was born near Warrenton in Warren County, Missouri
Warren County, Missouri
Warren County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. Warren County is part of the St. Louis Metro Area and is located west of the city on the north side of the Missouri River. As of 2008, the population was estimated to be 31,214. Its county seat is Warrenton...

, the son of James Coleman Dyer and Martha E. (Camp) Dyer. His father's family had roots in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, where his uncle David Patterson Dyer
David Patterson Dyer
David Patterson Dyer was a United States federal judge and U.S. Representative from Missouri. He was also the uncle of U.S. Representative Leonidas C. Dyer....

 was born; he was elected as a Republican Congressman from Missouri (1869–71).

Leonidas attended common schools and Central Wesleyan College
Central Wesleyan College
Central Wesleyan College was a private college sponsored by the Methodist Church in Warrenton, Missouri from 1864 to 1941.-History:The college has its roots in the German and English College founded in 1854 in Quincy, Illinois, to train ministers for the German Methodist Episcopal Church...

. He studied law at Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...

 and was admitted to the bar in 1893.

Served in Spanish–American War

When the Spanish–American War began, Dyer joined the United States Army and served in combat during the Santiago campaign as a private in 1898. He was promoted to colonel during the war, and served as a member of the staff of Herbert S. Hadley
Herbert S. Hadley
Herbert Spencer Hadley was an American lawyer and a Republican Party politician from St. Louis, Missouri. Born in Olathe, Kansas, he was Missouri Attorney General from 1905 to 1909 and was the 32nd Governor of Missouri from 1909 to 1913. As Attorney General, he successfully prosecuted Standard Oil...

, future Governor of Missouri.

St. Louis attorney and reformer

After the war, the young Dyer served as assistant circuit attorney in St. Louis, where he championed an anti-usury
Usury
Usury Originally, when the charging of interest was still banned by Christian churches, usury simply meant the charging of interest at any rate . In countries where the charging of interest became acceptable, the term came to be used for interest above the rate allowed by law...

 reform campaign that eventually gained national attention. Dyer successfully represented a railroad clerk who was being charged 34% monthly (408% annual) interest on a $100 loan after having paid $480 interest in 14 months. None of the interest payment to the money lender was used to pay off the principal
Amortization (business)
In business, amortization refers to spreading payments over multiple periods. The term is used for two separate processes: amortization of loans and amortization of intangible assets.-Amortization of loans:...

. The money lender, in front of Att. Dyer, tore up the railroad workers loan. Dyer organized a group of wealthy merchants in St. Louis who through investigations were able to keep interest rates low in Missouri.

Congressional career

In 1910, Dyer successfully ran and was elected Congressman to the U.S. House of Representatives. His long career in Congress having begun in 1911, Rep. Dyer was repeatedly re-elected. His time in Congress was briefly interrupted between 1914 and 1915 due to a dispute over 1912 election results, but he was reelected in 1914.

Dyer was defeated for re-election from his district in 1932, 1934 and 1936, and decided to retire from politics. Dyer represented the 12th District of Missouri, which had a majority African-American population. They were disappointed by the Republican failure to pass an anti-lynching bill during the 1920s , and attracted to Democratic candidates during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, after Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

 had started some of his work and welfare programs. Dyer followed Harry Coudrey, also a Republican.

Anti-usury law

Rep. Dyer continued his anti-usury campaign in 1914 by authoring a law that prevented banks from charging excessive interest rates on loans in Washington D.C., which was then governed by Congress. Rep. Dyer believed that money lenders went after financially vulnerable people, authorizing loan contracts for unnecessary purposes. Dyer stated that usury was "an ancient moral crime against the poor and helpless." He advocated for each state to pass similar anti-usury laws.

Advocated postal pneumatic tube system

On March 29, 1916, Rep. Dyer spoke before a Senate Committee advocating H.R. 10484, to fund a U.S. Postal pneumatic tube
Pneumatic tube
Pneumatic tubes are systems in which cylindrical containers are propelled through a network of tubes by compressed air or by partial vacuum...

 service in St. Louis. Under the existing service, U.S. mail was transported by compressed air vacuum
Vacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...

 tubes in the St. Louis area. Dyer asked the committee to extend the pneumatic tube service from 2 to 5 miles; at a cost of $50,000. According to Dyer, the tube extension would promote business and private citizens in East St. Louis by reducing delivery time 11 hours and 50 minutes. By comparison, the city of Boston had 8 miles of U.S. Postal pneumatic tube service.

