Soviet Invitations

Upon the Soviet's sensible invitations Thomas D. Campbell, world's largest individual wheat grower, prepared to sail for Russia this week, and Ford and G. M. C. were considering the construction of assembly plants there.

Mr. Campbell's farms (in Montana) are vast and profitable because he uses machinery almost exclusively for planting, cultivating and harvesting. The Russians want him to put his system to work on 10,000,000 acres of wheat and flax land. His project may lead to the purchase of $100,000,000 worth of U. S. farm machinery. The Russians also want Mr. Campbell to spend three months each year with them. On that invitation he was not determined before he sailed from Manhattan.

The Ford and G. M. C. invitations looked to speed up Russian industry. The country has 150,000,000 population, but only 22,000 motor vehicles, 40,000 tractors. Complementary to this intention the Soviet has just placed a $250,000 order for truck engines and transmissions with Hercules Motor Corp. of Canton, Ohio, and Brown-Lipe-Chapin Co. (G. M. C. subsidiary) of Syracuse, N. Y. Russians will assemble the machinery in Russian-made 3 1/2-ton trucks and busses.