INVESTIGATIONS: Dare Taken

When Alger Hiss challenged ,Whittaker Chambers to repeat in public his accusation that Hiss had been a Communist, Chambers took him up on it. Two nights later, on the radio, he repeated the charge, in effect challenging Hiss to sue him for libel or slander (TIME, Sept. 6). Last week Hiss took Chambers' dare, filed a $50,000 suit in Baltimore's Federal Court, charged that Chambers' statements were "untrue, false and defamatory." Said Chambers: "I welcome Mr. Hiss's daring suit . . . But I do not believe that Mr. Hiss or anybody else can use the means of justice...