Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-03-14
SKETCH OF LILLEY
Congressman Who Started the
Submarine Boat investiga-
ton an interesting Man.
EARLYlIFE ONE OF HARDSHIP
Made Spectacular Entry Into Politics
Quick to Scent Graft and to
Give 1t Battle.

The farm of his father. John Lea
vens I.iIley. near Oxford Mass. was
the place. and Aug. 3, 1850. was the
date of the birth of George Ieayens
Lilley, the member of the United
States house of representatives from
Connecticut whose insistence for full
investigation into the Submarine boat
scandal has attracted attention all over
the United States
His entire boyhood life was one Of
hardship and toll, not play. WGne
still under the age of ten he had to
arise mt 3 o'clock in the morning to
cover milk route ard get through
| with it in time 10 attend the country
school at'o O'Clock. lie was usually so
tired on reaching school that he would
be found fast asleep at his desk on The
| conclusion of the Lords Prayer. with
| Which the school sessions were opened
| says the New Yori, World In spite Of
his handicap he reached the head or
| his classes.
When lie was fourteen his parents
! moved into OXFORD leaving him be,
hind to run his uncle's farm. The
| Lilleys next went to Middleboro. anc
I there the boy peddled meat from Il
cart for his father, who occasionally
sent him to Boston to buy supplies.
| On one of these trips the lad. who was
not eighteen, learned that there was Il
shortage of potatoes in New England
and that-there was an abundance of
them in,sNova Scotia. He induced a
4 Boston merchant whom he knew TO
lend him $1,000, with which he went
to Nova Scotia, chartered schooner
and brought a cargo of potatoes to
Boston, where he sold them at a hand
some profit.
! Three years later he was salesman.
with two rival concerns Offering him a
| partnership. One of these partnerships
resulted in the establishment In Water
burys-Cenn.,e of the firm of I4illey. swift
& Co His entry into politics in 1890
was spectacular. He entered town
meeting at Waterbury which, was pack
ed with adherentS of eontroIhngsring
of grafters and denounced its extraya-
gance. A road repairing contract was
about to be awarded for $4,000 and
he offered to do the work and live up
1 to all its specifications for $500. He
was not only howled down, bat was
threatened with, personal violence.
That experience determined his fu-
ture course in life. He announced him
self as a Republican candidate for the
Legislature and as foe to all grafters,
| large or small He was Overwhelming
| ly elected and made good from the day
of his election. He served a second
term and was then sent to congress.
| where before he was hardly warm In
his chair tie defeated, an attempt to ex-
tend an electric light company's fran
chise in Hawaii upon terms that were
oppressiveto consumers. 1t was bard
fight, for he was up against seasoned
congressman. but he won out.
i, Remember Free Seed Fight.
His fight in the case of tree seed dis
i tribution has not yet been forgotten.
Members OF congress. with an eye to
4 the support of the farmers. encouraged
it until it became the practice for the
members TO food the rural parts of
their districts not with rare and valua-
bic seeds. but with old and common
trash, because the other kind could not
be supplied in .politicaf'' quantities.
To attack this abuse on the floor of
the house was TO subject oneself to
being misunderstood as unfriendly to
the cause of agriculture. but with his
usual courage Mr.. Lilley rose on the
door and denounced the practice-not
the distribution of rare and valuable
seeds, but the wholesale draft on the
agricultural department for cheap seeds
! for purely political ends. He was told