Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-09

have three insuperable and unfair ad'
First, they viii continue as hitherto
10 pay their wage earners pauper wages
sometimes no more than one-tenth
Of ours-keeping them at work in part
BY threats of the blacklist and actual
starvation, II cart by the menace oil
imprisonment u forced labor In the
forests or the Arctic camps Tin case
they complain or try to organize unions
70 protect themSelves), in part by words
fantastic promises about the heaven
soon to result from the 'five-year plan.
Second, all the factories being owned
and operated by the Soviet government
only such production costs are kept as
suits the convenience of the governing
bureaucracy, so that the prices set are
purely arbitrary. Therefore, where Il
Is desired to underSell any foreign prod
uct abroad, an arbitrary cost price car
be fixed and maintained for an in
definite period.
Third, every possible government ad-
vantage Is extended to an article 1t Is
intended to export. Transportation, adj
vertising and selling charges can all be
fixed regardless of their cost. This is
the very thing that the United States
and other civilized nations have recently
agreed not to do. So why should We
accept such treatment from the Soviet
without taking defensive measures?
There is no industry on earth that
can meet this kind of Competition
except with the aid of an effective pro-
tective tariff. Yet even such a tariff
applies exclusively to the home market
and furnishes no protection whatever in
the foreign market.
q. s. Must Protect Foreign Market.
What, then, are we to do to protect
ourselves in the foreign market? Again
there are two remedies. Is it not clear
that everything practical must be done
to discourage our financiers and indus
trialistS from using capital produced In
this country to build up this Soviet en-
CINE of destruction? And since the
antt-forced labor and anti-discrimina-
ton and anti-dumping clauses of our
tariff are to the advantage of all free
countries by excluding their Soviet rival
from our market, must we not claim
the same advantage over the products
Of the Soviets in their markets through
similar clauses in their tariff laws?
The problem is to protect our in
dustry Temporarily from a country where
for the moment, all economic functions
have been monopolized by q handful of
eectarians who have seized the state
and use 1t to abolish economic liberty
~ ACRC0A CNCAy CCUIlOullC TlSQL OF the
INDIVIDUAL citizens and to reduce the
standard Of living of their industrial
wage earners and agriculturists to a
starvation level in order to accumulate
In this way the capital to set up their
sectarian society.
Americans have given too little
thought and attention to the Soviet
economic system. With the dumping
o. goods not only in our markets, but
thn<o nj
countries, it is of immediate and prac-
ucal importance that we clearly grasr
what Is going on.
The remedy in the case Of Soviet
dumping" Is that any counteryailinr
scheme Of ours for reciprocal treatment
OF other nations, as regards duties
should be recognized by the administra-
ton as having application only to such
countries as have markets and where
tnere Is no state monopoly Of all pro-
auction, distribution, import and export
This would protect US from free Goa,
ana lumber from Russia, as well a,
matches, confectionery and other prod
uctS OF the Soviet government. nnonopo
lies which have begun to be dumped
on our markets with deliberate disre.
gard OF cost, so as to give the Soviet.
purchasing power for machinery ant
other things they want In this coun.
here.
Cannot Admit Prison Labor Products
But there are Russian products VIC
cannot admit, either free or under am
tarth. First the products Of prisoners
labor, whether employed in their for.
eSts, mines or at other places. Prison
ers who recently have escaped from
Northern Russia to Finland have TOLD
OF their su6ertngs and forced labor In
the forests. Our existing tariff law for
dos entry OF goods manufactured BIZ
convict labor. During the Fall many
groups Of the 10000 prisoners on the
SolovetSky Isles in the White Sea
largely political and economic victims
oI the Soviet-were sent to the woods
Of Northern Karelia.
Against the rising imports of Soviet
coal an appeal has been made by Amer.
lean miners and mine owners on tbs
ground OF recent decision of the Co,Irt
o. Customs and Patent Appeals to tht
e1ect that the President has authority
% exclude from the United States AM
commodities produced by indentured OF
forced labor. The competition Of Rus.
sian coal Is already being felt In thu
anthracite industry and Is becoming
more threatening.
tentative brief outlining the situa.
ton has been presented to the cabinet
asserting that Russian coal can b,
shipped from Port Mariupol to Boston
O distance Of 1000 miles, at a rate O
81 ton less than the railroad rat
from Pennsylvania to Boston. The brie
was presented by the Anthracite Coop
eratave Association, which Is composed
Of operators, miners and civic leaders
Swedish labor has been fighting thu
importation OF Soviet lumber on tn,
ettn broader ground that even when 1
- not cut by prisoners it Is cut b,
forced labor. At the beginning of thi
year Pravda (the official organ of tn
Communist party of the Soviet Union
recommended the use Of forced labo
for the purpose of increasing the expor
Of timber. How this was acted upon 1
apparent from decree issued on Jan
uary by the Peoples Commissariat o
the Karelian government. This deere
ordered the Executive Committee b
send the able-bodied working popula
ton into the forests not later thar
January 10 and 70 use force to compe
obedience from the prosperous peasant
Who did not report for forest work b.
January IS.
$4,000 Peasants Forced 10 Labor.
Furthermore, the central trading OF
nee and the Karelian-Aean Co
operative Society were instructed to re
11se food supplies TO all able-bodied per
sons who refused to go to cut trees. An.
one daring to make speeches agains
forced labor In the forests was TO b
handed over the @. p. u. (the secret po
hce). Similar compulsory mobilization
have occurred in other parts of Russie
From 1ngermanland and Karelia alon
$4,000 peasants have thus been drivel
20 forced labor In the forest Of North
ern Russia.
This feature Of the situation has bee
fully met by American labor, which hs