The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-04-19
RUSSIAN TRADE
POLICY OF u. s.
BRANDED FOLLY
Democratic Floor Leader
Declares Nation losses
Chances Away.

W n0AAA@FC 4 Wv NPA "a " W III
its men, factories, and ships idle,
the United States is permitting
propaganda to rob it Of the great
est world market for the next twen-
ty-hve Observation-Disclosures
floor leader. Henry T. Rainey of
Illinois. charged today.
Representative Rainey recently
returned from personal tour Of
Russia, travelling alone, except for
an interpreter, for 1000 miles He
Is convinced that America is COM
hitting a major folly in tossing
away this great trade opportunity
and permitting Germany to seize it.
Other nations are seeking this
trade eagerly" said Rainey. There
are, however, only two countries
that produce what Russia wants
Germany and the United States
producers Of machinery and struc-
tural steel. because Of our foolish
policies. we r.pidly are losing our
Russian trade
Orders Drop Fast
Rainey said that in the first
eleven months of 1890 Russia
placed with us orders worth Sl07-
747.000. In the same months of
1881, these HAD dropped to $40 $685.,
900, a decrease Of 81 per cent in one
year. In 1880 we imported goods
from Russia worth $2l 1862, 683 In
1881 we imported only S12,611, 1853
worth, drop of 43 per cent.
In 1880, he said, eighty steamers
flying the American flag left our
ports for Soviet Black sea ports
laden with full cargoes of machin-
cry. In 1891 this number had
dropped 80 per cent, and so far this
year not one steamer has left for
Russia with full cargo.
Last September the papers here
carried news that our steel industry
had cut wages 10 per cent" Rainey
said. THE next day the steel plants
in Russia increased their wages 25
per cent. and last week there was
another raise.
There is no unemployment in
Russia. Factories there run day and
night full tilt in three shifts, stop
ping only long enough to oil the
machinery
Labor Is Free
The charge of forced labor in
Russia is not borne out by the
facts" Rainey said. Il talked with
the workers themselves. and found
them as free as anywhere in the
world.
They are moving from factory to
factory by the tens of thousands.
The labor commissar told me that
labor turnover in Russia is AZ per
cent. The trains literally we're
packed with moving workers"
Rainey said that the United
States has nothing to fear either
from Communism or from Russian
competition. Our chief Russian i'm
ports, he recalled, are manganese,
scarce here, and furs and caviar.
we never have imported from
Russia one-third as much as we
sold her. he declared. I'VE have
nothing to fear from Russian COM
petition for the next two genera
tions, except in the world wheat
trade and Russia will take that
from us in the next decade whether
we recognize her Or not.
In fifteen or twenty years, Rus
STA will have our share of the world
trade in dairy products. Lumber
competition is not a menace yet.
But Russia wants our machines.
She considers them the best in the
world.
Proper Credit Needed
"One manufacturer here told me
that with proper credit arrange
ments we could be selling Russia
annually between $700,000,000 and
$500. 5000 worth of such manufac-
tured articles"
Rainey said our financing of
Germany enables her to take our
Russian trade.
Rainey said that when he left
Russia by way of Odessa, workers
we're clearing the docks for the ar
rival of twenty German ships
loaed with structural steel and ma
chinery, all of which represented
orders formerly placed here and
cancelled because of the prohibitive
credit rates.
Rainey was asked to explain the
refusal to grant credits and recog-
nition to Russia.
1T is difficult to explain" he
countered. I'VE certainly have less
to fear from Communism than Ger
many, and Germany doesn't fear
contamination through trade and
commerce. I think it is due to
studied propaganda conducted by
the white, or Czarist, Russians who
have the largest colony here, next
to Paris and Manchuria. This prop
aganda is well-financed and is
assisted by the Manganese people
Another reason is that the Ameri-
can newspapers seem to print only
the sensational things about Russia.
We have certainly been misled. And
II is costing us millions in money"
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