The Dickinson press., 1900-01-20
Coming of the Films.

a most unusual emigration from FIN
land to the United States and Canada is
expected this year. One steamship line
has arranged to bring over $1,000 Finnish
peasants. 1t is said that thousands OF
families will come here to engage in
farming in the hope of lettering their
condition and especially with Il view to
escaping the new political conditions i'm
posed upon Finland, eleven months ago,
by the Russian government.
South Finland is in the same latitude
as South Greenland. No other region so
far north is SO we'll titled and so denselv
peopled. Its 100000 inhabitants are a
sturdy industrious race, eleven-tweliths
of them tilling the soil. and nearly all arc
Lutherans in religious faith. Their his
tory during the decade ending in 1858
was remarkable for progress and de-
velopment, but last year was crowded
with bitter disappointment and calamity.
A few figures will show the remark
able economic advance of the country.
In 1882 the exports of Finland were val
ued at only s%I7,ooo,ooo. By 1894 their
value had increased to s~27,2oo,ooo and
the average for the two following years
was s32,ooo,ooo. Lumber and tar were
formerly the chief articles exported, but
these now include a great many horses,
among the finest raised in the Empire,
and large quantities of butter, potatoes,
fish, woodpulp and paper. The Finnish
Government supports thirteen schools
for instruction in the best methods. of
farming.
In 1890 less than 100000 natives of the
Russian Empire we're living in the Unit
ed States; we are o told that over a
fourth as many more will come to Amer
lea during the present season from the
small part of the Empire embraced by
Finland. The reasons for this extraord-
mary migration of Firms are undoubted-
ly the change in their political condition
and the distressing crop failure of last
year. The Imperial manifesto of Feb.
IS last practically annulled the Finnish
Constitution in spite of the fact that when
Gar ALEXANDER l. wrested the country
from Sweden in 1909 he confirmed the
Firms in the constitutional rights and
privileges they had before enjoyed, and
each of his successors renewed the pied
ges he gave. 1t was a bolt from a clear
sky when the Gar, last year, abolished
Finnish autonomy by a stroke of the pen,
reduced the Diet to the position of a par
ish council and made Finnish soldiers
liable to serve outside their own country.
Chagrin was added to dismay when he
refused to receive the appeal signed in a
fortnight by a half million of his Finnish
subjects.
On the heels of this calamity, came a
late, cold spring and widespread floods
that ruined a large pari of the rye crop,
the main %breadstuf ofthe country. Late
last summer the people of the towns
were raising money to relieve the dis
tress Of thousands of peasants in the,
country districts. Famine was feared in
the northern part of the settled area, but
the country was spared this acute stage
of suffering.
These Lutheran peasants are intelli-
gent, Woodworking people and it would
be a blessing if all emigrants from
Europe were equally desirable. They
will be welcome to this country, where
their qualities will make them prosper
GUS and useful.-New York Sun.