vf a a d y Fou - a 1l a 0 0) Intelligencer, Wheeling, W. Va., March 13, 1928 A SILLY QUIBBLE “After several weeks of profound meditation, the United States Treasury has solemnly decided that five million dollars worth of gold, sent to a New York bank by the Soviet government to pay for American goods, cannot be accepted. It will have to be sent to England, converted into sterling credit, and these bills of exchange used for payment of our goods. “This is one of the silliest quibbles, and most inconsistent actions taken by the present Administration, which has usually handled mat- ‘ers of this sort with good sense. Good sense is shown in refusing to recognize Russia, until that nation guarantees to accept the com- mon obligations of international dealing and responsibility. It is equally good sense to place no special barriers against private trade with Russia. Last year twenty-three per cent of Russia’s imports ame from the United States. She bought more from us than from any other nation except Germany. The goods was mainly machinery needed to rehabilitate the industrial fabric of Russia and modernize her agriculture, and was paid for promptly. “If it is wrong, therefore, for our banks to accept Russia's gold directly, it must be equally wrong for them to accept bills of ex- *hange purchased with the same gold abroad. If it is not morally right to let Soviet money come into this country, then it is not morally right to let our oil companies bring profits here which were secured in trading in oil from Russian concessions. So long as we are trading with Russia, as private individuals and pocketing the profits, what difference can it make if payment is made in Russian gold sent here directly or sent indirectly in the form of British ster- ling notes purchased with the same gold. The Treasury’s decision has the savor of a a pious pose that does not coincide with the facts of the case.” Meriden, Conn., Record, March 15, 1928 GOLD A-BEGGING ‘A unique situation was created by the shipment of gold from Russia to this country, solid yellow gold bars, $5,000,000 worth of them, that are worse than valueless, that are a dead loss of $700 1 day. Ordinarily the arrival of $5,000,000 in gold in New York ity would not cause even a comment; it would have been received ind absorbed without creating so much as a ripple—ordinarily.