The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-03
PRESS ON TEAPOT DOME

PRESS ON TEAPOT DOME
 No administration was ever placed
 in more embarrassing position than
 the Republican regime now occupie:
 as consequence of the findings witf respect to the leasing of the Teapot Dome and California oil reserves tc private exploitation. MT. Coolidge i, relieved from some of this embarrass. ment because of the fact that the in. cidents occurred before he became president. The scandal divides itself into two aspects. The first naturally has to do with the suspected complicity of cabinet officials in transactions that, were deliberately irregular, te say the least. The other aspect ha, to do, with the intelligence of those who would on their own slender re. sponsibility permit to pass out of fed. eral control such a vital factor in our national defense program as. fuel oil reserves. It is not yet forgotten by Americans how franctically Gle. menceau, in the winter of 1917, cabled to. President Wilson that unless Amer ica's supplies of oil and Americas oil tankers were at once thrown into the breach, the Allies could not hope to hold out through the following sum. mer. It has been significantly pointed out that the Allies won the war prin- cipally because they motorized their activities, while the Germans were still depending upon their coal supply and the unwieldy locomotive for their transportation. Yet, in the face of all this recent emphasis of the indispen- sable nature of fuel oil in war, our navy sacrificed it's precious reserves in order that private fortunes might be swollen thereby. Seemingly, no greater act of public stupidity has ever been committed since we became a government.
 Having conceded a point to Presi- dent Coolidge in the game of checkers now under way at Washington, when he authorized legal inquiry and pros ecution if demanded, the Philadelphia Public Ledger goes on to say: "Sena- tor Walsh has done an excellent and praiseworthy thing in lifting the lid off Teapot Dome and swinging the na- tional searchlight on Elk Hills. Pos sibly his committee has gone far enough to hasten a cabinet shakeup. There are indications that Secretary Denby of the navy and Attorney Gen. eral Daugherty may not finger long in their portfolios" Yet the Ledger does not believe that the Democrats should try to develop the situation to their own political advantage, except such advantage as would naturally ac- crue from having done a necessary thing well: "This scandal is one of tbe darkest that has ever fallen across Washington, if we may judge by what has already been revealed. Only the most vigorous and non-partisan ac- tion can still the rising public un- easiness."
 While reminding its readers that "the Republican politicians did every thing possible to make capital" out of the costly mistakes made during the hurly-burly of war and "cannot in fairness complain against the employ ment of their own methods against their own administration" the At lanta Constitution adds that "it is as unfair to charge the Coolidge admins tration with responsibility for the Teapot Dome affair as it was to charge the Wilson administration with responsibility for mismanagement or misconduct on the part of a few of the vast throng of subordinates taken into government service during the war. Both parties have men that are not altogether unspotted or pure. Neither has monopoly of virtue or of honestly" Thus those Democrats who try too ostentatiously to turn the exposure to Democratic advantage may defeat their own desires. It is far better to do the right thing be. cause it is right, and than, when it becomes necessary to go to the people for indorsement, to point to the record.
 In regard to the political effect the New York Times observes: "That the Fall scandal will have political conse- quences is undeniable. The American people would not be what they are' if they were so insensitive to official wrongdoing as not to wish to visit dire punishment upon those responsible. Undoubtedly the first effect will be harmful to the party in power. It ought to be. Any administration will suffer rightly if it allows the moral fibre of its subordinates to be eaten out by corruption. President Coolidge is in no way involved in this, but he will have to bear part of the bur- den of what went on under his pre- decessor. All that he can do to clear his administration he is already setting out to do by following to the end every trace of dishonesty or fraud and running down every criminal, no matter how highly placed" Yet Pres I