Thursday, March 13, 1924. Send in the Marines.

 

More drama from Teapot Dome, including the revelation of an older story about Marines patrolling the prairie near Midwest.

Last prior:

Thursday, March 12, 1924 Exile in Florida.

Tuesday, February 29, 1924. Air assisted victory.

Secretary of the Navy Fall was so struck by the Teapot Dome Scandal, which took place, of course, on the Naval Petroleum Reserve, that he had fallen ill.

Mexican Federal forces took Esperanza in Puebla in a hard fought battle.

The counter-attack featured strafing runs by Mexican-born American pilot, Ralph O'Neill.

O'Neill had distinguished service with the US Army as a pilot in World War One and held three Distinguished Service Cross citations.  He lived until 1980, dying at age 83 in California.

Thursday, January 24, 1924. Different reactions to the use of power.

Oilman Edward L. Doheny testified that he had loaned Senator Albert B. Fall $100,000, when Fall was Secretary of the Interior under Harding, breaking open the Teapot Dome Scandal.

New Mexico Senator Albert B. Fall.

Fall's political career would soon come to an end, and he'd serve a year in prison.

Doheny would be indicted, but acquitted.

Khiva fell to the Red Army.

Sister Marie of the Poor, the former Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde of Luxembourg, died of ill health and influenza at age 29.  She had been the last royal of that country to wield real power, which caused her to abdicate after World War One due to her decision to try to steer the country clear of active resistance to the Germans.  Following that, having never married, she had become a nun.

Tuesday, January 22, 1924. Um. . . who?

Reporting on the death of Lenin, sort of.

An autopsy was performed on the body of the Communist leader which found he had suffered, it claimed a cerebral hemorrhage, although that has been disputed since that time.  Lenin's brain was removed on January 24 and sent to the Brain Research Institute in Moscow under the direction of a German neurologist, Dr. Oskar Vogt.

British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin resigned following a vote of no confidence.  Ramsay MacDonald was summoned by the King to form a government and to become the first Labour Party Prime Minister.

Friday, January 18, 1924. Corn husking bee, Transiting Mexican Federals, Convalescing Commie.

 

A corn husking bee, January 18, 1924.

The news recalled 1916.

Mexican troops looked to be about to get US transit.

Calvin Coolidge gave a press conference.  He addressed that topic, and others.  On the transit, he stated:

An inquiry also about the passage of Mexican troops across American territory. It is my information that New Mexico and I think Arizona have given consent of their Governments to the passage of Mexican troops, but that the Acting Governor of Texas thought that such passage through Texas territory might incur some danger. Of course, the opinion of the Governor there would be respected, and unless the local authorities, I mean by that the Government, state authorities, want to give their consent, our Government would notify the Government of Mexico that it seemed expedient to have troops pass through Mexico. Whether that would be refused, or changed at all, when the Governor gets home, I don’t know. It may be that the Acting Governor simply didn’t want to take the responsibility of making an affirmative decision, and is awaiting the return of the Governor.

Interesting how it was viewed as a state first matter.

One of the other topics addressed was the Teapot Dome Scandal.

While Trotsky was convalescing on the Black Sea, getting a little respite from being an agent of murderous armed agency, Stalin denounced him in a blistering speech.

1924  Douglas bank closes in failure, part of a waive of bank failures.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society. 

Wednesday, January 9, 1924. Oil.

 Oil in Mexico, oil at Teapot Dome, Oil prices.

Oil.

The intersection of N40th St and Meridian Ave N, Seattle, Washington, January 9, 1924.

The market capitalization of Ford Motor Company exceeded $1 billion for the first time. 

Palatine seperatist Franz Josef Heinz was murdered by member sof the Viking League with the permission of the Bavarian government.

The Bishop of Speyer, Ludwig Sebastian, would refuse to give Heinz a church burial.

Monday, October 15, 1923. The Declaration of Forty Six. Teapot Dome Hearings begin.

