The Committee were convinced that Mr. Sinclair and Colonel Stewart -
could have told the truth about the Company, but anyhow they refused to do so. • Mr. Sinclair, the lessee of Teapot Dome, handed over to Mr. Fall, of the Navy Department,- a large number of bonds of the company. He explained that these bonds were part. of the purchase price of a ranch which he had bought from Mr. Fall. The Committee describe that explanation as " a shallow fable." It was not only to - Mr. Fall that the bonds of the Company were given or - offered. Mr. James Patten, a Chicago capitalist, was offered some as a present by Mr. 'Will Hays (the general dispenser of the bonds), but when he discovered that a quid pro quo was expected of him lie indignantly returned them. The Committee say that neither Mr. Mellon, the Secretary • of the Treasury, nor Senator William M. Butler manifested a similar resentment. The " inescap- able inference " is made that Mr. Fall was bribed to issue the Teapot Dome lease. Senator Nye, a Radical Republican, points out in a separate Report that Mr. Sinclair, Mr. Doheny, and men of their sort did not confine their political bribery to the Republican Party. He says that the Democratic Party also received contributions, and that Mr. Sinclair regarded such contributions as investments.
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