Double Trouble

Two months ago, the U.S. court of appeals unanimously reversed the perjury conviction of sandy-haired William Remington, onetime $10.000-a-year economist in the Commerce Department. Remington was convicted of lying when he denied that he was ever a member of the Communist Party. The judge had erred, the appeals judges found, in being "vague and indefinite" in defining "membership."

Last week another federal grand jury in New York indicted Remington again. At his first trial, the jury noted. Remington had denied that he ever passed any Government secrets to any Communist spy. Elizabeth Bentley testified that he gave documents to her, and that she was a Communist spy. Remington said he had never attended a Communist Party meeting in Knoxville. Tenn., where he worked as a TVA messenger at the age of 19. Three ex-TVA employees said he had. He said he had never paid party dues. His wife and Miss Bentley testified that he did. He said he had never asked anyone to join the Communist Party. An ex-TVA employee said Remington had asked him. Remington said he never knew there was such a thing as a Young Communist League at Dartmouth until last year. A classmate said they had talked about the league when they were fellow students.

Charged with perjury in these five instances. Remington was liable to a total sentence of 25 years and $10,000 in fines. Remington's lawyers protested that the new indictment was "a vicious device" to avoid a Supreme Court review of his original conviction. Observed the American Civil Liberties Union: "It may not be a matter of double jeopardy technically, but it is morally."

U.S. Attorney Myles J. Lane, a Dartmouth graduate himself ('28), retorted that the indictment was based on a new set of lies made at a different time, and declared he would press for trial next month.

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