The Yankees won the World Series, beating the Giants in game six 4 to 2.

Germany issued new currency, scheduled on the prewar gold backed Mark, but backed by land and businesses which were subject to a forced mortgage.

Forty Six members of the Soviet Communist Party signed a declaration regarding their concerns about the party.  It stated:

15 October 1923

Top Secret

TO THE POLITBURO OF THE CC OF THE RCP(b)

The extreme seriousness of the situation forces us (in the interests of our party, in the interests of the working class) to tell you openly that continuation of the policy of the majority of the Politburo threatens the entire party with grave misfortune. The economic and financial crisis beginning at the end of July this year, with all the political consequences flowing from it, including those within the party, has mercilessly revealed the inadequacy of the party leadership, both in the economic realm, and especially in the area of inner-party relations.

The haphazard, poorly thought through, and unsystematic decisions of the CC, which hasn't made ends meet in the economy, have led to a situation where, given the presence of undoubtedly major successes in the realm of industry, agriculture, finances and transport, - successes which were achieved by the economy of the nation spontaneously, not thanks to but in spite of the inadequate leadership, or, to be more precise, the absence of any leadership, - we are faced not only with the perspective of the halting of these successes, but with a severe crisis of the economy as a whole.

Chervonets 1922

We stand before the approaching break-down of the chervonets currency, which spontaneously turned into the basic currency before the liquidation of the budget deficit; we face a credit crisis in which the State Bank cannot, without the risk of severe shocks, finance not only industry and the trade of industrial goods, but even the purchase of grain for export; we face the cessation of the sale of industrial goods because of high prices, which can be explained, on the one hand, by the complete absence of planned, organizational leadership in industry, and on the other, by incorrect credit policy; we face the impossibility of carrying out the grain export program because of the inability to purchase grain; we face extremely low prices for food products, which are ruinous for the peasantry and which threaten massive cutbacks in agricultural production; we face the interruption of wage payments, which evokes the natural dissatisfaction of the workers; we face budget chaos, which directly creates chaos in the government apparatus; "revolutionary" means of cutbacks in drawing up the budget and new, unplanned cutbacks during its realization have gone from being temporary measures to a permanent phenomenon, which relentlessly jolts the state apparatus and, as a result of the absence of planning in the cutbacks - causes accidental and spontaneous shocks to it.

The Scissors: retail and wholesale prices of agricultural and industrial goods in the Soviet Union July 1922 to November 1923.

All these are elements of an economic, credit and financial crisis which has already begun. If we do not immediately take extensive, well thought out, planned and energetic measures, if the present lack of leadership continues, we face the possibility of unusually sharp economic shocks, inevitably bound up with domestic political complications and with the complete paralysis of our foreign activity and capability. And the latter, as everyone understands, is now more necessary than ever before; upon it depends the fate of the world revolution and the working class of all countries.

In precisely the same way, we see in the realm of inner-party relations the same incorrect leadership, paralyzing and demoralizing the party, which is particularly clearly felt during the crisis we are passing through.

We explain this not by the political incapability of the present party leaders; on the contrary, no matter how much we differ with them in evaluating the situation and in choosing the methods to change it, we think that today's leaders under any conditions couldn't help but be appointed by the party to leading posts in the workers' dictatorship. Rather we explain it by the fact that, under the guise of official unity, we actually have a one-sided selection of personnel, who can adapt to the views and sympathies of a narrow circle, and a one-sided direction of activity. As a result of the party leadership being distorted by such narrow considerations, the party has to a significant degree ceased to be that living, independent collective which is sensitive to the changes in living reality, precisely because it is connected with thousands of threads to this reality. Instead of this, we observe an ever progressing, barely disguised division of the party into a secretarial hierarchy and into "laymen", into professional party functionaries, chosen from above, and the other party masses, who take no part in social life.

