Act Two

Wearing to a close in Los Angeles was the suit of the Government to recover the Elk Hills Naval Oil Reserve, leased to the Pan-American Petroleum & Transport Co. of Edward L. Doheny. Almost a year since the scandal began to brew, it is still sputtering--the Government trying to cancel the lease and make void the contract whereby the Doheny company tapped the California reserve and paid its royalties in tankage constructed for the Government at the Pearl Harbor naval base, Hawaii.

Still holding the stage was the black satchel with its famous cargo of $100,000 in currency, the alleged loan of Mr. Doheny to ex-Secretary Fall, the alleged bribe by which Mr. Doheny obtained the lease from ex-Secretary Fall, custodian of the Naval Oil reserves.

Said Owen J. Roberts, counsel for the Government:

"It has been said that it was a loan. If it had been a loan, it would have been paid by check; but this $100,000 was paid in cash. His [Doheny's] son, the closest person to him, got the money and went with it to Fall. The public probably never will know the underlying reason for the tearing off of the signature from the receipt; but it was evident that Mr. Fall was not to be held liable."

Said Frank J. Hogan, counsel for Mr. Doheny:

"Is there any normal father in all the land who was going to bribe a public official and imperil his reputation and character, who would select his only son to carry the bribe? The selection of that only son was the very indicia that the man who sent the money had nothing in his mind which was evil or corrupt. . . . Does a bribed official give or send to a briber a promissory note for the bribe?"

Even when this suit is ended, the affair of the oil scandals will not be over. There will be another suit against Harry F. Sinclair; and, after that, the final disposition of the naval oil reserves may be settled. This is only the second act. The country must not be bored yet, for the play is nowhere nearly finished. Unfortunately, the Senatorial playwrights put so much into the first act, made it so long and, in its way, so coruscating, that the rest of the drama seems in a fair way to drag.