OIL A Narrative

OIL

A Narrative

A fiery old man of 69 sat in the library of his home in Los Angeles, with a newspaperman before him, a lawyer by his side and a stenographer at hand. The newspaperman had come at his request and the stenographer at the newspaperman's request, and the lawyer was apparently there to protest against the proceeding and give advice on its progress. In brief, Edward L. Doheny was about to tell his story of the notorious Naval Reserve oil leases.

There was only one point on which he refused to talk--his alleged loan of $100,000 to onetime (1921-23) Secretary of the Interior Fall. His lawyers insisted that he not touch on that since he will soon be placed on trial for conspiracy to defraud the Government; and that his story of that loan, as told to the Senate Investigating Committee, will not be admissible as evidence, although another statement of the same facts to a third party would be.

The story as Mr. Doheny told it occupied more than seven hours and 11 newspaper columns and was not finished all in one day. In its main features, there was little difference between Mr. Doheny's account and the popular accounts which have been about, except as to responsibility for the contracts and leases which his company made for exploiting Elk Hills Reserve, for erecting fuel storage tanks at Hawaii. In these, according to Mr. Doheny, Secretary Fall had almost no part, and he himself not so great a part as has been presumed.