TRIALS: I Do Not Intend to Turn My Back

Within a span of six hours one day last week, the case of the U.S. v. Alger Hiss became a major political issue.

In a quiet Manhattan courtroom, Hiss was sentenced to five years in prison. Hiss scarcely had time to post $10,000 bail and file an appeal before Secretary of State Dean Acheson set off the storm. At a crowded press conference in Washington, Acheson went to the defense of the former top State Department official whom a federal jury had convicted of perjury and thus found, guilty of stealing State documents to be sent to Russia.

"Whatever the outcome of any appeal which Mr. Hiss or his lawyer may take," said the Secretary of State. "I do not intend to turn my back on Alger Hiss."

By His Own Standards. Dean Acheson spoke in a voice weighted with emotion. "I think every person who has known Alger Hiss . . . has upon his conscience the very serious task of deciding what his attitude is and what his conduct should be," he said. "That must be done by each person in the light of his own standards and his own principles. For me, there is very little doubt about these standards or these principles. They were stated for us a very long time ago ... on the Mount of Olives."

Newsmen, unfamiliar with his reference, hurried from the room, found that a State Department aide had thoughtfully appeared in the anteroom with a Bible in which they could read the text. *From this fact and from the statement itself they concluded that the Secretary of State had spoken only after careful thought, and not impulsively.

A roar of indignation rose from Capitol Hill and echoed across many of the nation's editorial pages. Snapped California's Representative Richard Nixon: "Disgusting . . . Here he is serving notice in advance that he will not accept the decision of even the Supreme Court." Illinois' Les Arends, the Republican whip, declared that Acheson's continued presence in the Cabinet was "an affront to the nation." California's Republican Senator William Knowland said he would move to withhold all State Department appropriations. Said Georgia's James C. Davis, a Democrat: "How long can Americans be expected to show respect for Acheson when he hugs to his bosom; those who have betrayed their country?"

Nobody in Congress raised his voice in rebuttal: to defend Acheson was to defend Alger Hiss. Even Harry Truman curtly refused comment. In the silence, the chatty, tea-table voice of Eleanor Roosevelt sounded. Mrs. Roosevelt, who obviously had not been paying much attention, was "very troubled" by the Hiss case: "It seems rather horrible to condemn someone on the word of someone else who admits to guilt," she said. She was either unaware of, or determined to ignore, the corroborating evidence introduced by the Government to prove the charges of its chief witness, Whittaker Chambers, onetime Communist courier.

In Jeopardy. The condemnation of Acheson was not unanimous. The New York Herald Tribune thought that Acheson's statement "was as courageous as it was Christian." But even among those who did sympathize with his personal reaction were many who deplored his official conduct. Was betrayal of one's country a pardonable offense in the eyes of the Secretary of State?