Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield
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A: Of course, I knew. Corneal Davis.<br />
A: And Fred Smith . . . and a fellow by the name <strong>of</strong> Kenneth Wilson. 1<br />
suppose I knew them better than I did anybody else. Except this. You see,<br />
I had been eight years in the state's attorney's <strong>of</strong>fice and there were some<br />
legislators I came in contact with through the courts that I would have<br />
known, yes.<br />
Q: What I was driving at was, when you first arrived down there, how did you<br />
go about ].earning the process <strong>of</strong> legislation? Or were you pretty familiar<br />
with that before you went down?<br />
A: No, there were some guides like--not a book but maybe a brochure that<br />
explained some <strong>of</strong> the things. The --- Blue Book has a section In it on how a bill<br />
passes and how the legislature functions and that sort <strong>of</strong> thing and I had read<br />
all <strong>of</strong> that.<br />
Q: The Legislative Council .now has an introductory . . . ,<br />
A: Course. Yes, but they didn't have it at that time, or certainly not as<br />
sophisticated or elongated.<br />
Q: So you were kind <strong>of</strong> on your own as to figuring out exac*tly what you were<br />
going to do.<br />
A: We got a lot <strong>of</strong> guidance, in particular from Carneal Davis.<br />
Q: Oh? What types <strong>of</strong> things did he alert you to?<br />
A: Oh, about making sure that you thoroughly understood the hill before you<br />
voted on it and not popping <strong>of</strong>f on every question, which undermines your<br />
effectiveness. Sometimes you can talk so <strong>of</strong>ten down there that when you get<br />
up, people don't listen. If you talk less <strong>of</strong>ten and you know what you're<br />
talking about, you get more <strong>of</strong> an audience and you get more appreciation <strong>of</strong><br />
what you say and more support <strong>of</strong> what you said. That kind <strong>of</strong> thing.<br />
Q: Would you say you got most <strong>of</strong> your information, then, from Mr. Davis?<br />
A: Oh, 1 got more information from him than I did from anyone else. I got a<br />
lot <strong>of</strong> information by reading and by watching and listening and observing.<br />
Q: How long, after that first day you arrived down there, did you go into the<br />
session or start your work?<br />
A: We had session the first day I was there.<br />
Q: What was that . . .<br />
A: They open up the session and then they pay you. First job I've ever been on