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PARTISAN REVIEW
his not having received these letters, this was additional evidence
that he was not really in charge of the conference and that it was be–
ing run behind his back. Once more, after writing to Shapley giving
the dates and details of the communications from Davis and Shipler,
I tried to reach him on the phone, to make sure he received my letter.
It
was to no avail. I was now convinced that Shapley was going tore–
peat his serious charge that I was guilty of a malicious fabrication at
the opening session of the conference in order to discredit the only
responsible opposition that had been organized against it. My own
integrity had been impugned. I decided to confront Shapley with the
evidence of the letters he denied and before a public witness.
On the evening of the day the Waldorf Conference was sched–
uled to begin, actually at the cocktail hour before the gala banquet, I
summoned the newspaper reporter from the
Herald Tribune
who was
covering the events at the conference, and went to Shapley's room
at the Waldorf Astoria. I knocked at the door and was invited in.
Shapley and another man, both in formal dress, and their wives were
sipping drinks. Shapley had never met me. He rose from his chair
with a startled look when I introduced myself and the reporter from
the
Herald Tribune.
He introduced the other man, Martin Popper,
and the wives. "Please excuse my visit," I began, "but I have been
unable to reach you in any other way since Monday . You have im–
pugned my integrity, Dr. Shapley, by denying that my offer to read
a paper at the conference was ever accepted by any members of the
Program Committee. You have specifically claimed that President
Davis and Dr. Shipler never wrote you. Well, here's the evidence–
letters from Davis and Shipler." And I plumped down copies before
him.
Shapley didn't seem disconcerted a bit. "Oh!" he replied, "I
know about the existence of these letters." "Then why did you issue
your statement accusing me of deceiving the public?" I demanded .
"Well," he responded, "it's a long story and we can't go into it here
before the ladies who are getting ready to go down to the banquet
soon. Let us leave them, and go outside to talk about it." He put his
glass down, went to the door, opened it, and stepped into the hall
where I thought he would lead us to a table and a few upholstered
chairs clustered around it just a few yards away. But no sooner had
the reporter and I left the room and turned to the table, than he
jumped back into the room, slammed the door and snapped the lock .
From the hubbub of voices within I heard Popper say: "Call the
desk. Call Security." My purpose accomplished, the delivery before