This is a fact which is well known to every member of the party. Members of the party who are dissatisfied with this or that directive from the CC or even a provincial committee, or who are plagued by doubts, or who have noted "to themselves" various mistakes, things out of line or disorder of some sort, are afraid to speak about it at party gatherings; even worse, they are afraid to talk to one another unless they consider their interlocutor to be absolutely reliable, in the sense of not being "talkative"; free discussion within the party has virtually disappeared, party public opinion has been stifled. Now it is not the party, it is not the party's broad masses who nominate and choose provincial conferences and party congresses, which in turn nominate and choose provincial committees and the Central Committee of the RCP. On the contrary, it is the secretarial hierarchy, the party hierarchy which to an ever greater degree chooses the delegates to the conferences and congresses, which to an ever greater degree are becoming the executive conferences of this hierarchy. The regime which has been established within the party is absolutely intolerable; it is killing the independence of the party, replacing the party with a selected bureaucratic apparatus which functions smoothly during normal times, but which inevitably misfires during moments of crisis, and which threatens to become absolutely helpless when confronted with the serious events which lie ahead.

The situation which has developed is explained by the fact that the regime of fractional dictatorship within the party which unfolded after the Xth Congress has outlived itself. Many of us consciously chose not to resist such a regime. The about-face of 1921, followed by Lenin's illness, demanded, as far as some of us were concerned, a dictatorship within the party as a temporary measure. Other comrades from the very beginning reacted to it skeptically or opposed it. In any case, by the XIIth Party Congress this regime had become obsolete. It began to show the other side of the coin. The inner-party bonds began to weaken. The party began to wither. Extreme oppositional, even openly unhealthy, tendencies within the party began to take on an anti-party character, for there was no inner-party, comradely discussion of the most acute questions. And such a discussion could have revealed, without any difficulty, the unhealthy character of these tendencies, both to the party masses, and to the majority of their participants. As a result, we have seen the formation of illegal groupings, which draw party members away from the party, and we have witnessed the party losing contact with the working masses.

If the situation which has developed is not radically changed in the very near future, the economic crisis in Soviet Russia and the crisis of the fractional dictatorship within the party will strike heavy blows to the workers' dictatorship in Russia and to the Russian Communist Party. With such a burden on its shoulders, the dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia, and its leader, the RCP, cannot enter the field of the impending new international shocks in any other way than with the perspective of failure along the entire front of proletarian struggle. Of course, it would at first glance be easiest of all to resolve the question in the following sense: in view of the situation, there is not and there cannot be any place now for raising the questions of changing the party's course, of placing on the agenda new and complex tasks, etc., etc. But it is absolutely clear that such a point of view would be a position of officially closing one's eyes to the actual situation, since the entire danger lies in the fact that there is no genuine ideological or practical unity in the face of exceedingly complex domestic and foreign situations. In the party, the more silently and secretly the struggle is waged, the more ferocious it becomes. If we raise this question before the Central Committee, then it is precisely in order to find the swiftest and most painless resolution of the contradictions which are tearing the party apart, and to rapidly place the party on healthy foundations. We need real unity in discussions and in actions. The impending ordeals require the unanimous, fraternal, absolutely conscious, extremely energetic, and extremely unified activity of all the members of our party.

The fractional regime must be eliminated, and this must be done first of all by those who have created it; it must be replaced by a regime of comradely unity and inner-party democracy.

In order to realize all that has been outlined above, and to take the necessary measures to extricate ourselves from the economic, political and party crisis, we propose that the CC, as a first and most urgent step, call a conference of members of the CC with the most prominent and active party cadres, in order that the list of those invited include a number of comrades who have views concerning the situation which differ from the views of the majority of the CC.

E. Preobrazhensky

B. Breslav

L. Serebriakov

While not agreeing with certain points in this letter explaining the causes of the situation which has developed, and feeling that the party has come up against problems which cannot fully be resolved by the methods employed up until now, I fully endorse the final conclusion of the present letter.

