[St. Charles, April 5, 1941]
CANNON REPLIES TO
SUTTON ON TNT LAND DEAL
Says Must Be Some
Other Reason Behind It All Besides Alleged Excessive Price
URGES PAYMENT
Informed By War
Department That Prices Were From 100 to 150 Per Cent Too High
The prices
land in the TNT area were optioned to the Government for are from 100 to 150
per cent out of line, the War Department informed Congressman Clarence Cannon,
when he asked why payment was being made in neighboring Illinois, and held up
in Missouri.
Cannon
addressed his letter to Circuit Clerk Earl Sutton, who wired the Congressman
last week asking him why the discrimination against St. Charles county
landowners.
The five
cases filed against property owners in the St. Louis Federal Court, are not
returnable until early in May, Sutton said he was informed.
Cannon’s
letter to Sutton follows:
“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 Spring when they were
paying elsewhere and they told me that the price at Wilmington were only ten to
fifteen per cent out of line, whereas the prices at Weldon Springs were from
one hundred to one hundred fifty per cent 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 am going back 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
agreement.”
Your Friend,
Clarence Cannon
==========
[St. Charles, April 12, 1941]
LANDOWNERS WILL MEET
TONITE TO SELECT COUNCIL
Private Session Will
Be Held at 8:00 O’Clock at Weldon Spring Hall
Farmers
from the TNT area who have not been paid for their land will meet tonight and
select a staff of lawyers to defend them in action brought by the Government to
obtain their property for nominal sums.
From the
office of United States Attorney Harry C. Blanton in St. Louis, it was
announced 69 more declarations of taking would be filed within the next week,
to cover all the 146 tracts on which payment was stopped by the Government.
Before any of the suits were filed the government acquired 121 tracts at the
option price.
The meeting
tonight will be at 8 o’clock and will be for unpaid landowners only.
==========
[St. Charles, April 12, 1941]
GOVERNMENT TO FILE
AGAINST 69 MORE TRACTS
U. S. Attorney Says
Declarations Will Be Filed In Federal Court Within Week.
The
Government will file “declarations of taking” within the next week for 69
parcels of land in the site of the TNT plant at Weldon Springs, it was
announced yesterday by United States Attorney Harry C. Blanton of St. Louis.
During the
last week title to 75 pieces of property was acquired by the Government by
filing the declarations in Federal Court and similar actions had been taken earlier
against five other parcels.
The
Government had exercised options to acquire title to 121 parcels before the
suits were filed.
