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This was the path of apparent probity and honor which crossed Whittaker Chambers' path on that summer day in 1935. Chambers was to testify later that Hiss was already a member of a Washington Communist cell, that he and Hiss became fa,st friends, and that subsequently Hiss, with the help of Mrs. Hiss, began feeding secret Government documents into the Communist apparatus. Hiss was to deny the whole accusation with cold contempt. He and Prossy knew Chambers, he said, but only as a free-lance writer named "George Crosley" who had come to him to write an article on the Nye Committee.
General Secretary. Alger Hiss's ascendant star did not pause. In 1936 he went into the Department of State, where he worked under Assistant Secretary Francis B. Sayre, first on the Trade Agreement Act, then in the offices of Far Eastern affairs and special political affairs. In 1944 he served as executive secretary at the Dumbarton Oaks conference which laid the foundation for the United Nations.
In 1945, he went to Yalta with Franklin Roosevelt and helped draft the agreements which came out of that conference. Later that year he was general secretary at U.N.'s founding conference at San Francisco. Conferees unanimously commended him for the way in which he directed proceedings and managed the agenda. He was given the honor of carrying the U.N. charter to Washington for deposit in the Federal Archives.
Charges Denied. There were some vague stories about him. Secretary of State Byrnes was disturbed by reports that some Congressmen were going to accuse Hiss of being a Communist. Byrnes asked Hiss about it, told him the charges centered "from the FBI." Hiss went to the FBI and denied the charges categorically.
They cropped up again. In 1946 Hiss was proposed as president of the $10 million Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, whose major objective now is informing the public about U.N. John Foster Dulles, Thomas Dewey's adviser on foreign affairs, and one of Hiss's backers for the Carnegie job, asked him again about the charges. Again Hiss categorically denied them. He was elected to the job, which was enough to cap any public servant's career.
"Faceless Man." As for Whittaker Chambers—some time in 1938, three years after his meeting with Alger Hiss, his way had taken a turning. He renounced Communism. He had learned what all men learn sooner or later, that the agents of the Kremlin are assassins not only of men's bodies but of their minds and hearts. In fear and revulsion he quit the party. He was to testify later that he had tried to persuade Alger and Prossy to pull out with him, that Prossy indignantly rejected the idea, that Hiss had wept but had refused.
Chambers and his family, his wife Esther and their children Ellen and John, went into hiding. "I was a faceless man," he said. He moved in a shadowy world of terror, carrying a gun. Finally he emerged cautiously from the shadows to begin a new life. In 1937 he had bought a small farm near Westminster, Md., which Hiss himself had once thought of buying.
As quietly as they could, the Chambers family settled into this haven. Chambers began his way back through the profession he knew best. He ventured into New York's literary world, did some research, reviewed some books and in April 1939 was hired to review books by TIME.