Finland. By Ernest Young. (Chapman and Hall. 7s. 6d. net.)
—The Finns interest us for several reasons. They have a pro- nounced sense of nationality, they are a well-behaved people, they have fought a good fight withal against the most burdensome autocracy in the world, and they live in a country which is quite unique. Mr. Young writes very sympathetically about the Finns and their customs, and sketches for us their modern political position and Socialistic tendencies. We see co-operation under its best aspects there, and have no difficulty in understanding why a small people so situated and loyal to each other have not the difficulty other and more prosperous countries have in arranging those matters. Universal suffrage obtains in Finland, and women sit in the Diet. "They compose 53 per cent. of the electorate, but they only form 8 per cont. of the Diet, and would be fewer still but for proportional representation. They will not, in fact, vote for women ; even the women deputies will not." These are the conclusions of a Finnish deputy. Fin- land has a future before her: her schools of painting and music are young and vigorous, her prosperity is growing, her people have survived their worst trials, and as citizens they are the best in the world—honest, moral, and temperate. There are a quarter of a million of them in the United States, and they are said to be the most welcome of all immigrants.
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