HIGH COURT DECISIONS IN OIL CASES REVEAL RESPONSIBILITY OF HARDING-COOLIDGE ADMINISTRATIONS
Follette, Robert M. La Jr.
High Court Decisions in Oil Cases Reveal Responsibility of Harding-Coolidge Administrations By ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE, JR. T HE United States Supreme Court handed down a momentous decision,...
...ing sets than all the other countries combined...
...Cuolidge sat in the Cabinet councils with Fall and Daugherty and Denby, while the policies of that administration were being framed...
...President Harding's assumption of responsibility for the acts of his Cabinet may be explained on the ground of loyalty to the political henchmen who had made him President...
...Teapot Dome had been transferred to Sinclair...
...This order transferring control of Naval Oil Reserves from the Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of the Interior, was signed by President Harding on May 31, 1921...
...But Mr...
...The Court unanimously declared that: "It was the purpose of those making the contracts and leases to circumvent the laws and defeat the policy of the United -States—established for the conservation of the Naval Petroleum Reserves * * * that the contracts and leases and all that was done under them are so interwoven that they constitute a single transaction—not authorized by law, and consummated by conspiracy, corruption and fraud...
...If the brazen attempt to steal the Nation's Naval Oil Reserves involved only the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, on the one hand and the two great oil kings—Doheny and Sinclair, on the other, the restitution by the court of the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public domain—fraudulently and corruptly transferred by Fall to Doheny and Sinclair, together with the possibility of utimately bringing the r rich culprits to an accounting for their criminal deeds would go far to re-instate in the hearts of the American people confidence in our Government and faith in our democratic Constitution...
...The opinion of the Supreme Court and likewise the opinion of Judge Kenyon deal only with evidence of fraud and deception as it bears on Elk Hills and Teapot Dome leases...
...He expects reaction from unwarranted political attacks...
...It goes far to offset the shock to the Nation of the verdict "Not Guilty," which a jury rendered here in Washington last December in the criminal case, in which Fall and Doheny were charged with having corruptly conspired to defraud the United States in the lease of the Elk Hills Naval Oil Reserve...
...The opinion of the Supreme Court, likewise the . Kenyon opinion, carry tremendous weight...
...As to that, the record requires an opposite finding...
...and he knew that Fall expected to leave the service of the Government and accept employment with one Of his companies...
...Instead of appointing an Attorney-General who would command the respect and confidence of the country, President Coolidge retained Daugherty until serious charges had been lodged against him and the Senate investigation, led by Senator Wheeler, had aroused a degree of public indignation that forced Daugherty's resignation, April, 1924, thus having had the opportunity to pursue his nefarious course for nine months under the Coolidge administration...
...Thus far he has escaped the public censure thai his record in the Naval Oil leases war-ranis...
...Thus he specifically stated his approval of Fall's representation that "military plans" were involved, which "shmiid not be given to Senator lii Follette or anyone else...
...Even the creatures of the desert avoid, the cholla, as a rule...
...The only difference here is that the bonds were the property of an agency in which Sinclair was interested and in some manner reached Evcrhart and Secretary Fall...
...As to the secrecy and favoritism accompanying the making of the leases, the Supreme Court opinion cites that: "Others were not advised that Ununited States would consider a bid conditioned on the assurance to the bidder of other leases or preferential right to leases...
...No entry of the advance was made in the accounts of Doheny or the petitioners...
...Especially should he have removed Daugherty, whose record in the prosecution of the War l''raud cases, whose promotion of the packer and steel merger, whose court order condemning two million railroad workmen as guilty of criminal conspiracy without a hearing, who with an army of sleuths and spies, employed to harry workingmen and raid political berttics, permitted millions of dollars, voted by Congress for the relief of crippled service men to be dissipated by graft, whose notorious idationship with Jesse Smith, E. B. McLean and others of that ilk, bespoke without charges and investigation the disqualification of Daugherty to hold the important office oil Attorney-General...
...We conclude not...
...Coolidge became President of the United States, if he had not already done so, he was in duty bound to make searching investigation of all the facts and circumstances involved in the Naval Oil transactions and involving millions of wealth belonging to the people of the United States and even more important involving the honor and integrity of the Cabinet...
...Coolidge retained every member of the Harding- Cabinet and afterwards used all the powers of his mighty office to obstruct investigations, relating to the conduct of Daugherty, Denby, Fall and Mellon...
