As the congressional investigations of Communism went into their third week, one fact stood out in everyone's mind: someone was lying in his teeth. The someone was either handsome, 43-year-old Alger Hiss, until 1947 a top official in the State Department, or ex-Communist Courier Whittaker Chambers, now a senior editor of TIME. By week's end, it was clear that on one vital point it was not Whittaker Chambers who was lying.
Chambers had testified that, in the early 1930s, he had been a close friend or Alger Hiss in a Communist elite corps, charged with infiltrating high Government offices (TIME, Aug. 16). Hiss had unequivocally denied that he was ever a Communist or that he had ever known Chambers. But last week he admitted that he had indeed known Chambers—although under the name of George Crosley (a pseudonym Chambers could not remember ever having used). The background of his admission made the most fascinating story of the hearings to date.
Spring Water. It began when the House Un-American Activities Committee sat down with Chambers in closed session to hear the proof of his friendship with Hiss. Chambers' new testimony showed an amazing knowledge of Alger Hiss's private life. With meticulous precision, Chambers described the interior of three houses and one apartment occupied by Hiss. He remembered a car Hiss had once owned—an old jalopy with a hand-operated windshield wiper. He recalled that Mrs. Hiss,* like himself, was a Quaker. Once, said Chambers, Hiss had told him a boyhood story of using a child's wagon to peddle bottled spring water to the neighbors.
California's Representative Richard Nixon asked if Hiss had any hobbies that Chambers might remember.
Yes, said Chambers, Hiss was a birdwatcher.
Did he ever mention any special birds ?
Yes, a prothonotary warbler. He said he had seen one around Glen Echo (near the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal outside Washington).
Beautiful Bird. When Alger Hiss was ushered into another secret hearing last week, the committeemen led him carefully back over the same ground. He confirmed the arrangements of his apartment. He also remembered his old car, a 1929 model A Ford. To a question about his hobbies, he replied: tennis and ornithology.
At that point, Committee Investigator Robert Stripling turned to Pennsylvania's Representative John McDowe'l. The con= versation went somewhat as follows:
Stripling: Why Mac, you're an ornithologist, aren't you?
McDowell: Yes, I am. By the way, Mr. Hiss, did you ever see a prothonotary warbler?
Hiss: Yes, I have. It's a beautiful bird. I saw one down by the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal.
Deep-Voiced Man. With that, the committeemen informed Hiss coldly that his testimony corroborated Chambers' in detail. How could he explain such point-by-point testimony from a man he said he had never met? Hiss produced a note pad from his pocket. On it, he said, he had written the name of the only man he had ever known who might possibly fit Chambers' description. The name was "George Crosley."