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Statement About the Charges of Misfeasance in the Handling of Oil Shale Lands by the Department of the Interior.

October 28, 1930

THE PRESIDENT said:

"The Department of Justice has now published the result of its examination into the sensational charges made by Ralph S. Kelley, employee of the Land Office, that Secretary Wilbur and other officials of the Department of the Interior had been guilty of dishonesty and misfeasance in adjudication of title claims to oil shale lands running into hundreds of thousands of acres and into losses to the Government of scores of billions of dollars. It is an attempt to charge odious oil scandals to this administration.

"The facts are that out of 8 million acres of Government holdings of such lands the whole matter boils down to the item that this administration had approved old title claims for some 43,000 acres arising under the mineral law prior to 1920. Under my orders no leases or titles have been passed under the new law. Of these old claims Kelley himself approved about 20,000 acres. The courts ordered about 16,000 acres and about 7,000 acres came up on appeal to the heads of the Department for decision, only part of which Kelley opposed on technical grounds. Furthermore, these oil shale lands have little present value and instead of being worth billions can be bought from private owners for a few dollars per acre.

"Attorney General Mitchell and Assistant Attorney General Seth Richardson, after painstaking investigation of the records upon every statement and innuendo made by Kelley, pronounce that every one of his charges has been proved baseless, without merit or substance. They concluded that the Government's interest in these lands has been vigorously protected and it is indicated that there has even been overstrain in the zeal of protection from old claims as witness orders of the courts in favor of individuals overruling the decisions of the Department.

"There are some phases of this incident on which it is desirable in public interest that I should comment. I may say at once that proper inquiry or proper criticism by the press is a safeguard of good government. But this investigation shows more than this. Kelley had been called to Washington last summer to discuss with his immediate superiors questions of organization in the office of which he had charge. He made no suggestion of these charges to his superior officers during a period of over 6 weeks in Washington, but during this time was in negotiation for the sale of his fabrications to a journal identified with the opposition political party, and they were launched in the midst of a political campaign. No single inquiry had been or was made by the agencies behind Kelley at the Department of the Interior or any other Government department as to the facts before their publication. The charges, when first published, were in general and demagogic terms, but were instantly denied by Secretary Wilbur and proof offered which would indicate their falsity. Kelley was asked and refused to place any particulars before his superior officers and refused even to cooperate with the Department of Justice for an independent investigation. Furthermore, Kelley himself could, by the merest inquiry in his own Department, have determined the falsity of his own statements, as witness his assertions of titles granted which were never granted, of hundreds of thousands of acres of land alienated which never was alienated, of papers destroyed which never were destroyed, of billions of dollars which never existed, and scores of other reckless statements. Yet despite all these opportunities to test the truth, these agencies have persisted in broadcasting them for the past 6 weeks by every device of publicity, and Kelley has received payment for them. Such inquiry by him or by the broadcasters of these statements would no doubt have destroyed the political or the sale value of these stories.

"As a piece of journalism it may well be that the newspaper involved was mislead. It certainly does not represent the practice of better American journalism. As a piece of politics it is certainly far below the ideals of political partisanship held by substantial men in that party.

"There is, however, another phase. I am interested and have a duty in the preserving and upbuilding of honest public service. I hope that the American people realize that when reckless, baseless, and infamous charges, in the face of responsible denial with no attempt at verification, are supported by political agencies and are broadcast, reflecting upon the probity of public men such as Secretary Wilbur, the ultimate result can only be damage to public service as a whole. Such things damage the whole faith of our people in men. There is hardly an administrative official of importance in the Federal Government who is not serving the Government to the sacrifice of the satisfactions and remuneration he or she could command from private life. Aside from service to their countrymen the only thing they can hope for is the enhancement of their reputations with their countrymen. The one hope of high service and integrity and ability is that such men should be willing to undertake it, and when men of a lifetime of distinction and probity do undertake it they should not be subjected to infamous transactions of this character."

Note: The Kelley articles appeared daily in the New York World, October 6-19, 1930. The Senate Public Lands Committee held preliminary hearings on the matter and decided that it did not warrant further investigation.

Herbert Hoover, Statement About the Charges of Misfeasance in the Handling of Oil Shale Lands by the Department of the Interior. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/212124

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