A. Beloborodov 11 October 1923

I am in complete agreement with the proposals, although I differ with several points concerning motives.

A. Rosengolts

M. Alsky

In general, I share the thoughts of this appeal. The need for a direct and open approach to all our sore points is so overdue, that I fully support the proposal to call the indicated conference, in order to choose the practical ways capable of leading us out of the accumulated difficulties.

Antonov-Ovseenko

A. Venediktov

I. N. Smirnov

G. Piatakov

V. Obolensky (Osinsky)

N. Muralov

T. Sapronov

A. Goltsman

The situation in the party and the international situation are such that they demand the extraordinary concentration and unity of party forces more than ever before. While ascribing to the declaration, I view it exclusively as an attempt to create unity in the party and to prepare it for upcoming events. Naturally, at the present moment there can be no talk of inner-party struggle in any form whatsoever. It is necessary for the CC to soberly assess the situation and to adopt urgent measures to eliminate dissatisfaction within the party, as well as within the non-party masses.

12 October 1923. A. Goltsman

11 October 1923. V. Maksimovsky

L. Sosnovsky

Danishevsky

P. Mesyatsev

G. Khorechko

I do not agree with a number of assessments in the first part of the declaration; I do not agree with a number of characterizations of the inner-party situation. At the same time I am deeply convinced that the state of the party demands the adopting of radical measures, for things are not well in the party at the present time. I fully share the practical proposal.

A. Bubnov 11 October 1923

A. Voronsky

V. Smirnov

E. Bosh

I. Byk

V. Kosior

F. Lokatskov

I am in complete agreement with the evaluation of the economic situation. I consider the weakening of the political dictatorship at the present moment to be dangerous, but things must be aired out. I find a conference to be absolutely necessary.

Kaganovich

Drobnis

P. Kovalenko

A. E. Minkin

V. Yakovleva

I am in complete agreement with the practical proposals.

B. Eltsin

I sign with the same reservations as comrade Bubnov.

M. Levitin

I sign with the same reservations as Bubnov, sharing neither the form, nor the tone, which all the more convinces me to agree with the practical part of the given declaration.

I. Poliudov

O. Shmidel

V. Vaganian

I. Stukov

A. Lobanov

R. Farbman

S. Vasilchenko

Mikh. Zhakov

A. Puzakov

N. Nikolaev

Since during recent times I have been somewhat removed from the work of the party centers, I abstain from the judgements of the two leading paragraphs of the introductory part; I agree with the rest.

Averin

I am in agreement with the part outlining the economic and political situation of the country. I feel that in the part which depicts the inner-party situation, a certain exaggeration has been allowed. It is absolutely necessary to immediately take measures to preserve the unity of the party.

M. Boguslavsky

I am not fully in agreement with the first part, which speaks about the economic situation of the country; the latter is indeed very serious and demands great attention, but up until now the party has not advanced people who would have been able to lead better than those who have been leading until now. Regarding the question of the inner-party situation, I feel that there is a significant portion of truth in everything which has been said, and I consider it necessary to take emergency measures.

F. Dudnik

Most of them would end up with bullets in the back of their heads during Stalin's long reign.

Jal P. Bapasola, Rustom B. Bhumgara and Adi B. Hakim set out from Bombay with the goal of bicycling around the world, which they would achieve by March 18, 1928.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys began hearings on California and Teapot Dome oil leases.

Equine transport, Ireland, October 15, 1923.

Saturday, April 15, 1922. The Teapot Dome Scandal Breaks.

The Saturday Evening Post decided to grace the cover of its Easter issue, with Easter being April 16 that year, with a Leyendecker portrait of a woman looking at her Easter bonnet.

Country Gentleman, however, went with a different theme.

Some in Washington, D. C. took time to play polo on this day.

Horses were much in evidence on that Holy Saturday in Washington, D. C., as a Junior Horse Show was also held.

The White House received visitors.

