Lumber Industry to Make Formal Request for Exclusion of Russian Lumber

Washington, D. C., Sept. 3O.-Although the short selling of wheat by Russian government agency in the Chicago market is the latest evidence of the unrest ,caused in American industry by Soviet activities it was learned today that the lumber industry is not content with what it considers a failure to enforce existing laws applicable to imports which are in unfair competition with-domestic products. The National Lumber Manufacturers' Associatioi i. pt.- paring t9 m1k-e a formal request that unlawful importi of lumber be rigidly prohibited in accord with the dicree of Congress.

These provisions include Section 307 of the Tarifi Act. which excludes the products of convict labor; Section 303, providing for coqntervailing duties on imported merchandise which has had the benefit of a direct oi indirect bountv of grant from a foreign government; Section 332, whic-h authorizes penalty duties or embargo on articles distributed under unfair competitive methods; the extra, or anti-dump- ing, duties provision of the tariff laws (Sec. 201 of the ait of. l92l).;- and Section 304 of the 1930 act, which requires the marking of imported articles in legible English words with the name of the country of origin.

__Wilson_Compton, secretary and general manager of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association. hai formallv submitted to Seymour Lowman, assistant secretary of tni treasury, the contention of the American lumber industry that sufficient evidence has already been submi,,"O ,o 'ljus- tify the treasury department, in the absence of authentic counter-proof, in regarding all shipments of lumber from the Russian White Sea area as having been produced in part or whole by convict labor."

In a review today of the situation to the Board of Directors of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, Dr. Compton enumerates the specific evidence that has been submitted to the Treasury Department in regard to the use of convict labor in North Russian lumbering -operations in areas from which lumber is being shipped to [he United States. G. D. Whitfield, an English newspaper cor- respondent, testified from personal observation that convict labor is used also in the Vladivostok area. From similar personal observation he testified that the lumber mills in the Archangel district are entirely operated by convicts, except for foreman and superintendents. Hd says also that convicts are employed in the logging operations. The Treasury Department has the stateminti oi a number of sailors who assert that convicts are used to load ships at Archangel, and these statements are endorsed bv Whitfietd from personal observation. It is further stated that four escaped prisoners now in Norrvay have reported to Norwegian officials that they were employed in lumbering ope- rations in Russia. Statements hive been procured from them through consular sources. There is i considerable amount of other evidence of a miscellaneous nature. Moreover, it is known that_-the State Department has recently secured important undisclosed information.

The lumber industry takes the positior-r that it is the statutory duty of the Treasury Department to prescribe regulations governing the importation of convict-made goods, which will in fact give effect to the statutory mandate to make "such regulations as may be necessiry" to exclude convict-made goods. Under present practice it is incumbent upon American manufacturers to prove that each cargo of lumber from Russia was made by convict labor. It is contended that the situation should bC reversed and that no more lumber be admitted from Russia until it is proved by the importers that it was not convict-made. That would put the burden of proof where, it is contended. Congress intended it should be.

In regard to the bounty and unfair competition section of the,tarifi laws,it is held that the entire system of state production of lumber with confiscated timber and sawmills is in violation of them.

It is stressed by the Association that the lumber industry is not asking any special or extraordinary protection but only the complete enforcement of laws already on the statute books which are designed to protect American industry against unfair foreign competition.

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