Managing Editor Russell McGrath of the conservative, successful Seattle Times (circ. 208,442) wound up his instructions to Reporter Edwin O. Guthman. Leaning across the desk in his office, McGrath told Guthman: "The courts have broken down. Now it's our job to find out the truth."
Guthman hustled out of the city room with a long-term assignment: to find the truth about Melvin Rader, professor of philosophy at the University of Washington. Before the state legislature's Committee on Un-American Activities in July 1948, Melvin Rader had been labeled a Communist. His accuser, ex-Communist George Hewitt, charged that Rader had attended a secret party...
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