SENATE DEMANDS INFO ON TEAPOT DOME
1922
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Teapot Dome was the name of the naval oil reserve in Wyoming that became
the focus of a congressional inquiry in the spring of 1922. A decade of litigation
eventually revealed that the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, had received
more than $400,000 in bribes from two oil companies in exchange for
exclusive rights to this resource-rich land. This editorial that appeared in the
Denver Post was one of the first to break news of preliminary investigations to
the public.
T H I N K T H R O U G H H I S T O R Y : Evaluating Decisions
What interests would individual senators have had in pursuing the Teapot Dome investigation?
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Washington, April 15th.—The secretary of the interior and the secretary of
the navy were requested to inform the senate if negotiations are being conducted
for the leasing to private oil interests of 7,000 acres of government oil lands in
Wyoming, by a resolution adopted by the senate Saturday by a viva voce vote.
The resolution was sponsored by Senator Kendrick, Democrat, of Wyoming.
EDITOR’S NOTE
After having made an unpardonable and inexcusable blunder in the leasing of the naval oil reserve in Wyoming to the Sinclair oil interest, purely a Standard Oil company, the secretaries of the navy and interior have issued the statement below, not because it is news, but in a feeble attempt to justify the most serious blunder that the present administration has made up to date.
The preposterous idea of getting oil out of the ground where it is stored free and putting it into tanks that cost a lot of money, where loss from evaporation and from other causes are large, where danger from fire, lightning and storm is constant and tremendous, is an absurdity so great as to make all oil people and all sensible people smile and wonder if this is a sample of the efficiency of our naval and interior departments.
They leased the entire Teapot dome, the very center of the best oil field in the world; a section five miles long by one mile wide; a section that is supposed to contain over a half a billion dollars worth of oil; and they leased that to one
The Americans © McDougal Littell Inc.
SENATE DEMANDS INFORMATION ON TEAPOT DOME
company, and did not give a single other person or company in the world a right
to bid.
It is beginning to look as tho the present administration is heart and soul in harmony with all the big corporation interests in the United States, and that the common everyday fellow is to get very little except the pleasure of paying enormous taxes and help make the corporations of the United States so rich and powerful as to dominate our officials and to pass and construe our laws.
That’s what the people of Colorado, Wyoming and the Rocky mountain region are protesting against. It is just such favoritism, based on just such stupid reasons as the secretary of the navy and the secretary of the interior are using to try to justify this awful lease that shakes confidence in our Washington officials.
The most powerful corporation of the country gets everything and not an independent oil man in the United States is even given a chance to bid.
A few such arbitrary and autocratic deals as this will set the country aflame with protest against these kinds of methods, these kinds of deals, and this kind of favoritism of the government for the powerful and already completely entrenched oil monopoly.
Source: “Senate Demands Information on Deal to Lease Teapot Oil Dome to Private Interests,” Denver Post, April 15, 1922.
It is beginning to look as tho the present administration is heart and soul in harmony with all the big corporation interests in the United States, and that the common everyday fellow is to get very little except the pleasure of paying enormous taxes and help make the corporations of the United States so rich and powerful as to dominate our officials and to pass and construe our laws.
That’s what the people of Colorado, Wyoming and the Rocky mountain region are protesting against. It is just such favoritism, based on just such stupid reasons as the secretary of the navy and the secretary of the interior are using to try to justify this awful lease that shakes confidence in our Washington officials.
The most powerful corporation of the country gets everything and not an independent oil man in the United States is even given a chance to bid.
A few such arbitrary and autocratic deals as this will set the country aflame with protest against these kinds of methods, these kinds of deals, and this kind of favoritism of the government for the powerful and already completely entrenched oil monopoly.
Source: “Senate Demands Information on Deal to Lease Teapot Oil Dome to Private Interests,” Denver Post, April 15, 1922.
