Anti-automobile theft law In 1919, 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 Director J. Edgar Hoover said that the law had led to the recovery of 227,752 stolen automobiles worth $212,679,296 (equivalent to $ billion in ). Advocation of Philippine independence In December 1922, Dyer had traveled to the Philippines, then a U.S. territory, according to the 1898 Treaty of Paris. On December 22, he spoke before the Philippine Senate in Manila, stating that he believed the Philippines would be independent by the next Congress. He 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 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 Dyer that demanded he be returned money after he had bought and sold at a loss Canadian whiskey company Hiram Walker stock. 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. He 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, the Volstead Act, 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 Dyer served 11 terms in office for Missouri's 12th District. During his second term in office, on June 19, 1914, he 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.