When Kansas-born Earl Browder, No. 1 open Communist in the U.S., was freed by Franklin Roosevelt in 1942 after serving 14 months of a four-year term for passport fraud, the comrades and New Dealers cheered F.D.R.'s magnanimity.
A fortnight ago, when Browder and his Russian-born wife were indicted for making false statements about Mrs. Browder's Communist affiliations during a 1949 naturalization hearing, there were no big friends to help. Browder, who still calls himself a Communist although he was expelled from the party in 1946, was locked up, and Mrs. Browder with him.
Last week, after they had spent nine days in jail,...
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