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    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[ù Used to say, "You've got the arguments, you've got the rationale. We've got the votes." That's how this bullshit passes. No, it wasn't overwhelming, but Earl got beat. I know. I made the sponsor withdraw the bill for auto inspection against Governor [John] Dalton. I didn't like Governor Dalton. And the auto inspection bill was a fraud, is a fraud, still is. For example, when you go in and get your car inspected -- I JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis 17 won't ask you to respond -- I'll ask the people that might listen to this. When you go in and get your car inspected, is it really inspected? Hell, no. The auto inspection bill provides that, when you go into the inspection station (which is a commercial inspection station, they don't have any state inspection stations), you go in there, and if you're a nice old lady, the guy says, "Boy, Mrs. Jones, I can't pass you because your old Cadillac needs a new accelerometer." (You don't have those. [laughs] Those are in airplanes.) So, he says, "I can do it, but you can get it done anywhere. You just get it done and then come on back and we'll pass it." It didn't any more need a new collar than the man in the moon. Then, he says, "But, you're going to have to have your brakes lined again." It's a fraud. It is a fraud. And I opposed it. The sponsor of the bill withdrew it in the face of my one-man filibuster. They sent word to me]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[gave a commitment. This was the last day and nothing would pass because I had the floor. They said, "If you will withdraw, we'll withdraw that bill," which I did. Then, it passed later on. It sounded real good. "Auto Inspection -- Get the Junk Heaps Off the Road." What nonsense. WS: Well, talking about that income tax fight, do you remember what kind of dynamics occurred between the first time that came before the legislature, and then went to the people [on a referendum], and then came back [to the General Assembly]? JD: I don't remember. WS: Yes. JD: I don't keep a scrapbook. I ought to, but . . . WS: I just thought perhaps there was some . . . JD: I don't remember the subtleties. 18 JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis WS: Yes. JD: I was opposed to the toll roads. Warren and I fell out about that. The Governor wanted toll roads. I didn't. I don't know who was right and who was wrong there, except for this. I'm opposed to any regressive tax, and a toll road is regressive. [tape meter, 100] I've forgotten some of the battles that we had. If you'd bring them up, I might remember. ‚ÄúPast recollection refresher‚Äù is what lawyers call it in the courtroom. WS: Well, you served under three governors altogether, Governor Hearnes, whom you mentioned, Governor Dalton, but also James Blair. JD: Blair. WS: Did you have a favorite or a least favorite among those three? JD: Well, Warren Hearnes was my favorite even though we quarreled about a lot of things. Next would be Jim Blair. Jim Blair was a pretty good guy. He hit the booze. He didn't take his own life, as it was suggested. I had a Cadillac just like Jim Blair had -- nice, quiet, easy-running car, and it just bubbled along. You could think you could turn it off, because I made the same mistake Jim did. He reached up here to turn it off, and it would still be running. You were turning off -- I've forgotten. It's been some years. It would still be running after you reached up and turned the ignition switch. So, what Jim did, he pulled his Cadillac into his garage, which was attached to his house, and the house air conditioner drew its air from the garage. So, Jim went in there (this is my theory) -- Jim went in]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[he used to have a snoot full every now and then, too -- and reached up as I had done, and left his car running in the garage. Then, all of this ugly toxic smoke was JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis 19 filtered out by the window air conditioner. Then, he went in and died in his bed. Spike (I think that was his name) was the dog, and he died, too, of course. Well, Jim Blair was not close to the type of guy who, if he was going to commit suicide, would put Spike to death, too. That, to me, was the payoff. Yes, he was all right. Governor Dalton was a rustic in the ugly sense. I didn't like him at all. Mrs. Dalton was a driving woman. I think they called her the ‚ÄúIron Lily‚Äù or something like that. Governor Dalton was pretty much dominated by the press, and anybody who's dominated by the press (especially the press in this city, like St. Joseph), has to be almost by definition, a jerk. WS: You were talking earlier in the car about what, I guess, was called