The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-30

from the ground and left in a most uncomfortable position. I returned home in 1913, at the tiIffe of the gen eral amnesty act"
 Karlis Ulmanis has always been noted for his independence, and in- dependent thinkers were very unsafe In the old Russian empire.
 lie Is natural leader and has something of the same personal mag netism as my old friend William J. Bryan, who turns black to white while he Is speaking to you, although 1t gets black again when you leave. As MT. Ulmanis talked, it seemed to me that the Baltic barons had hoofs and horns. and that the aklng away of the greater part of their estates without any compensation as yet, and with very little compensation in pros pect, was an act of justice decreed by God As I reflect, 1t seems that there may be another side to the question and that this destruction of all property rights is allied some what to bolshevism.
 No Bolshevism in Latvfa.
 had asked about the socialistic feeling of the people. He replied:
 There Is no bolshevism in Latvia. There may have seemed to be some when we took over the states but we expect to pay the Balts for their lands at the regular price. At the present time that Is low. but 1t is not the fault of the government. Our land office is figuring out the values and in some way the old estate owners will receive compensation.
 There is no need for anybody to fear bolshevistic revolution in Lat via," continued MT. Ulmanis That possibility disappeared when the lands were divided. Our people were land hungry. At the time of the rev. olution 75 per cent of Latvia was held by few families, Waose titles came from the conquests of the land barons hundreds of years in the past For generations the people had worked for their masters, and they had but few rights that those mas ters were bound to respect. This had continued for centuries, and per cent of the rural populuation had no lands whatever. Now the large tracts have been divided into small holdings and there are thousands owning farms who had none before.'
 What will be the effect upon your production?"
 Tt will greatly increase. There IS no manure so good for land as the foot of the owner, and these farms are so small that every farmer will tramp over every acre he owns every day. The land will be inten- siVely cultivated, and that along tho best agricultural lines. We are thoroughly alive Rs to our farming possibilities and we are doing all we can to educate the pioneer farmers. There is college of agriculture here in Riga and four agricultural high schools scattered over the country. We have four experiment stations and 20 elementary farm schools. Our central associations are now employ ing about 200 specialists in agricul- ture of one kind or another"
 Are you an agriculturlst or a dirt farmer?"
 T am both. am the son of a farmer and, in my youth, worked on the farm. Later I took up the study of how to better agricultural con ways"
 What Is to be the future of Lat vian farming?"
 T imagine 1t will bs along the same lines as those which have made Denmark so prosperous. We have much the same conditios and we shall probably be one of the chief dairy farms for England and the other great industrial countries. Oul specialties will be eggs, bacon, and butter, with flax and grain in addl- ton. We are already shipping but ter and eggs to London. We have established cooperative movement and we have 500 cooperative socie- ties of consumers alone. We have 200 co-operatiyes for arranging mat ters of credit. and the Cooperative Society of State Employes, which was organized about 1920, has thousands of members and its turnover Q fl1n mt fn !, year. We have cooperative societies for buying machinery and other sup plies, and we are eliminating the middle-man as far as we can and giving the farmer the profit"
 What Is to be the future of Lat via? Will your nation have a sky rocket existence or Is it to be Q per maneDt member of the world pow ersP"
 T am sure 1t will be permanent" replied Mir. Ulmanis. 'Latvia has come to stay as an autonomous gov ernment, and the same Is true of Finland, Esthonia, Lithuania, and Poland. I do not apprehend a union of these several republics in the sense of having a United States o1 the Baltic. I do not believe there will be a United States of Russia That country has hundred differ ent languages and as many different ana It can never come together as a republican community As to Latvia, 1t Is ready to cooper etc with Russia in a business way but not in any political union. Oui ports will always be open to the people who live east of us, and oul mission is to furnish a hallway sta tion between the east and the west We shall have free ports at Riga Windau, and Libau, and here capita can come and manufacture for the Russian market of the future. Il is the natural factory site for the 1SC millions of Slavs and your big Ameri- can industries ought to come here and found branches"
 o O O
 Cultured Nation.
 Have the Let's enough culture to hold their own among the new na- tions?"
 Yes, ws are more advanced than most of the others about us. We have moro high schools to our popu- lation than Germany, and the num- Der of newspapers and books pub- lished in Lettish is unusually large in proportion to the number of in habitants. Our people are anxious for more education. They learn eas- fly. They are hard working anc have already shown Europe that we can manage our own affairs and SC far the acts of the government have not been at all bad. We are gOoC