Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-19
TIME FOR GROWTH
IS LATV|A'S NEED
Ex-American Farmer, Now
Premier, Urges Continued
Patience and Industry.
BY CHARLES STEPHENSON SMITH.

BY CHARLES STEPHENSON SMITH,
Chief Of Fore!gn Service Of the Associated
Press
Karl Ulmanis, the creator and pro-
tector Of independent Latvia, is not as
impatient as Stain of Russia
Sixty-year plans rather than ive-year
plans appeal to Ulmanis. The example
of Washington and the early struggles
Of the United States to perfect its gov
eminent are his inspiration.
He was educated at the University Of
Nebraska, taught in the agricultural
school of that institution and learned
about politics and democracy in the
home State Of William Jennings Bryan.
Ulmanis was recently made premier
of Latvia for the third time. He has
had stormy time since the November
day in 1918 when he led a coalition Of
various parties in declaring Latvia in
dependent and became the head of the
new republic.
He was shot in the leg while leading
troops against the attempts of Commu-
nists and other adventures to upset
the new state. His motor car was
bombed and several other attempts have
been made on his life. But he never
rested until the Russians and Germans
and other adventurers were driven from
Latvia
In 1920. when Latvian money was
greatly deprecated and Soviet Russia
was threatening the little republic, Pre-
mier Ulmanis told the writer his coun-
try would not start another war, but
would offer the life Of its last man in
resisting aggression.
"All of us Baltic peoples are too I'M
patient about the settlement of the dis
orders growing out OF the great war"
Ulmanis said. But We are becoming
more patient as our experience in self
government broadens and we realize our
strength.
Remember, it took the United States
so years to get itself will organized.
There was time when 1t required 1000
paper dollars to buy one gold dollar
Washington found paper money so cheap
it was almost impossible to feed his
troops"
Ulmanis has plodded on and encour-
couraged his countrymen in their black
est hours. He yielded the premiership
in 1921 to z. Mierovich, who formed q
coalition government. In 1925 Ulmanis
again took the premiership and held It
for q year. Last March he assumed the
post for the third time and still holds It.
He has remained in Parliament con-
stantly as the leader Of the Farmers
Union, and whether In or out of the
HUNeTHHlcub Has DccIl IIlC 1ldlI1SUdy OF
Latvia. While dictators have fiourished
elsewhere in Europe, and while Ulmanis
has been charged by his opponents with
dictatorial aspirations, the farmer leader
has constantly respected constitutional
provisions and never sought to retain
power against popular will.
As the leader of the Farmers Union,
the strongest bourgeois party in I.atvia,
he has always had strong opposition
from the more radical parties. And he
has always been hated by the great
estate owners, chiefly Of German de-
scent, whose property has been divided
and sold to small farmers.
This stocky, 54-year-old statesman
looks like q prosperous Nebraska farmer
or ranchman. He Is strangely out OF
harmony with the lowered and tur-
reted castle of HanSeatic days In which
he sits as premier. Long-tailed coats
high hats and spatS have never figured
in Ulmanis' career to any considerable
extent.
He was born on O farm in Courland
now part Of Latvia, and was a real dirt
| farmer for years before he came to the
| United States. But his love Of his ma
| tive country was so great he returned
there frequently before the World War
and lectured to farmers on how to i'm
prove their economic condition.
So he was q natural leader Tor the
Farmers Union when Russia cracked
up and Latvia made It's successful 2Sht
tor lnoepenoence.