Evening star., 1949-07-09
Quick Action Pledged
By Clark to Bring
Case to Court Again
JUDGE WAS PREJUDICED for
Hiss, Case and Nixon Say.
Page AS
By kewboId koyes, Jr.,
and Robert K. Walsh
Star Stoff Correspondents

and Robert K. Wolsh
star stuff Correspondents
NEW YORK, July 9.-The con.
troversy over the guilt or inno-
cence of Alger Hiss ragged on to-
day despite a bitterly fought
courtroom battle that ended when
a Jury, 8 to 4 for conviction. broke
up in hopeless disagreement last
night.
The stage already is set for re-
newal of the legal struggle later
this year. AS soon as Federal
Judge Samuel H. Kaufman dis
charged the jury OF 10 men and
2 women at 9 o'clock last night
% hours and 80 minutes after he
gave them the case-Government
prosecutors announced the former
State Department officer would be
brought to trial again on the same
perjury charges.
Clark Promises Quick Action.
Attorney General Clark, in
Washington, declared:
THE Department Of Justice will
vigorously prosecute the Hiss case
again as quickly as the docket OF
the court will permit
A Justice Department spokes-
man said it may be late IN the
fall before the Federal Court dock
ct in New York will be cleared
sufficiently to permit retrial OF the
Hiss case. He pointed out that
when the Judith Coplon-Vaientine
Gubitchev espionage case was
postponed Thursday until October
Is, court officials pointed out that
no prolonged trials could be sched-
uled before that date.
Counsel for the 44-year-old de-
fendant at the trial that began
May 81 in the skyscraper court
house declared they are so con-
vinced Of his innocence, integrity
and loyalty that they never will
give up the fight to clear him
completely.
Hiss Shaken.
The indecisive outcome, after
almost Is hours Of actual jury
room deliberation punctuated by
five brief trips by the jurors back
and forth to the courtroom yes
terday, nevertheless shook Mr..
Hiss almost with crushing force.
He smiled wanly and murmured
mo comment" after Judge Kaut-
man finally dismissed the jury.
He and his wife. pale and visibly
determined to keep back tears
sat stopped in their chairs for
many minutes thereafter, while
word, confined to whispers, shot
through the courtroom that eight
of the IL jurors had voted to
convict him.
Believe Chambers Story.
Those eight, many of them dis
closed later in the corridors, be-
lieved the story that Whitaker
Chambers, former Communist
courier, told of having received
copies Of stolen secret State De-
partment documents from Mr.
Hiss in 1898.
Even the other four, according
to post trial comments OF the
Jurors, had come to the conclu-
sion that the cid Woodstock type
writer on which the Government
claimed many of the documents
were copied was in the Hiss home
in 1898.
But those four. according to
several accounts, could not bring
themselves to believe Mr.. or Mrs.
Hiss typed the documents or gave
them to Mr.. Chambers. One Of the
four was the jury foreman,
Hubert E. James. He Indignantly
denied he had told his wife or
any one else before or during the
trial that he sympathized with
Mr.. Hiss and would do what he
could to influence the jury IN the
defendants behalf.
Complaint Made.
Reports to that effect came to
light with publication Of the
transcript of closed conference
at which Assistant United States
Attorney Thomas F. Murphy noti-
fled Judge kaufman that some
one had made such complaint
by telephone to the FBI.
Conviction of Mr.. Hiss might
have meant Imprisonment for as
much as FIVE years and $4,000
fine on each of two counts in the
indictment returned by grand
jury here last December.
Inc 1nQlcCmenC accused MI. HISS
of having perjured himself in tell
ing the grand jury he never gave
Government secrets to Mr.. Cham
bers and never saw him after jan
uary i, 1887.
Behind the indictment, and
likewise through the six weeks
trial, famed the Hiss s-Chambers
controversy that hared into the
open last August at hearings be.
fore the House Committee on Un-
American Activities.
Accused Hiss.
At those sessions Mr.. Cham.
bers, then a 100000 senior editor
Continued on Page A-3, Col. S.