Edward Lamb

Edward Lamb (1901 – 1987) was an American busi­ness­man, broad­cast­ing exec­u­tive and labor lawyer. He is best known for hav­ing defend­ed strik­ing work­ers dur­ing the Auto-Lite Strike in 1934 and for suc­cess­ful­ly resist­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­men­t’s attempt to strip him of his broad­cast­ing licens­es dur­ing the McCarthy era.

Lamb, born in Toledo, start­ed out as a lawyer and rep­re­sent­ed labor work­ers and unions start­ing in the 1930s. This includ­ed Gus Hall who would become the head of the Communist Party of USA.

Lamb became wealthy through invest­ments and bought media prop­er­ties includ­ing a news­pa­per, radio and TV sta­tions. In the 1950s, Lamb was accused of being a com­mu­nist because of his past as a labor lawyer and the FCC tried to revoke his licens­es. He even­tu­al­ly won his case in 1957.

He was friends with Corlis Lamont, who wrote Philosophy of Humanism, and had his own issue with the gov­ern­ment over pol­i­tics.

Lamb also host­ed a recep­tion for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King when he came to Toledo in 1967.

Lamb signed the Humanist Manifesto II in 1973

It is wish­ful and idle dream­ing to imag­ine that the benef­i­cence of the wealthy or the work­ings of the law of sup­ply and demand and those oth­er eco­nom­ic dog­mas so dear to believ­ers in old-fashioned eco­nom­ics will pro­vide grow­ing free­dom and a ris­ing stan­dard of liv­ing for the massess. Americans must always win their just polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic deserts by vig­i­lant and aggres­sive action.

The great­est force favor­ing the con­tin­ued exis­tence of cap­i­tal­ism is its abil­i­ty to raise the stan­dard of liv­ing of the world’s mil­lions. We’ve made tremen­dous progress in the United States dur­ing the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and the New Frontier, and all in one gen­er­a­tion. Everything that helps to bring about the wider dis­tri­b­u­tion of wealth will give our cap­i­tal­ist soci­ety a bet­ter chance to sur­vive. What will it mat­ter if we short­en the work­ing day to six hours or even four hours in order to spread the work? What mat­ters is that all Americans live bet­ter this year than last, and bet­ter next year than this.

No Lamb for Slaughter p. 239

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