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Show Brack blasts back , , -. ,,,'1, ' ' gjooooooooooss a a a oTwoTFirroTTirrrrta a a ainna o (Authors note: In doing research for this particular story, I 3 Z accumulated a series of quotations from Mayor Lee. Below are a J few of the more pithy savings.) 3 o "Any man who believes he can spend himself rich is a plain 3 o darned fool. " g "The Federal Income Tax is the worst gestapo that any people in any nation ever had. The tax collector will haunt you from the day you make your first dime to the day you die. And then he Z a starts in on your family. " o "There's no such thing as being a little Socialistic or a little Communistic any more than there is such a thing as being a little pregnant. . ." o o i"l'm fed up with most politicians anyway, and that goes for Z Republicans as well as Democrats. . . Why, there are members of my own party who'd have this state in worse shape than it was when I took office, if I'd let them. " Z O "My wife makes the friends and I make the enemies; she's Just Z always made a few more than I lost. " 0 "All of us would like to be loved, but I would rather have a man respect me. I don 't want them to fear me, but I want them to say, ' that man will give me justice. " "When I have the time, I Just love to take my car apart and put it Z back together again. " o "Anyone who defends the Income Tax theory ought to have his head examined. . .the damn tax collector will gum shoe you to Z death. " "People are always mad about one thing or another, and they're Z' particularly mad at government. And I don 't blame them, because I am too. " Z ,o "My philosophy of living is that the thing you get of of life is " o your frame of mind. The price you pay for taking anything that Z E isn't yours just isn't worth it. That's why I come back to the same r old conclusion-do it honestly, do the best you know how, and p let 'em holler!" Z C " sometimes think that I am more afraid of the spenders in Z C Washington than I am of the Russians. " CUULUJUJUUJULOJULOJUUL New York City is known for its controversial mayor and outspoken cab drivers. In Salt Lake City, where another controversial mayor is ending his reign, it is the bus drivers who are the fountainheads of truth. AUTHORS NOTE: The follow-' follow-' t, is a candid conversation with l or J. Bracken Lee the day Jer he announced his retire-went) retire-went) MAY0R LEE, WERE YOU SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR FIRST ! BID FOR PUBLIC OFFICE? I" wo I lst and my recollection is that it was a pretty big loss. I ran for mayor of Price. The fellow i who beat me still lives here in Salt ' Lake. Of course, he was a Demo-' Demo-' crat and I was a Republican, and at that time Carbon County was more Democratic than the solid 'i South. So, I lost badly, r Two years later I supported his I I opponent, who won. But then I ' i decided he wasn't any better of a : mayor and tried to find someone to oppose him. I ended up running run-ning instead. I really worked hard ' on the campaign, and when they counted the ballots, I had two I more votes than he did. Of course, he was a lawyer and contested the vote in court which meant I had to go and hire a lawyer also. My recollection is that it cost me $1000 to settle the mess (it dragged on for 60 days). My pay for the full two years as mayor was only $600. So I had a net loss of $400 to begin with. I only made $25 a month as mayor. est!' p;r DID YOU HAVE A PROTEGE? APOLITICAL HERO? IE Well, there certainly wasn t any living person that was my ideal in ' office, but I did have a great admiration for Abraham Lincoln. ' .' He had a great sense of justice. am: teii WHY DID YOU GET INVOLVED er."S- IN POLITICS, MAYOR? eK I got into politics simply because I forf didn't like the way that the gov-alf:. gov-alf:. ernment was being run, and I M, wanted somebody else. I don't like the way Washington is being run today; it makes me sick. So, my desire was to have government run on the theory that the people were important, the individual 1 was important, and I wanted his I rights protected. This is my origins) origi-ns) nal thought on government, and I 5, believe it even more sincerely now I than when I started. YOU'RE JUST COMPLETING 32 YEARS OF POLITICAL OFFICE; DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR A YOUNG POLI-,.,7 POLI-,.,7 TICAL ASPIRANT? A WeH. everyone would like to 1 know some magic formula for ' Recess. I think it's a hard thing to f define. In my case maybe I'm lucky, maybe I just always came along at the right time. Maybe I Jtesi: was born to be a public servant. t UT,CAL TERMS, f D Y0U CONSIDER ak;; YOURSELF A PARTY MAN? f I believe the theory of the pngmal political parties was to be rested in how its government f TlW and how 't could deliver 0 e people better government " the other party. And the Ao: Rnter,Party would do likewise. (: 1 think that maybe this is J pn "-8 ,0mucnofhuman ture. B! fJS arti6S have become t 1 frher their own