National Affairs: Line of Retreat

The United Electrical Workers’ James J. Matles knew just how to bait the House Un-American Activities Committee without getting gored. Unlike his Redlining colleague, Julius Emspak, who arrogantly refused to answer the committee’s questions and was sentenced to jail for contempt of Congress (TIME, March 12), Matles carefully prepared his line of retreat. In Washington last week, the same federal judge who convicted Emspak threw out a similar contempt charge against Matles. Though their manners had been the same, a careful reading of the testimony convinced the judge that the committee understood “this defendant properly invoked his constitutional privilege against selfincrimination” before teeing off on the committee.