...On the contrary, he kept Edwin Denby in office as Secretary of the Navy even after the Senate by an overwhelming vote had denounced him as unfit, and would not accept his resignation until outraged public opinion forced him to do so...
...It is estimated that the sale of sets will approximate $225,000,000 for the present year, Accessories and parts will bring the total expenditures to half a billion...
...Often they cause severe infections...
...1; in the other instance, Sinclair got lease of Teapzit Dome in Wyoming—known as Naval Oil Reserve No...
...He says greatly appreciates and sends regards to you and Mrs...
...The evidence of the bribe itself in the Fall-Sinclair Teapot Dome case, to which Judge Kenyon's opinion specifically relates, was not so easily traced as in the Fall-Doheny Elk Hills transaction, to which the Supreme Court decision applies...
...It may be that he took this responsibility without having fully grasped the venal nature and extent of the wrong-doings of his official family...
...His grave is at Frederick, Md...
...He is a silent man...
...The violation of trust on the part of Fall and Denby, the connivance of two great oil magnates to get possession of the natural resources of the country, is in itself legally and morally a shocking crime...
...Pack rats carry sprigs of cholla in their burrows and build runways through which they reach their nests...
...And yet from the beginning of the scandals up to the present day, President Cqolidge has done nothing voluntarily either to protect the Naval Oil Reserves or to bring about the punishment of those who were responsible for these scandals...
...Wlhen Mfr...
...The transfer of United States Liberty Bonds, from Sinclair's hands to Albert Fall's possession, was by « more circuitous route, which evidenced greater forethought and ingenuity and necessitated corresponding cleverness and effort to unravel...
...Doheny intended, if Fall did not dispose of a certain ranch in New Mexico, to cause the Transport Company to employ him at a salary sufficient to enable him, out of one-half of it, to pay off the amount in five or six years...
...When on August 3rd, 192...
...I quite approve of the manner in which you responded to his inquiry...
...How perfectly Secretary Fall believed the order signed May 31, 1921, by President Harding, placed the whole matter of the control of leases in his hands, is disclosed in a communication, cited by the Supreme Court anil referred to more than once in the Kenyon opinion as follows: "July 8, 1921, Fall wrote Dolu-ny: 'There will be no possibility of any further conflict with Navy officials and this' department, as I have notified Secretary Denby that I should conduct the matte)- of naval leases under the direction of the President, without calling any of his force in consultation unless I conferred with himself personally upon a matter of policy...
...The slightest touch will fill" your hand with the spines of the cholla and they are very difficult to remove...
...Is a court to say that because none testified as to the actual transfer of the bonds that a fatal missing link in the evidence exists...
...Finally, on January 29, 1924, Ira Bennett, editor of McLean's paper, wired to McLean: "Saw principal...
...The Supreme Court decision in the Elk Hills Case refers to the Joint Resolution adopted by the Senate and the House of Representatives and approved by the President February 8th, 1924, thus: "It appeared from evidence taken by the ¦Committee on Public Lands and Surveys of the Senate that the contract of April 25, 1922, and the lease of December 11, 1922, were executed under circumstances indicating fraud and corruption, without authority on the part of the officers purporting to act for the United States and in defiance of the settled policy of the Government to maintain in the ground a great reserve supply -,of oil adequate to the needs>of the navy...
...He said: "JMy dear Secretary Fall, I am making a belated acknowledgement of yours of April l'!th, with which you enclose to me a copy of yours of the previous day, addressed to the Senior Senator from Wisconsin...
...No such apology can be made for President Coolidge's dereliction of duty...
...As to the secrecy with which the leasing of the Teapot Dome was conducted, Judge Kenyon said in his opinion: "No public notice of the intention to lease Teapot Dome was ever given...
...As to the character and fitness of Denby, while the Supreme Court says that the evidence sustains the findings of the lower court that Denby took no active part in the negotiations and that Fall, acting collusively with Doheny, dominated the making of the contract and leases, they state the degree of Denby's responsibility in the following unmistakable language: "We have considered the evidence, and we are satisfied that the findings as to the matters of fact here controverted are fully sustained except the statement that Denby signed the contract and leases under misapprehension and without full knowledge of the contents of the documents...
...He sat in the Vice-President'3 chair, presiding over the United States Senate, when Senator La Follette made his four-hour speech revealing the illegality and rottenness of the Oil I«ases which forced the investigation of Albert B. Fall's transfer of the leases to Sinclair and Doheny...
