Winner: The Bishop

Washington's wealthy, ultra-liberal Methodist Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam has been engaged for months in a bitter, long-distance feud with the House Un-American Activities Committee.Chairman Harold H. Velde infuriated him by talking about searching for Communists in the ranks of U.S. churchmen. The bishop made some pointed remarks about "vermilion vigilantes"--a term he said he invented to describe those who created as much national distrust as Reds themselves, but had so much "yellow in their makeup" that another color was needed to describe them. In a speech on the floor of the House, California's Congressman Donald L. Jackson made a reckless response: "The good bishop has been to the Communist front what Man o' War was to ... horse racing."

The bishop called Jackson a liar, and demanded that the committee give him a public hearing. It agreed, and last week Methodist Leader Oxnam vigorously attacked the committee members face to face during six long hours of verbal combat, before hundreds of applauding fellow churchmen. The bishop said the committee methods gave rise to a "new . . . Ku-Kluxism," and flatly denied any sympathy whatsoever with Communism. He also denied belonging to a good part of a long list of front organizations about which committee members questioned him.

When he stepped down from the stand, Bromley Oxnam seemed clearly the victor over his congressional foes. The committee unanimously announced that it had no record of Communist membership by Bishop Oxnam. Some members began grumbling that they had never charged him with being a Communist, but only a "dupe," and at week's end they were implying that the subject was not closed.

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