OIL: Funds Exhausted

Anybody who drives his car up to a gasoline station knows that oil is an expensive commodity. The Government is speedily finding out the same thing. Last week it was admitted in Washington that the $100,000 which Congress appropriated for the special criminal and civil prosecutions in connection with the Sinclair and Doheny oil leases at Tea pot Dome and Elk Hills, respectively, was practically exhausted.

The major expenditures, so far, have been for bringing witnesses overland to the Capital from the Far West. Moreover, the special prosecutors, Owen G. Roberts and ex-Senator Atlee Pomerene, have as yet not received a cent. A bill will have to be introduced at the next session of Congress carrying the funds for paying them and completing the prosecutions. Before the matter is settled it will have cost the country a pretty penny to recover Teapot Dome and Elk Hills from the lessees—if they are recovered. Since every body became excited about the alleged debauchery of the Navy's oil reserves, it is probably true that the prosecution has been carried on with more thoroughness than foresight as to whether the accomplishments will balance the cost of the prosecution. So far the $100,000 expenditure is equivalent to buying every family in the country almost a gill of gasoline at retail prices. If the entire affair does not cost Uncle Sam's children more than a pint per family, they will be reasonably lucky.