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Show TEA POT DOMK ' Cheyenne. Wyo. Harry r". Sinclair Sin-clair will break a silence of three years during the hearing in 1 ' District court here of the 'l,,Jd i. . -.-, l- r he i ea government s su.l to bit ah l-' Pot Dome oil lease. For three years "by advice or council," he has remained silent under un-der savage attacks in the senate, m congressional committees and in the newspapers. Three years of silence while a poison-gas barrage from the public and private enemies threatened threat-ened ruin to bis reputation and business. busi-ness. There is personal tragedy w that kind of silence. Few men could keep a still tongue in their heads in such a situation. Now his opportunity opportun-ity it here. He will meet his enemies in i court of law for the first time. "We are going to bat at last," he said as he stepped out of his private car at Cheyenne. His crisp sentence seemed a sigh of relief from his heart Wyoming is with Sinclair. That i much is certain. Through his $20,-Ot $20,-Ot 0.000 pipe line frcm the mountains : to the Missour. river, Sinclair has made it possible for Wyoming to tur its oil into gold. At the rate of 45,000 barrels a day. Wyoming oil is now flowing to eastern markets. Chyenne is a picturesque stage-setting for the cort drama. Once it was the toughest town in the frontier West. Tough in the days of the Oregon Ore-gon trail and the pony express. Tougher when the Union Pacific U-nally U-nally had linked the oceans. Wild Bill Hickok'was once its most dls- t'nguished citizen. You had three guesses for every house in town. It was either a saloon, a dance hall or a faro bank. They killed a man every ev-ery morning for breakfast. Old Boot Hill cemetery a little ways out on the sage-brush plains still bears grim testimony to the six-shooter past. But now Cheyenne is a beauutul little city of 20,000. Asphalt streets are lined with business blocks and filled with automobiles. It is a city of homes, schools and churches. The Wild West is only a lurid memory. It is a religious, almost puritanical community. If it weren't for a. few tall white hats and the jingle of an occasional spur ,you might fancy you were in New England. The cort room in the federal build ing where the trial is being held is somberly gorgeous. Lighted' by long, narrow windows high above the spaciou schamber is enriched by a tall wainscoting of dark Vermont marbel on which the genii of subterranean subter-ranean puarries have painted many pictures. Outlined by the .veins and colors of the marbel, human profiles, birds and animals pop out at you wierdly. One of the quaint nature etchings is that of a witch's head with scowling, withered mien and snaky hair. You wonder whether the witch will find: the court proceedings broth to her liking. Presiding at the trial, Judge T. Blake Kennedy is an impressive figure. fi-gure. A bald, gray, aquiline man with a sculptured, Roman face, peering peer-ing shrewdly through horn-rimmed spectacles. A reasonable judge and not a court-room despot. His incidental inci-dental decisions are thoughtfully deliberate. de-liberate. He is a veteran of federal bench service and has the reputation of being at all times eminently fair. Conducting the government's case are former Senator Atlee Pomerene of Ohio and Owen J. Roberts of Phil adelphia, appointed by President Coolidge as special prosecutors, with U. S. District Attorney A. D. Walton to assist them. Mr. Pomerene suggests sug-gests an actor who has starred in Shakespearean roles. When not jotting jot-ting down notes, he sits at the lawyers' law-yers' table with his forefinger resting rest-ing on his brow. The classic pose of great lawyers in steel engravings Mr. Roberts is a large, rather youngish looking man with athletic shoulders. He thinks and talks clearly clear-ly and is suavo if not unctuous. His court-room manner is Cherterfield-ian. Cherterfield-ian. An objection from his is as polite po-lite as an invitation to dinner. He is said to be one of Philadelphia's ablest ab-lest lawyer. Representing the Sinclair interests inter-ests are John W. Lacey of Cheyenne, Martin W. Littleton, G. T. Stanford I and R. W. Dagland of New York. G. P. Hoover of Washington, Herbert jv. Lacey of Cheyenne, E. H. Chandler Chand-ler and Ralph W. Garrett of Tulsa. The brunt of the battle for the defense, de-fense, it is said, win fall upon' Mr. Littleton and Mr. Lacey. Mr. Littleton Little-ton is a former New York Congressman Congress-man and once defended Harry Thaw, j There is at once something leonine I and something cherubic in his florid i I face in its frame o! iron-gray hair jBut this leonine cherub is reputed to i be a hard-hitting and resourceful lawyer profoundly versed in -constitutional law and capable of spen. binding eloquence unon occasion S There is no flavor of Fifth avenu - to1 'Littleton. From his appearance he1 . h, ,)a for a cow country lawyer' might pasi native and to the manner born. IB Chevenne, where John W. . mw since pioneer "' """nZ "mm.. . -xr :ri ,8 so venerable he might pass for off. As you see the old war horse pacing back and forth with a elip-! peredsort of tread, waving his "specks" to drive home a point, you wonder at the miracle of old age endowed! en-dowed! with the clear mind and the fighting spirit of youth. He knows oil as well as law, which makes h.m a tower of strength to the defense. Back in the court room and one of the crowd, , sits a well-groomed man with an alert, pleasant face. He -lohnnair and insouciant and a half smile is usually playing at the corner of his mouth. He looks only mildly interested. But this nonchal- , ant gentleman is the calm center of the cyclone. He is Harry F. Sinclair, oil king, master of millions, who started life a poor boy and by the force of his own personality, made himself and his fortune and now is defending both. The issue at stake in the trial is much simpler than most people imagine. im-agine. It boils down to whether President Harding had the right to transfer the leasing of the Tea Pot Dome naval oil reserve from the Navy Na-vy department to the department of the interior. Charges of ' conspiracy between former Secretary of the Interior In-terior Fall and Mr. Sinclair are incidental. in-cidental. This is not a criminal trial but a civil proceeding to break the lease and the right of the government govern-ment to berak the lease in question of constitutional law. That question is now to be settled in a court where senatorial denunciations and political politic-al investigations have no weight. So much for the stage setting and dramatis personae of the court case that is absorbing the interest of the entire nation. The trial will be historic. his-toric. It will take its place among the great climatic episodes In. the world drama of oil that, take it all in all, is as thrilling as the drama of gold or the drama of South African diamonds. |