The Waiting

Two haggard figures, wearing their familiar difficult smiles, once more made the long walk up the stone steps to the U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan's Foley Square. There, with his wife always at his side, Alger Hiss had gone through two of the most thoroughly publicized trials in U.S. history, for a perjury which involved past espionage. Last week the Hisses appeared in court again, this time to hear his lawyer argue the appeal from the five-year prison sentence Hiss got last January.

A curious crowd packed the paneled, 17th-floor room where three judges of the U.S. circuit court of appeals sat; many had to be turned away. The appeals arguments were technical and lengthy, 125 pp., for Alger Hiss's case, 66 for the Government. For three hours, Hiss's counsel and a Government lawyer made their points, answered questions from the court. Then court adjourned, and the Hisses silently made their way through the crowds to the street and disappeared, to endure another long wait. It will be months before the case is finally settled. The appeals court will take about a month to review ten volumes of trial records before making a decision. After that, if they refuse his appeal, Alger Hiss can take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington.

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