the Public Accommodations Act, l965. I imagine you played a role in that. JD: Yes, there on the wall is the l962 St. Louis Civil Liberties Committee. None of those senators would handle a bill which recognized the problem of protecting the position of the restaurant to say to a guy, "You're black and you can't eat here." The spectacular ones were in the south at the dime store, I think. But that was the law here. Well, I handled the bills on the floor. Nobody else would handle them, and they passed. Equal Opportunity and Fair Employment Practice, and all those things which are so elementary now. They were not popular in Missouri. Unlike today when people pay lip homage to equal rights, then, they just flat came out against equal rights. [tape meter, 150] Senator McNeal was on the Floor. He helped me. But, boy, the rest of them]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[whew, it was tough. 20 JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis WS: How about Senator [William J.] Cason? JD: Bill Cason is a friend of mine. I like Bill. He's an able guy. I supported him for governor, but I don't like [laughs] -- ‚Äúbirds of a feather flock together]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[‚Äù and so, Bill was very close to the insurance companies. The insurance companies have undue influence over the legislature. If you're a policy holder -- car, house, anything in Missouri -- you get screwed. The insurance companies dominate the legislature. Bill was close to the insurance companies. I supported him for governor the year he ran against Joe Teasdale. But, that would have been his only failing -- articulate, bright, a good lawyer. WS: Wasn't he involved with that Public Accommodations Act? That's the reason I brought him up. JD: I don't remember. I expect. Well, I had eighteen votes. We finally got it passed. I think Bill would have supported me on that, but they had to find somebody to lead the charge. ‚ÄúWho will put the bell on the cat so we know where he's at?‚Äù [laughs] And, I did it. WS: It sounds like you would agree with Senator Blackwell's assessment that the factions in the Senate, from his point of view, were more or less along the lines of special interests and people looking out for the little guy. JD: Very much so. Very much so. And the little guy, (a) doesn't know that you looked out for him, and (b) doesn't give a damn, and (c) probably doesn't vote anyway. So, when you're protecting the unwashed, you're doing it because it's the right thing to do. You're sure not doing it for political advantage, because when you protect the little guy, you're automatically taking something away from the banks, from the insurance companies, from the vested interests. And they want to continue to exploit. Look at the history of JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis 21 America. They said, "This is America." I'm now talking about the knitting mills in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. They say, "By God, we've got a right to give these children jobs. If they didn't have jobs, where would they go?‚Äù They [others] said, "Well, how old are the children?" "Well, nine, eleven, and twelve. They know how to run a knitting mill and we're American citizens. They have that right and so do their parents." Do you think that the guys that wanted to protect child labor were popular with the people that belonged to the country club or the Junior League? Hell, no. If I'd been there, they'd have said, "There's John Downs. He's taking bread out of the mouths of the children and they want to go to the mill." The same era exists today. Minimum wage. Who is it that wants to keep people working for $4.35? It's the same climate, it's the same atmosphere. Then they can say that you're against progress. All they've got to do -- people like the Bradleys who run the newspaper here. They print in the paper, they say that ‚ÄúSenator Downs is against progress.‚Äù So the ignorant bastards that read the paper say, "Oh, yes, he must be against this. It said so in the newspaper." Who among the unwashed buy ads? And that's it. The money is even more important now than when I was active. How you create an image, out to the TV station, or do you buy space like that thing up on the wall. [tape meter, 200] This one tickled me, that ad. A guy died and his family said that he had cut that out of the newspaper. It was on his wall, and he saved it next to the band leaders whose signatures he acquired. St. Joe used to be very large in the big band era. There was a dance hall called the Frog Hop, and the big bands came to the Frog Hop -- Benny 22 JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis Goodman, Benny Moton, Lawrence Welk -- all of the big bands. They toured what was called the Archer Circuit and they came to St. Joe. The