The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-19
Whispered Some Former Government Officials
 Are Involved SECRET SESSIONS
 TO SET EVIDENCE Trail, It Is Said, May Lead To
 Senate In Sinclair Oil ss Transactions . HARRY PAYNE WHITNEY &
 AND BROKERS CALLED Edward B. Mclean, Now Sub poenaed, May Give Testimony
 In Private Hearing @sH

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1S.-(By As- sociated Press. )-Hints of an entirely new and startling development in the oil scandal stirred the capital today and were communicated to President Coolidge.
 A start at running down the story, which has amazed senators and ofi- cials, will be made tomorrow at con- ference between the Senate oil commit tee and Harry Payne Whitney, New York financier. and officials of J. F. Benkard and Company, New York stock exchange firm. Senator Wheeler, democrat, Mon tana, who has introduced a resolution calling for an investigation of Attor- ney General Daugherty and the depart ment of justice, will be invited to at- 1 tend the conference, which will be behind closed doors. Senator Wheeler was one of those who requested that Mir. Whitney and the brokers be sum- moned. sss
 Before the subpoenaes were issued last night, Senator Wheeler and Sena- tor Walsh, chief prosecutor in the oil inquiry, conferred with Wilton ]. Lambert, counsel for Edward B. Mo Lean, publisher of the Washington Post who has just returned from PalnI Beach, Fla, in rrsponse to a commitA tee summons. It g a.s stated that soma of the new infor, tiop WIS discussed. After this confer re E'lall -r,2- Len root of the oil oet4ansiaes met, w ith Senators Walsh an| aet,sr te dis, cuss the new turn of eVeI4tS and later Atlee Pomerene, Special government counsellor in oil cases, vas called n. It was agreed that jhe inforfnatie, should be laid before tfa Ifesidsnt and Chairman Lenroot ane Alr. Pomerene. went to the White Ho1ss for that purpose.
 Roberts To Confer With Pomerens Owen J. Roberts, of Philadelphia, whose nomination as an assistant with Mir. Pomerene in the oil cases was con firmed today by tn Senate, 6S to s, is expected to ct5i.fsEs viii the President tomorrow d then viii bs- gin his study of tle wtois situation with Mir. Pomerene. @3 The first step in the long caart hsfs ] tie for recovery of tie oil reassves which Albert B. Fall leased to sas Doheny and Sinclair interests viii be petitions for temporary iajunctiols .te prohibit further extraction of oil from the reserves located in California and ] Wyoming. 1 The decision to summon MT. Whit ney and the brokerage firm officials for a conference with the committee during it's ten day recess from public hearings was reported at the Sunday conference. and Senator Walsh who left Washington last night for brief rest in the south, was said to be in entire accord with this plan.
 Has Several Angles
 Extensive examination of books may be necessary before the new line of inquiry can be opened up in public, but some of those who have knowledge of the whole story, as it has come to the committee, assert that there are more avenues than this one by which to approach the matter. There were hints that the names of some the former, as well as some of the bsesent government officials might be linked in the oil scandals and the trail might lead to the Senate itself. Moreover. it was asserted that the transactions sought to be disclosed were not confined wholly to oil.
 Specifically, what is sought from Mir. Whitney and in the books of the Ben- kard firm, is information as to trans- actions by public officials in stock of the Sinclair Oil companies, prior to and subsequent to the lease of the Tea. pot Dome naval reserve to Harry F. Sinclair. 50 May Have Early Session Under the present plan the public hearings before the oil committee are | to be resumed next Monday, but Chair man Lenroot and others said there might be developments which would call for earlier sessions. MT. Mclean, probably, will be among the first of the witnesses called unless the commit tee decides to dispense with his testi- mony. There have been suggestions that, if the committee is satisfied with the information he gives in private, he may not be questioned in public.
 Until the Senate met and the new development in the oil scandal was whispered about on the floor and in the cloakrooms, the Sunday conferences and the summoning of Mir. Witney was shrouded in mystery.
 Chairman Lenroot declined to dis cuss the matter in any way other than to say that he had conferred with the President and that there was no inten- tion at present of abandoning the ten days recess program. He refused to