of Herbert S. Hadley, 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 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. The money lender, in front of Att. Dyer, tore up the railroad worker's 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. He was repeatedly re-elected, though his time in Congress was briefly interrupted between 1914 and 1915 due to a dispute over 1912 election results, but 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, after Franklin D. Roosevelt had started some of his work and welfare programs. Dyer followed Harry Coudrey, also a Republican. Anti-usury law 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. 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, Dyer spoke before a Senate Committee advocating H.R. 10484, to fund a U.S. Postal pneumatic tube service in St. Louis. Under the existing service, U.S. mail was transported by compressed air vacuum tubes in the St. Louis area. Dyer asked the committee to extend the pneumatic tube service from two to five 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