Frog Hop was a huge ballroom with a good, solid floor. The big bands all went on tour. They had to. Red Nickels, and these people never heard of Red Nickels and His Five Pennies. And the Firehouse Five Plus Two. I like the sound of big bands. Louis Armstrong brings tears to my eyes. Anyway, that guy had that, and I'd forgotten that it even existed, that ad. See what it says. [Downs gets up to retrieve framed ad from its hanging place on a wall] Yes, the Kansas City Star said -- you pick out the quotes that you like, of course. The Kansas City Star said, "His causes have not been for the people, power and money. They have been humanitarian for people who probably don't even know him. How does he reach these people?" The St. Louis Post said, "What should also be known about Senator Downs is his long and constructive work on behalf of civil rights, urban causes, criminal code, judicial reform, the junior college system and higher education in general, and to develop the same treatment for juveniles. Few men in Missouri have spoken so often with the kind of public interest that is not special and has no lobby to front for it." That pleases me. Didn't give me any votes. This is a picture of when I was in the Marine Corps. That's an old F4F, the Grummond Wildcat. I've got a lot of time in that plane. WS: Well, along with you and Senator Blackwell, were there other outstanding leaders in the Senate that took that side? JD: [laughs] Well, that's a nice way to put it. ‚ÄúAre there any other great men besides you?‚Äù Well, I don't know. [tape meter, 250] JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis 23 Beauty's in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? You mentioned Bob Young, Earl and me. If you were to query some of the people on the outside and say, "Who were the most offensive blockers of proper legislation?" They'd say, "Well, Blackwell and Downs were among the worst." It all depends on who you're talking to. Oh, in the House, Sam Murphy. I liked Sam very much. Early in his career, Tom Graham of Jefferson City -- he was the Speaker of the House, and Tom was a good Speaker. I remember we defeated the Omnibus Bill where they loaded all the pork on. What the Senate did in the waning hours, would load all the pork into the bill. It was called the Omnibus Bill. Then send it over to the House, and then adjourn. The House then had Hobson's Choice -- to vote against all the good things, which would carry all of the pork with it. Tom Graham was the Speaker the year we defeated it, beat the Omnibus Bill. There's a lot of fraud. You know, what is important to me is important to me, but it's pork to you. Like Missouri Western [College], which was my cause. Yes, that was a pork laden bill. The state could have gotten along without Missouri Western. I don't think St. Joe could have got along without Missouri Western, but the state could have survived. St. Joe was dying anyway. I think we're not in our death throes, but the cancer's on us. [end of side 2, tape I]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[tape meter, 283] WS: We're talking a lot about labor, and I wonder if -- you covered a fourteen-year span between the time when you first went into the House and left the Senate. I wondered if you saw a change in the influence of organized labor. JD: Very much so, very much so. In recent years, organized labor has lost its soul. I was identified with labor. I think it goes clear back to my Grandfather Downs, who was a 24 JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis railroad engineer and lived in the small town of Brookfield, Missouri. I remember my Dad would drive me to Brookfield and I went with him. On one occasion, Grandfather Downs -- there was somebody lived on the street there, very close. Mr. McClarney, I think his name was. No, Dr. McClarney was the family doctor, but it was one of his -- of course, I've forgotten who it was. And he was being buried from the Catholic Church. Grandpa Downs, they were very devout people. He said, no, he wasn't going to the funeral. And the reason he wasn't going to the funeral was that the guy crossed the picket line in '98, which was a big railroad strike. I wasn't born until l9l7, so it had been a long time. Grandpa Downs said, "No, I'm not going to go to his funeral. He crossed the picket line." So, I think that was the beginning of my sympathy for the guys who worked. Of course, a railroad engineer, that was kind of like being chief pilot now. That was a very important job. But, now Duke McVey, who is the head of labor in Missouri -- they're concerning themselves with feathering their own nests. I don't think they have any sense at all -- that's a little bit harsh -- but they have lost their feeling for their fellow men. For example, the old union people that I thought I knew, would