The New York herald., 1921-02-13

xN0SSk0 Tic 1A&oA(As
Russia as an economic reality is
hollow shell. This Is the essence OF
the detailed report OF our State De-
partment's foreign trade adviser In
that country.
There is nothing worth while for
us to buy IN Russia because it is not
there to buy. There is nothing much
that we can sell to Russia because,
destitute and starving, Russia has
nothing with which to pay. Such has
been the devastating work Of Bolshe-
visn at home ON the heels of the de-
struction and waste of the war
abroad.
Grain was the greatest export OF
Russia for generations. But when
the whole nation is hungry, when
big part of it is starving, there Is
little need to explain that there Is
neither wheat nor rye nor other
breadstuff TO ship away to the rest
Of the world. The reason why there
IS none is a different matter. The
grain farms have been divided and
beggared. the cattle have been con-
sumed, the implements have been lost
and destroyed. The peasant still can
scratch a hard living for himself out
Of the neglected soil; there is no IN
centjve for him to do more; there
would be no means with which TO do
1t. So there is famine not merely in
the distant cities but in the rural
villages and hamlets near by. Fam
Inc IN a land which, second only to
the United States, is naturally the
best food producing garden in all
the world.
Timber and collateral forest re-
sources, before the war Russia's next
greatest export business, there still
are. But the heavy labor required
10 handle forest products must have
food, and there is no food. If there
were labor and food, transportation
IS essential to the moving and mar
keting Of timber and wood stocks,
and there is no transportation. So
vietism has blasted away the railways
and even the ordinary roads.
Likewise with skins and hides,
once another major industry of Rus
sia. The cattle long ago devoured,
the farms empty and the ranges va
cant, there is no more live stock from
which to gather the pelts, whether
for the leather or for any other mar
ket, foreign or domestic.
Thus Russia stays idle, helpless and
hungry.
Think Of France Within one year
after the armistice France, which was
literally trampled under the savage
feet OF war, saw its battle grounds
again waving with fields OF glowing
crops. Highways we're going down
again and railroads were building
wherever there was production to re
store and commodities 10 distribute.
But In France there has been no
brutal, bloody tyranny TO ensiaye
mems souls by controlling the supply
OF food on which E-n's bodies must
sliDsist. There has been no merciless
list to despoil the worker Of the fruits
Of his toll. There has been no power
OF despotism 10 strip a nation Of its
rights Of action and Of speech as Of
Its yield earned by the sweat OF the
brow. In France there has been the
time old inspiration Of the reward to
an honest man Of his honest work.
There has been the stimulating motive
OF rcgaining in peace what was lost in
war. There has been the spur TO
human ambition, with the crown Of
human success.
France, as faithful after as before
the war to the eternal laws Of nature,
got upon its feet with the battle
boom Of the last gun, and trod the
straight path toward economic restor-
alton, individual reward and national
bounty. Russia, unscathed by the war
itself as compared to blighted France
or Belgium, grovelled under Soviet
ism and died.