Evening star., 1926-12-17

Acquittal in the Fall-Doheny con-
spiracy trial did not take official
Washington universally by surprise.
Composed as that world is, largely OF
lawyers, it realized the inherent diff.
ficulty of establishing beyond all rea'
sonable doubt" the particular charge
which the Government had to prove.
1t Is one thing. legal best minds" at
the Capital point out, to hold that the
Fall-Doheny. transactions were repre-
hensible in character, but quite an
other thing to convince jury, within
the iron letter of the law, that the
transactions were in pursuance of a
conspiracy. Senator Thomas j.
Walsh, Democrat, of Montana, chief
Senate prosecutor of the original oil
scandals" was prompt to voice such
sentiments when the jury's verdict be-
came known. Walsh, excoriated as
'the gray wolf OF the Senate" by one
Of the defense lawyers In his closing
plea, seems satisfied that Fall and
Doheny, despite the clearing Of their
names in the District court, will re-
main pilloried in public estimation.
X u X X
Fond of measuring all things in
terms of dollars. as we, the American
people, are, It's natural that nearly
everybody in Washington is trying to
figure out how much the great oil
trial was worth" to the brilliant
LAWYERS who conducted it. Common
gossip is that Frank j. Hogan, the
fighting Irishman, who emergeS with
a reputation, already high, immense
ly enhanced, will eventually annex q
round million as his reward for VIC
tory in the case of the decade. An
other yarn assesses the probable re-
tainer guaranteed Wilton j. Lambert,
Falls chief counsel, who rivaled
Hogan in the presentation of a mas
terly defense, at something not far
from 100000. What the United
States able lawyers-Owen j. Rob-
erts and Atlee Pomerene-will receive
Is a sheer guess. They we're not hired
on any fixed basis. They took the oil
cases primarily In a spirit of public
duty. Whatever q republic, some
times called ungrateful, gives them, 1t
probably will represent a grave hnan-
cial loss, judged by the incomes both
Roberts and Pomerene must have for.
feited while concentrating on the Oil
litigation. The latter has consumed
the better part of the past three
years. The expectation is that Presi-
dent Coolidge will presently recon-
mend to Congress the fees to which
he thinks Roberts and Pomerene are
entitled. The former recently re-
nounced the largest retainer from a
private client ever to come his way.
II n X y
Senator Broussard, Democrat, of
Louisiana, has introduced bill de-
signed to permit Maj. Campbell b.
40 NJ pf "a
Point, to become president of the
Louisiana State University at Baton
Rouge. The military affairs commit
tee of the Senate has referred the
bill to the Secretary of War, who
had previously cited section 1922, Re
vised Statutes, which deprives an
Army officer of his military rank the
moment he accepts civil office. The
Broussard measure would make 1t
possible for Maj. Hodges to function as
a university executive while remain
ing in the Army. II such authority
eventually Is given, Maj. Hodges
would go to Baton Rouge as instruc-
tor in military tactics, but on the
understanding that he would, in fact,
be executive head of the university.
Hodges is himself Louisianian and
was appointed to the Military Acad-
envy from his native State in 1899.
He was graduated in 1903. Since then
Hodges has seen service in the Philip
pines and in Mexico. In 1911 and
1912 he was commandant of cadets
at the institution Of which he has
Just been invited to become president.
During the World War Maj. Hodges
had active service in France. In
1928 he was military attache to Spain
and Portugal. King Alfonso's gov
ernment recently sought permission
at WASHINGTON to give Hodges the