Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-09-18
lawyers Screen Past
OF Man Who Links
Lamb 10 Red Party
BY The Associated Press

II
BY The Associated Press
Attorneys for Publisher Broad
caster Edward Lamb today laid
plans for further inquiry into
the past of a man who claims
Communists used to list Mr..
Lamb among prospective con-
tributors to party funds.
The hearing on Mr.. Lamb, Or
dered by the Federal COMMUNE
cations Commission. was in re-
cess but will resume Monday with
William Garfield Cummings. AZ
year-old Toledo (Qhio) Negro.
back on the stand.
For most of the first three
days Of the hearings, Mr.. Cum
mings testified against Mr..
Lamb. Mr.. Lambs attorneys
started their cross-examination
of MI. Cummings late yesterday
and will continue it Monday. ~
The commission called the
hearing to determine the &C
curacy of allegations that Mr..
Lamb-a Toledoan who publishes
the Erie (PaD Dispatch and owns
radio and television stations in
Pennsylvania. Ohio and Florida
knowingly" in the past as
ISOLATED with Communists and
contributed to their fund drives.
The technical issue is renewal of
the operating license of Mr..
Lambs Erie television station,
WICU.
Testimony Called Hearsay.
Mr.. Lamb has repeatedly de-
MED the allegations, and publicly
offered $4,000 to anyone who
could prove his denials false.
The Government so far has
been unable to get any teSti-
mony into the record regarding
purported contributions by Mr..
Lamb to party funds. Examiner
Herbert Sharfman has classified
Mr.. Cummings testimony on this
matter as hearsay.
| In opening cross-examination
Of Mr.. Cummings-a self-des-
cribed former Communist in
formant for the FBI-Mr. Lambs
attorneys asked Mr.. Cummings
about his marital background
and the pay he is receiving from
the commission for working on
the Lamb case.
On the first point, Mr.. CNm-
mings testified he never had
attempted to obtain q divorce
from his wife Alma, whom he
said he married in 1928 in Flor
ence, S. c., and left in 1880.
But he said both his first
wife's parents and his own told
him. before he married Katie
Stinchcomb in Toledo in 1881,
that his first marriage had been
annulled. He said he has never
seen legal proof of this.
With respect to his pay, he
said the commission pays him
$25 a day while he is testifying
in Washington, plus SO a day for
expenses. So far, he said, he
has received payments of $186
and $50 from the commission
for his "consultant" work on
the Lamb case.
Mr.. Cummings testified he
has had no other regular en-
ployment since December /,
1858, when he said he was laid
off at Electric Auto Light Co.,
in Toledo.
No Police Record, He Says.
Under questioning by Attorney
Russell M. Brown, Mr.. Cum
mings stated he had no police
record and that he had never
been arrested. Once in 1850, he
said. he was summoned to mu-
nicipal court in Toledo because
"a gentleman said I threatened
him bodily"
On the first day of the hear
ing, Mr. Brown told Examiner
Sharfman he had evidence to
show that Mr.. Cummings has a
known criminal record" Mr..
Brown also alleged that Mr..
Cummings once attempted a
bride and called the witness a
hired assassin" of character.
Mr.. Sharfman yesterday or
dered a new procedure for at
torneys to follow in making
offers of proof after he has
barred testimony. In making
such "offers" commission attor-
neys have been stating what Mr..
Cummings would have testified
to If the examiner had allowed
him to continue. These state
ments go into the record for pos
sible later appeals of the exam
iner's ruling.
j. Howard McGrath, executive
vice president of Lamb Enter
prises and chief counsel for Mr..
Lamb in the hearing, protested
that the Governments offers of
proof amounted to a "despicable
attempt to smear" Mr.. Lamb and
his family.
| Mr.. Sharfman ruled that COM
mission attorneys must read
their offers in whisper to the
Stenographic reporter, so that
newsmen and spectators may not
hear the material he has ruled
hearsay.
The Government made five
offers of proof yesterday.