The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-03-25
A PLEA FOR SANITY

the most forciful editorials of the
day, makes plea for thorough
ness and sanity in the investiga
ton OF charges which are now be-
ing ventilated in Washington. At
ter referring TO the confessed dis
reputability of several of the per-
sons whose statements on the wit
ness stand has been dignified with
the name of evidence, the Tribune
continues:
The proved or confessed facts
are bad. They are enough in
weight and import to sober down
the widest partisan We know
that the public domain of the ma
ton was in charge of a man, Fall,
who never should have been trust
ed with a foot Of public land. We
| know the associates of this man,
Doheny and Sinclair, were after
national navy reserves of oil and
that they got them, one at Elk Hills
and one at Teapot Dome. We
know that Fall borrowed 100000
OF Doheny and lied about it. We
know he never paid the note and
that Doheny had torn it in two
pieces. We know that he got $25,-
900 from Sinclair We know that
Mclean, the publisher. lied to pro-
tect Fail in his own lie about the
money he had received.
We know that this transfer of
navy reserves to Fall and by him
to Sinclair and Doheny might have
been prevented by DENLY, the sec
rotary of the navy, if he had known
that the leases We're bad or if there
were to be corruption in their
making. We know there was Il
great controversy in the navy de-
partment and a great dispute OF
experts as to whether the oil would
be drained out of the, navy reserves
and pumped by adjacent private
wells or whether it should and
would be conserved in the natural
field DENLY, accused OF nothing
except mistake either in judy
ment of men or judgment Of ma
tional welfare, relinquished juris-
diction and the damage was done
The head of a man innocent of
anything other than a mistake in
policy was the first trophy de-
manded by the head hunters of the
senate, and indirectly they got it.
We do not know whether the oil
policy is sound or unsound, but we
know that it will get a considera-
tipn now that it never had before
and that our military resources are
safer now than they have been for
years when Intrigue was secretly
attacking them.
The leases are being tested in
court. Fall will be prosecuted
with his accomplices.
We know that Attorney General
Daugherty has confessed improprie-
ties which make him unfit for his !
position. He says he speculated in
oil stocks when as attorney general
he was legal adviser of the depart
ments planning to transfer the re-
serves sby lease to the oil men He
says he lost money, wh:c' i, incon
sequential in the public aspect oi !
his trlnsa tions
He put his monev where his de- ,
cisions and opinions on national ,
Questions might give it increment,
and a man who would so expose F.,
himself, even without any intent t. !
give himseEf.a benefit. has proved /
himself unfit~fpr the office.
auCs with Smith. as rel1ted by !
Miss Stinson and Means, may be !.
rue. All OF it may be. I}ut the /
oyidene" is not III and the verdict
should not he. in spite Of the APP
parent willingness of senator's 20 /,
say 10 the country that acre is The
trro picture OF their government.
We certainly want to know i
dal4nc 80 firm. payn" ste OF tire
japanese government, was intrign-
ing with American aircraft. Well
not take it unsubstantiated from a +
man who says he caught Andrew
Mellon as a professional bootleg
ger. and we'll not take that state
ment until the poof is in.
We do not hold that any man in
is innocent. We do
say that the proofs required by
judicial determination are neces-
sary here. Unjust as the defama-
ion and destruction of chara cter
would he and is, that is not the
major peril. 1t is a thing against
which just men guard in a decent
but such outrages in
his case are overshadowed by the
national consequences of a torrent
Of unsubstantiated charges sweep
ng at the structure of government.
We ask for correction in the
light of truth, investigation in the
spirit of sober responsibility, and
in the field of justice.
We do not want ruin in the wake
of slander.-Grand Forks. Herald.