...The light they cast on the -corrupt and fraudulent leasing of the Naval Oil Reserves will not permit the issue to be confused and obscured in 1928 as it was in 1924...
...And to the extent of determining whether they had been faithful to their trust, the proof was his...
...He is presumed to have had knowledge of what he signed...
...acquisition of the Government Liberty Bonds by Everhart and Secretary Fall...
...When Senator La Follette addressed the Senate April 1, 1922, he said: "Without access to the records in this case, it is somewhat difficult to get at all the facts, but there is sufficient material available to make it plain that the Naval Oil Reserves are being sacrificed to private exploitation at the hands of favored interests...
...Calvin Coolidge entered upon his high office with full knowledge of the history of the crime that had been committed against the people of the United States in the fraudulent leasing of Naval Oil Reserves, with all the facts on which the opinion of the'Supreme Court and the opinion of Judge Kenyon were based, familiar or accessible to him...
...There is a disposition on the part of the American public to exempt President Coolidge from responsibility for the misconduct of the Harding Administration in the matter of the Oil I-cases...
...The oil monopolies have, in a word, corrupted Government servants, ruthlessly seized and exploited the natural resources which Nature gave to man, and systematically robbed the people through extortionate prices...
...The lion's share of the Naval Oil ftcserves had been turned over to the oil monopolists...
...If the issue were as simple as this, it need not be looked upon as cause for alarm or as a lasting menace to our free institutions...
...And Fall sent to Doheny by the son a demand note for $100,000...
...President Harding in his letter to the President of the Senate said: "I think it is only fair to say in this connection that the policy which has been adopted by the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Interior in dealing with these matters was submitted to me prior to the adoption thereof, and the policy decided upon and the subsequent acts have at all times had my entire approval...
...An ignoble but futile attempt was made to pretend that the word "principal" in this message referred to Senator Curtis...
...The reasonable, proper and natural inferences and presumptions from the accrual of condemnatory incidents appearing in this record, supply the so-called missing links in the testimony and satisfy us of Sinclair's connection with the Continental Trading Company, Ltd., and with the...
...That there has been "no rocking of the boat," although the bold declaration that there would be no resignations was followed finally by the resignations of Secretary Denby and Attorney-General Daugherty...
...There will be no rocking of the boat anti no resignations...
...Jumping Cactus BECAUSE its needle-pointed barbs fasten themselves upon any passing object that so much as grazes the plant, the cholla, a native of the Colorado Desert, is called the jumping cactus...
...This letter was addressed to the President of the Senate, at that time calvin Coolidge...
...The highest Court of the land was not under more serious obligation to get the truth of this matter than was Calvin Coolidge, when he became President...
...delivered message...
...But Nature furnishes all her millions with some clever scheme of protection...
...Calvin Coolidge was^ sworn into office, the Naval Oil Reserves crime had been exposed and investigated for more than a year and as President of the United States all facts, proof and material were in the very nature of things at his command...
...It was explained that this dealt with District appoints ments, but whatever the purpose may have been the intimate connection between the White House and McLean cannot be denied...
...Under the Act of June 4th, 1920, it was his official duty to administer the Oil Reserves...
...On December 9, 1921, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt wrote Secretary Fall with relation to the storage of fuel in tanks at Pearl Harbor as follows: "In view of the fact that this project is embodied in the war plans' of the Navy Department we request that all the matters in connection therewith be regarded as confidentially as possible...
...President Harding wrote another significant oRic'uil letter bearing directly on the question of liis responsibility...
...In the face of this situation...
...He must be presumed to have had knowledge of the character and conduct of the members of his Cabinet: "There are direct evidence and proven circumstances to show that he had...
...Senator La Follette in the speech of April 28, 1922, on the resolution, of which he was the author, directing an investigation of Teapot Dome and other oil leases, said: "The trail of corruption left by the oil monopoly in the pages of American history is not calculated to inspire the confidence of the people in any transaction to which the agents of that monopoly are parties...
...This was two months after Senator I,a Follette had attacked the leases and awakened widespread interest in the evil transaction...
...The Order as finally agreed upon by Secretary Denby and Secretary Fall was taken to the President by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., former Director and stockholder in the Sinclair Oil ('om-pany...
...Under the decision of the Supreme Court, Doheny cannot recover even the $10,000,000 or more he claims for improvements made under the fraudulent lease, except by Act of Congress...