have welcomed an opportunity to see the Chicanos live better. They didn't at all. Their question was whether or not some of their jobs would be threatened. Here locally, the same thing is true. Statewide and nationally, yes, labor has lost its soul. Having lost its soul, they're paying a hell of a price now. Look at the membership. I think one of the reasons that you don't see strikes is that they don't have any guts any more. It takes some guts to go out on strike. Yes, the Wagner Act would never pass today. Labor, yes, they're part of JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis 25 the group. Perhaps it's well that they've lost their disproportionate influence -- the Auto Workers, for example, in Kansas City. The thing that kind of astonished me was how international labor organizations will invade a state race to be in the State Senate in Missouri, for example. The international unions pour a ton of money into the person they want. I think that in the field of campaign reform that's one of the things that we should seriously should consider, is to say, ‚ÄúIf you're a non-resident of an area, you can't kick in, if you're an organization, to the candidates running in that area,‚Äù so that the huge corporations can't pour money into the umdy-um district of Missouri to dominate the legislature. I don't think anybody will offer that bill, but they should. I don't even remember the names of the people, but if you had a list of them, I would recognize the state labor crowd. Not very public-minded, and that's being generous. [laughs] WS: Did you see the Democratic Party within the state go through any kind of evolution during this period? [tape meter, 50] JD: Well, I'm an Adlai Stevenson Democrat. They've been able to make the phrase pejorative out of the word ‚Äúliberal,‚Äù which now to many people means a bad thing. I am a liberal. And then the conservatives -- words change in their definition with use. The word ‚Äúgay,‚Äù example. The book, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, ‚Äúhe‚Äôs a gay blade,‚Äù and so on -- well, the meaning of ‚Äúgay‚Äù has completely changed, hasn't it? If someone is gay. So, the words ‚Äúliberal‚Äù and ‚Äúconservative‚Äù -- people like Rush Limbaugh say they're conservative. Well, I always thought the word conservative didn't mean you were a right 26 JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis wing nut, but that's what conservative now means to me. When somebody curls his lip and says, "Well, I'm a Conservative," that doesn't mean he's a Conservative. That means that he's a right wing nut. So, that's where we are. What your question was, was how has the Democratic Party changed in Missouri? Somewhat like it has in the United States as it moves closer to the center. That's not all wrong either. See, even me, an old -- but I didn't regard social legislation as being wrong or being a raid on the public treasury. The [current] "conservatives" are against giving somebody fifty cents an hour more. The "liberals" (I'm a liberal) want to raise the minimum wage. But, yes, I think, Will, that the parties have somehow or other lost their identity. The right wing Conservative Republicans, Pat Buchanan, for example -- he was an editorial writer for the dishonest old Globe-Democrat. Did you know that? WS: No. JD: Yes, he used to beat up on me in his column in the Globe-Democrat. If you're known by the enemies you keep, I sure as hell would keep him. But, he's the pride and joy of the "Conservatives" isn't he? A nut. WS: You just made me think of a complexity maybe you could enlighten me about. Here on one hand-- and this to me also is a complexity in the state of Missouri -- liberals sort of have a modern reputation of ‚Äútax and spend.‚Äù Yet, Missouri was known as a low-tax state and you, in fact, opposed Governor Hearnes on the income tax. JD: Oh, yes. Well, this is the way you appeal to the far right. You pick up a sound-bite, not debate, but sound-bite. Your curl your lip and say, "He's a tax and spend Democrat." What is a tax and spend Democrat? The big tax benefits which Bob Dole and those JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis 27 people are now imposing, who are they imposing them on? And, the tax cuts]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[I think was ever thus. But sound-bites and TV ads, they're murder. I don't know what the effect of the radio people is. I think that a lot of it is just plain bad manners. My mother and grandmother were very big on manners. They were very big on table manners. Mama kept the -- what was the book on etiquette? Not Amy Vanderbilt, but whoever it was. WS: Emily Post? JD: Emily Post. That was mama's Bible. But, you hear the conversation, and the questions and the language . . . I'm a great believer in -- I'm sure that the Constitution