inter- L!,USednt0 be active in the J P bhcan Party. Then one day I off "P and said, 'If I can't make 0- "V Party better and come nearer ice ii "writing the general welfare ParhT-?e0ple then 11 isn't a good off J' IV becomes a gang.' So, lth this attitude I never had X ' l'!yiwtwJmnjMMiiuwLillmu.iiiM . j A A much luck with party politics and party politicians. I NOTICE YOU HAVE A COUCH IN YOUR OFFICE, MAYOR? IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR REASON FOR THIS? No, I hardly ever use it. It was here when I moved in. I don't use it, but Commissioner Barker falls asleep in it every time he comes in. HAVE YOU MADE ANY PARTICULARLY PAR-TICULARLY BITTER ENEMIES DURING YOUR POLITICAL CAREER? Oh yes, quite a few. The worst enemy I made had to be the schoolteachers. I didn't like the way the teaching profession was teaching nor did I like the way they operated, and I said so. Of course I was then branded as against education, which is not true at all. I think I'm more of a friend of education than the very ones who branded me. And I think the education system is proving I was right all along. When I was governor, I kept saying say-ing why do you downgrade the electrician, the plumber and the carpenter? These are skills that should be taught in college and on a par with the arts and sciences. But the schools wouldn't go along with it, and they fought me. This is the same thing with the teachers. I contend that your teaching union has destroyed the teaching profession. Your good teacher doesn't need the teachers union. The union says everyone must have equal pay even if they're a poor teacher. For example, say you have five -mediocre teachers, five poor teachers and five outstanding teachers. Because the poor teachers teach-ers are getting paid the same wages, the outstanding teachers are discouraged and want to leave their profession. But then the school board comes along and says we can't lost these good teachers. So they create new jobs for them. So we promote the good teacher to being supervisor. Maybe the teacher doesn't know a thing about supervising; excellent teacher but poor supervisor. So you put a poor supervisor in charge of a poor teacher and you've destroyed your educational educa-tional system. WHAT ABOUT LABOR? By the same token I don't like the -Chronicle photo by Al Thelin way labor leaders exploit the working man. And I think that the laborer is exploited more by their labor leaders today than by their employers before labor unions existed. And so I'm branded brand-ed as anti-labor which is again untrue, and my whole record will show that. I constantly raised workers salaries although I refused to raise my own. I vetoed a raise in my own salary twice. And I vetoed the raise for all the commissioners. com-missioners. After all, we can live, and it's the fellow at the bottom who needs the extra money. The big pay raises during my years have, in most instances, gone to the little man. MAYOR LEE, WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO RETIRE, AND WHAT WERE THE REASONS? Well, I've been thinking of retiring for quite some time now. Actually, Actual-ly, I made up my mind right after the last election. There's just too much to put up with. It's all right for younger people to go through a rough and tumble but not at my age. I used to enjoy it, but I don't anymore. I think people are getting more unreasonable. People are always mad about one thing or another, and they're particularly mad at government And I don't blame them, because I am too! The average citizen has a tendency to classify you as a crook just because be-cause other politicians are, and I don't like that. And I don't like the little petty things that people call me about late at night. I'm tired of that. After all, I'm 72. WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS? Well, I still have a license to sell insurance and real estate, so I might do that. But I don't want to get tied down. I'm 72 years old, and all my life lJve felt tied down. I want to feel that if I want to sleep in late I can. And if I want to stay home and mow the lawn then I will. Of course, I've never been idle, I've always been active, even when I'm home I'm always making something. When I have time, I take my car apart and put it back together again. I have a lot of hobbies. I love taking pictures, mostly moving pictures. I've made-moving made-moving pictures for over 40 years, a lot of them 3-D. I like working with my hands. And I just might (pause) on second thought I don't have any political plans. K.J. JOHNSON: "Brack's never done anything questionable in my opinion. He's honest beyond a shadow of a doubt. " LEON HUNT: "One of the finest Mayor's we've ever had. I only wish he was running again this year. " Q C.L. LANE: "I've always liked the H.C. JENSEN: I don't know Mayor and I've always voted for much about the guy but I hear him. He's a good fighter and he's a square shooter." stands up for what he believes in. I like that in a man. " |