[Granville-Hough] 22 July 2009 - Teacher Chapman Sullivan - Will Rogers

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

I knew Cousin Chapman Sullivan as a youth, but never expected him 
to amount to much. He was not industrious in doing farm chores, and sort 
of allowed tenant farmers to do all the work. Even when he went to 
college and wrote his thesis for an advanced degree, there were those 
who said his nephews probably did the work for him. However, I knew he 
had a sharp mind and was academically gifted.
I feel sure he was a great teacher at Mize High School and that in his 
teaching of history and civics, he often thought of the slowness of 
legislative progress. One could apply those lessens to the current 
Congress for the Republican era (2001-2009), or for the California State 
Legislature in its present budget crisis.

A great analyst of his and my time once composed a “Diary of a 
Legislative Body,” and it went like this: “Monday – Soak the Rich. 
“Tuesday –Begin hearing from the Rich. “Tuesday Afternoon – Decide to 
give the rich a chance to get richer. “Wednesday – Tax Wall Street Stock 
Sales. Thursday – Get word from Wall Street: “Lay off us or you will get 
no campaign contributions.” Thursday Afternoon – Decide: “We are wrong 
about Wall Street.” “Friday – Soak the little fellow. “Saturday Morning 
– Find out there is no little fellow. He has been soaked until he is 
drowned. “Sunday – Meditate. “ Next Week – Same procedure, only more 
talk and less results” The analyst was a fellow from Oklahoma called 
Will Rogers.

His word and his vernacular were so respected that editors of America's 
largest newspapers had standing instructions that no editor was to touch 
his column for any reason. Every one was printed as written or spoken. 
He was the "Walter Cronkite" of his time.