AMERICAN SCANDALS

Southland Times, Issue 19173, 18 February 1924, Page 5

AMERICAN SCANDALS

REMARKABLE DISCLOSURES SALE OF A NEWSPAPER TEMPORARY COLLAPSE OF STOCK PRICES. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) WASHINGTON, February 15. (Received February 17, 5.5 p.m.) The Senate’s Oil Committee investigated the sale of Mr Harding’s Marion Star today without finding evidence implicating the late President in the oil lease scandal. Mr Frank Vanderbilt, the international financier, who referred to the Star in a speech recently, testified that he had heard rumours only, but knew none of the facts. He said he was a life-long friend of Mr Harding, and asked for an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the sale of the Star in order to scotch the rumours. NEW YORK, February 15. A sharp collapse oLstock prices occurred in the market as the result of the circulation of a report in the financial district that a prominent operator had suddenly turned bearish on the theory that public confidence would be undermined by the Washington oil disclosures. The oil scandals are rendering the nation callous to daily disclosures of new frauds and corruptions. Another newspaper magnate to-day testified that he received from the oil interests 92,000 dollars, in consequence of which he was unable to name the services he had rendered. Nevertheless he indignantly denied that the sum represented the price of his silence.

President Coolidge, in the meantime, has withdrawn the nomination of Mr Strawn as State Prosecutor in the scandals, following the Senate Committee’s disclosure that he is a director of a Chicago bank in which the Standard Oil Company is the major depositor. President Coolidge has substituted Mr Owen Roberts, a noted constitutional lawyer, who the committee has approved. Thereafter the committee adjourned until February 25. Meanwhile Mr McAdoo has summoned a special conference at Chicago, consisting of Democrats, Progressives and Labourites to determine whether his acceptance of the oil retainer should prejudice his chance for selection as the party’s official candidate for the Presidency.