Evening star., 1923-10-01
Can Europe Hold Together?
xvII-Finland. nd.-Young and Healthy
ny JOHN r. SINCLAIR

] had gone into Finland from Rus
sia. The contrast was striking. In
Russia the problem of dirt is still
! a real menace. In Finland no such
problem exists. Finland is as whole
some and clean as Switzerland. A
vigorous winter and cool summer
make for excellent health;
One of the newest republics in the
world. formed In 1919. Finland today is
in my opinion one of the best governed.
Universal suffrage exists for all men
and women, with the executive power
lodged in a diet, a single-chamber
Legislature of 200 members, of which
30 per cent belong to the conserva-
tive right. 80 per cent to the center
and 40 per cent to the left.
The present government of Fin
land is In the hands of the agrarian
party, which forms the larger part
Of the center. The premier-Kyosti
Kallfo--is farmer. who. as a min
lister of agriculture. was the author
of land purchase acts.
Il X u "
'In Finland, where less than / per
cent of the population are iiliterate,
we enjoy a high degree of culture"
declared the big, blue-eyed pre-
mier of these 100000 people. But
the peasant here, as elsewhere in
Europe. has not had a fair chance.
Up to the time of the revolution. 90
per cent of our peasants owned their
own land. "a per cent more were
tenants and 43 per cent landless.
Agriculture was the industry of 20
per cent of our people. The situa-
tion did not make for healthy, con-
| tented people. We found out in the
red revolution of 1918 that many Of
the landless peasants Joined the COM
munists. Since then the peasant
or all large estates for the benefit
OF the landless peasants. We had
10000 farms in 1901, and by 1925 we
expect to have 100000 farms owned
and operated by contented farmers
, Our next plan is cooperating among
farmers for purchasing, selling and
credit. We have $40 cooperative credit
associations in Finland.
III we can SO adjust our agri-
culture to have each farmer the own
! operative enterprises to enable the
farmer to realize on his work to the
fuliest extent. we -hal1 have no fear
OF the future of Finland"
X v
But the strong man OF Finland to-
day. is .Risto Ryti, minister of finance,
| having resigned the important posi-
tion of managing director of the
Bank of Finland TO assume the work
In order to appreciate our fnan-
cial stability" declared Mr.. .Ryti to
me, lit must be remembered that Fin
land. even when under the control of
| Russia, was independent financially
speaking. We raised our own taxes
for our governmental expenses, and
except under the reign of the late
! czar. when we were compelled to pay
s4,oOO.000 year to the Russian gov
ernment for military purposes. we
paid tribute to no one
During the great war the pao-
pie of Finland were neutral and were
not conscripted by Russia for mill
tary purposes. At no time since 1909
| has Russia's influence left on Fin
land any permanent impress of It's
eastern culture But while the men
OF Finland were not forced into war
service. We were forced to loan money
to Russia, for which we took Rus
sian rubles in exchange In this way
the Bank of Finland and the govern
ment of Finland suffered a loss Of
100000. To a country as small
as ours. this was a staggering loss,
and is one of the two reasons why
our Finnish marks went down in
value from Ave to fifty for one dol
lar. The other reason was the lack
of confidence in Finland after the red
revolution in 1918
We have wiped out our losses and