Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-23
Nearing the End of the Oil Trail.

With the acquittal yesterday of Ed
ward L. Doheny of a charge of bribery,
the cases arising out of the oil leases
by the Government to private corpora
tions are brought near to an end. There
now remains of the great complex of
suits and criminal proceedings only
four items. These are the appeal of
Albert 3. Fall, former Secretary of the
Interior, from his conviction of bribery,
the appeal of H. M. Rlackmer from his
fine for contempt of court and two
suits brought by the United States,
one to set aside certain leases in the
Elk Hills region and another brought
against the Sinclair Co. for oil bought
from the insolvent Mammoth Co. Sin
clair, Fall and Boheny have been ac-
quilted of conspiracy. Blaekmer is a
fugitive, self-exiled in France; Stewart
has been acquitted Of Senate contempt,
Sinclair has been convicted of Senate
contempt and of court contempt in
jUryNshadoWing and has served a con-
current term Of sentence.
Fall and Doheny, indicted for bribery.
1aye been tried separately. Fail was
convicted Of taking q bride from Do
heny and has appealed. Doheny has
now been acquitted of the charge of
giving . brihe to FAN. Thus is pre-
sented an anomaly of law: One man is
convicted Of taking that which an
other man Is acquitted of giving. This
strange situation grows out of the in
strRction Of the jury delivered yester-
day by Justice Hitz, upon prayer Of the
defense, that it was possible for Fab
to be guilty Of accepting bride and
Doheny not guilty Of attempting to
brihe him. This possibility was pointed
out by some observers early in the case
It was probably with that in view that
counsel for the defense claimed and
gained the right Of separate trials.
Doubtless to most people this viii
seem Ike . contradiction, q miscar.
rtage of justice. Yet psychologically
such o distinction Is possible. The jury
which rendered yesterdays verdict evil
IDENTIFY believed that the defendant
Dolaeny. gave mOney to Pail as an aci
Of frtendliness and generosity without
Thought Of influencing his ofHcial action
TIE Jury which found FAN guilty be-
lisysd that Pan regarded the money
thus given IS . bribe, ,as 3 considera-
ton for his action as Secretary of the
1nterior. No one viii ever know
wi1ether On case Of q joint trial the
jury would have found both guilty, or
beth man not guilty, or one guilty and
the Other not guilty, though the jury
in such . trial might have done the
last Of these upon the reasoning and
deduction prevailing with the jury yes
terday 10 the Doheny case.
These cases and trials have cost an
immense amount of money, both the
defense and the Government paying
heavily In expenses and fees. It may
be that some one win compute the
total Of ell these items and it viii be
o staggering sum. To date the net eff
feet in corrective and punitive action
is the cancellation Of the contracts a.
tniquitously made and the return OF
the property to the Government, with
Losses yet to be fully computed; the
imprisonment Of three men for short
terms In jail for iury-shadowing and
contempt; the voluntary exile of q
witness and the conviction for bribe-
taking Of one man, who has appealed
from the verdict.