cannot permit censorship. [tape meter, 100] At what point does the censor move? Although the bad manners of the Rush Limbaughs and others (Howard Stern and those people) -- I think that the failing is ours. By that, I mean the general population. We don't drum those people out of the service. We continue to listen to them, and we continue to defer to them. So, they're laughing all the way to the bank, having misused the truth, and they knew it was untrue at the time that they printed it or said it. But, that's bad manners. I think you can criticize the president without resorting to the level of criticism that he receives. I, for example, did not like President Nixon. That isn't hard to guess from talking to me that I wouldn't be for Nixon. It was pretty hard to defend his conduct in Whitewater, wasn't it? WS: Watergate? JD: Watergate. See, I was trapped there. 28 JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis WS: Well, back to this income tax thing. Did you perceive that there was a way to cut government spending and avoid the tax in that way? Was that sort of a general reason why you were against it? JD: The tax was just not necessary. I don't care what Governor Hearnes said. We could have got along without it, and there's never been a tax imposed which was later taken off the backs of our people -- not one. The sales tax always will continue, won't it? The people who will get the temporary benefit from an upping of the sales tax will be for it, but the tax will be on our people forever. And all taxes -- all taxes -- are regressive. One of the first jobs I ever had was a Gallup polltaker. That was when I found out how poorly informed our people are. The Gallup Poll -- they didn't tell you who to interview. They gave you a lot of things that you couldn't do. One, you couldn't interview one person in the presence of another, or on the same premises. Then, they described the type of person you had to go see. Here in St. Joseph, for example -- well, I was in junior college then -- you had to interview at least one family who did not have inside plumbing. They described the type of person you were to go see. That was when I found out how woefully ignorant our people were. But, in those days (I guess it's still true) Gallup made his money with the things other than the political questions. They gave you a card, for example, and it had a list of all of the movie actors and actresses and you handed it to the person you were interviewing and said, "Which one of these people would you go see, and make a particular effort to go see?" Well, of course, Metro Goldwyn or whoever was paying for that, was delighted to find out, really, which of their people would attract someone to the theater. But the number of people that did not know JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis 29 the name of either one of their U. S. Senators or the Vice President -- some of them didn't even know who the President was. But, I didn't learn anything from that. Those were the people that I protected all my political life, at the cost of my own hide. [laughs] So, I don't have anybody to blame but myself. What a dummy. WS: Did you ever see Missouri's religious diversity manifest itself in the General Assembly? JD: Oh, yes, you bet. I've forgotten who it was and where I saw it, but a series of overlays on the map, and the overlays were the votes vis-a-vis the Catholics. It's clear, yes. [tape meter, 150] I think since Jack‚Äôs [Kennedy's] assassination that that, to a great extent has gone, but it was very significant here when Al Smith ran. I remember well that -- oh yes. WS: Do you remember some of the issues? JD: Well, the Pope was going to tell him how to vote. It was that simple. ‚ÄúAre you going to vote a Papist, or are you going to vote for an American?‚Äù That was what the issue was to the man on the street. Then, the jokes that took place after Governor [Al] Smith was defeated: ‚ÄúHe received a telegram from the President -- one word -- unpack.‚Äù [laughs] So, oh yes. But as we were talking in the car on the way down, I think that that has greatly diminished. I don't think it's the mark of Cain. There was still a lot of anti-Catholic feeling when I first ran for prosecuting attorney, but that's been a long time ago. I think that it's died out. Organized religion, the kind of classic standard religions, have lost so many of their parishioners. I'm thinking now about the better known religions]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[the Methodists, the Presbyterians, and the Catholics. Oh, their membership is way down. I don't know what effect -- what is the guy that comes on, Robertson. 