The Daily Alaska Empire

The Northwest and Russia.
(Olympia Olympian.)
Rufus Woods, Wenatchee publisher who went to Russia with a brief case and an unsatisfied curiosity as how the Soviets were progressing, apparently carried his typewriter along with him. He has been sending his paper a lot of copy about Russia and recently discussed wheat and lumber exportations and the probable effect upon the Pacific Northwest. He writes:
What is going to be the effect of Russian development on the Northwest? There seems to be little doubt but that Russia is going to have a tremendous effect upon the wheat market and the lumber market. In fact these two commodities have already shown their influence on the American markets.
Millions of bushels of Russian wheat thrown on the markets of the world last fall brought down the price of wheat in United States. For years the Pacific Northwest has sold untold millions of feet of lumber to the Japanese. What now has happened? The Japanese have gone into the lumber regions of Russia and are now getting their supply there. And that is not all. Lumber from Russia in Japanese ships is now being sold in Eastern United States at $12 a thousand.
In wheat and in lumber the Russian development is almost certain to have a deleterious effect. On the other hand this same development in Russia is going to make markets for other commodities which will run into a billion dollars.
I know one technician who was followed by orders from America for $17,000,000 worth of machinery. This is only one small development.
Readjustment will be necessary in the United States. It is a job for the leaders of thought and action in the United States. American enterprise must take these new factors in world trade and work out the problem for the future.