New Britain herald., 1922-10-13
|LATV|A IS WORKING
 TO CREATE CAPITAL
Smallest Republic, Recently Or.
 ganiZed, Making Strides

Riga, Latvia, Oct. 13.-It is three years since the Paris Peace Confer ence brought it's youngest child the Latvian republic into the world Like most of its other progeny Lat via is doing well, but is finding life a difficult and rigorous one. It knows it has long and tortuous road to travel to gain its full stature of state hood and join the grown up mem- bers of the family of nations. The people have been immensely hearten- ed by the United States recent recog- milton of the Republic.
 War Losses.
 Latvia, which is about the size of West Virginia and, has smaller population than the city of Philadel- phia, is handicapped by its terrible losses of life and property during the war and by lack of capital. On the other hand, like all new states, it is unfettered by precedent and by the claims of vested interests and its hu- man raw material is excellent. Long | before the war the Latvians, who through centuries of history were suc- cessively under Swedes, Germans and Russians, had proved their efficiency as workers. Their chemical, textile and metallurgical industries and their Baltic trade were highly remunera- tive. They paid all their own govern mental expenses, and contributed a large annual surplus to the Russian treasury.
 Efficient Fighters.
 The manner in which the Latvian volunteer army composed of farmers and peasants and led by students of the Riga Polytechnic schools, drove out first the Germans, then the Bol- sheviki and finally the Junker forces of Von der Gotz and Bermondt. shows that the Latvians are also ef- fcient as fighters. In this little state there is virtually no illiteracy, and all the people speak three languages --Latvian, Russian and German.
 Hard At Work.
 The L.atvian government is hard at work building Utopia on the bleak shores of the Baltic. One of its first measures was to found university in it's capital city of Riga; one of its latest has been to reform Its curren- cy and to stop the issue of paper money The value of the Latvian ru- ble, as measured in dollars, is slowly creeping up. Exports and imports are now very nearly balanced. By dint of heavy taxation and wise finance it has been found possible to combine in- creased expenditure on education, housing and public health with gem eral retrenchment
 Ian Chaksto president of the con stituent assembly of Latvia, has ex plained his country's outlook to the 
 "The western nations," said he, know little about Latvia, They do not believe in the stability of our and they hesitate to lend | us money. They even call us bolshe- wiki. l assure you that 90 per cent of Eatvians hate bolshevism. Russian are, of course, active | here, but they make no headway. We | have shot a good many of them for | spreading their pernicious doctrines.
 Aerarian Policy.
 Our agrarian policy--the seques- tration of large estates and the ere aton of small holdings-was harshly | criticized, and has no doubt done | much to give us a bad character. The | western nations did not understand | the situation. Our people were su- premely dissatisfied. and rightly so. | They had been ground down; they :.