Which included a party of Camp Fire Girls.

Not everyone was taking the day off, however.

Today In Wyoming's History: April 15: 1922  1922  Wyoming Democratic Senator John Kendrick introduced a resolution to investigate oil sales at Teapot Dome, Wyoming (the Naval Petroleum Oil Reserve).

As the U.S. Senate's history site notes:

Senate Investigates the "Teapot Dome" Scandal

---

April 15, 1922

On April 15, 1922, Wyoming Democratic senator John Kendrick introduced a resolution that set in motion one of the most significant investigations in Senate history. On the previous day, the Wall Street Journal had reported an unprecedented secret arrangement in which the secretary of the Interior, without competitive bidding, had leased the U.S. naval petroleum reserve at Wyoming's Teapot Dome to a private oil company. Wisconsin Republican senator Robert La Follette arranged for the Senate Committee on Public Lands to investigate the matter. His suspicions deepened after someone ransacked his quarters in the Senate Office Building.

Expecting this to be a tedious and probably futile inquiry, the committee's Republican leadership allowed the panel's most junior minority member, Montana Democrat Thomas Walsh, to chair the panel. Preeminent among the many difficult questions facing him was, "How did Interior Secretary Albert Fall get so rich so quickly?"

Eventually, the investigation uncovered Secretary Fall's shady dealings, and Senator Walsh became a national hero. Fall would end up as the first former cabinet officer to go to prison. This and a subsequent Senate inquiry triggered several court cases testing the extent of the Senate's investigative powers. One of those cases resulted in the landmark 1927 Supreme Court decision McGrain v. Daugherty that, for the first time, explicitly established Congress's right to compel witnesses to testify before its committees.

Not unexpectedly, the Teapot Dome story, which was just breaking, and had been broken in the East the day prior, was big news in Wyoming.

Friday, April 7, 1922. Founding of Parco, Wyoming.

1922  Ground broken for the town of Parco.  Parco still exists, but it is now known as Sinclair, and is the site of the Sinclair Refinery.  At the time of its founding, it was the location of a very nice hotel on the Lincoln Highway. The hotel's buildings still exist, but the hotel itself is long closed.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Echos of Parco. Sinclair Wyoming.

Parco was a company town, as noted below, built by a refining company in 1924-25.  The luxury hotel  was built by the company on the then fairly new Lincoln Highway, and the town no doubt benefited as it was also a stop on the Union Pacific.  Only seven miles away from the larger and older town of Rawlins, the Interstate Highway bypasses it and its a remnant of its former self.

Not too many people stop at Sinclair who are just passing through.  But at one time that wasn't true.  And that's why the town has what was once a luxury hotel (now a Baptist church), a spacious park, really nice tennis courts, and the like.  Only the sign on the hotel remains, as well as a historical monument, to remind us that Sinclair is the town's second name.  It was originally Parco, a company town founded by the founder of what is now the Sinclair Refinery, the Producers & Refiners Corporation.

Also in Wyoming on this day:

1922 U.S. Secretary of Interior leased Naval Reserve #3, "Teapot Dome," in Wyoming to Harry F. Sinclair.

Quite a day for things Sinclair.

On the same day, the first midair collision between an airliner and another airplane occurred when a Grand Aeriens Farman F.60 hit a Daimler Airway de Havilland DH.18. The latter airplane was carrying mail.  All the occupants of both airplanes, seven people, were killed in the collision.  The tragic event took place over Picardie, France.

Cherry blossoms were in bloom in Washington D. C.

Lt. Mina C. Van Winkle, Director of the Women's Bureau of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, was on trial for refusing to turn two girls over to two men purporting to be their father's. The panel was a police review board, and the charger was insubordination. As such things will do, the event brought attention to the fate of female runaways.

Of some slight interest, police dress uniforms of the era remained very much like the Civil War era Union Army uniform from which they were drawn.

Ms. Van Winkle would pass away in 1933 at age 57.