The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-04-12
LENROOT WILL
FACE BATTLE
ON BENCH JOB
ProgreSSiveS in Senate 10
Brand Ex-senator as
Utilities Aid.

BIZ times SDcciql
WASHINGTON, April 12.-Senate
progressive plan again to oppose
former Senator Irvine l. Lenroot OF
Wisconsin If he is nominated by
President Hoover to be a Judge of
the United States court of customs
appeals.
Lenroot was nominated for the
position by President Coolidge, but
the Senate failed to confirm the
nomination before its adjournment,
March 4. The progressiyes are hop
ing that reports that Hoover intends
10 renominate Lenroot for the place
are not true.
Because he is a former senator
and because Of the increased num-
Der OF conservative Republicans in
The new senate, they concede Len
root finally may be confirmed, but
only, they promise, after a fight
which will arouse countrywide at
.eniton and which may prove en-
earrasing to the administration.
Aided Utility Combine
This fight, if made, probably will
center around Lenroot's employ
ment last year by the joint commit
tee OF National Utility Associations.
the 100000 year propaganda and
lobby organization, to stop or divert
the threatened senate investigation
Of public utilities. Lenroot's some
what ambiguous role in the original
Teapot Dome oil investigation by
the senate also may be touched
upon.
He was chairman Of the senate
public lands committee when the
investigation began under the lead
ership of Senator Thomas J. Walsh
Of Montana--the investigation
which finally disclosed fraudulent
alienation of the governments naval
oil reserves to e. L. Doheny and
Harry Sinclair. by Albert B. Fall,
former secretary of the interior.
While the investigation was at
its height in 1924, the newspapers
disclosed that Chairman Lenroot
and Senator Reed Smoot of Utah,
a member Of the public lands COM
mittee, had secretly visited Fall
then i'll and refusing to appear be-
fore the committee, at the Ward
man Park hotel in December, 1928,
Secret Visit Explained"
When the incident of the secret
visit was brought out in the news
papers and the senate in February,
1924, Lenroot and Smoot denied in
dignantly that the visit had had any
other purpose than to induce Fall
to appear before the committee and
tell where he got the money.
Lenroot said Fall finally, in con-
fidence, told the two senators that
he got it from Mclean. Smoot said
he did not even hear this, having
left the room few minutes before
Lenroot did. Lenroot resigned as
committee chairman March IL, 1924.
Beaten by Senator Blaine in 1925.
Lenroot became the head of law
firm in the District Of Columbia.
When the Walsh resolution author
izing an investigation into public
utility corporations by the senate
was brought up before the senate
interstate commerce committee, in
January, 1923, Lenroot appeared as
counsel for the joint committee Of
National Utility Associations.
Lenroot first was elected to the
senate in 1918 as friend and sup
porter Of Senator Robert M. la
Toilette Sr. His views and political
activities, however, became more
and more divergent from those Of
La Toilette, until the latter in 1922
classified him in public as one Of
the reactinnaries of the senate.