CRIME: Parole Denied

Last week Alger Hiss became eligible for parole. The former U.S. State Department official had completed 20 months of his five-year sentence for perjury. (He was convicted on two counts, the chief one being that he lied when he told a federal grand jury that he did not give secret U.S. documents to Whittaker Chambers.) The U.S. Parole Board, which had 50,000 pro & con letters and a report on Hiss from the Federal Penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pa., met to consider the case. This week the board announced its decision: parole denied, unanimously.