St. Louis riots 1917

In May 1917, a riot broke out in Saint Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, where mobs of ethnic white men attacked black workers, strikebreakers who had been brought in to replace American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...

 strikers. In July 1917, mob violence broke out in East St. Louis against blacks, also against a background of competition over jobs. Two white police officers were killed early in the confrontation. In retaliation, ethnic white mobs killed 35 blacks, mutilated the bodies and threw them into the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

. White rioters openly targeted and lynched several blacks. Those who attempted to stop the lynchings were threatened by the white mob with physical violence. As blacks fled into St. Louis, white rioters threatened to kill them upon their return. The white Illinois National guard brought into quell the riot, participated in the violence against blacks or did nothing to stop the violence. One black child was shot and thrown into a burning building, while white prostitutes openly attacked black women. After the riots, of the 134 persons indicted, only 9 whites who were put on trial went to prison while 12 indicted blacks who went to trial were imprisoned. Nearly 1/3 of the total 134 persons indicted were black. The conviction rate, mathematically, was more then doubled for blacks then for whites.

Dyer was distressed by such mob violence, with its disregard for the courts and the "rule of law". His district in St. Louis had mostly African-American residents and he wanted to protect his constituents and other citizens. Many people from his district had migrated to St. Louis from the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

, in the exodus known as the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...

. They settled in St. Louis where industrialization had led to a strong economy and an increase in jobs. The economy had also attracted numerous immigrants from Europe and competition for work was high. Dyer also knew of the continuing high rate of lynchings, mostly of blacks by whites in the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

. Working with W.E.B. DuBois and Walter White
Walter Francis White
Walter Francis White was a civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for almost a quarter of a century and directed a broad program of legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement. He was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist...

 of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...

, who had been working on a national anti-lynching campaign, Dyer helped develop and agreed to sponsor anti-lynching legislation.

Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill introduced 1918

Calling for an end to mob violence, on April 1, 1918, Dyer introduced the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, introduced by Representative Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican from Saint Louis, Missouri, in the US House of Representatives in 1918, was directed at punishing lynchings and mob violence....

, which would have made lynching a federal crime. Black leaders in the North insisted that the Republican Party National platform for the presidential election of 1920 include support for anti-lynching legislation. After the election, the black community complained when months passed without Harding's getting a bill introduced and passed by Congress.

Dyer introduced a revised version of the bill in the House of Representatives in 1921. Due to "insistent country-wide demand," it passed on January 22, 1922. The first such federal legislation to gain House passage in the twentieth century, it would have enabled the federal government to prosecute the crime. Southern authorities seldom did so. In the South, most blacks had been disfranchised from 1890–1911 by constitutional changes and discriminatory legislation after southern Democrats regained power in the state legislatures. Unable to vote, blacks were disqualified from serving on juries or in holding any political office; they had virtually no political power within the official system. All-white juries generally never convicted a white man of lynching a black in the few cases that came to trial.

The Republican President Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...

 spoke in favor of Dyer's anti-lynching bill at an appearance in Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

, Alabama. With interest in the bill across the country, it passed the House on January 26, 1922 with the help of Liberal Republicans and eight Democratic Representatives, and went on to the Senate. President Harding stated he would sign the bill if passed by the Senate

Proponents of Dyer's anti-lynching bill believed that lynching and mob violence took away African-American citizens' rights under the Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...

. These rights included a speedy and fair trial by an impartial jury. Other citizen rights included the right to be informed of the nature of the crime accused, the ability to have witnesses in the defenses favor, and to be represented by council in court. Many blacks felt betrayed by the Republicans due to the slow process the bill had taken to get to the Senate. A silent protest march by many blacks took place in front of the Capital grounds and White House in 1922 while the bill's constitutionality was being contemplated. A protest sign read, "Congress discusses constitutionality while the smoke of burning bodies darkens the heavens."

Senate filibuster 1922

After Dyer's bill reached the Senate and received a favorable report from the Judiciary Committee, some Republican senators, including most prominently William Borah, a conservative from Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

, spoke against it. Borah was concerned about issues of state sovereignty and believed that the bill was not constitutional. He was especially concerned about the clause that provided for federal authorities to punish state officials "remiss in the suppression of lynchings."

