March 15, 1921.
Sir:
If it is not incompatible with the public interest would it be possible for me to secure information from your department relative to the situation in Soviet Russia?
There is much propaganda being circulated in the United States claiming that the demand for manufactured goods in Russia is so great and the purchasing power of the Russian Soviet government so vast it is almost impossible to determine the actual capacity of the Russian market to absorb goods of foreign manufacture. Ths scarcity of goods is laid to the blockade, which as I understand it was removed July 8, 1920. It is said that the pressing needs of the Russians are large quantities of the following:
"Locomotives, cars, rails, tires, springs, etc. Tractors, plows, reapers, mowers, binders, harrows, and other tools, large and small, binder twine, motor trucks. Leather goods: shoes, etc. Textiles. Chemicals, drugs, soap. Notions. Belting, all kinds. Oil well machinery and piping. Mining machinery. Rubber goods. Ties. Typewriters. Sewing machines. Surgical instruments. Machinery and machine tools of all sorts. Printing presses, and printing supplies. Small tools. Sheet iron. Tool steel. Camera and camera supplies, films, etc. Raw cotton."
It is also claimed that the Commissariat of Foreign Trade of the Soviet government has given orders for the purchase of the following in America:
"Agricultural machinery, including tractors, mowers, binders, reapers, plows, cultivators, etc., specified orders to the extent of $50,000,000.00; machine tools, between $3,000,000.00 to $5,000,000.00; small tools, files, drills, etc. between $3,000,000.00 and $5,000,000.00; 30,000 to 100,000 tons of rails; 10,000 tons of locomotive ties; 250 tons of spring steel for locomotive and car springs; 10,000 tons of sheet iron; 50,000 tons of piping."
