- November 26, 1929 – JSA to Dr. E. MacD. Stanton –
Dear Dr. Stanton:
You certainly are doing some excellent work, as shown by Mr. Peabody’s letter of the 23rd and his letter of same date to Dr. Nickle. It would interest you to know that Mr. Peabody sent me a copy of his letter of the same date to the Governor, enclosing a copy of his letter to Dr. Nickle.
I have a letter today from the Secretary of the Land Board, saying that Hearing is to be held at the next meeting of the Land Commissioners, and that I will be notified the time of the meeting. It might be well for you to write Mr. Thomas N. Hazelum, Secretary of the Land Board, giving him the names of the various people who should know the date of the meeting. This might safeguard my failure to get in touch with several people who I should inform, including yourself. I am quite certain in my own mind that your presence at the meeting will be very helpful. Most people, as you know, do not express themselves clearly and forcibly in public, and it is more than likely that we will have to guard against a compromise which would handicap the effectiveness of this effort to establish a precedent. This structure should either be taken down completely and the land acquired by the State, as I recommended to the Conservation Commission, as it is inside of the area which the State has spent several hundred thousand dollars to protect, or to say the least, the structure should be modified to one story, and a covering for one motor boat or two row-boats. I don’t think we can concede the desirability of any new structures being built with the upper story for storage, since there will be no guarantee that the space intended for storage will not be used for other objectionable purposes. The structures built prior to this one, particularly those that have been built for many years, might be allowed to remain, by tolerance and on probation, providing the upper story is not used for living quarters, but no similar structures are to be built in the future more than one story and for boat covering only. This is my suggestion. It might be well if you agree to have various people whom you know will be at the hearing, take the same stand, since it is likely that the Commissioners will ask their opinion individually on these points.
Cordially yours,
JSApperson