St. Paul recorder., 1963-12-12
CorI Rowan Tells
New Yorker Of
Finland Experiences
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English, eighty-six thousand are
studying German, and four hundred
and fifty are studying Russian"
Mr.. Rowan remarked that he
himself has been studying Finnish
every morning, and has found it
rough going. Its supposed to
have the same root as Hungarian
and Estonian," he said, but the
Hungarian Ambassador tells me
there are only about twelve Fin
nish words that he can understand.
I've been told that if a Finn and
an Estonian spend a few days to-
gether, they can understand each
other after a while, but for an
American there are no related
words at all except a few modern
terms. The pronunciation is not
hard to learn, but the grammer Is
a killer. Finnish has case endings
so the word for house for ex-
ample, is 'talo,' but If you say
Tn going into the house it be-
comes 'taloon,' and I'm leaving the
house makes it 'talosta,' and He's
in the house changes it to 'taloSsa'.
The grammar's a killer, but j
think I'm making some progress"
We asked Mr.. Rowan how his
job has been affected by the fact
that he is a Negro, and he said,
"An in all, I'd sum it up by saying
that this is one of the all too rare
occasions when it Is actually of
some advantage bo be a Negro. ]
think that when we arrived in
Finland had two advantages
being a former newspaperman and
being a Negro. Because Of the lat
ter fact, there was a special curl
Osity on the part of the press at
first, and I think the news people
felt to some extent that I was one
of them. We've had a very good
press. OF course, my advice to any
diplomat who wants 10 have
good press Is to have two or three
hds and a dog. Our dog got to
Finland before we did, and met us
at the airport. He bounded up the
steps Of the airplane and into the
arms Of my eleven-year-old boy.
There were pictures, naturally, and
I think we made the front page
Of every paper In Finland the next
morning with that one. I've never
held press conference that hasn't
had at least one question on the
race problem, and the questions
often come at unlikely moments.
For instance, I recently paid an
official visit to Lahti, city about
an hour and ten minutes from Hell
Sinld. It's known as the most
American city in Finland. Right in
the middle of the Lahti Halloween
Ball, which is sponsored by the
F'innish-American Society, a men,
Der of the city council turned to
me and asked, apropos of nothing,
If could explain the racial con-
flicts in the United States. But
the Firms now seem no more aware
of our being Negro than we are
aware of it. We would almost for
get about race If people didn't
ask us about the race situation in
the United States; there isn't that
constant, day-to-day strain Of won
dering if you're going to get served
in a restaurant or If you're going
to get turned away at a hotel
that sort of thing. OF course, you're
never quite far enough away to
forget completely. I know my chill
dren's future is tied up with the
future of those children in Ala
bama and Louisiana and Missis-
sippd. About the troubles there, ]
think, the press in Finland has, on
the whole, shown a lot Of restraint.
But there have been days when it's
been especially painful to be the