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The current proposal for recognition of Soviet Russia has been characterized as "inflammatory" by Representative Hamilton Fish of New York. Mr. Fish adds that the integrity of our government can never permit our entrance into any relations with a country which favors world revolution. Lurking in the shadow of his words is the hypothetical Communist uprising in America which, ever since his investigation of red propaganda, has seemed so imminent to Mr. Fish.

But there are larger issues at stake than an alarm with such dubious premises. The cooperation of the Soviet Government in the Pacific Basin is becoming imperative if the Stimson doctrine on Manchuria is to be given substance. To the preservation of the territorial integrity of China we are unequivocally committed. Mr. Roosevelt has indicated that he will support the Stimson position upon his accession to power. And yet any attempt along these lines can scarcely ignore the greatest power in the Near East, the Union whose strength in the Basin outweighs that of any other nation. Mr. Fish's fear that recognizing Russia may antagonize Japan is not with-out its humor after the stinging rebukes of Mr. Stimson's notes and the anathema pronounced by the League of Nations.

Nor does diplomacy afford the most important argument in favor of recognition. The old insistence of many economists that The old insistence of may economists that the most efficient, way to prevent the Soviet dumpting which has so frightened our producers is the extension of credit to Russia with a view to enabling her to purchase from us, is meeting a wider acceptance. Business men in this country have realized for some time that they are losing Russia's custom because of the government's diplomatic stand, and have protested against it. The Soviet rulers favor American methods and machinery and would buy from American manufacturers, if the political difficulty were cleared away.

Mr. Fish and his party can only counteract such diplomatic and economic considerations with vague fear and distrust of a nation with whose political composition they are not in agreement. With kings and emperors, with any other negations of the democratic ideal, Mr. Fish is not troubled. He might even, he says, consider recognition were Russia a socialist country. But with him the aged chimera of revolt obscures the definite and practical advantages of normal relations with a powerful political unit. The glory of maintaining such a prejudice as this is, as Mr. Fish may find, not a wholly unmixed one.