Evening star., 1949-06-19

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struggles with the tntricacies O.
the perjury Law.
MIR. Murphy is 6 feet 4 inches
tail, and he weighed $50 pounds
before q recent operation caused
him 10 lose 20 Of them. The truth
Ia 1t win be hard 10 find his exaca
double, bat IL b also . fact thai
his somewhat plodding manne,
could be improved upon In the
hands Of good character player
Helen Hayes Also Suggested.
Other characters In the story
present q wealth Of possibilities.
Helen Hayes has been suggested
for the role Of Priscilla Hiss. fog
instance. but there is no indica-
|tion as yet whether Mrs. Hiss viii
assume Q large enough part In the
proceedings to justify the en-
|ployment Of the theater's first
lady" There is O fine chance.
too. for . number OF lesser stars
In the portrayal Of such essential
parts % those Of the silver-hatred
precise little judge. Samuel II
Kaufman. and the garterless In
tellectlal. Julian Wadleigh. who
tells Of his spy days with q frank
ness and relish that Mr.. Cham
bers could never muster.
Though the concluding phase
Of the Governments case pro-
vided plenty of time for INDUCING
In this kind Of dramatic fancy.
1t has been an important phase
Of the trial. The task was tedious.
But the Government unquestion-
ably has produced documentary
and circumstantial support of
some parts. at least. Of Mr.. Cham
bers' story.
Question .Is Amount Of Evidence.
Now that the Government has
rested. the question clearly is not
whether Prosecutor Murphy has
bored the jury with too much Of
this kind Of supporting evidence.
The question lis whether he has
bored them with enough Of it.
When the defense takes over
in the trial tomorrow (the Gov
ernment rested Friday 1t still
will have before 1t the one Job
1t has had since the trial opened
May 31--to show that Mr.. Cham
bers Is lying about MIR. Hiss.
Mr.. Chambers says that Mr.,
Hiss gave him secret Govern
ment documents In 1897 and
1888. 30 that he could hand them
over to q Russian agent.
Mr.. Hiss. the promising young
State Department ofYicial who
later became-and until last
month remained-president Of
the Carnegie Endowment for In
ternational Peace. says he never
gave documents to Mr.. Chambers.
and never laid eyes on him be-
tween 1895 and lS4S. He was
indicted for perjury when he tes-
tilted to this effect before q Fed
eral grand jury last December.
The Government took Il days
to tell its side Of the story. pro-
ducing 80 witnesses and securing
q stipulation as to the testimony
Of . 34th. For all that. the case
1t has made against MFR. Chambers
is essentially q simple thing.
First and foremost. Of course,
there Is Mr.. Chambers accuse
tion. Mr.. Hiss. he says, was .
Of . Communist appara-
t,ls operating In the Government
in Washington. As o result Of q
conyersation with the Russian
head Of that apparatus. one Col.
Boris Bykov. MFR. Hiss agreed to
through MIR. Chambers.
copies and digests OF secret State
Department papers.
He did provide this material.
Mr.. Chambers swears. Sometimes
he made handwritten notes Of
documents passing over his desk,
and gave them TO Mr.. Chambers
for Col. Bykov. Sometimes he
took papers out Of the department
for q short time. 90 that they
could be photographed on micro
Aim. Sometimes Mrs. Hiss copied
or summarized the documents on
q typewriter which had belonged
to her father.
Sticks 10 Story.
That was Mr.. Chambers story.
and he stuck to IL through all
Mr.. stryker's efforts to break him
down.
That was the accusation. Then
came the documents 65 type
written pages, four handwritten
notes and two strips Of microfilm
ali deriving from classified
papers, Mr.. Chambers said. Mr..
Hiss took from the State Depart
ment.
The defense admitted the hand
writing on the notes was that Of
Mr.. Hiss. and an FBI expert
testified that the typewriting on
"a Of the 65 typed pages matched
specimens known to have been
produced on the Hiss machine.
q Woodstock with plea type.
There was other supporting evi-
dence, tending to lend credence
to parts of Mr.. Chambers story
though 1t did not bear directly
on the essential charge that Mr..
Hiss was q spy. Mrs. Chambers
was pretty sure she and her has-
band had seen the Kisses as late
at January 81, 1887. Her testi-
mony ~ TO minute details and
habits Of the Hiss household was