Minor Conviction

For the first time, Oilman Harry F. Sinclair appeared before a court fortnight ago to answer criminal charges arising from his leasing of the Teapot Dome naval oil reserve. This was the result of U. S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision (TIME, Jan. 31) that witnesses who refused to answer proper and pertinent questions when summoned by Congress, may be punished for contempt. Mr. Sinclair had defied a Senate investigating committee in 1924. That was why he found himself in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. After a ten-day trial and acting under specific, simple instruction from Judge William Hitz, the jury pronounced Mr. Sinclair guilty of contempt--a misdemeanor punishable with one to twelve months in a "common jail," and a fine ranging from $100 to $1,000.

Justice Hitz was soon expected to refuse Mr. Sinclair's motion for a new trial and to pronounce his sentence. But Mr. Sinclair is a long way from jail. He will carry his case to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and to the U. S. Supreme Court if necessary. Said he: "This is only the first inning."

Meanwhile, the Government's civil suit to recover the Teapot Dome oil reserves is now pending before the U. S. Supreme Court, while the criminal suit charging Messrs. Sinclair and Fall with fraud is floundering through vexing preliminaries in a lower court.