SOVIET LUMBERJACKS

In placing an embargo on Soviet lumber and pulp wood imported into this country because of the rumors of conscript labor, the United States is again assuming the attitude of dictating world ethics. However, due to the vagueness of the reports from Russia, one may wonder whether the Government's motives are as pure as they supposedly were in the Liberia scandal.

According to J. F. Stewart, a British forest engineer who has traveled extensively through North Russian forests, the conditions which exist there have been grossly exaggerated in the outside world. He found the lumbermen comparatively well equipped in food, camps, clothes, and medical service. Furthermore Mr. Stewart considered that any deficiencies could well be laid to the faculty organization of the Soviet officials, who are more prone to theory than to actualities.

If the testimony of Mr. Stewart is justified, the action of the United States can hardly be a result of international altruism. It is perhaps more probable that the embargo arises from a desire to eliminate business competition, especially after the alarms caused by the dumping of Soviet goods throughout the globe. Using the same pretence the Government has considered spreading the restriction to handling by convict labor. Whatever the true motive behind the embargo, the treasury is safe in placing an embargo, for as long as Washington refuses to recognize Russia, any authorized Investigators will be barred from making a study of the actual situation.