Evening star., 1947-05-03
|af Agency Officials
10 Testify Next Week
lAi May Carson Trial
y Robert K. Welsh

- tT0 U0f19Uu HloI
y Robert K. Waish
War Department authorities. pos
ably including Secretary Of War
Patterson, are expected to testify
I'm District Court early next week
lat the trial Of former Representa-
tive Andrew ]. May and three ON.
Iciais Of the Carson munitions COM
Ibine.
Government prosecutors indicated
today that soon after court recon-
|venes Monday morning they viii
focus attention pryincipally ON
Washington evidence" They de.
|clined to say whether witnesses viii
include Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Army Chief Of Stan.
May sent Gen. Eisenhower q letter
In April. ls45, regarding court
tial proceedings In Europe against
the son Of Murray Carson, accord-
ing to the testimony last summer
before the Senate War Investigat-
Ing Committee.
The Carson brothers, Henry M.
and Murray, and their washington
wartime Agent, Joseph r. Freeman,
are accuSed with May Of conspiracy
TO defraud the United States. Spc-
Ecidcally, the Government charges
that the 71-ysar-old former chair
man Of the House Military Affairs
Committee received more than $50,-
600 from the Garssons, principally
through the Cumberland Lumber
Co. Of Kentucky, for wartime favors
he got for them.
May denies he kept any money or
that he acted improperly as mem.
ber Of Congress.
Evidence Developed.
Washington evidence indicating
frequent personal association be-
tween May and officials of the $7S,-
000, 900 Carson munitions combine
was developed late yesterday before
Justice Henry A. Schweinhaut and
the jury.
Miss Billie May Hagans, Lexing-
ton, KY, an employe Of the House
Military Affairs Committee ONCE
from February. 1912, to April, 1913,
told Of visits two or three times Q
week by Murray GARRISON and Free
man to confer behind closed doors
with May at the House Once Build
ing.
In cross-examination, however,
she testified that SO far as she could
see there was no difference between
those conferences and the meetings
May had with numerous other yisi-
tors during the war.
Most Of the testimony this week
dealt with operations Of the Cum
berland Lumber Co. and purchase
orders or invoices for lumber. Ac-
cording to several witnesses, no
lumber was ever delivered by Cum
berland on purported orders from
Erie Basin Metal Products, Inc, and
Batavia Metal Products, Inc, Illinois
members Of is interlocking concerns
In the Carson chain.
Typewriters In Evidence.
Testimony reached d climax In
this part OF the Governments case
yesterday. An FBI expert declared
that typewriters SHOWN by the Gov
ernment to have been in the pos
session of the Illinois companies
since October, 1914, were used to pre-
pare invoices supposedly submitted
by the Kentucky concern for lumber
shipments.
Frank M. Miller of the FBI labo-
ratory here, was on the stand from
early Thursday afternoon until yes
terday noon. He compared enlarged
photographs OF typewrfting from
the disputed sales records and sam.
Piles taken by FBI agents last Febru-
ary and March from two typewriters
at the Illinois company ofdces.
Mr.. Miller declared he was con-
vinced, after scientific examination
and due allowance for possible me.
chanical deterioration from 1914 to
1947. that the typewriting In each
instance was done on the same
machines.
The FBI agent was a key Gov
ernment witness in the prosecution's
effort to prove the Garssons faxed
these and other records as d means
OF concealing alleged payments per-
sonally to May.
Tells of Incorporation.
Another witness yesterday was
Milton E. Hartley, Wilmington tDel)
representative of concern that
handled the incorporation Of the
Cumberland Lumber Co. He testi-
fled May paid the original incor-
poration charges and subsequent
fees which at one time were 10
months in arrears. He said May
was listed as Kentucky process
agent for the company.
Albert Fowler of Cambridge, Wis,
q Batavia company expediter In
1914 and 1845, testified he tried un-
successfully to get lumber from
Cumberland for his company. He
said his letters were returned "un-
delivered" and that he could not
find a telephone number listed for
the Kentucky lumber concern.
Government prosecutors indicated
they had nearly completed presen-
tation of evidence on the Cumber-
land phase Of the case. 1t was un-
derstood that several Washington
witnesses, including high War De-
partment ofncials and present or
former officers of the Chemical
Warfare Service, are scheduled to
be called next.
The Governments case, It was
indicated, will deal more directly,
from now On, with many Of the
IS alleged covert acts" cited In the
four-couilt indictment.
Fred vinson, Jr., Numed