Do svidaniya, Comrade

Ever since the wartime pinch, when Communist Earl Browder first put forth the heresy that capitalism and social gain might be compatible, his U.S. comrades have been sniping at him. In July 1945, on orders from abroad, they demoted him from boss. Last week, pondering his recent conversion into a little businessman (TIME, Jan. 28), they recommended his expulsion from the party. The charges: "[Browder] is an active opponent of the party representing an enemy-class ideology. . . . [He] supports the entire policy of the Truman Administration, including its imperialist course in foreign affairs."

Earl Browder made no reply. But at week's end came news that he had applied to the State Department for a passport to Russia. No one knew for sure whether his purpose was to ask the Soviet Union for reinstatement as a Communist or to exploit it as a capitalist.

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