TRADE WITH RUSSIA

No doubt the call for resumption of trade with Russia will be heard louder than over in the United States, since Great Britain has completed arrangements with the Soviet Government concerning mutual commercial interests. Enthusiastic publicity agents like Washington D. Vanderlip, no matter how unreliable, always inspire further efforts in souring seemingly valuable foreign markets. Yet it is well to think twice before venturing into any sort of commercial relations with the present Russia. The question with the United States is wholly economic, which is unlike England's case, if we are to believe the report that Great Britain enters into a trade agreement in return for promises to check the spread of Bolshevist doctrines into Persia and India. The United States cannot mix economic and political aspects in this way. If was are to recognize the Soviet principle--and concluding trade agreements must lead to recognition--we do so from a standpoint of dollars and cents.

At present the administration refuses to abandon its policy which allows private citizens to trade with Russia individuals or the Government, but in no way undertakes to guarantee the privileges which an American could expect from any foreign nation in good standing. The word of Soviets is all that binds contracts, all that protects American interests. Business men of this country would prefer the protection of the United States in these matters; they would profit from the advantages of an official understanding with the Soviets. No wonder that ambitious money-makers depict Russia in alluring colors as the very model of a desirable partner in business transactions, with its vast resources and intense desire for manufactures!

But those who know tell a far different story. As facts begin to make the truth of fanciful pictures of Russia wealth extremely doubtful we after led more and more to ask why we should enter into relations with a moneyless, creditless country, whose government has almost nothing to offer for the guarantees which would come from us. Can we believe that the economic advantages of trade with Russia are so great that we should rid ourselves of all aversion to Soviet ideas and enter into an agreement--which involves recognition--for the sake of a gain as uncertain at bottom as Bolshevist Russia itself?