As long as corruption exists, The Teapot Dome Scandal will have relevance. Which is to say as long as people exist. What was it? Teapot Dome is a Wyoming oilfield that was set aside for the US Navy as a strategic reserve before the First World War. The scandal was caused by Republican Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall's taking kickbacks from Sinclair Oil (and Mammoth Oil, a subsidiary) after, and in exchange for, arranging through his boss, President Warren G. Harding, for the Teapot Dome oil to be transferred from the US Navy to the Interior Department and then leased without competitve bidding to Sinclair/Mammoth. Secretary Fall's sudden wealth caused speculation and eventually conviction, but only because hard evidence was found after a lengthy investigation and attempted coverup. The aptly name Fall was finally nailed in 1929 -- just in time for the Stock Market Crash and Great Depression. Harding died in 1923, but his ranking as a US President took a nosedive after the Teapot Dome Scandal. As for Fall, after prison and a fine, he died in El Paso, Texas, during the Second World War.
Wyoming-based Sinclair Oil Corporation still exists; however, some elements were divested to ARCO and in turn later absorbed by BP.
Which brings us to today's oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. BP is calling its oil caps containment domes. Maybe they should be called teapot domes? In any case, let's hope they work in channeling the spew.
For more on the earlier scandal, see Laton McCartney, How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country (Random House, 2008).
Today's Rune: The Self.
1 comment:
I really hope, for the sake of the people of Louisiana who depend upon the Gulf to make their living, and for the environment in general, that this thing works.
I just read Edward Behr's "Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America," and he spent a chapter elaborating on the Teapot Dome Scandal. The corruption in Harding's administration was unbelievable-- it would make a Chicago alderman blush.
BTW, that is the same Edward Behr who wrote "The Last Emperor."
Post a Comment