Evening star., 1924-02-04
DEATH OF WILSON
HALTS OIL TURMOIL
Continued from First Page.)

II he had been aware of this the
+, matter of his appointment as one of
| the oil counsel for the government
| would have ended at once, because ''it
| would have disqualified me" from act
| ing.
Text of Gregory's Letter.
Mr.. Gregory's letter, dated Febru-
! ary 2. follows:
Mr.. President:
"On last Tuesday night, when
| was in Austin, Tex, you stated to me
over the long-distance telephone that
you wished to employ me in the in
, yestigation of the leases of the naval
oil reserves.
You will recall that after expressing
my appreciation l stated that / was not
| in close touch with the developments IN
| the matter; that nothing occurred to
me that would prevent me from serV-
| ing; but that / would be in Washington
Saturday afternoon (today), and would
then confer with you on the subject L
had no idea that in saying this l was
accepting an appointment or that you
SO understood IL. / assumed that that
| would be decided when We conferred
and that in the meantime 1 would have
an opportunity to go through my DOCKS
and correspondence to see whether IN
the course of my private practice mad
ever had any employmentS which might
stand in the way. 1t was also my de-
i sire, before definitely committing my
self, to confer with Senator Walsh OF
Montana, who has conducted the lnVeS-
tjgation of the Senate committee. was
very much surprised to read in the
Texas newspapers the next morning
that l had been appointed, but did not
feel at liberty to make any public state
ment, and consistently declined TO co
so until had seen you.
Unaware of Doheny's Part.
"Of course, If it had been in my
mind at the time of our telephone
conversation that had been employ
ed by Mr. Doheny, directly or indi-
rectly, or at any time. near or re-
mote. that would have ended the
matter at once, because I would have
realized that however free from 'crfti-
cism such employment might have
been, it would have disqualified me
from acting as your counsel on the
present occasion. l have no recollec-
tfon of having seen or communicated
with Mr.. Doheny in my life, and at
that time did not recall ever having
had any business connection with
him or with any company controlled
by him.
"I returned to Washington as
quickly az possible IOT tnS purpose
OF keeping my engagement with you
and arrived here this afternoon.
Yesterday while on the train my
attention was called to statement
made the day before to the Senate
public lands committee by E. l.. Do
heny to the effect that his company
and several others employed me to
represent them before the President
in regard to getting permits to drill
oil wells in Mexico and that the
I'll T.
$4,000 as our share of the fee that
they. paid Jud ge Gregory for this par
ticular work
Remembers Employment.
81 would have been at loss to
know what he was referring to ex-
, cept for his mention of the Island Oil
Company. I remember perfectly my
employment by that company, al
though some of the details had passed
out of my mind. 1 have now re-
freshed my recollection by examining
I'm the fall of 1919 the firm with
which I was then connected had
among it's regular clients the Island
Oil and Transport Company. which is
evidently the Island Oil Company re-
ferred to. 1t was a small independ-
ent company without any connection
whatever, as far as 1 have ever
known. with either Mr.. Sinclair or
Mr.. Doheny.
1.-The Island Company asked me to
act for 1t in the concerted effort then
being made by American oil COM
panieS to get the State Department to
take action to prevent the threatened
confiscation of their properties in
Mexico. The Carranza government
having refused to grant them per-
mits to drill on their own property
unless they acce pied the provision of
the new constitution vesting title to
oil and other minerals in the govern
ment.
Wanted Diplomatic Action.
"The purpose was to secure some
character of diplomatic action by the
United States government, which. it
was hoped, would place American oil
companies on the same footing as
those of Great Britain, the latter
having been allowed to continue de-
velopment. The facts in regard to
all the interested companies were
about the same. the law as to all was
the same and there was general CO.
operation among them in attempting
to obtain relief.
Il gave the matter attention for
some months. and the Mexican au-
thorities finally extended to the
American companies the privileges
enjoyed by those of Great Britain.
This result was brought about in
December 1919, or January, 1920. and
my employment in the matter ended
then and there. I rendered a bill to
the Island Company for $4,000,
which 1t paid.
'At some stage Of the transaction the
Island company stated that the work I
did rebounded to the benefit of other
companies beside itself, and that. it
being small company, 1t would try to
induce several of the others similarly
situated to make contributions to the
fee charged. / understood that some of
them did so. The Huesteca Petroleum
Company, which was controlled by Mr.
Doheny. was one Of these, and no doubt
ferred to by Mr.. Doheny.
Passed Out Of His Mind.
"This phase of the matter had en-
|tirely passed out of my mind. But
even at the time 1 never thought of
my employment as an employment by
Mr.. Doheny or his company, and he
evidently did not, as his testimony
before the Senate committee, as re-
ported In the press, is to the effect
that he knew nothing about my con-
|nection with the transaction until
within the last few days.
II have never felt that the trans
action involved the slightest neces-
PLANTATION, but for the unusual condi-
tions which have arisen.
"It is obvious, nevertheless, that
the fact that one Of Mr.. Doheny's
companies bore part, however in
direct and however small, of the ex-
pense of my employment by the
Island Company makes 1t inappro-