Evening star., 1954-10-31
AIger Hiss
Prepares to
Quit Prison
By Soul Pett


NEW YORK. - Two days
after Thanksgiving. prisoner
No. 1887 at the Federal Peni-
tentiary in Lewisburg, Pa, will
) become Alger Hiss again.
! He will leave his 5-by-8
+, foot cell in the southeast wing,
where the high. barred win
dow looks out onto other high,
barred windows. He viii turn
in his prison uniform-his
blue chambray shirts and
heavy cotton trousers.
He will be offered a going
away suit from the prison
stock. He is expected to de-
cline in favor of a natural
fitting gray, like those he
wore in the higher echelons
Of the State Department, In
international conferences at
Yalta and San Francisco, in
the United Nations and in
the perjury trial that pro-
foundly unsettled a Nation
and sent him to prison three
and half years ago.
Before he leaves Lewisburg
he will be offered up to $50
| In gate money" Those who
know him expect he will de-
cline. politely. A steel door
will open and when it is locked
behind him, Alger Hiss will
pass under a legend in a red,
brick wall, which says in part:
Let those who control the
lives of the men who enter
here ever bear in mind that
the path to better things lies
upward always and is
steep =.
He will walk to the gray,
stone outer wall where the
machine-gun turrets are visi-
BILE 40 feet up. Another door,
this one of glass and steel
bars, will open.
His first unbarred view of
the world in three and a half
years will reveal the shucked
corn stacks of the farm lands
and the brown hills of Union
County in the background. In
the foreground he will see a
parking lot and a tall pole
bearing the flag which a jury
of his peers believed he be-
trayed.
Freedom, but :.
The second door will close
behind him and Alger Hiss will
then be free. His freedom will
be highly relative.
He is getting out on a con-
ditional release, having earned
"meritorious good time" which
was deducted from his original
sentence of five years. Until
March 81, 1856, he will have
to report at least once a month
to probation officer, to tell
where he's living. where he's
working, how much he's earn
ing, whom he's seeing.
If he sees the wrong people
or engages in the wrong activi-
ties (these limitations are
specific but will not be made
public) or leaves the area
without permission he can be
sent back to prison.
The day he goes free, No
vember 81, he will be two
weeks past his 50th birthday.
His family and friends ex-
pect that he will return to
New York City to resume life
with his wife Priscilla and
their 13-year-old son Tony in
their apartment in downtown
Manhattan. Timothy Hobson,
Mrs. Hiss son from a previous
marriage, is studying medicine
abroad.
Far from the councils of
GoVernment-about as far as
you can get-Alger Hiss will
never again vote in New York
unless he gets a pardon. Con-
victed felons lose the franchise
In this State. In some cases,
they can't even get a drivers
license.
AS a convicted felon, Alger
Hiss also loses certain Federal
civil liberties. He will never
get a passport or be allowed to
hold public Office or be eligible
for any civil service job, even
a mailman's, unless he gets a
presidential pardon.
He will not be able to prac-
tice law where he used to
practice LAWN New York,
Massachusetts or before the
Supreme Court. He has been
disbarred. 1t is unlikely other
bars will admit him.
Whot to Do?
How, then, will he earn
living?
The question, according to
family and friends. is still un-
decided in the mind of the
prisoner as he spends his last
days behind bars.
Hell want to study and
write, if anybody will pay him
to do that" says his lawyer,
Chester Lane. "I think he'll
want to write about foreign
affairs or the atmosphere of
the time. But the question is:
What can he write about that
a publisher will take except his
own story of his own case?"
Those who know him don't
expect Hiss to write a per-
sonalized story of his case, the
way Whitaker Chambers did
in Witness" 1t was Cham
bers, more than any other one
person, who sent Hiss to jail.
He swore that in 1887 and
1898 Hiss gave him State De-
partment documents for relay
to Russian spies.
"Alger won't write his own
story and I agree with him."
says the prisoners younger
brother Donald, who looks a
great deal like him. It'd rather