Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-03-09
FIGHTER 0F CHAPTERS
Career of G. |. LlIley, Submarine
 Boat Investigation Starter.
EARLY LIFE ONE OF HARDSHIP
Mads Spectacular Entry Into Politics. Quick to Scent Graft and Give 1t BattIe-opposed Free Seed Abuse. Downed Paper Trust.

Quick to Scent Graft and Give 1t
 BattIe-opposed Free Seed Abuse.
 Downed Paper Trust.
 The farm of his father, John Lea vens Liley, near Oxford, Mass, was the place, and Aug. 3, 1859, was the date of the birth of George Leavens 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. While | still under the age of ten he had to arise at 3 o'clock in the morning to cover milk route and get through
 with it in time to attend the country school at 9 o'clock He 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 W lllCu lut cCuOOI ScSolOuS we're optHtu, says the New York World. In spite of his handicap he reached the head of ! his classes.
 When he was fourteen his parents moved into Oxford, leaving him be- hind to run his uncle's farm. The Lilleys next went to Middleboro, and | there the boy peddled meat from a | 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 a | shortage of potatoes In New England and that there was an abundance of 1 them in Nova Scotia. He induced a | Boston merchant whom he knew to lend him S2,00O, with which he went to Nova Scotia, chartered a schooner and brought cargo of potatoes to l Boston, where he sold them at a hand some profit.
 Three years later he was a salesman. with two rival concerns offering him partnership. One of these partnerships resulted in the establishment in Water bury, Conn.,, of the firm of Lilley, Swift & Co. His entry into politics In 1900 was spectacular. He entered a town meeting at Waterbury which was pack ed with adherents of controlling ring of grafters and denounced it's extraya- gance. A road repairing contract was | about to be awarded for $35,0O0. and he offered to do the work and live up | to all It's specifications for S3,500. He was not only howled down, but 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 a 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 1 term and was then sent to congress, where before he was hardly warm in his chair he defeated an attempt to ex- tend an electric light company's fran chise fin Hawaii upon terms that were oppressive to consumers. It was a hard fight, for he was up against seasoned congressman, but he won out.
 His fight in the case of free seed dis tributlon has not yet been forgotten. Members of congress, with an eye to the support of the farmers, encouraged 1t until it became the practice for the members to flood the rural parts of their districts not with rare and valua- ble seeds, but with old and common trash, because the other kind could not be supplied in political" quantities.
 To attack this abuse on the floor of the house wGs to subject oneself to being misunderstood as unfriendly to the cause of agriculture, but with his usual courage Mir. Lilley rose on the floor 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 he would lose the farmer vote' In Connecticut. but he believed the farm CTS too intelligent to misunderstood, and anyway he was attacking a wrong, anu llhl WIS lHe uiNl lulliH tp hS thought of He mustered only three votes for his resolution to cut out the practice, which showed a contrasting lack of courage among the other mem- bers. He tried 1t again at the succeed ing session and was again defeated. al though he had increased his number Of supporters from three to hundred.
 In the fall of 1904 Mir. Lilley intro duced the resolution that eventually resulted in the trial and conviction of the General Paper company. pOpularly known as the paper trust, and the dis solving of the combine. which had artifically advanced the price of print paper to the newspapers of the coun- try. These results were due almost wholly to the Connecticut congress man. who personally spurred the judi ciary committee of the house and after ward the legal department of the gov ernment to action.
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