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D & E Block: Post your response here. What was the Harding administration accused of? (Include your initials if you have an e-mail that is different then your name)
ReplyDeleteHI:))) JW
ReplyDeleteThe Harding administration was accused of extreme political corruption. Many members used graft and bribery to increase their wealth and was made most evident in the Teapot Dome Scandal involving the Secretary of the Interior and other oil companies.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding administration was accused of taking bribes from oil companies to drill for oil in a Wyoming reserve. The administration was offered $400,000 in kickbacks or bribes. This was outrageous that the Secretary for the Interior permitted this. They completely played favoritism by only allowing one company to drill for oil.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of corruption which was mostly seen in the Teapot Dome scandal. People involved got tried, convicted and sent to prision for their acts of bribery and defrauding the federal government.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of favoritism since they allowed the largest oil company to lease the entire Teapot Dome. Other companies did not even have a chance to bid. The acception of bribes showed the corruption in the government.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of being corrupt and taking bribes from the oil companies to drill for oil in a reserve located in Wyoming. Many of the people involved in this "Teapot Dome Scandal" were sent to prison for taking bribes from the administration. -K.A.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of corruption. They used bribes to make them richer and more powerful. The largest oil company got to have the Teapot Dome, while other companies didn't get to even try and bid for the Teapot Dome.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was being accused of favoritism and corruption. They used bribes to get the sole ownership of all this oil and to pass and construe the laws of the U.S. This is practically a monopoly because no other businesses were allowed to have this land. J.M
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was being accused of favoritism and corruption. Only the Most powerful corporation in the country was allowed to bid, no other companies ha the chance. On top of this bribes were accepted in return for exclusive rights.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of political corruption and more specifically, favoritism. They had strict restrictions on the land and only granted access to the most powerful companies. Also they accepted bribes in exchange for these rights.
ReplyDeleteC.B
The Harding administration was accused of both corruption and favoritism considering they gave the largest oil company the teapot dome while using bribary.
ReplyDeleteC.A
The Harding Administration was accused of corruption. They used graft and also accepted bribes to increase their wealth. They would only allow one company to drill for oil, leaving the other competitors with no chance at all.
ReplyDeleteCDM
The Harding Administration was accused of political corruption as well as favoritism. They gave the Teapot dome to a wealthy, powerful oil company mainly because their significant bribe. Instead of allowing all countries the same privilege of having the Teapot dome they only granted access to the most powerful companies in a result of their bribes.
ReplyDeleteD.D
The Harding Administration was accused of using bribery and favoritism. They used bribery in order to get exclusive rights to the resource-rich land. GB
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of corruption involving favoratism and bribery. They gave land rights to only a select few wealthey corporations who, in turn, paid then huge amounts of money.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of accepting bribes from oil companies for the Teapot Dome. They were currupt and showed favoritism by only allowing the biggest oil companies the ability to drill in the best oil field in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was being accused of favoritism and corruption. They accepted bribes from the powerful oil companies.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was being accused of favoritism, taking, bribes and kickbacks from the oil companies, along with corruption.All of this is showed in the exchanges about the Teapot Dome and who received rights to drill there. A.B.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was being accused of corruption. They also accepted bribes from other oil companies with more power, and were accused of favoritism.
ReplyDeleteKG
The Harding Administration was a corrupt system. They accepted bribes for their own personal gain and left many others upset with their decisions. Dan Benson
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of corruption. They were using bribery and favoratism to increase their wealth. They only let the biggest oil company drill for oil and didnt even give other companies a chance to bid.-E.G.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was being accused of showing favoritism by only allowing the biggest oil company to drill for oil. They were also being accused of corruption and accepting bribes and kickbacks from other oil companies.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of being corrupt. They accepted bribes from other oil companies and did not fairly decide who got to drill for oil. They did so in order for their own gain.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of corruption. They accepted bribes and expressed favoritism by leasing the Teapot Dome to only one oil company. -SW
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of accepting bribes and leasing "the very center of the best oil field in the world" to just one company without giving any other company in the world the right to bid. -CL
ReplyDeleteThe Harding administration was accused of corruption. They accepted bribes and showed favoritism to gain wealth and power. -RV
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of political corruption by accepting and receiving over 400,000$ worth of bribes from two oil companies in exchange for right to resource-rich land.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was being accused of political corruption and favoritism. They accepted bribes from oil companies to have access to certain lands with many resources. VO
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was corrupt. They accepted bribes from the biggest oil companies that had the most control over the oil industry.
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of extreme political corruption. Members used graft and bribery in an attempt to increase their wealth. The example that this was made most evident in was the Teapot Dome Scandal involving the Secretary of the Interior and other oil companies where the administration was offered $400,000 in kickbacks or bribes
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of corruption. They accepted bribes from big time oil companies who largely held control over the oil industry. -DB
ReplyDeleteThe Harding Administration was accused of political corruption. They took bribes from specific companies and did not allow any one else to compete. They became powerful by doing this. K.M.
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