(2 of 2)
Impeached as a witness in a different way was Los Alamos Physicist David L. Hill, who accused Strauss of, among other things, distorting truth and usurping authority. Pennsylvania's Republican Senator Hugh Scott remarked that Hill's statement was "extremely well prepared." Did he get any help in preparing it from "anyone connected with the Senate or with any Senate Staff member?" An uneasy silence fell. Then the committee's Special Counsel Kenneth Cox, a Seattle lawyer, spoke up: "The witness discussed several matters with me, Senator Scott."
More Than All 13. Testifying at Strauss's request, two of the U.S.'s most eminent men of science quietly demolished the charges that Strauss is hostile to science and scientists.
Physicist Edward Teller pointed to
Strauss's "longstanding, warm and effective support of science," his "great respect for science and friendship for scientists." Physicist Detlev W. Bronk, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said that over the years he had found Strauss "completely cooperative" and "completely honest."
At week's end Washington Democrat Warren Magnuson, commerce committee chairman, announced that he hoped his committee would take action on the confirmation of Lewis Strauss this week. At that point, 111 days had passed since President Eisenhower had sent Strauss's nomination to the Senate—two days more than the total time it had taken the Senate to confirm all 13 of Lewis Strauss's predecessors as Secretary of Commerce.