The Durable Herring

Repeatedly during the campaign, President Truman had charged that the House committee's investigation of the Hiss-Chambers case was nothing but a red herring to divert the voters' attention from campaign issues. But in view of the shocking new evidence, reporters trooping into Truman's press conference last week wondered what he would say now.

One of the first questions was whether the President thought that all arms of the Government should now be devoted to finding out who stole the "pumpkin papers" from the State Department. Why, certainly, the President replied, with an expression indicating that he thought the question was silly. Well, had he given any instructions to the Justice Department? The Justice Department, the President replied, had standing instructions to enforce the law. But it had no specific presidential instructions on the Hiss-Chambers case.

From a political standpoint, Truman's previous red-herring charges were understandable. They had been made at a stage when the Hiss-Chambers case was largely a debate between the two men as to whether they had ever known one another as fellow Communists. But, a reporter asked, did the President still think it was a red herring? He certainly did, Truman fired back--the' Un-American Activities Committee was not prosecuting anybody, it was just after headlines.

It was clear that Harry Truman was having a hard time letting go of the red herring. Wrote the Christian Science Monitor's Washington chief, Roscoe Drummond: "If the latest results of the committee rightly can be called 'red-herring' stuff, why is the President even talking about arrests and Justice Department action? The truth is that this is not 'red-herring' stuff and the country deserves to have the Administration and the committee dealing with it seriously and soberly, and not with the back of the political wrist."

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