Emerging in the early 1920s, the Teapot Dome scandal stands as one of the most infamous examples of government corruption within American history. The premise of this scandal lies behind the secret leasing of federal oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming as well as two other locations within California. Serving under President Warren G. Harding, Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall was the culprit responsible for orchestrating this scandal which ultimately created a sense of distrust between Americans and their government. Albert Fall was officially convicted of accepting bribes in 1929, becoming the first member of the presidential cabinet to go to prison. Prior to the Watergate scandal, the Teapot Dome scandal was the most infamous scandal within American history.
The 1920s was an era characterized by mass consumerism and greed. Such greed for wealth had been the primary cause behind the stock market crash within the 1930s. The selfish acts of individuals following “get rich quick” schemes had caused the stock market and the real estate market to become unstable. The get-rich-quick mentality created a frenzy of American citizens taking on risky investments which eventually put many of them into debt. The lack of regulations on corruption as well as insider trading also contributed to this trend of greed and fraudulence.1
The Teapot Dome scandal also follows these themes of selfishness and greed. The Teapot Dome scandal serves as a symbol of the broader social and political dynamics of the 1920s. Behind the economic prosperity, major social changes, and a shifting moral landscape of the 1920s were Americans looking to find the quickest way to make a lot of money. While many conflated the stock market or took on real estate endeavors to quickly accumulate wealth, Secretary Fall contributed to this trend of greed and corruption through his bribes. Fall’s acceptance of bribes was meticulously planned and executed. Similarly to the corrupted investors behind the insider trading of the 1920s, Fall utilized his political power and position to transfer oil reserves from the Navy Department into this own Department. Once the oil was under his control, Fall used his illegally obtained assets to lease oil to the highest payer without any regulated bidding process.
Fall received several no interest loans totalling to approximately $300,000 ($4.5 million when adjusted for modern inflation.
Moreover, the Teapot Dome scandal reflects the growing tensions between conformity and community within the 1920s. Many Americans fell to the pressure of conformity and conformed to the societal norms of success and prosperity. Everyone during this time period wanted to become filthy rich, and Albert Fall was no exception to this trend. Albert B. Fall conformed to the get-rich-quick mentality at the expense of community values and ethical standards. Furthermore, Fall’s actions exemplify how the pursuit of personal gain and the culture of wealth negatively affected community as well as societal ethics.
Despite the 1920s being commonly known as the “Roaring Twenties”, a decade characterized by culture and prosperity, beneath all of this lies one of America’s most corrupt time periods. Greed and corruption ran rampant throughout America and there had been no regulations against it.
- Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. Hill and Wang, 2007. Epilogue ↩︎
