Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield

.A: Yes 1 can rt,call something of that. I r:rn r~,n~cmber there uas some approlrri:~tic~n t1tc.y
voled on. Saturally most of them they'd just vote for and forget about it atid they didn't
knon. ~vhat he - rrally examined too much anyway. Just took f~,r grantrd the con~rnitlee
r~,t.omrnendation and you voted for it.
llut Paul Simon, he was the only onc in the house I think, it \vas 159 menthers we had at
that particular time - and hr was the only one that voted arainst it. No1 that he knew
anything about it, but just because he wanted tu be against everything. Paul just voted
against ever>-thing. And hat made a hero out of hini when hc found out that l-l~xlg~. n-;rs
really in trouhle nn some financial affairs 1 guess.
Talking ahout him, an11 some friends of his from Granite City, just Sun~iay thq nrre
up. They nas talking about Orrillu, that he could have ha11 anything he asked for. lie u;is
the most popular man in the state ;it that time, could have buen the nexl governor. Or
any other ofire you \ranted to adhere to. But he must have been irniilicatc,d with some other
group of persons. I don't know how he could hare spent that kirid of monel- himself. Rut
I guess he's one of these country boys u-ho \rent to the hig city arld got involved \\-ith somr
last company. And they were too smart fur him. Hr got pretty liberal with the
money. But even with hou liberal he could have been, he had to hare somebndy else gelling
;I ILI~ of that funds or he couldn't have got away with that much money. That's my feeling
ahrlut it.
Q: \\'hen ~iid 1-ou lirst hear ahout it'.'
A: Oh, 1 hrard about it. Kerer give it a thought. 1 thought it uas just politics for a long
time until it actually happened. ilaughs~ .As 1 said he was real popular with 2111 of us, tlir
rlernocrats as far as thc Republicans. Why, 1 uscd tn go in his ofire rrequently an11 \r\.;inted
something done and I ~.ct.all - \\-ell 1 rnentiontlri this the other day - 1 recallc~i one time
1 \\-anted a drerize tloat tlrought up there at Kanipsville. One of my constituents n~~ciit>il
some help to get that fer1.3- ;m11 some boat landing rhanged thcrc at the linrnps~ille ferry.
They had tried all or thr olher resourres. And I happened to think ahout Orville. So I
\valked doa-n to his ofice and 1 told him ahout it. He gets on lhe phone. He sa-s. "Just
3 minutc, let me get on tht, ph~~nr." He says - ralled up, and, "Wherr they got that
goddamne11 harge at?" And they said, "Llou-n the ri\rer" - 1 don't knuu what rhe
distance. He says to me, "llave that up there Monday morninp" And hlon~lay ntorning
that thing was there. And see, he got lhe work done. All the other \vatrr\vays \\-hi) 11:id
charge, of it. you couldn't get anything done there at all. Hugut it done.
.Anti one day - as an example of hntv he thought - Ser~ator Lyons and 1 \\-as gourl
friends. iVr \\.alkerl into his ofice one day. Anti in those days \re had ;rllo\v;irit.~~ ror
travel. And evrryhu(i- \\-as trying to grt as much as they could. And some of thrm \\-oul~l
go by railroad, see, and try to figure the longest nay possible. iVcll, l.yons ~ O I Iup, I ~ "iVh~
don't you figure )-ours to St. 1,ouisY" lie sho\vs this place you coul(l gi,t on a train. And
[hen train fare to Springfirld and then figure it hat \\-as. I wen1 ill to Horlgc an11 ~ rtalkc~i
c
it uver, Lyons and I did, an11 Orville listened. lIe says. "FeIlo\\-s, l don't believe I'd du that
iT I \\-ere you. You knou so~nehody might he looking into th:~t and you might get in a li~lle
tro~te." llere he's advising us on a few dollars and h~re hr \voun~l ul) \\-ith :I rnilliorl
short. i laughter)
Q: .A different Icvcl of embezzlement thtal-c
Carl Wittmond Memoir -- Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield