Yorkville Enquirer

There is a whole lot of suspicion surrounding the possible connection of former Secretary of the Interior A. B. Fall with an alleged questionable deal in connection with a naval oil reservation at "Teapot Dome" in Wyoming. The matter has been under investigation by a senate committee for many weeks. The Teapot Dome enterprise was engineered by the Sinclair interests, and was based upon the idea of storing billions of gallons of oil from government reserve lands as a private speculation. It is alleged that just before the promotion of the deal Secretary Fall was practically bankrupt and that he had allowed valuable estates to go under execution for taxes. Later he paid all outstanding claims and the suspicion is that he raised the money through taking pay for his authority as secretary of the interior in confirming the sale of the government's property around Teapot Dome. By way of accounting for the money with which the secretary had paid off certain of his personal obligations it was represented that he had secured a loan of $100,000 from E. B. McLean, Washington newspaper publisher; but Mr. McLean testifies that while he gave Fall a check for $100,000, the check was returned to him unused with the explanation that Fall had gotten the money elsewhere. Fall has not yet made it clear where he got the money.