Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-12-06
STRANGE FACTS THAT
FEW PEOPLE KNOW

1T seems only natural that Finland
land where women have had the vote
for thirteen years, and won it by their
participation in quelling labor troubles
like those which now assail the United
States of America, should be one of the
first portions Of the dismembered Rus
sian empire to set up stable consti-
tutional government" says a bulletin
from Washington headquarters of the
National Geographic society.
This new member of the family of
free nations is described in a commun-
ication to the society by Baroness AL
letta Korff as follows:
Prom an educational point of view
the women in Finland have been very
fortunate, as there are many excellent
schools for girls and number of CO.
educational schools throughout the
country which prepare students for the
university examinations. Girls were
admitted to the university in 1878,
and, until the war interviewed, they not
only attended lectures, but took part
in all branches of university life: they
participated In all the celebrations and
festivities, and were members of the
various clubs and student organiza-
tons, in which they were on a footing
of perfect equality with the men and
frequently were elected to various Of
fetal positions. After they We're grad
uated from one OF the several high
schools or from the university there
were many branches of work open to
them.
'"They became teachers even in the
state schools for boys, cashiers or
Gookkeepers In banks, clerks in the
state archives, and in many branches
of the civic administration. There are
really not enough educated men to
meet the requirements of the country,
s.xz1 H.
the women is a matter of vital import
ance. 1t not infrequently happened, in
normal times, that even married wo-
men in comparatively good cireum-
stances sought employment outside
their homes.
Having thus such an excellent foun-
dstion to build upon, 1t is small won
der that the woman's movement soon
found many active supporters. In 1853
the diet had accorded the municipal
vote to women taxpayers living in the
country, and In 1872 to women living
In the towns, all of whom were also
given the right to be elected members
OF certain local self-governing bodies.
In 1900 the women social democrats
included the suffrage in their program,
but the special activity for the suffrage
began only In the year 1904, although
In 1907 petition had been officially
presented to the diet at the request
OF the Finnish Womans association
THE reason why so little was done
In direct furtherance of the cause of
womans suffrage between the years
1897 and 1904 is that just at that time
Finland was passing through severe
political crisis.
After the outbreak of the October
revolution in Russia (1s05) sympa-
thetic strike was declared in Finland,
and several of the members of the con-
trail committee elected by mass
meeting TO manage the details of the
strike were women.
'The first action taken by the COM
mittee was to close all the liquor shops. |
saloons and baErooms, and to organize
a volunteer police force to keep order.
After the second day the markets were
opened and the strikers We're not al
lowed to cut off the water supply. In
short, the strike was managed in a
most orderly and systematic way, and
no outrages Of any sort were commit-
ted