Sinclair To Jail

The door of the Washington jail swung open hungrily last week to admit Oilman Harry Ford Sinclair. The U. S. courts had found him guilty of contempt of the Senate for refusing to answer questions in its 1924 Teapot Dome investigation. Now he was paying for his stubbornness by a 90-day sojourn in a "common jail" with pick pockets, wife-beaters, smalltime crooks.

Convict Sinclair did not hurry to serve his sentence. When commitment papers, were signed in the District of Columbia Supreme Court, Sinclair was not present.

In 1897 another rich man, Elverton R. Chapman, had been placed in the same jail for a similar offense. Convict Chap man had a two-cell suite, Persian carpets, special furniture, meals from outside. Maj. William L. Peake, Superintendent of the Washington jail, said Sinclair would be allowed no such luxuries. Declared Jailer Peake :

"The jail isn't like it used to be. . . . As for Sinclair, he'll be just one of the boys here.We'll put him to work and hope he likes it. . . ." Convict Sinclair will share "his 8-by-6 cell with another prisoner. He will rise at 5:30 A. M.; retire at 9 P. M. For amusement he may read books, listen to the radio. It will be hot in this jail during the summer. If all goes well for him, Sinclair will be free Aug. 4.

But there is a possibility that he may pay a return visit to the same institution at a later date. He has been found guilty of contempt of court for putting Burns' detectives on jurors of his first Teapot Dome criminal conspiracy trial. Another six-month sentence hangs over him while the Supreme Court weighs that case.