A prolonged filibuster
Filibuster
A filibuster is a type of parliamentary procedure. Specifically, it is the right of an individual to extend debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal...

 by Southern white Democrats prevented consideration of the bill and defeated it. After the Democrats had held up voting on all the national business in the Senate for a week in December 1922 by their filibuster, the Republicans realized they could not overcome the tactic and finally conceded defeat on Dyer's bill. Senator Lee S. Overman of North Carolina told the New York Times that the "good negroes of the South did not want the legislation for 'they do not need it'."

Aftermath and legacy

Following the defeat of his first bill in the Senate in 1922, Dyer tried unsuccessfully two more times to get it passed by the Senate. Some of the bill's opponents claimed that the threat of lynching protected white women from sexual advances from black men. The studies by the journalist Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was an African American journalist, newspaper editor and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing how it was often a way to control or punish blacks who...

 in the late 1890s had shown that black lynch victims were accused or rape or attempted rape only one third of the time. Rather, the murders of blacks were an extreme form of white extrajudicial punishment and community control, often targeting blacks who were economic competitors with whites, who were trying to advance in society, who were in debt to landowners (settlement season for sharecroppers was a time of high rates of lynchings in rural areas), or those who failed to "stay in their place". In 1919, according to the Pittsburg Gazette Times, many Southerners viewed the practice of lynching as a sporting event
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...

.

In 1923 to gain national support for his anti-lynching bill, which was to be heard again that year in the Senate, Dyer toured the western United States to generate public support. His motto for his anti-lynching campaign was "We have just begun to fight." (This was the statement made famous by John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to...

.) Dyer attracted mixed black and white audiences in Denver, Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, Los Angeles, Omaha
Omaha
Omaha may refer to:*Omaha , a Native American tribe that currently resides in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Nebraska-Places:United States* Omaha, Nebraska* Omaha, Arkansas* Omaha, Georgia* Omaha, Illinois* Omaha, Texas...

, and Chicago. He thanked the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...

 (NAACP) for supporting his bill and praised their continuing to publicize the terrible human toll of lynching in the United States. In Chicago, 4000 people attended his anti-lynching rally. Dyer's campaign received positive coverage by the white mainstream press, which helped strengthen an anti-lynching movement in the West.

The national attention received by Dyer's anti-lynching bill and speaking campaign may have helped reduce lynchings in the South. Lynchings per year dropped in four years, from 60 in 1918 to 57 in 1922. More significantly, the Great Migration was underway, and black workers by the tens of thousands were leaving the South for Northern and Midwestern industrial cities, for jobs, education, and a chance to escape Jim Crow laws and violence. By 1934, when the Costigan-Wagner
Robert F. Wagner
Robert Ferdinand Wagner I was an American politician. He was a Democratic U.S. Senator from New York from 1927 to 1949.-Origin and early life:...

 anti-lynching bill was introduced, lynchings had dropped to 15 per year. In 1935 and 1938, Senator Borah repeated his constitutional arguments against the bill; he added that he believed such legislation was no longer needed, because the rate of lynchings had fallen so dramatically. By 1940, 1.5 million blacks had left the South in the Great Migration. Another five million left from 1940–1970.

The political power of the white Democrats in the South came from their having disfranchised most blacks from 1890–1910. The South was essentially a one-party, Democratic region in which only whites voted and held office, well into the 1960s, but Congressional representation was based on the total population. The situation of disfranchisement did not change markedly until passage in the 1960s of federal civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 legislation that protected and enforced the constitutional rights of voting and citizenship for African Americans and other minorities.

From 1882–1968, "...nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress, and three passed the House. Seven presidents between 1890 and 1952 petitioned Congress to pass a federal law." None was approved by the Senate because of the powerful opposition of the Southern Democratic voting bloc. In June 2005, through passing a bipartisan resolution sponsored by senators Mary Landrieu
Mary Landrieu
Mary Loretta Landrieu is the senior United States Senator from the State of Louisiana and a member of the Democratic Party.Born in Arlington, Virginia, Landrieu was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana...

 of Louisiana and George Allen
George Allen (U.S. politician)
George Felix Allen is a former United States Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the son of former NFL head coach George Allen. Allen served Virginia in the state legislature, as the 67th Governor, and in both bodies of the U.S. Congress, winning election to the Senate in 2000...

 of Virginia, the US Senate officially apologized for not having passed an anti-lynching law "when it was most needed."

Anti-automobile theft law

In 1919, Rep. Dyer authored an anti-crime law that made transporting stolen cars across state borders a federal crime, to be prosecuted by federal law enforcement. In 1956 the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

 Director J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...

 said that the law had led to the recovery of 227,752 stolen automobiles worth $212,679,296.

