The desire of the Republic to “play fair” was manifested in another little trait that interested me a good deal.  In the window of every book-shop in Spain a translation from the Portuguese, entitled Los Escandalos de la Corte de Portugal, is prominently displayed.  It is a ferocious lampoon upon the royal family and upon Franco; but in Lisbon I looked for it in vain.  On inquiry I learned that it had been prohibited under the Monarchy, as it could not fail to be; but, had there been any demand for it, no doubt it might have been reprinted since the revolution.  There was apparently no demand.  The people to whom I spoke of it evidently regarded it as “hitting below the belt.”  “We do not fight with such weapons,” said a leading journalist.  In no one, in fact, did I discover the slightest desire or willingness to retail personal gossip with respect to the hated Braganzas.

THE CRUSHING OF FINLAND

A.D. 1910

JOHN JACKOL BARON VON PLEHVE
BARON SERGIUS WITTE J.N.  REUTER

In the midst of progress comes reaction.  The far northern European country of Finland had for a century been progressing in advance of its neighbors.  It was a true democracy.  It had even established, first of European lands, the full suffrage for women; and numerous women sat in its parliament.  But Finland was tributary to Russia; and Russia, as far back as 1898, began a deliberate policy of crushing Finland, “nationalizing” it, was the Russian phrase, by which was meant compelling it to abandon its independence, adopt the Russian language, and become an integral part of the empire under Russian officials and Russian autocracy.

Under pressure of this repressive policy, the Finns began leaving their country as early as 1903, emigrating to America in despair of successful resistance to Russia’s tyranny.  Many of them were exiled or imprisoned by the Czar’s Government.  Then came the days of the Russian Revolution; and the Czar and his advisers hurried to grant Finland everything she had desired, under fear that her people would swell the tide of revolution.  But that danger once passed, the old policy of oppression was soon renewed, and was carried onward until in November of 1909 the Finnish Parliament was dismissed by imperial command.  All through 1910 repressive laws were passed, reducing Finland step by step to a mere Russian province, so that before the close of that year the Finlanders themselves surrendered the struggle.  One of their leaders wrote, “So ends Finland.”

We give here first the despairing cry written in 1903 by a well-known Finn who fled to America.  Then follows the official Russian statement by the “Minister of the Interior,” Von Plehve, who held control of Finland in the early stages of the struggle, and was later slain by Russian revolutionists.  Then we give the very different Russian view expressed by the great liberal Prime Minister, Baron Sergius Witte, who rescued Russia from her domestic disaster after the Japanese War.  The story is then carried to its close by a well-known Finnish sympathizer.