The Accused

The question was carefully phrased. Had Alger Hiss or his wife ever turned over any Government documents to Whittaker Chambers? In a hushed room in New York's federal courthouse, Alger Hiss, onetime State Department official, listened to the question. Outside, a wet snow was falling on the city. Hiss, the man with the impeccable background, answered: "Never . . ."

Would Hiss say that he had never seen Chambers, the self-confessed ex-Communist espionage agent, after Jan. 1, 1937? Replied Hiss: "Yes, I think I can definitely say that."

"Having Taken an Oath." He was led out. On a lower floor a small army of newsmen, photographers and radiomen waited to hear the grand jury's decision. Hours later, the jurors emerged, filed into elevators which took them down to the courtroom of Judge John Clancy. Reporters were let in to hear the report.

Judge Clancy thanked the jurors for their long and assiduous service. They had been sitting for 18 months, investigating subversive activities. Special Assistant Attorney General Thomas J. Donegan informed the court that the jury had been unable to finish its work, and that now, since its term was ended, the Hiss-Chambers case was being turned over to a new jury.* Reporters rushed for telephones to report that no action had been taken. "No indictments!" someone exclaimed. U.S. Attorney John F. X. McGohey looked startled. "Of course there's an indictment," he said, "didn't you get it?" He pulled out mimeographed copies, apologizing for his forgetfulness.

The copies were an indictment based specifically on the two questions and the two answers given by Hiss late that afternoon. Behind the two questions lay weeks of effort to get at the salient question: Who was lying when Chambers stated and Hiss denied that Hiss had been a spy in the service of the Soviet.

The indictment read: "Alger Hiss . . . having duly taken an oath . . . did unlawfully, knowingly and willfully and contrary to said oath, state material matters which he did not believe to be true." There was no indictment against Chambers. One chapter of an abysmal story had come to an end.

"I Would Be Inhuman." The next morning, dressed in pajamas, trailed by his son, Tony, 7, Hiss opened the door of his Manhattan apartment at 22 East Eighth Street. He stared out at a batch of newsmen. Tony asked his father: "Who are all these men? Why do they keep coming?" Said his father, "I wish I could explain it."

Alger Hiss dressed and presented himself once again in Judge Clancy's courtroom. His debonair manner had vanished. His boyish face was a bleak, set mask. He was charged, he was told, with perjury. How did he plead? "I plead not guilty to both counts," he said.

His trial was set for the end of January. If convicted, the penalty could be up to five years in prison and a $2,000 fine on each count.

The snow of the day before had turned into a driving rain. Hiss, the $20,000-a-year president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, walked through the rain to a subway, pursued by photographers, and rode back to his apartment on Eighth Street. There his Quaker wife, Priscilla, who was also implicated by Chambers in the tragic conspiracy, waited for him.

Whittaker Chambers showed no elation at the turn of events. "I would be inhuman," he told reporters, "if I could take any pleasure in Mr. Hiss's personal troubles."/- The new grand jury had taken over. As its first act, it summoned Chambers to go on telling his story.

* The new 23-member grand jury was made up mostly of business and professional men. It included one woman (a housewife), four residents of Westchester County, Sculptor Wheeler Williams, and Book-of-the-Month Club President Harry Scherman.

/-At week's end Chambers had his own personal troubles. His wife, driving through Baltimore at dusk to meet him at the railroad station, struck Mrs. Maggie Thomas, 70, who died in a hospital. Esther Chambers was charged with "assaulting, knocking down and causing the death" of Mrs. Thomas, released in $1,000 bail.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.