Excerpt from Weekly Articles Volume 1 The Harding/Coolidge Years, 1922-1925:

AT LEAST ONE LAWYER FOUND FOR EVERY BARREL OF OIL

The Exposure, a weekly publication, has devoted its life work to ferriting out the persons and things in our national affairs which are not just exactly up to snuff. Now I see where the Senate investigating committee has called a recess for 10 days. Scandals were unfolding themselves so fast that the committee couldn't get one bribe straight in their minds before another one would pop up. So they have retired to kinder see where they are at.

Now while that committee may be resting, The Exposure never rests; we are on the heels of the evildoer 24 hours of every bribing day. I hope by the time this reaches an eager waiting public that they will have two lawyers to conduct this oil investigation. Just think America has one hundred and ten million population, 90 per cent of which are lawyers, yet we can't find two of them have not worked at some time or another for an oil company. There has been at least one lawyer for every barrel of oil that ever come out of the ground.

MONEY NOT IN OIL

You might wonder if they pay so much to lawyers how do they ever make anything out of the oil. Foolish question! They don't make anything out of the oil. They only make money out of the stock they sell. You buy a share of oil stock and for every dollar you pay 60 percent goes to lawyers fees, 30 percent to over capitalization, and 10 percent goes to the boring of a dry hole.

If a company just put down wells for oil and then sold the oil legitimately, they would have no use for lawyers. But oil men engage their lawyers nowadays even before they have leased the land or know where they are going to prospect. For the lawyer has to make the lease. Its not like any other business where the owner and the man who is going to lease can meet and do business. Oh no lawyers must do that. Then if they happen to be leasing from the government, why they not only have to be lawyers but they have to be political lawyers.

Now, I bet a lot of you thought after the company got the land leased, that the next thing to do was to hire a driller to put the well down. But you are wrong again. You go up and get another lawyer to draw up the contract with the driller.