Lattimore Reconsidered

Last week the government appealed Federal Judge Youngdahl's dismissal of the major charges against Owen Lattimore for the second time within a year. This decision by the U.S. attorney represents only one further example of its mishandling of the Lattimore trial.

The Government has already made two indictments against Lattimore, both of which Youngdahl rejected as unconstitutional. When he dismissed as too vague its first major charge, that Lattimore was a Communist sympathizer, U.S. attorney Rover accused Youngdahl of prejudice and asked him to withdraw from the case. Rover's accusation came very close to a demand for a judge who would give the verdict he desired.

In its second major charge, filed last October, the Government stated that Lattimore committed perjury when he denied following the Communist line. The U.S. attorney here took the debatable position that such a propaganda line is strictly definable. Rover also assumed that Lattimore used the Government's definition when he denied that he was a Communist. But this conclusion is conjectural. It was not until two years after Lattimore was originally questioned that the Government's attorney actually defined the Communist line.

If these present charges constitute the Government's case, then it has no case at all. Whether or not Lattimore is guilty, Rover to date has shown no grounds for his accusations. If the Government can produce no more convincing arguments, it should drop its charges.