[St. Louis Star-Times, Jan. 18, 1941]
WANTS PROBE OF LAND
PURCHASE FOR TNT PLANT
Senator Clark Wants
War Department to Explain Payment of Fat Fees to Kansas City Man
TERMED OUTRAGEOUS
Can’t Understand Why
the Govt. Went Across State When Local Realty Men Were Available
WASHINGTON,
Jan. 18—Senator Bennett Champ Clark announced today he plans to ask the War
Department to explain why a Kansas City contractor and title company were
granted “fat fees” in connection with acquisition of the 18,000-acre site at
Weldon Spring, St. Charles County, for a TNT plant.
The
Missouri senator assailed as “outrageous” the award by the War Department of
contracts to R. Newton McDowell and the Kansas City Title Insurance Co., and
also criticized McDowell’s conduct of the land acquisition program. Clark said
he has received numerous complaints from farmers and other landowners within
the boundaries of the plant site.
“The War
Department’s methods of procurement, as illustrated in the Weldon Spring case,
merit scrutiny,” Clark said, “particularly when the cost-plus negotiated
contracts were the worst scandal in the last war.
“There is a
committee at the War Department now (Clark did not identify the committee by
name) which is entering contracts on what terms it pleases. They have issued
warnings that bringing of political pressure will do more harm than good. I was
pleased that they took this action, but they’re playing politics themselves.
“Why should
the department go clear across the state of Missouri to Kansas City to get
McDowell to negotiate for the purchase of the land under contracts requiring
the landowners to pay him commissions of 5 per cent?
“Why should
it also go to Kansas City and get a title company to which the government has
paid commissions of 1½ per cent?
“I want to
find out whether the government also agreed to pay McDowell a commission, in
addition to that he received from the landowners. Of course that commission
actually goes into the cost of the project to the government because it
actually has to pay the 5 per cent commission in the added costs of the land.”
Want Money’s Worth
“I shall
also seek to find out how McDowell and the Kansas City Title Insurance Co. were
chosen for the job, and shall inquire how widespread practices such as these
have been over the country in connection with the defense program. Most all of
us are willing to spend whatever amount is necessary for building our defenses,
but we want to get our money’s worth, too.
“I’m
curious as to why an outsider has been commissioned to acquire the land when
government employes could have done the job at much less expense. And if they
couldn’t, there were real estate agencies in St. Louis or St. Charles that
would have done the work on a 2 per cent commission basis and made better
trades than were made.
“There is
something wrong on the face of this situation and I’m asking the department for
a full explanation.” —Star-Times.
