Evening star., 1924-02-22
regulations HANG
IN DAUGHERTY ROW
Attorney General May Return
Attacks of Accusers in
Oil Probe.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Attorney General Daugherty will not
retire without a fight, and perhaps be-
fore he gets through he will blast some
of the regulations of the men attacking
him.
Unlike Secretary DENLY of the Navy
Department. who withdrew without
presenting his side Of the case m :
public hearing. The Attorney Genera
insists that I. is his constitution!
privilege 10 be heard. And in that
vie" President Coolidge concurs, JUS;
as lie did III the case OF Mr.. DeHbr
Ihe Secretary OF the Navy. howcr~v
yielded to the persuasive arguments o.
ms friends that he was embarrassing
the president and the republican party
by remaining in the cabinet.
considerable resentment has been
SHOWN by the friends of the Attorney
eIeneral that Senator Lodge and Sena
tor fepper should be advocating a /.
resignation without hearing. The ar
guInent OF Messrs. Lodge and Pepn,r.
however, IS that the Attorney Genesnt
p3 demanding an investigation and o.
nearing SIMPLY gives the democrats the
opportunity OF keep the TEAPOT Dofre
controversy on the front pages of tbA
newspapers indefinitely and thus force
'he republican party to the defensive
Is Keen Politician,
The Attorney General is n keen pol,
tician himself and knows that his rcsi--
nation would not elld the controversy
but would simply give fhc democrats
confirmation of their charges. JIa
liii''hS IL would be Il confession OF guilt
when he insists he has done nothing
wrong and that hearing and inyesti
CATION will prove he has been innocnnt
II the republican leaders could per
suade their democratic brethren 70
Keep quiet after Mr.. Daugherty re-
Signs there might be a politicaJ
ssiue IN his retirement, according TO
!he Attorney Generals friends buf
u, ine democrats have no intention of
letlinS the Teapot Dome scandal
siumber. They intend to keen On
taking about it from now until e1eC-
non day, next November 1t has be-
come the paramount issue of the
Mr.. Daugherty thinks, Therefore.
tne time mas come to turn on thos+S
who have been accusing him and
make MAJ a hight. If he can prove he
leases and if he shows that the
charges against him are baseIess. he
VIII nave impaired the democratic
so iar as members of the pres
ent administration are concerned for
neither Mr.. Fall nor Mr.. DENNY are
any longer responsible to the Presi-
dent and are not a part OF the gcy-
erhment in any sense.
DENLY Case Different.
The Presidents part in tho discus
cussions that have arisen inside the
republican party about the wisdom
OF calling for Mr.. Daugherty's res
lSnatlon mas been judicial. He feels
strongly that nobody should be con-
uemned without hearing. He felt
that way about Secretary DENLY and
would have preferred that the lat
ter remain until he had presented his
case, though there was an awkward
ness IN that situation arising from
the TACT that government counsel had
decided to attack the validity of the
leases made by Mr.. DENLY Jointly
with Mr.. Fall
The Attorney General is accused in
a general way Of being mixed un in q
the oll-lease controversy. thoufh mn
Speclhc act is charged against him.
he IS reported to have purchased
did 50 with any knowledge obtainrd
through government sources At any
rate. II is said he lost By his transac
t1onS, and that they were relatively
small.
The fight on the Attorney Gener.I
began long before the oil-lease irrog
ularities were discovered There has
been general suspicion on the mart
1i the democrats that because of Mr.
DauG GhcrtES previous activity in poll
tics he was not inclined to be as
rough on offenders and as vigorous in
prosecutions as another Attorney Cen
era without Il political back ground
might have been.
The democrats have sought an on
pcrtunity to get him out of office
but their attack now has beco1n,
general and they believe that it is
to their best interest to hammer
prominent members out SO that the
country will lose confidence III tho
republican party and turn to the
democrats next autumn. Mr.. Daugh-
fight, and his determination today
was to carry that fight to the Senate
itself, a position which the Presi
dent cannot very we'll oppose. for
everybody who is accused has the
right to a fair trial.
Ha. Wheeler Correspondence.
As for his principal accuscr. Sen
afor Burton n Wheeler Of Montana.
democrat, Mr.. Daugherty happens to
have access TO the records of thu
Department of Justice under the dem
ocratic administration. when Mr.
Wheeler was United States attorney
in Montana and when there was some
interesting correspondence between
the Department of Justice and Mr..
Wheeler relative to the latter'S al
legged failure to prosecute l. w. VS.
who had been accused of anti-war
activity. Undoubtedly some of these
records will be exposed by Mr.
Daugherty in an effort to prove that
prosecutions were not always fol-
ln,-l Iii