Evening star., 1928-09-25
Text of Gov. Smiths Speech
Charging corruption" to G. o. P.

change in attitude of the high officials
of the Government with respect to these
oil reserves. The great oil barons of
the country sought leases on what
afterward became known to even the
children in our public schools as Tea
pot Dome, in the State of Wyoming, and
Elk Hill Reserve, in the State of Cali
fornia. The sworn testimony tells a
long story of intrigue, corruption,
trickery and chicanery unparalleled in
the history of any modern civilization.
Calls Order Illegal.
On May 81, 1921, the Republican
President, by an illegal executive order,
transferred the oil reserve from the De-
partment of the Navy to the Depart
ment of the Interior and this, according
to the sworn testimony. over the vigor-
Gus protests of the high officials of the
Navy.
Following the transfer of the oil re-
serves to the Department of the Interior
the Republican Secretary of that de-
partment in November of 1921 leased
Elk Hills reserve, in California, to one of
the largest oil concerns and, according
to sworn testimony, received in cash
for himself and for his own use 100000
that was delivered to him-as the teSti-
mony records-in a little black bag.
Does anybody in the United States
today desire to say that the Republican
party as an organized political party
shares none of the responsibility for
that?
In April of the following year the
Teapot Dome reserve was leased to an
other large oil operator. Following these
leases it became known in New Mexico,
the home of the Republican Secretary
of the Interior-and for that matter in
WaShington-that before this time the
Secretary of the Interior was in strait
ened financial circumstances. ArrearageS
of taxes on his ranch in New Mexico
ran back as far as 10 years.
Cites Falls Prosperity.
There suddenly became apparent to
his neighbors an unusually prosperous
appearance to the ranch; roads were
built through it, $45000 electric light
plant erected upon it and various other
improvements made. This, following a
knowledge of the leasing of Elk Hills,
caused some suspicion, to say the least,
in the minds of the legislators at Wash
ington, and accordingly, in April OF 1922,
the Senate ordered an investigation If
the oil leases and Senator Walsh of
Montana was chosen to direct the probe.
Evidently believing that nothing
would be disclosed the Secretary of the
Interior in the following month, with
his on-in-law acting as the messenger,
received an additional $4,000 bundle
of Liberty bonds.
1t is matter of history that. for a
year and a half prominent Republican
Senators did what they could to block
the investigation and would probably
have succeeded were it not for the re-
awakening rumors about the extraordi-
nary prosperity of the Secretary of the
Interior. In December of 1928 the Sec
retary of the Interior was sought by
the investigating committee. Feigning
illness, he wrote to the committee and
explained his new prosperity by declar-
ing that he had borrowed 100000. And
further testimony disclosed this to be
not the truth. A few weeks later one of
the prominent oil men confessed that
he had sent the cash to the Secretary.
Leases Are Cancelled.
Thereafter the Supreme Court can
celed the leases.
In its opinion on one of them it said:
1.-The clandeStine and unexplained
acquisition of these bonds by Fall con-
firms the belief generated by other cir
cumStanceS in the case that he was
faithless public officer There is nothing
in the record that tends to mitigate the
sinister significance attaching to that
enrichment"
And it further said: "The leases and
agreement were made fraudulently by
means of collusion and conspiracy"
The sworn statement of an admiral
of the Navy is to the effect he was in