Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield

it. TIalf of the time he wasn't there at all. He'd be doing sonrething else all of the time,
moving around somewhere. But one time somebody wrote something ahout him. .And this
guy passed and he just jumped right ovrr the railing right at him. He got him around the
neck and I thought sure he was going to choke him because, Christ, he's a t~ig muscular
guy anyway. And T had to do my damnedest to get them apart.
Q: To pull him off.
A: Ile wasn't no diplomat in the way he operated. Like he got chairman of a
committee. He ran it just the way he wanted to run it. He didn't do it
diplomatically. That was it. Bingo, he just . . .
Q: I'll be darned. (chucklrs) Did he gixe )ou any tips on how to go about
A: Oh ges. When I was the vicr-chairman of the Revenue Committee, Johnny Morris \\as
mostly too busy doing something else, Johnny was always spending taxes, and he turned
that job over to me. And I carried all the meetings. And Leo used to tell me hov to operate
that too. If you're the chairman of the committee, why, you pretty much control those
things. And he showed me what to do
Q: What were some of the things he told you how to do?
A: Oh just not recognizr anybody. If you decide you want something, just close the meeting
Q: WelI. (chuckles)
A: Get it over with
Q: You remember any particular bills that were put through that way?
A: Well yes. One time the hotrl tax bill. I got accused of that but I don't know who in
the hell didn't want that damned tax on. To me it didn't make that much difference. But
I was on it so we put a subcommittee and we knew we was going to put somehody on the
subcommittee who opposed it and we killed the doggoned thing anyway. But there's a lot
of ways of promoting or killing a bill in a committee if you know how to maneuver around,
a lot of that stuff. But you just don't recognize the other fellow if he - that's the important
part of having the chairmanships in the . . .
Q: What committees did you want to be on that first go-round?
A: Oh I was wanting to be on Roads and Bridges for one thing. Naturallb- I was interester1
in roads and bridges. And then I was always interested in conservation and I got on that
one too, the Conservation Department [Waterways, Conservation, Fish and Game
Committee]. But we always had to take a couple minority ones that didn't amount to too
much, see. They usually give you two good ones and then b-ou took two or three of them
that didn't amount to too much. A lot of times they'd conflict. You couldn't attend all of
them anyway so you'd just pick the most important one.
And Agriculture. Naturally I was on that committee. There wasn't too many, too man)
men - in fact they had to pick out a lot of fellows who didn't know a (damned thing about
agriculture to have enough on the Agriculture Committee.
Q: Oh is that right?
A: Yes.
Q: Well you [didn't get on Agriculture that first go-round though, it was the second go-round.
Carl Wittmond Memoir -- Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield