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Show FINLAND. .Tan Jansen, a Finnish clerk in a Russian Rus-sian bank, says that Finland wants Finnish schoolhouses with Finland's, flag floating above them filled wilh Finnish children learning their own language, literature and history. The Finnish people want the right to pursue pur-sue their own way unmolested. They are ready to believe that the war not only will give them the right, but that, through the Russian revolution, it has already done so. Full freedom from Russian rule is not expected ; but self-government self-government in all affairs that solely concern Finland is part of the people's demand. They wish to manage their business affairs, to continue the development devel-opment of their country, their road and harbor building, for the benefit of themselves. Above all, they want their nationality preserved. Finland's eom-1 eom-1 plaint against Russia, now happily . dissolving, was only a dozen years old, said Mr. Jansen. It dated from that extra reactionary regime which following, follow-ing, and apparently regretting, the .:zar's concessions to thp people in i'.MJ'i, sought to upset all the benefits granted Finland. Since that time, Jan-,en Jan-,en declared, Russian governors sent to govern Finland have devoted themselves them-selves largely to the difficult task of stamping out the identity of the Finns as a separate people. "Van Seyn tried to make moujiks out of the Finns," he said. "The Finns are a peaceful, patient pa-tient people. It is hard to see what the old regime feared from them. Possibly, Pos-sibly, it was simply a way of extorting extort-ing money ; 30,000,000 marks have been taken annually in taxes for the imperial im-perial government in recent years, part i.f this being spent in maintenance of Russian officials and troops in .Finland." .Fin-land." SWEDEN. News that the Swedish steamers Vesterland, Aspen and Viken, laden with grain from England, had been sunk by German submarines was received re-ceived May 19 in Stockholm and caused much indignation. The arrival of the steamships had been eagerly awaited. Tlie message which told of the sinking sink-ing said that eight members of the crew of the Viken and two men aboard the Vesterland had been lost. Newspapers News-papers united in voicing indignation at the torpedoing of the three steamers. steam-ers. The Stockholm Tidningen captions cap-tions its article, "The Germans' Dastardly Das-tardly Deed Against Sweden," and . characterizes It as a "deliberate and bloody crime." The Dagen's Nyheter says: "Our German klnderland as it . is fond of calling itself is drawing heavy drafts on the sympathies which it believes itself to possess here and for which our land has been forced to hear so many unkind words from Germany's opponents." The Nyheter declares no intelligent German need, wonder that his country has so few: friends in the world. The Stockholm' Dngblad says : "It was sympathy for Germany ns well as provisions for, Sweden that went down with the ships." The Svenska Dagbladet says : "It is plain that the Germans are proceeding pro-ceeding without the slightest elementary elemen-tary regard for our rights as neutrals." No theoretical defenses by Germany can prevent the greatest bitterness from prevailing in Sweden, says the Dagbladet. Germany's enemies, it adds, could not have desired better agitation material. The Viken was n new vessel, built in 191G, and was on her first trip. She was of 1,820 tons gross. The Vesterland was of 4,018 tons gross and built in 1907. The Aspen was of 3,103 tons gross and built 20 years ago. The German minister min-ister at Stockholm is reported to have visited the Swedish foreign minister and expressed deepest regret at the sinking of the Swedish steamers Vesterland, Ves-terland, Viken and Aspen. SCANDINAVIAN NEWS SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT HAPPENINGS HAP-PENINGS IN FAR OFF NORTHLAND. ITEMS FROM THE OLD HOME Resume of the Most Important Events in Sweden, Norway and Denmark Of Interest to the Scandinavians in America. DENMARK. . A fisherman at Shekkersten lost his ax through the ice. The water was so deep that he could not see it, and it would have puzzled a less inventive in-ventive mind than that of our fisherman fisher-man to recover the ax. He tied a fish to a lG-foot line, fastened the other i end of the line to a rock, tied a rope to the rock, and sunk the rock and the fish to the bottom of the sea through the hole where the ax had dropped. You bet it worked ! When an ax drops into the water its handle always stands up straight, of course. When the fish got to the bottom he began to swim around to get lose. But all thai he accomplished was that he wound his line around the ax handle. The next morning the fisherman simply hart to pull in the rope, and up came tlv rock, the ax, and the fish. "Jacobsen's Kvase," a famous wooden wood-en ship, had to be cut up into fuel the other day because it could not be used on the water any longer even nowadays, nowa-days, when it seems as though auything that floats can make its owner rich. This particular ship became famous in a terrible storm in 1S72. It was moored at Stettin when the storm broke loose. Soren Jacobsen was the only man in that harbor who dared to cut his way out of the harbor through the storm and the waves. It looked like perdition perdi-tion dead sure. But he saved his ship, white every other vessel in the harbor was dashed against the shore and wrecked. NORWAY. The following might apply to almost any large American city this spring, though it was written by a close observer ob-server of the conditions in Christiania early in the spring: "All vacant lots and open spaces inside the city limits are put under the plow. We have 40 acres of good soil on Thorshaug and 45 acres at Frogner outside of the regular park. At the Ekeberg manor we have 13 acres, and an equal area at the Berg estate. The entire Etter-stad Etter-stad plain lies unused. And there are many other parcels of ground. Two thousand two hundred persons have reported re-ported that they wish to raise potatoes pota-toes 2,200 city families who suddenly sudden-ly become farmers in the city. Each one of these spare-hour farmers is to have 225 square yards of ground. The poor people of the city will have 150 acres of good potato ground at their disposal. It is figured out that they will get about ISO bushels to the acre, making the whole crop 27,000 bushels. This will be a good lift to the poor people peo-ple of our city. The moral proceeds will be still more valuable. The city sees that the ground is plowed. The man quoted above has a friend who is rather philosophically inclined, and he elaborated the situation in the following follow-ing manner: "From below is that growing which is to bring a new era. I really believe that this great war, which Kaiser Wilhelin has prepared and put In operation, and which Is now distinguished by his splendid undersea weapons, will sweep the fields clean In Europe. But the princes by the grace of God and the bureaucracy by the grace of God -and other idolatry will pass away, and men will return to the earth and cultivate it. As in this city, all over the world there are fields enough to cultivate, if people only can get at them. And the common com-mon man will learn to go by the best people, who are not aristocrats and who will not ask for pay for their help and advice." A committee representing the Dutch and Scandinavian socialists has Issued a long manifesto explaining the reason rea-son for calling the conference of socialists social-ists at Stockholm and appealing to tho socialists of the world to participate. The committee hopes to come to an agreement with representatives of the Russian council of workmen's and soldiers' sol-diers' delegates, who are expected in Stockholm. Iljalmar Branting, editor of the Social Demokratcn, said that Swedish socialists could not approve former Premier Asqulth's third category cate-gory of annexations that are not annexations an-nexations those covering "strategic protection against future attack." lie said: "This Is the same unfortunate line of thought which In 1872 Induced Bismarck to persist in the demand for Metz, an absolutely French city, but n fortress which appealed to the German general staff. Tho Internationale must reject such ideas regardless of from whom they come. We should protest If the Germans demanded Liege and Antwerp. We should protest also If the British tried to carry out the same false principle." . There was a feeling of satisfaction in Norway when the United States entered en-tered the war, not so much because the Norwegians sided with the allies as because they thought the entrance of America would hasten the end of the conflict. Norway may sever diplomatic dip-lomatic relations with Germany. Every Ev-ery effort is being made to preserve neutrality, but the situation Is becoming becom-ing strained because of the many Norwegian Nor-wegian vessels sunu by German submarines. sub-marines. The people of Norway are plowing vacant lots and agriculture Is encouraged. Prices are higher and the farmers probably are better off than before. During the cold weather theaters the-aters In Norway were permitted to open only once a week, because of the fuel shortage. There will be no burning of kelp along the beach of Jaderen this year, the German submarines making It so risky to ship kelp ashes across the sea that the foreign Iodide factories are not going to get raw materials from Norway as in former years. Tnis means a serious loss to the people of Jaderen and Karmocn. The storthing employs no less than 16 regular stenographers. It Is exactly exact-ly 00 years since provisions were made for taking stenographic reports of the proceedings. The" government put an embargo on the exportation of almost all kinds of foodstuffs May 3. Among the articles may be mentioned pork, all kinds of fish, fruits, and vegetables. H. Frlertlander, a Stockholm wholesale whole-sale merchant, commemorated his seventy-fifth birthday anniversary by turning over a donation of $10,000 t th king in order to enable young men to pursue military studies abroad. Many livery barns havujiccn cloed both In the cities and the rural districts dis-tricts on account of the high cost of horse feed. To carry the mulls of captives of war has cost the post office department of Sweden 51,350,000. |