Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Powell) [PAGE 562]

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Griggs and tlie Location of the University

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with the normal college. Neither of these two offered so much land. —IV— As the session proceeded, the members for other cities and especially for Jacksonville, began to complain because their bills were not reported out of committee. Repeatedly Mr. Eppler would rise and inquire the reason for the delay in the case of the Jacksonville bill; and as often Mr. Griggs would inform him that he had attempted to call his committee together and had failed to secure a quorum. He would publicly and ostentatiously summon the members of this committee and later whisper them not to appear. In this manner the bills were prevented from coming up until Mr. Griggs had marshalled his strength. At the beginning of the session Mr. Griggs had begun a series of compromises or exchanges with the members of other cities seeking ends of their own. As Peoria would support Bloomington anyway, he offered Springfield the vote of eastern Illinois in support of her bill to build the new State House in the old capital. A similar bargain was struck with many representatives from southern Illinois, desirous of the new penitentiary, and— most important of all—with Chicago, hopeful of improvement in her park and boulevard system. The members for Chicago and Springfield were persuaded also to convert their newspapers to the cause of Urbana-Champaign, and succeeded in every important case except that of the Chicago Tribune, which to the end maintained Chicago ys pretensions to the institution. In no case did Mr. Griggs approach these newspapers himself. The marked success of Mr. Griggs's efforts, coupled with the generous hospitality of the committee, finally came to excite suspicion. The hospitality, indeed, was not confined to that shown at the Leland House. Following the rather neutral report of the committee appointed to visit all the localities that were candidates for the college, Mr. Griggs, acting for Champaign County, hired a special train and took the entire Legislature over to the Twin Cities to see the proposed site. The gathering was entertained at dinner before returning. But it was the money used for entertainment in Springfield that bred a general whisper that bribery was not unknown to the Champaign County committee. Mr. Griggs believes that it was the urging of a number of