LAW PROFESSOR FLAYS U. S. OIL PROSECUTION

"Corruption should be made a political issue, not prohibition," said Professor J. M. Landis L '25 of the Law School in an interview yesterday afternoon with a CRIMSON reporter.

"Corruption has gone too far; it seems to have fastened a vise-like grip on the government. Yet no one really takes any definite steps to uproot this evil. The public is apathetic. They have the idea firmly imbedded in their minds that the United States is too rich to feel the effects of losses due to corruption. They can well afford it. To regain the money paid out in taxes seems to be of more importance to the people than the remedy of this thoroughly rotten condition.

"The vast number of cases springing from the famous Oil Scandal is an excellent example of the great extent of corruption in the government. A trial like this illuminates the kind of corruption existing in the government during the last few years. It is an astounding spectacle to see the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Interior called on the stand for serious crime. Some of the foremost oil-magnates have also been called up.

"Procedure Smells Rotten"

"The continual delays throughout the prosecution of the cases is sufficient evidence that there is something vitally wrong. The United States has been extremely negligent in pressing these cases to the utmost. The whole method of procedure smells rotten.

"One of the first cases springing directly from the Oil Scandal was tried in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision stated that the leases of the Teapot Dome lands should be cancelled due to fraud. Not one of the people incriminated in the trial have taken the stand to defend themselves. They have evidently decided that whatever they say might incriminate them. Doheny stated that all the charges made against him were false. He awaited only the opportunity to clear himself. When the time came, he never made the least attempt to appear before the court. This is no plea for honest men. When Sinclair and Fall were indicted, Blackmer, Oneill and Osler, all implicated, slipped off to Europe, Why is silence the only answer to the charges?

"There was then delay, during which the whole affair slumbered, only to be brought into the limelight again by the Senate Investigating Committee. A civil case was first tried, deciding that the lease of the Elk, Hills Reservation should be cancelled due to fraud. The case was taken to the Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed the decision, and the matter is now appendine in the Supreme Court. Later the courts refused to cancel the Teapot Dome lease.

"Four criminal cases were next brought on trial. Fall, Doheny and Sinclair were charged with fraudulent conspiracy against the government. It took two years to bring the case to trial. Fall and Doheny were later accused, the former for receiving, the latter for offering a bribe. The last record of these cases was entered nine months ago. The government, instead of pressing these cases, has dallied with them. Nine months passed; the criminal indictments were thrown out of court. Sinclair was them arrested for the sale of public lands. The indictment was sustained by the Court of Appeals of Washington, D. C. The case will probably be taken to the Supreme Court.

Suspicion Shifted to Daugherty

"As a result of all these cases investigated by the Senate Committee; the wind of suspicion shifted to Attorney General Daugherty. He was tried for contempt of court; and shortly afterwards M. A. Daugherty, and Eing were calloff to the stand on a bribery charge in the Alien Property Custodian question.

"In addition to this series of delays, trials, and stalling on the part of the defense, it is interesting to note that three men, Daugherty, Donby aid Fall, were forced to resign; two men committed suicide.

"So reads the record of the government in the prosecution of these most important criminal cases. Justice has been lagging and poor men are led to believe that the law winks kindly upon rich men. The black mark of failure to clean its house of corruption has been indelibly shamped on the government.