Peanuts and Pop

It is astonishing that no enterprising theatrical producer--one of those who stages Follies and Foibles and Vanities and Scandals--has yet put an Investigations on the boards. In Washington the Investigations of 1924 is a leading attraction. Everybody flocks to it. Smoking is permitted. As yet admission is not charged nor have peanut and pop concessions been sold. Otherwise it is a first-rate amusement.

The elevator operators in the Senate office building have adapted themselves to the pastime. On reaching the third floor they call "Oil," and a portion of the public disembarks. At the fourth floor they call "Daugherty," and the rest leave the car. Not only the public, but members from both branches of Congress have taken up the fad. One morning last week, when it was time for the Senate to open, Senator Curtis, Republican Whip, was the only member on the floor. Call bells were rung, and after some 15 minutes a quorum was gathered, but not until many Senators had torn themselves from the Investigation chambers.

The Investigations program for last week included:

Oil:

P: A new member was inducted to fill the vacant Republican place on the Senate Committee on Public Lands-- Senator Spencer of Missouri (Senator Lenroot having resigned). On his first appearance Senator Spencer attempted to do some questioning of a witness but was called to order by Senator Walsh, Democrat of Montana, who objected to "words being put in the witness' mouth."

P: An accountant for the Committee presented a report on what officials of the Federal Government had traded in oil stocks of the Sinclair and Doheny companies, Dec. 1, 1921, to Dec. 21, 1922, the period in which the oil leases were made. Harry M. Daugherty and seven Congressmen were on the list. Mr. Daugherty's transactions took place in October, 1922, and by them he made $543.50. His account, once in his own name, was changed to "W. W. Spaid, No. 4" on the day news of the Sinclair lease was given out. Most of the transactions by others were very minor and not of a speculative character. Senator Davis Elkins of West Virginia, however, speculated on a comparatively large scale, but had, in the net, losses. C. Bascom Slemp, then a Representative from Virginia, now Secretary to the President, was listed for two transactions, one the sale of 100 shares of Doheny stock for a cousin, P. W. Slemp, the other purchase and sale of 1,000 shares of Mexican Seaboard. Mr. Slemp denied that, in his knowledge, the latter stock was a Sinclair stock, as alleged.

P: A steel man from Cleveland testified that ex-Secretary Fall had asked him to say that he had lent Mr. Fall the now notorious $100,000--in other words that he had refused the favor which Wm. B. McLean, Washington newspaper proprietor, later performed.

P: Harry F. Sinclair, subpenaed to testify before the Committee for the sixth time, 'declined to do so on the grounds that the matter had now been transferred to the courts and the Senate had no power to compel his testimony. Said he: "I do not decline to answer any question upon the ground that my answers may tend to incriminate me, because there is nothing in any of the facts or circumstances of the lease of Teapot Dome which does or can incriminate me." Nevertheless, the Senate by vote of 72 to 1 (Senator Elkins in the negative) directed that Mr. Sinclair's name be placed before a Grand Jury for refusing to testify.

P: Will H. Hayes, Movie Tsar, former Post Master General, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee, was called upon to testify in regard to an alleged contribution by Mr. Sinclair of 75,000 shares of Sinclair stock (worth about $25 a share) to make up the deficit of the Republican Committee after the campaign of 1920. Mr. Hays denied the story about the stock but said that he believed Mr. Sinclair had contributed some amount but not more than $75,000, to make up the deficit. Mr. Hays added that as Chairman of the Committee he had not kept its accounts.

Daugherty:

P: Investigation of the Attorney General was conducted along three distinct lines by the incisive Senator Wheeler. By comparison with the Daugherty investigation, the oil investigation is extremely simple. Every part of the oil investigation has something to do, however remote or conjectural, with certain definite oil leases which were executed by Secretary Fall with Sinclair and Doheny. The Committee investigating the Attorney General is bound only to a certain central figure-- Daugherty. Anything or anybody connected with him is a fit subject for inquiry, as is also any crime which he should have prosecuted but didn't. The result is greater diversity.

P: Roxie Stinson (TIME, March 24), divorced wife of Jesse W. Smith, was called to the stand again, to give more testimony in regard to the relations of her late husband with the Attorney General and with various kinds of corruption. She denied the things which the Attorney General had said of her--that she had tried to sell her testimony, that she was a disappointed woman because she was not Smith's sole legatee. She added mentions of "whiskey and drug deals."

P: A distinct branch of the testimony dealt with the illegal interstate transportation of the Dempsey-Carpentier fight pictures. Tex Rickard, fight promoter, testified that he had been "bunked" into buying "influence" which did not exist. William A. Orr, a friend of Mr. Daugherty, one of those who allegedly "bunked" Rickard, admitted connection with the fight film affair, and with certain firms manipulating whiskey withdrawals. An ex-Department of Justice Agent declared that the Attorney was cognizant of the plan for sending fight films out of New Jersey.

P: There was testimony by a number of Texans in regards to certain "building loan lotteries" which they said the Department of Justice had not prosecuted, or not properly prosecuted.

P: A Manhattan druggist testified that there was a ring with which he had worked which secured illegal withdrawals of whiskey--some 50,000 or 60,000 cases--and divided some $200,000 in graft, part of which had gone to close friends of the Attorney General, including Jesse Smith and one Howard Mannington.

P: Tom Taggart, Democratic boss of Indiana, exclaimed to reporters: "I do hope that Harry Daugherty will stick and that he will look his yelpers in the face and tell them where to go. I have known Daugherty for years. We were neighbors in Ohio. He is a kind and generous man who will do anything for people without compensation. He was always that way. Daugherty is too good a man to do anything mean or petty. I do not believe a thing that has been said against him."