Quiet, Please!

In the six noisy weeks since eleven top U.S. Communists had sat down in Manhattan's Federal Court, accused of conspiring to overthrow the Government by force, the wheels of justice had squeaked and groaned, but had not turned an inch. As a prelude to the trial, the five defense attorneys had challenged the federal jury system in New York. Then they had used up week after tedious week in shouted argument, breast-beating protest, endless examination of witnesses and a concerted caterwauling at the bench.

Though his patience was often tried to the breaking point, debonair, dignified District Judge Harold Medina let them go their long-winded way. But last week, with something of the air of a sleepless man shouting at 3 o'clock revelers, the judge finally called a halt to the din.

"I'm through being fooled with this case," he said, "and if you don't like it you can lump it. I've heard so much of this I'm sick of it."

Then he gave the defense two more days to wind up its challenge, announced that he would tolerate no oral arguments after that, and made it plain that he would overrule the defense unless it changed his mind in the meantime--an eventuality he obviously did not anticipate. Said he: "I thought at one time that perhaps the defense had something . . ."

The trial proper, he added, would begin forthwith.

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