Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Q: Normally, what time would you get there in the morning?
A: They normally started about tea o'clock, around ten, and you would go
until the business was over for that day, but generally--that's hard to say,
because--well, over a twenty-year pertod, it's been so Eluctuative.
Q: Yes.
A: But they normally start around ten. I think that--you wauld start at the
Senate at nine, nine-thirty, but ten o'clock was pretty much the starting time
over there. Of course, a lot of times we would have committees, maybe,
before that, you know. We would have a committee at eight-thirty or nine, you
see, and come on the floor at ten.
Q: What was the first occasion for you to speak on the floor? Do you remember?
A: No, I do not. No, I don't. (pause) You see, it sounds funny that I
don't remember but: T know why. Having been a lawyer ten years, speaking to
groups, speaking to juries over the years, there's really nothing significant
about starting to speak to a group of people, you know, on the floor. Now,
if I had come from another world, like if I had been a farmer, if I had been
a druggist or something, 1'n sure it would have pr~bably been more memorable
and more indelibilized in my recollection, but I simply don't remember.
Q: From the earlier days, do you remember any particular debates that you got
into on the floor with other individuals on any subject?
A: In my early days, no, I do not. No I really don't.
Q: Did this happen very often?
A: That I would get involved in debate? Oh, yes. I wasn't a guy that was
up every day, but when I got up, I had something to say and they listened.
knew what I was talking about, too.
I
Q: Yes, sir. Now, if you were in Springfield and you needed to research
something for information, where did you go to do your research? The Illinois
State Library?
A: Well, the library or that building just . .
Q: Centennial building?
A: Centennial building, yes. They had very adequate libraries over there, very
adequate. If I wanted to look up a law of another state or something, I may
go into the Legislative Reference Bureau. I wauld on that occasion, because
they had volumes of court decisions and the statutory law from all over the
country. So, if you wanted to make a comparison with some other state or something,
you would go in there, the Legislative Reference Bureau.
Q: Now, the Legislative Council was available at that time, was it not, for