Farewell to Washington

Dr. Edward U. Condon; retiring director of the National Bureau of Standards, was given a farewell dinner in Washington last week. Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer was there, and 400 prominent scientists and officials. The speech Dr. Condon had prepared was a talk on the importance of basic research. But at the last minute he changed his mind, put the address away, and tore into the House Un-American Activities Committee, which three years ago called him "one of the weakest links in our atomic security," but never held public hearings to let him refute the charge.

Condon advised all persons in or out of the Government not to be "buffaloed into giving up" if they find themselves targets of "smear attacks" on their loyalty. "Get a good lawyer and fight. That is the only way we are going to stop these nonsensical excesses." But even the bouts with "riffraff in Congress," he added, have their compensations. "When you are subject to a public attack, as I was, people rally around you, and you find you have friends you never knew about."

Having got this valedictory off his chest, Dr. Condon was through with Washington, where he was rated as one of the ablest scientists ever to serve the Government. He will return to private life as research chief of the Corning Glass Co., which has never been accused of subversive activity.

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