Teapot Dome

The first scene of the Government's civil suit against Harry F. Sinclair for cancellation of the lease given him on the Naval Reserve of Teapot Dome was enacted at Cheyenne. Owen J. Roberts and Atlee Pomerene, special counsel for the Government, marshaled their witnesses for the attack. Harry F. Sinclair was subpoenaed. So was Albert B. Fall, ex-Secretary of the Interior, who made the lease. Both are expected to decline to testify on the grounds that they might incriminate themselves. The sons-in-law of Mr. Fall were also summoned. At least one of them, Milton T. Everhart, is expected to make a like plea; but the Government counsel, delving industriously for the long-hidden truth, hope to force him to testify, believing that he could tell a damning tale.

The purpose of the early part of the Government's case was to establish that, through a Canadian company as a blind, Sinclair, a Canadian named Osler, H. M. Blackmer of the Midland Refining Co., James E. O'Neil of the Prairie Oil and Gas Company and others had undertaken a fake transaction in oil by which they made some millions-- that these profits were converted into Liberty Bonds-- that Secretary Fall got a block of these bonds for the Teapot Dome Lease. Osler, Blackmer and O'Neil have taken up quarters in Europe beyond the Court's reach.

Messrs. Roberts and Pomerene got a man who sold oil to Sinclair et al to tell his story. Then they requisitioned bank records to show that Mr. Fall had received Liberty Bonds, hoping to trace these bonds back to the oil transaction. The court ruled that these records did not directly connect Fall and Sinclair in conspiracy and were therefore "manifestly immaterial." Thereupon, the Government counsel prepared to go into the second scene and attempted to trace the bonds in the opposite direction-- from Sinclair to Fall. Because so many witnesses are abroad, this will be difficult, but Messrs. Roberts and Pomerene do not despair.