Advocated Philippine independence

In December 1922, Rep. Dyer had traveled to the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, then a U.S. territory, according to the 1898 Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1898)
The Treaty of Paris of 1898 was signed on December 10, 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War, and came into effect on April 11, 1899, when the ratifications were exchanged....

. On December 22, Rep. Dyer spoke before the Philippine Senate in Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

, stating that he believed the Philippines would be independent by the next Congress. Rep. Dyer stated he favored Philippine independence. He said that the US would always "be proud of the Philippines and what we have accomplished here for the Filipinos
Filipinos
Filipinos is the brand name for a series of biscuit snacks made by Kraft Foods. In Spain and Portugal they are produced and sold under the Artiach brand name. Under license to United Biscuits, in the Netherlands they are sold and produced locally under the Verkade brand...

 and for the American people." The Philippines were granted commonwealth status in 1935 and finally given independence in 1946.

Contraband liquor stock

The New York Curb Exchange (NYCE) on April 10, 1929 had received a letter written by Rep. Dyer that demanded he be returned money after he had bought and sold at a loss Canadian whiskey company Hiram Walker
Hiram Walker
Hiram Walker was an American grocer and distiller, and the eponym of the famous distillery in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Walker was born in East Douglas, Massachusetts, and moved to Detroit in the mid-1830s...

 stock. Rep. Dyer contended he did not know that company made liquor, a contraband product in the U.S. during Prohibition and was forced to sell at a loss. Rep. Dyer believed Hiram Walker and other company liquor stocks had been sold on the NYCE without acknowledgement that these were whiskey companies.

Dyer had voted against the Prohibition Eighteenth Amendment
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution established Prohibition in the United States. The separate Volstead Act set down methods of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition...

, the Volstead Act
Volstead Act
The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was the enabling legislation for the Eighteenth Amendment which established prohibition in the United States...

, the Volstead Act over-riding Presidential veto, and the Jones law. These laws authorized federal enforcement and essentially prohibited the sale of liquor in the United States. Saint Louis had a large beer-brewing industry, and before Prohibition, Missouri was the second-largest wine-producing state in the country. Both industries had been started and developed by German immigrants to the state. Prohibition would seriously damage the economies of Dyer's major city and state.

Terms and voting record

Rep. Dyer served 11 terms in office for Missouri's 12th District. During his second term in office, on June 19, 1914 Dyer was suspended from taking his seat in the House of Representatives due to contested voting election returns in 1912 in Missouri's 12th District. According to the New York Times, Dyer had nothing to do with the voting fraud. The House voted to unseat Dyer, who was active in legislative work, by a 147 to 98 vote. During the vote to oust Dyer, 22 Representatives voted "present", rather than give a vote for or against. By a 126 to 108 vote to replace Dyer, the House seated a Democrat, Michael J. Gill
Michael Joseph Gill
Michael Joseph Gill was a U.S. Representative from Missouri.Born in Covington, Kentucky, Gill attended the common schools and Oberlin College.He engaged in the glass manufacturing business....

, who took the oath of office.

Gill served in the House from June 19, 1914 until March 3, 1915. He was defeated by Dyer in the 1914 elections.
Rep. Dyer Terms Year Started Year Ended
First
1911
1913
Second
1913
1914
Third
1915
1917
Fourth
1917
1919
Fifth
1919
1921
Sixth
1921
1923
Seventh
1923
1925
Eighth
1925
1927
Ninth
1927
1929
Tenth
1929
1931
Eleventh
1931
1933


Rep. Dyer's voted 1556 times out of 2,035 Congressional roll calls. He missed voting 482 times, or 28%, in the Congressional time frame starting on April 5, 1911 and ending on March 1, 1933. The two time periods when Rep. Dyer missed voting 80% of the time were April–June 1912, and October–December 1922.

Retirement from public office

Dyer ran unsuccessfully for reelection in 1932, 1934 and 1936, during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. Black voters had been disappointed that the Republicans had failed to deliver on their promise to pass an anti-lynching law, part of the national platform in 1920, and by President Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...

's approach to dealing with economic problems. The administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

 attracted many voters to Democratic candidates because he was putting people to work through the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...

 and providing social aid programs.

After three successive defeats, Dyer retired from politics and returned to private law practice as an attorney.

Death

Rep. Dyer died in Saint Louis, Missouri on December 15, 1957 at the age of 86. Dyer was buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Saint Louis.

Internet

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK