[no source, no date]
TNT SITE OWNERS TO
MEET TONIGHT ON RESISTING SUIT
Group Facing
Condemnation Actions to Discuss Employment of Counsel to Defend Interests
Dispossessed
landowners in the 16,300-acre site of the TNT plant in St. Charles County will
meet in Weldon Spring Church Hall at 8 o’clock tonight to discuss employment of
counsel to defend their interests in the condemnation suits which the
Government is filing against 144 parcels in the area, after having decided that
prices agreed on by R. Newton McDowell, War Department purchasing agent, were
too high.
Dr. O. L.
Snyder, retired physician and chairman of a committee of the landowners,
announced the meeting at a gathering of about 250 persons Saturday night, many
of them owners not represented by counsel, who heard the committee’s report and
speeches by other persons, including Congressman Clarence Cannon, in whose
district the plant site is situated.
Cannon told
the owners that in his opinion the option agreements McDowell made were legal
and binding, notwithstanding the Government’s decision to ignore the options and
proceed with condemnation. He declared the House Military Affairs Committee had
been unanimous in support of the citizens’ rights under their contracts and
added that this was the first time in his 30 years at Washington that he had
known the Government to “welsh” on its word.
Dr. Snyder
in his report reviewed the circumstances to date and declared many of the
owners had had to move from their homes in mid-winter on short notice, with
inconvenience and sacrifice of personal property in many cases.
The Government
had paid out $1,073,802 for 121 parcels of land, representing 6729 acres and 19
town lots, before stopping payments Feb. 7. Checks totaling $370,921 for 35
more parcels had been prepared but were held up pending further investigation.
Of these 35 parcels, deeds completing transfer of 23 of them to the Government
had actually been filed, but the former owners still are unpaid and the
Government is filing condemnation suits against these parcels. Prices agreed on
by McDowell for the entire tract totaled about $3,000,000. The Government had
expected to pay [one or more lines missing]