...The decision of the Supreme Court leaves the people of the United States in full possession of the untold millions of wealth, stored by Nature in Elk Hills...
...Coolidge was in the White House when Senator Walsh, of Montana, bit by bit dragged from unwilling witnesses the shameful story of bribery and corruption and revealed the complete incompetence of Secretary of Navy Denby and the ignoble part .which he played in all these transactions...
...T HE United States Supreme Court handed down a momentous decision, Monday, February 28th, respecting the lease of Elk Hills Naval Oil Reserve to Edward L. Doheny by Secretary of Interior _______ Fall...
...Some nations charge license fees, which may partially account for Uncle Sam's greater radio popularity...
...On January 12, 1924, when the scandals involving Edward B. McLean were at their height, President Coolidge wired to McLean: "Prescott is away...
...Referring to the bribe, in the Elks Hills case, the Supreme Court opinion states: "Doheny had agreed to advance $100,000 to Fall as and when he should need it...
...The United States has three-fifths of the world's broadcasting stations and more receiv...
...The money was obtained in New York on the check of Doheny's son, who carried it to Washington and gave it to Fall...
...Reduction in cost, coupled with improved broadcasting, is certain to attract millions who have not yet succumbed to the radio's attractions...
...But what really matters most to the people of the United States is what share of responsibility the Government itself must bear in this unholy transaction...
...utter complacency toward these oil scandals it must be remembered that on December 22, 1923, at the very time when it was being arranged that Edward B. McLean should • testify that he had loaned Fall the $100,000 as stated, by Fall in his telegram to Senator Lenroot of December 20...
...In the one instance, Doheny got lease of Elk Hills in California— known as Naval Oil Rescrve'No...
...Presumedly, for it was a matter of common knowledge here in "Washington, President Coolidge was aware of the facts and conditions that made the retention of Daugherty at the head of the Department of Justice a shame and an affront to all decent-minded people...
...Ie was spread upon the pages of the Congressional Record...
...They could not have done that if they did not have servants on this floor and in the other branch of Congress and in the Cabinets of every administration...
...He had an exceptional responsibility to restore these billions of wealth to their rightful owners—the people of the United States...
...On May 11, 1921, only two month...
...A few weeks after it was given, Doheny tore Fall's signature off the note so that it would not be enforceable in the hands of others...
...Nevertheless these decisions cite facts and circumstances revelatory of the large measure of responsibility that must• be borne by the Hard-ing-Coolidge administration because of its policy during the last five years in dealing with the oil leases...
...And further: "The lease, of December 11th, was arranged without competition of any kind...
...But the Court, for which Judge Kenyon spoke, was not thwarted in its purpose to arrive at the truth, because of the maze it had to unravel to find it...
...Judge Kenyon's opinion states the reasoning of the Court thus: "If by direct evidence it appeared that Sinclair was the owner of certain Liberty Bonds, which afterwards appeared in Secretary Fall's hands, in view of all the circumstances of this case, a court could not escape the conclusion that Sinclair had transferred them to Fall...
...A flag is kept continually over the grave of Francis Scott Key, who wrote "Tho Star Spangled Banner...
...The present increase in radio users is something over a million a year...
...What the Supreme Court decision said of Denby's responsibility applies with equal truth and force to Coolidge...
...An early decision is anticipated...
...1923, MeLean was advised by his attorney to employ Smithers, the "White House telegraph operator, so that he could have "quick and easy access to the White House...
...Quite independent of the fraudulent leases of the Oil Reserves, if President Coolidge had ¦been imbued with high-minded political motives, he would have made the creation of a new cabinet on a new basis his first act after taking the oath of office...
...The decision of the Supreme Court is heralded with satisfaction and joy throughout the land...
...At that time it was understood between Doheny and Fall that the latter need not repay it in kind...
...The letter was dated June 17th, 1922...
...Acknowledge...
...Doheny and Sinclair are oil monopolists of the same unscrupulous character, bent on the same object...
...Although Teapot Dome and Elk Hills cases are separate legal actions, tried under different titles and separate courts, they are practically the same sort of fraudulent transactions,-^-in-volving much the same circumstances, the same wrong-doing, the same betrayal of the United States Government...
...November 30, at Fall's request, Doheny sent him $100,000 in currency...
...McLean...
...Not even a diamond-back rattler dares to trifle with a home reached only via a cholla runway...
