Finland

a grand-duchy of Russia. The name signifies fenland. Finland lies between the Gulf of Bothnia on the west and the Gulf of Finland on the south, coming quite near to St. Petersburg. It contains about 126,000 square miles. One-ninth of this area is composed of lakes, connected by an extensive canal system. The Finns are related to their neighbors on the north, the Lapps. They are considered a doubtful branch of the Mongolian or yellow race. The population of Finland in 1900 was 2,925,300 including 350,000 Swedes, 6,000 Russians, 1,900 Germans, and a few hundred Lapps. In a hundred years the Russians have succeeded in gaining only about 50,000 adherents for the Greek Church, the rest of the people are persistently Lutherans.

The early history of the Finns is not well known, save that they were great pirates and gave Sweden much trouble until King Eric subdued them in the twelfth century and set up the Christian religion. In 1809 Gustavus IV ceded Finland to Alexander I of Russia under a formal pledge to protect the Finns in their religion (Lutheran), laws, and liberties, that is self government under a Finnish legislature. Alexander's successors have done so with reasonable fidelity until 1899, when Nicholas II gave orders that legislation affecting the interests of Russia would be attended to by his imperial state council, thus gagging the Finnish legislature. By other edicts it was ordered that young Finns must serve five years in the Russian army, and that official business must be conducted in the Russian language, which is spoken by about one person out of three hundred. The universal discontent excited by these acts has stimulated a large emigration of Finns to Minnesota, North Dakota, and adjacent parts of Canada. Public sympathy is uniformly with the Finns, and no doubt rightly so; yet some allowance should be made for a hundred years of patience while a rich province at the very door of St. Petersburg has persisted in Swedish affiliations in business, methods of legislation, education, religion, and political sympathies. Finland has stubbornly refused to Russianize, and now Russia has decided to force the process, even in defiance of treaty rights.

In matters of wealth and improvements Finland is to be compared with Sweden rather than Lapland. Helsingfors, the capital, is on the Gulf of Finland. It is a beautiful city of 125,000 people, with fine streets, parks, and promenades. It is the seat of the Finnish university, attended by 2,500 young men and women. Finland has a complete system of town and district schools with over 50 high schools, a polytechnic school, 8 normal schools, 9 commercial, 24 agricultural, 28 dairy, 11 horticultural, and 7 navigation schools. Of the children of school age, all but 20,000 are in school, at least a part of the year. In 1902 there were 65 Swedish, 125 Finnish, 1 Russian, and 2 German newspapers. There are 1,704 postoffices which handle 49,000,000 pieces of mail.

Finland is, in the main, an agricultural and stock country. One hundred and eleven thousand peasants own their farms; two-thirds as many pay rent. Potatoes, oats, rye, barley, wheat, flax, and hemp are the chief crops in the order named. Of domestic animals, goats and poultry are raised in abundance. One hundred and nineteen thousand reindeer are reared in the northern part. Finland has excellent forests giving employment to many thousand men. There are valuable iron mines. Finnish steel rivals that of Sweden. The chief articles of export are timber, butter, paper, paper pulp and cardboard, iron and iron goods, leather, hides, tar, and pitch. The chief imports are grain, coffee, sugar, ironware, cotton and cotton goods, machinery, chemicals, tobacco, and oils. Finland has over 8,000 manufactories. It has 200 savings banks with 150,000 depositors.

By decree of 1905 the national Parliament, consisting previously of four estates, the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants, was changed to a diet of one chamber. There are two hundred members. A salary of $250 is allowed for a session of ninety days. The diet lasts for three years unless sooner dissolved. The government of Finland makes little or no distinction of sex. Men and women twenty-four years of age vote. Any voter, man or woman, is eligible to a seat in the diet. The position of women is particularly honorable. The national university is co-educational.

STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest from reliable sources:

See Lapland; Gothland; Baltic