Teapot Dome Scandal -
continued 3
However, the
following day, Wyoming Democratic Senator John B. Kendrick introduced a
resolution that would set in motion one of the most significant investigations in
the Senate's history. Wisconsin Republican Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. arranged for the Senate Committee
on Public Lands to investigate the
matter. At first, La Follette believed Fall was innocent. However, his
suspicions deepened after his office was ransacked. Despite the Wall Street
Journal's report, the
public did not take much notice of the suspicion, the
Senate Committee Investigation, or the scandal itself. Without any proof and
with more ambiguous headlines, the story faded from the public eye. However, the
Senate kept investigating. The investigation and its outcome Doheny testifying
before the Senate Committee investigating the Tea Pot Oil Leases. La Follette's committee allowed the
investigation panel's most junior minority member, Montana Democrat Thomas J. Walsh, to lead what most expected to be a
tedious and probably futile inquiry seeking answers to many questions. For
two years, Walsh pushed forward while Fall stepped backward, covering his
tracks as he went. The Committee continually found no evidence of wrong doing,
the leases seemed legal enough, and records simply kept disappearing
mysteriously. Fall had made the leases of the oil fields appear to be legitimate,
but his acceptance of the money was his undoing.