The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-05
BODY CONSISTS OF'
 ONE HOUSE; MEETS IN OLD SyKSCRAPER
Carpenter Attends Session s And Says Men Look Much
 Like Americans
By FRANK G. CARPENTER World Travels. Copy right, 1923, by Frank c. Car

look ct the livelest assembly of the new Baltic republics. We are in far northern Europe, in the latitude of Alaska, in the city of Helsingfors, and within rifle shot of the harbor. The republic is too new to have a national parliament house, and for the time Congress is meeting in a seven-story sky-scraper, sandwich ed in between stores. The front of the building is all windows, being com posed of tower that extends be- yond the shops which adjoin 1t. It looks like no other capitol in Europe.
 There is only one branch of Con- gross, a House of Representatives, and the one chamber consists of two
 hundred members. The hall looks for all the world like a church. It is lighted by incandescent electric lights in frosted globes set into the ceiling. The members sit at little school desks and seem very crowded. The furniture is of oak, trimmed with gold. The carpet is red. The chamber has a wide gallery running about 1t, well up near the roof. The speaker sits at the back, under a ferocious bronze lion below which
 stands a statue of Justice. There are two clerks on either side of the speaker, and beyond them on the left are the seats of the cabinet min isters. who have the advantage of our cabinet at Washington in being able to take part in all legislative discussions. To the right is the
 press wallery, from which go out daily reports of the chamber.
 FinIand's New Congress.
 2 As 1 look down from the gallery I have good representation under my eye of the new Finland. The two hundred members represent all parts of the country, and they are the best type of the new Finnish re- public. They look not unlike our congressmen except that there is a goodly sprinkling of women among them. According to the new consti-
 tution. every Finnish citizen, man or woman, has the right to vote after he or she is twenty-four years of age. Every one of them is eligible to the House of Representatives, and the terms are for three years instead of two as with us.
 E The women are a live working part of the assembly. Almost one tenth of the whole body is composed of them. They have nineteen of the two hundred seats. and they serve on all the committees, taking a live part In makinf the laws and fixing the taxes. They are not afraid to speak md they speak well. Looking, down from the gallery, these female statesmen are not different in ap pearances from our good ordinary American women. They dress well, and there are but few short -skirted and short-haired ones among them. z The male members have fewer bald heads than those of our House of Representative They dress much the same, some having the states mans black, and others the pepper and salt suits of our business men.
 Six Political Pnties.
 Finland has six political parties, and each has its own section of the house. Socialists, or social demo- crats, as they are called, are grouped at the left This is the largest party, numbering so members at the last election. In the center are the agrarians, or land owners, large and small, who number 42, and off at the right is the Swedish party of 22 members representing the Swedish population which is only 100000. And then there is the Finnish progressive party. 26 in all and the Christian labor party, which is only two.
 s Now a member has risen to speak. He does not address the house from his seat as in our halls of Congress, but comes to the rostrum, where on the right or left of the speaker Is a pulpit in which he stands as though he eHere giving a sermon. The present speaker is reading from manuscript. looking up now and then as he does so. He is speaking in Finnish. The pure Finlanders are proud of their native language, and Finnish mas been made the official language of the republic. On the other hand, the members of the Swedish party will speak only in Swedish. All con gressional papers are printed in the two languages and when swedish member has finished his speech, It IS Translated freely by Finnish inter preter. The interpreter is one of the officers of the parliament and he receives a salary as such. He sum inarizes the speech, giving only the principal points.
 Church And state.
 Now the Finnish member has fin ished his reading and the speaker has recognized one of the Swedes. lie comes to the pulpit on the other side Of the house and talks with the in- terpreter standing beside him. As he gees on l ask my guide what he IS saving. He replies that the question before the house is the union or church and state. The social demo- crats want to separate the two ana the Swedish party demands that the old conditions, in which the church IS Subsidized by the government be lett aq they are. Most of the Finlanders are Evangelical Lutherans, who mum Der more than 100000. AS 10 the remainder, there are 5O,0O0 Greek Catholics, about 600 Roman Cathoilcs and s9,O00 Baptists. ,.
 As the speaker goes on with ms prosy discussion, I see the members Blinking out until at last three fourths have gone to the lobples' They 20 more quietly than our mem bers of Congress and there IS no iouu talking or chatting while the speak- ing goes on. At the least noise tne Speaker brings his gaVel down "itn a thud and he tries to prevent the applause which sometimes breaks out.
 I observe that most of the messen- cers employed in the chamber are women A middle-aged burnette fsdy kept the door of the galiery where l came in, and two sprleheIs young blondes went about with slass pitchers and gave drlnks to tns nan hers. The liquid was water ana can fruly certify that prohibition pro- hibits in these Hobbies of congress. The New Nation. ,
 But first let me give you a plru eve view of this new nation "nlcn' like Minerva from the head Of JoVe, has sprung fullfledged from the rranium of the Russian bear and now sframps it's independent way re)olc- 3ng. The Films came from hussia and are said to have lived along the ,Woira about TOO A. D.. and hun- f1red years later were crowded rom there into Finland. A few centuries . fter that they fought with the smedes and were conquered, and for too years were ruled by them. Later s,ti,, there were wars between the sSwedes and the Russians and at the se,,a EinIand came under the czar, swhere it remained until the WorIa War. The people. however, were more 3n sympathy with the Sweaes ari,, .nS,, gii rntberans and they objected sareatlv to the Classification attempt tta authorities at Petrograd