[St. Charles Cosmos/St. Charles Monitor, April 4, 1941]
McDOWELL DENIES GRAFT
INVOLVED IN TNT DEALS
Defends Action In
Letter To Chairman of House Military Affairs Committee
DESPISED MAN
Says He Was Put Down
As Extremely Hard Boiled Individual In St. Charles County
WASHINGTON,
April 4.—R. Newton McDowell, Kansas City contractor, yesterday vehemently denied
that his contract for acquisition of the 16,300-acre site for a
government-owned TNT plant in St. Charles County “was secured in any
surreptitious manner or that there was one whit of graft connected with it.”
The denial
was made in a seven-page letter to Chairman Andrew J. May of the House Military
Affairs Committee, which is investigating McDowell’s dealings with the
government. McDowell gave copies of the letter to newspapermen.
McDowell,
in his letter, strongly defended himself against criticisms which have arisen
in congressional circles over the terms of his contract with the War Department
calling for a 5 per cent commission and payment of an additional 1½ per cent
fee to the Kansas City Title Insurance Co.
McDowell
stressed the following points:
1. The
government will get “stung $1,000,000 more than my option prices” through
acquisition of a major portion of the land through condemnation. Under option
contracts negociated by McDowell, land would have cost in excess of $2,600,000
and the War Department canceled 149 unexercised options on grounds the land
prices were “grossly excessive.”
2. He
obtained the contract with the War Department through personal visits with
officers of the national defense program, including Col. R. D. Valliant, who then
was in charge of real estate purchases.
3. Expenses
of more than $200 a day for “weeks and weeks” were necessitated because “legal
descriptions and titles were a mess.”
4. A
“disturbance value” was allowed to farmers in the area at suggestion of the Department
of Agriculture and national defense officials in an effort to retain their good
will.
5. Payments
averaging $200 per acre for bluff land were made, whereas such property in the
area was being sold to wealthy St. Louisans for summer homes for $1,000 per
acre.
6. He
(McDowell) became “the most despised man in St. Charles County and was put down
as an extremely hard-boiled individual” through his efforts to obtain the land
for the government at a fair price.
7. The
three appraisers employed by the Justice Department to determine land values in
the area shortly before the War Department canceled unexercised options “were
about as qualified to do the job as I am to judge guinea pigs.”
8. The
Missouri Highway Department, through condemnation proceedings a few years ago,
paid $177 per acre for five parcels of land in the same area. Average price
under the McDowell options were $114 per acre for agricultural land and $159
per acre for the entire tract, including business houses, homes, churches and
school.
==========
[no source, no date]
WAR DEP’T DETERMINED
TO CONDEMN
Congressman Cannon
Says He Is Doing All Possible To Change Attitude.
Circuit
Clerk Earl R. Sutton, a member of the unpaid TNT area landowners committee,
today received a letter from Congressman Clarence Cannon stating that the War
Department seems to be determined to repudiate its agreements.
The letter
follows:
Earl R. Sutton
St. Charles, Mo.
Dear Mr. Sutton
On receipt
of your telegram I called up the Department and am advised that your
information is correct. The contracts for land at Wilmington were paid in full,
although Mr. O’Brien had said in his testimony that the prices were excessive.
I asked them why they were discriminating against Weldon Springs when they were
paying elsewhere and they told me that the prices at Wilmington were only ten
or fifteen percent out of line whereas the prices at Weldon Springs were from
one hundred to one hundred fifty percent out of line.
There
surely must be some other reason back of it.
Am making a
hard fight here and have been before the Committee on Military Affairs two days
and I am going again Thursday. The landowners ought to have their money and
ought to have all of it promptly and I am doing all I can for them, although,
the War Department seems to be determined to repudiate its agreements.
With
appreciation of your telegram and with best wishes.
CLARENCE CANNON