30 JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis WS: Pat. JD: Pat. When he ran for president here, there were a lot of signs in middle neighborhoods that had ‚ÄúPat Robertson‚Äù signs in their front yards. I was surprised to see it. I don't think -- it's a factor, but not the dominant factor. WS: Now, talking about that old anti-Catholic feeling, was that among Protestants, in general, or a particular sect of the Protestants? JD: Oh, I think it was Protestants in general. They were afraid of the Pope and they were afraid of the Catholics. The Catholics were, to a great extent, the victims of persecution in the United States, in the various states -- in the southern states. Here in St. Joseph, of course, as we drove around town this morning, we didn't go by the old cathedral where I went to school, but there was a church in almost every ward, not in every precinct, but almost in every ward. They had St. Mary's in the north end, St. Francis in the east end, the cathedral downtown. Look out our window here and see the twin spires, the Immaculate Conception in midtown, St. Patrick's in the south end, St. Stanislas in the south end, St. Peter and Paul in the east end. Even in the anti-Catholic days before Jack, a guy running for office could scarcely make his prejudice known because how would you like to have a church in every ward loaded with voters who would become aware of your attitude? So, you had to be kind of soto voce with that one. WS: I would think that this Catholic influence somehow intermeshed with the urban influence in Missouri, as well. Weren't most of the Catholics concentrated in the cities? JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis 31 JD: Oh yes, in the cities, yes indeed. Here in north Missouri, of course, there's Conception Abbey. These were little islands of Catholicity, but for the most part, the rural people were Protestants, oh yes, for the most part. [tape meter, 200] And you will find rural people more conservative (and I mean that in the ugly sense) today than the urban people. I've tried lots of cases in the country and you have to have a feeling for the juries. A rural jury is much more harsh than an urban jury in connection with a kid that steals a car. Of course, rural Buchanan County -- those folks wind up on our juries. So, I learned that from reading Clarence Darrow. A guy comes in and he knows his rights. He's severe and he'll be severe in his punishment. Oddly enough, the very people that are being screwed by the banks and the insurance companies will often line up with the insurance companies against some poor schlob. Somehow or other, the continual advertising of the banks and the insurance companies has its long range effect. I don't try many jury cases anymore. In fact, I think I've probably tried my last one. I'm tired. I really am. WS: What kind of interaction between Kansas City and St. Louis took place in the General Assembly? Could you say generally competitive or cooperative over certain issues? JD: Let's go get some coffee. [brief recess]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[tape player off] JD: About the urban / rural race. Before the one-man, one-vote decision in the United States Supreme Court,* I represented, for example -- my district was 33,000 people in round numbers. Each county had a state representative. Worth County, which is to the extreme 32 JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis north of here adjacent to the Iowa line, had something like 3,300 people. He had one vote. I had one vote. So that instinctively had the rural areas wagging the tail because there they were. You've seen that bumper sticker that says, "My vote cancels your vote." Whether or not they were good representatives from Chariton, and Worth, and Atchison, and so on, it was indifferent. It follows as the night the day. That created an urban conflict. And that was when the rurals would say, "We're feeding you." I don't know how that came into it. So, there was kind of an inherited conflict between urban [and rural] With one-man, one-vote, that has kind of disappeared, but not entirely. We now have, as I discussed with you earlier, the ‚Äúgimme counties.‚Äù The people from the big tax areas resent the fact that they are not getting back what they pay in taxes, and the smaller counties are very jealous of the fact that they get this. "After all, they're feeding us." Whew, boy. [tape meter, 250] Then, along comes the cities overreaching the rural areas. The classic example is the football stadium in St. Louis. That was built from money from the General Revenue of the State of Missouri. The people in Worth County who are never going to go to St. Louis and walk into that stadium, and none of their relatives are ever going to work there or make any money from it -- they built that stadium. I noticed in the paper yesterday (perhaps it was yesterday) that the state gave (I think I remember it correctly) another how many million to Kaufman