Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-28
THE CASE OF LILLEY

Mr.. Murdoch told his hearers his
attention was first directed to the
Cannon organization because of its
power to punish its enemies.
TT was the case of Lilley of Con-
necticut," he said. zone day I was
walking down the street with Con-
gressman Lilley and he said:
- wonder if the people will ever
get onto this crowd? -
Mr.. Murdoch might have related a lot
more, for the story of Lilley is well
worth telling. Lilley was congress-
man-at-large in 1908 from Connecticut.
one of the pioneer insurgents an op-
ponent of graft and dark-lantern poll
tics, before they were known as in
surgents. One day a representative of
a submarine boat company sought to
bribe him as a member of the naval
committee to vote for a submarine
contract for which a resolution was
pending in the committee.
This set Lilley to investigating. He
found that the boat company was
maintaining a large corps of lobbyists
in Washington and even in the dis
tricts of some members of the naval
committee. He found further that the
prices secured by these means for sub
marines wero fully double what they
were worth. Boat lobbyists had them
selves written the resolution giving
them the monopoly of the govern
ments orders. They had taken con-
gressmen on junketing trips with food
and champagne without limit They
had hired members of the press to
write war scares to promote the sale
of the boats.
Convinced that conditions surround
ing the sale of submarines were rotten
Lilley introduced a resolution on the
floor of the house calling for an inves-
tigation. That was where he made his
mistake He had not consulted Can
non. The "old man" was angry. He
first tried to smother the thing, but the
newspapers began to take up the sub
ject, so he summoned Lilley and sought
to get him to withdraw it. Liley re-
fused. Cannon then appointed what
is known as a select committee of in
vestigation.
1t was indeed a select one. 1t was
packed with CannOn's faithful hench-
men, with Boutell Of Illinois as chair
man. One OF the others was the spur
ious Democrat, Broussard of Louis
lana, who, the testimony afterward
showed, reviled Lilley over the bar of
Washington saloon while the "investi-
CATION" was in progress. The boat
company, thoroughly alarmed, hired a
corps of high priced lawyers. but it
did not need them. The "investiga-
ton" was a farce, a whitewash. The
committee refused to demand the books
of the company, wherein lay the proof
of its corruption fund. Lilley was re-
fused the right to be represented by
attorneys, although he offered to pay
for them out of his own pocket.
Detectives, hired by the company,
dogged the footsteps of himself and
wife, seeking to get something on
him." News writers hired by the COM
pany reviled him. The investigating
committee devoted is attention to him
and his motives. But handicapped as,
he was, Lilley proved many of his
charges-the monopoly contract, the
eXorbitant prices, the hiring of news
paper men to write war scares, the
lobby corruption. He offered to give
bond and build the submarines under
contract for about half the sum paid
to the company.
Every question pat by him to a wit
ness had to be first submitted to the
committee and passed upon by it in
secret session before it was put in open
session. For two months he was
grilled by able lawyers who composed
the committee until his health broke
down. 1t is q part of the testimony
that the committee then proposed to
him to withdraw his charges and they
would hush the matter up. He re-
fused. Why the committee, supposedly
named to investigate a wrong, wanted
the matter hushed Up they never eX-
planned.
Finally report was brought in ex-
onerating the company and blacken-
ing Lilley as a liaI and defamer of
fellow members. Ii was so rank that
only Il DdlG Ii4eJOllly ullQtl lllt whip
of the speaker could be got to pass it.
Such leaders as Eeifer and Hepburn
denounced it from the floor. Every |
Connecticut congressman opposed it. |
The newspapers OF his state stood by
him, Democratic and Republican, and
after a campaign in which he was re- /
viled by hired men of the boat COM
pany sent there to tell dastardly sto- |
ries about his personal life, he was
elected governor.
But the Washington experience and |
had broken his heart and his |
health. He lived only three months, a |
martyr to the insurgent cause. No
governor of the state ever passed |
away with such mourning and such /
honors, party lines being blotted out !
in the grief of the state. His death .
made Connecticut one of the strong |
est insurgent communities in the coun-
try. The blood of this martyr was
truly the seed of the cause that is now
But Lilley lived long enough to see
submarine contracts thrown open to
and the prices cut in two.
He did not, however, live long enough
to see the answer to his question to
NIurdock: Il wonder if the people will
Il