The nation . I that story of espionage was true,if Hiss was really involved in it,and if he really swallowed the trans-parent explanation of increasingproduction for the patently need-less intermediate and laborious workof typing copies of lengthy docu-ments, onlj to be microfilmed as theoriginals had been, then the grandjury proceeding was jusi one entrap-ment erected upon another. ButHiss was a lawyer and a brilliantone — Harvard honor man, protegeof Frankfurter and secretary toHolmes; and the science oi type-scripi identification has been covered < urrenl Ulovruulij . IVIT. 201 in law tr
The nation . I that story of espionage was true,if Hiss was really involved in it,and if he really swallowed the trans-parent explanation of increasingproduction for the patently need-less intermediate and laborious workof typing copies of lengthy docu-ments, onlj to be microfilmed as theoriginals had been, then the grandjury proceeding was jusi one entrap-ment erected upon another. ButHiss was a lawyer and a brilliantone — Harvard honor man, protegeof Frankfurter and secretary toHolmes; and the science oi type-scripi identification has been covered < urrenl Ulovruulij . IVIT. 201 in law treatises at least as far backas John Henry Wigmore, whoseworks for more than half a centuryhave been the bible on the law ofevidence. It is totally inconceivablethat Hiss was not fullv aware ofthe danger of identification by type-script. A similar element of incredibilityis present on the side of Chambershimself. When as early as 1939 hevoluntarily peddled the previouslyuntold story of his participation with. Hiss in Communist activity, he wasopening himself to investigation, andhad he been involved in espionagethe investigation could well have ledto it, without any help from him,and at a time when an indictmentfor espionage itself could still havebeen obtained. Having concealed thereal crime, he would have had noclaim to leniency. Thus, whetherone sees the story from the stand-point of Hiss, or that of Chambers,it is a crushing weight upon credu-lity. WHAT was added to the first trialby the second is in character withChambers story. It is reminiscentot the courtroom scene in Lightnin,by Winchell Smith and Frank witness branded as a In- the state-ment ol another that he had drivena swarm ol bees across the plainsin dead ol winter. The Statement, lcourse, was not a lie hut, as the playthen observes, just nonsense. Hut inthe second trial of Hiss, testimonywhich rises to no higher level wasSwallowed whole by judge and |iu\.One might perhaps take ,i lessblasphemous and ipo
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