Stadium. That's where the Royals play. Now, I'm not sure that the General Revenue in the State of Missouri should be kicking in to Kaufman Stadium. Really. The rurals have a right to be angry about that. However, it's true that JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis 33 in order to get along, you've got to go along. We used to say, "Everybody has his cow barn." If you want some hay for your cow barn, you've got to go along and vote for that crap in Kansas City and St. Louis or they will form the entente and vote against your cow barn up in unheard-of County. This is a true fact of life. And of course, the press never presents (at least in this community) both sides of the question. They have an axe to grind, too. WS: Speaking of the press, did you notice an overall evolution in the media coverage of the General Assembly while you were there? JD: Well, I felt that the Post-Dispatch -- Herb Trask was a great reporter, very decent guy. The Post-Dispatch, for the most part, I thought, did fairly objective covering of the actions in the General Assembly. The Globe-Democrat was grossly unobjective and slanted. The local [St. Joseph] paper was slanted, unobjective, and aggressively opposed to those people who did not dance to their tune. That included me, of course. The Kansas City Times was the morning paper, the Star was the evening paper. Their reporting was weak. I don't think it was overly slanted. It was just weak. Perhaps the reason it's weak, is that the people don't read it anyway. So, there you are. They would print the final action on a bill before anybody even knew that the bill was up. That's easy to understand, because if you look at the Bill Book, it's that thick. I'm holding up my hand for three inches now. There's no way in the world that anybody's going to read the bills which are pending in the legislature, most of which are offered by legislators who know they won't pass, but they have to offer it. [tape meter, 300] 34 JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis You offer a bill that you think is nonsense, but it makes the dog owners or the cat owners happy. So you offer it and then you get a hearing and they get to come down and sound off to the committee. Then, when you get home, you say, "Well, we tried hard, but those people, by God, they just wouldn't go for it, but let's try again next year." They say, "Oh, boy. Thank you." And everybody on the Senate floor watches, denouncing one another. You don't have to tell the experienced legislator when you're making a speech for home consumption. You stand there and denounce the hell out of the other side and the boys in the Rotary Club who've come down with their wives to Jefferson City are in the gallery. You're making up, and the guy you're making the speech against doesn't take exception because then you've got to let him make a speech for home consumption. [end of side 1, tape II]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[tape meter 318] JD: I suppose the most dishonest thing that the press does is -- for example, they'll do it every year. I served on the economics committee, the Appropriations Committee, and you work your ass off on the Appropriations Committee. People like Linehan were especially effective, studying the bills, listening to the people come in from the University of Missouri, from the School for the Deaf, for the all other people, to justify [their expenditures and budgetary requests], and to study and inquire. We worked lots of nights, and they still do. Then when the bills had gone through committee and gone to the floor, and in the debate back and forth, then to the conference committees, then finally, they come up for final vote. You watch this year. It'll be this week, I think. Aren't they quitting on Friday? You will see a story in even the reputable newspapers (if there is a such a thing as a reputable newspaper), you‚Äôll see, "The House today (or the JD = John E. Downs]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[WS = Will Sarvis 35 Senate today) voted and in less than an hour, appropriated umpty ump million dollars," leading the people to believe that it hit the floor and in l20 minutes, you voted for it. People say, "My God, what are we doing with those people down there, passing those kinds of bills?" The press revels in that. WS: Did they do that kind of thing when you were there? JD: Oh, hell yes! And who were you going to complain to? The doorman? WS: Did you ever have a situation where your own personal philosophy, or political philosophy, went in one direction and you had the sense your constituency went in another? JD: Oh, often. And that's another thing that troubles me. People say it's a democracy. They haven't even gone to grade sc]]></dcterms:date>
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