The Sheepdog

Irving H. Saypol, a stocky New Yorker with a firm chin, is now the nation's No. 1 legal hunter of top Communists. He helped Tom Murphy prosecute Alger Hiss, collaborated in the trial of the top eleven Communists and--after becoming U.S. Attorney in New York last year--convicted William Remington and Atom. Spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Last week Prosecutor Saypol was busy as a sheepdog. He was trying to keep a handful of second-string Communists within the law's purview, to make sure that they are still on hand when it comes time to try them for conspiring to teach and advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S.

From the moment of their arrest a month ago, he has been on their heels, opposing every move to reduce their bail. He carried his vigilance even further. He argued that the $171,000 bail which they did produce was "tainted," since it was provided by the Communist Civil Rights Congress. He persuaded Federal Judge Sylvester Ryan to revoke the bail and remand the Reds to jail, until the source of the bonds could be more closely scrutinized. His argument: the Civil Rights Congress unblinkingly forfeited $23,500 bail when Top Communist Gerhart Eisler fled the U.S., also stood surety for the eleven convicted Communist leaders, four of whom have since jumped bail.

An attorney for the Communists rushed to the court of appeals to argue that the bonds should be reinstated, at least until Judge Ryan got through investigating the Civil Rights Congress. Appeals Judge Learned Hand, temporarily back from retirement, ruled that that was right. "An outrage!" shouted Irving Saypol. Retorted Judge Hand: "These men are not likely to abscond." Cried Saypol: "What --after eight have absconded!" Saypol lost this round, but this week he won the next. Judge Ryan upheld Saypol's contention that the Communists' bail was tainted. Unless they can get bail from another source, the Communists will have to await trial behind bars.

Freed on his own $10,000 bail last week was Frederick Vanderbilt Field, millionaire Communist angel, whom Judge Ryan had sentenced to 90 days for contempt of court. Field, a trustee of the Civil Rights Congress bail fund, refused to tell what he knew of the organization's real identity or source of funds. Still in jail on the same charge were two other trustees, one of them Mystery Writer Dashiell (The Thin Man) Hammett.

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