...It should not receive the approval of the Courts...
...Our conclusion is that the Government has sustained its claim that the lease and contract were procured by fraud and corruption, and that they should be cancelled...
...And it authorized and directed the President to cause suit to be prosecuted for the annulment and cancellation of the lease and all contracts incidental and supplementary thereto, and to prosecute such other action or proceedings, civil and criminal, as might be warranted...
...It declared the contracts and leases to be against public interest and that the lands should be recovered and held for the purposes to which they were dedicated...
...He had heard it sitting in the Vice-President'* chair...
...resident Coolidge's personal conduct is above reproach...
...He readily finds an alibi for official responsibility...
...there are direct evidence and proven circumstances to show that he did...
...Judge Kenyon says: "The evidence negatives any idea of the military need for secrecy in the leasing of Teapot Dome...
...2. The decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals in the case involving the Fall-Sinclair Teapot Dome lease which was rendered by Judge William S. Kenyon was reviewed by me in October LA FOLLETTE'S...
...As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, President Coolidge occupied a position of exceptional responsibility for the protection of the Naval Oil Reserves...
...A trail of deceit, falsehood, subterfuge, bad faith and corruption, at times indistinct, but nevertheless discernible, runs through the transactions incident to and surrounding the making of this lease...
...No one knows how tho pack rats convey the cholla joints to their nests...
...The people of the United States in electing their Senators and Representatives for a long time to come should keep this pointer in mind, for as sure as fate, unless a new order is established in government, these exploiters of the public domain will be on the backs of Congress to recover what the Supreme Court denied...
...Wihile the decision of the Supreme Court does not change the law or the fact, it does take the issue of the fraudulent leasing of the Naval Oil Reserves out of the realm of politics and put it on a different basis with the great majority of the people of this country...
...This case is now pending in the Supreme Court...
...the fact that on "April 13, 1922, Secretary of Interior Fall wrote President Harding enclosing copy of reply he had sent to Senator La Follette, who had requested of him copies of all Executive Orders relating to Naval Reserves, 1, 2, 3. In this, Pall Raid: 'Of «our»e this matter of tie process by which we are obtaining storage, etc., and the location of the storage, the contracts for the same, and in fact the plans of the Navy as they are being worked out by ray-self and Secretary Denby are military plans and, in my judgment, should not be tjiv^ii to Senator La Follette or anyone else.'" President Harding's reply to this letter is of very threat importance as bearing on the matter of his responsibility...
...President Coolidge's record in the oil leasing cases cannot be condoned nor brushed aside...
...Nothing has been paid on account of principal or interest...
...Occasionally a cactus wren will nest among the cholla branches, secure in the knowledge that nothing will invade the sanctity of her home...
...The first Doheny contracts had been signed...
...This telegram is meaningless unless the word "principal" is inlei-preted to refer to the one man in the government of the United States who could say whether or not cabinet officers should resign...
...he was not called as a witness, and it is not to be assumed that he was without knowledge of the disposition to be made of them or of the means employed to get storage facilities and fuel oil for the Navy...
...after President Harding's inauguration, Sci-retuiy of the Interior Fall wrote to Secretary • of the Navy Denby and enclosed a letter fur him to sign and send to the President, together with an Executive Order for the President's signature, placing in the Interior Department the Control and development of the Naval Reserves, which had been placed by an Act of Congress under control of the Navy Department...
...In other words, what part has the Harding-Coolidge administration played, while this game of despoliation has been going on...
...Like Congress, the President of the United States is charged with the solemn responsibility, under the Constitution, as trustee of the public domain to take necessary steps to safeguard the national resources which belong to all the people...
...Secretary of Interior Fall was the same party, seeking the same end in both cases...
...Advise Slemp with whom I shall confer...
...He understands the situation and that 1 shall handle matters exactly as 1 think best and will not consult with any officials of any bureau in his department, but only with himself, and such consultation will bit confined strictly and entirely to matters of general policy...
...In connection with President Coolidge...
...Judge Kenyon calls attention to...
...Radio Growth OVER 5,000,000 radios are now in use in the United States, as compared with 37,000 in 1920...
...The remarkable growth of the radio industry is bound to continue for many years to come...
...Due to the interest of Fall, the Transport Company had opportunities for conference with and advice from those acting for the United States, which were not given to others...
Vol. 19 • March 1927 • No. 3
