The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-09-11
LET THEM GO.


1.-The Herald-Review will have no
argument with those people who leave
Itasca County and the United States
to go to Russia to live.
The United States has always ex-
tended welcome to people from other
lands. Subject to laws and rules it
still extends that welcome. This nation
has never put restriction on those who
would leave it. Citizenship in the
United States is easy to obtain-much
easier to renounce. The policy of this
government is to let those who wish to
leave it, go.
Those people from the Finnish
settlements who are leaving to become
part OF the Soviet government, have
our good wiSheS-because they will
need them. They look with anticipa-
ton to a new land with whose theories
OF government they are in sincere ac-
cord For the sake OF its 150,000,0O0
people, we hope that Russia will evolve
a stable civilization. Doubtless many
before that end is achieved. But
Russia and its people have possibilities
OF wonderful development.
But those who are leaving will find
vastly different conditions.
Most of them in the United States
had some little wealth. Perhaps their
possessions were not large by Ameri-
can standards but large for Russia.
The peasant in Russia who possessed
more than two cows or one horse, or
whose house was larger than one room,
was the object of enmity during the
recent revolution and changes. He was
prosecuted for his possessions. The
comforts of America cannot and will
not prevail in Russia for generations.
Those who go to Russia will not
ride in automobiles. There are about
ten thousand cars in the entire nation
with its 150,000,000 people. Minnesota
with two and half million people
possess 100000 automobiles. The new
citizens of the Soviet will trade a ride
for walk.
The children who go to Russia will
have no educational facilities which
compare to those in ItaSca and St.
Louis counties. The new Russia desires
a complete educational system, but a
land just emerging from nliteracy and
serfdom cannot create school system
except for the next generation.
Those who go to Russia will work
but not for themselves and their
families-but for government. Their
time, energy, ability will not be their
own.
Perhaps conditions in agriculture
have not been the best along the
peaceful rivers where the Finnish
people have lived. But those people
who go to Russia will trade white
bread for black bread-foods of many
kinds for the rations that the govern
ment sets.
Those who leave America are seek
ing something that they will never
find. They seek the realization of
dream of government which can never
theories of complete freedom, will sup
press the individual People can come
to the United States, live here, prosper
here They can gather together and
curse the government under which
they live. They will not do that in
Russia. AS long as person pays his
taxes and lives in peaceful manner
opinions, no matter how radical, will
be respected. Russia cannot carry out
its present plans and allow freedom
of opinion and action by its citizens
In America government is to be what
citizens make it. In Russia citizens
will be as their government makes
them.
1.-The United States will not argue
with its citizens. If there are those
who wish to live in Russia, let them go.
The Finnish people of the more
conservative type believe that their
fellow countrymen who are going to
Russia are making serious mistake
and will desire to return, if possible
The section of Russia to which they
are going is not particularly fertile in
an agricultural way. Many of the
people who are leaving have done
comparatively well in the United
States and have advantages and pos
sessions which they could not possibly
have under Russian regime. Be
tween the conservative and radical
elements within the Finnish national
ity there is quite a deep-set antagon-
ism springing from early political con-
f1ictS in Finland and intensified by
more recent factional struggles in that