RUSSIA. 



615 



exports of timber were valued at 113,900,000 

 marks; of butter, 23,700,000 marks; of wood-pulp 

 and cardboard, 21,600,000 marks; of iron and 

 iron manufactures, 13,100,000 marks. The values 

 of imports from and exports to different countries 

 in 1900 were in marks as follow: 



There were 8,438 vessels, of 2,017,957 tons, en- 

 tered at Finnish ports during 1900, and of these 

 5,795, of 892,007 tons, were Finnish, 706, of 117,- 

 534 tons, were Russian, and 1,937, of 1,008,416 

 tons, were foreign ; cleared, 8,562, of 2,040,088 tons, 

 of which 5,901, of 907,336 tons, were Finnish, 717, 

 of 124,771 tons, Russian, and 1,944, of 1,007,981 

 tons, foreign. The number of vessels that passed 

 through the canals in 1900 was 31,770. The tolls 

 amounted to 618,324 marks, and cost of mainte- 

 nance to 340,396 marks. 



The railroads of Finland on Jan. 1, 1901, had a 

 length of 2,931 kilometers, and all belonged to 

 the Government except 281 kilometers. They car- 

 ried in the year preceding 6,898,775 passengers and 

 2,453,700 tons of freight ; gross earnings, 27,698,000 

 marks; expenses, 20,545,254 marks; cost of con- 

 struction, 250,780,000 marks. The post-office in 

 1899 transmitted 16,639,289 letters and postal 

 cards, 19,010.557 newspapers, 3,190,429 parcels, 

 and 1,254,179 registered letters and packets; re- 

 ceipts, 3,140,667 marks; expenses, 2,577,117 marks. 



The Finnish people determined to oppose a pas- 

 sive resistance to all measures conflicting with or 

 calculated to abolish their fundamental laws by 

 refusing to comply with any imperial edicts that 

 infringed on the constitutional right of self-gov- 

 ernment which the Czar's predecessors had prom- 

 ised to respect. The Finnish Senate, which at 

 first had stood up for the ancient laws and lib- 

 erties of the nation, was altered in composition 

 and temper until it bowed to the decrees for the 

 Russification of Finland issued from St. Peters- 

 burg, and justified on the ground that they dealt 

 only with matters of imperial interest. The Sen- 

 ators deemed it unwise to endanger the remaining 

 liberties by engaging in a conflict with the impe- 

 rial power. The Russian authorities represented 

 that only the Swedish oligarchy stood behind the 

 Nationalist agitation; that the masses of the 

 Finns were convinced of the benefits of a closer 

 union with the empire. The young Finns, never- 

 theless, were unwilling to serve as Russian con- 

 scripts. They preferred to emigrate to the United 

 States and Canada, for which countries 15,000 de- 

 parted in 1901 and 1,000 were leaving every week 

 in the beginning of 1902 before the conscription. 

 Although the military service edict issued in 

 July, 1901, was not to be applied abruptly, its 

 effect could not be much softened by its gradual 

 introduction. It meant eventually four years in 

 Russian regiments side by side with Russian peas- 

 ants and under the same harsh discipline, with 

 liability to be called away from family and busi- 

 ness afterward to fight the battles of Russia on 

 her distant frontiers. It was ordered that, until 

 the new district conscription boards were formed, 

 the annual levy should be conducted by boards 

 constituted under the old law, which contain two 

 members elected annually by each commune to 



protect the interests of the recruits from each lo- 

 cality. Except in the neighborhood of the Rus- 

 sian frontier the communes generally refused to" 

 elect representatives in the boards for 'the reason 

 that the recruits would have to serve under the 

 new edict, which was invalid, being contrary to 

 the laws of the land both in substance and in the 

 mode of its enactment. The Senate ordered the 

 provincial governors to enforce penalties against 

 the recalcitrant communes. A Russian had been 

 appointed governor of one province, which also 

 was against the law of Finland, and he alone or- 

 dered some of the communes to pay heavy fines. 

 These couid not be collected because the courts 

 pronounced them illegal. The Senate then pro- 

 ceeded to nominate members on the conscription 

 boards when the clergy refused to read the army 

 edict from their pulpits, the communes would not 

 elect members to the conscription boards, and the 

 physicians resigned from the medical boards in or- 

 der to escape being assigned to the duty of exam- 

 ining recruits. This was all in accordance with 

 the Finnish patriotic program of passive resistance 

 on a strictly legal basis. Gen. Bobrikoff had al- 

 ready made the people of Helsingfors acquainted 

 with the Russian police system by doubling the 

 police force, supplanting municipal by state 

 authority, introducing a secret service, and 

 threatening to have every house watched at 

 the expense of the owner and every person en- 

 tering a house reported. This was because of 

 the monster petitions signed surreptitiously and 

 sent to the Czar and of the pamphlets and po- 

 litical handbills that continued to be printed 

 and circulated. On April 17, when recruits 

 were ordered to report themselves at Helsingfors, 

 a party of nobles and prominent burghers gath- 

 ered in the hall and jeered the Governor when he 

 attempted to read the articles of war and call off 

 the names of the recruits. The proceedings were 

 postponed, and on the following day a larger and 

 more boisterous crowd interrupted them again and 

 maltreated the officers of police. At the request 

 of Senators the Governor ordered out two sotnias 

 of Cossacks, who drove the people before them 

 with their knouts, but were stoned from the 

 houses. The Cossacks were ordered back to their 

 barracks on the promise of the citizens to dis- 

 perse. Only 57 recruits, most of them cripples 

 and invalids, presented themselves, while 800 

 stayed away. Those who reported for conscrip- 

 tion were severely handled by the people. Dis- 

 turbances occurred in Viborg that the police were 

 unable to quell. Throughout the country 60 per 

 cent, of the recruits summoned failed to respond, 

 subjecting themselves to the penalty prescribed 

 for desertion. The Government finally declared the 

 enforcement of the recruiting law postponed after 

 prosecuting some of the 15.000 recruits who absent- 

 ed themselves and being defeated in the courts on 

 the ground that the conscription law was uncon- 

 stitutional. An imperial rescript warned Fin- 

 landers that a further evasion of military duty 

 would be regarded as demonstrating the prosper- 

 ous and peaceful development of the country un- 

 der the form of government that had existed for 

 a century. In consequence of continued disor- 

 der several regiments of troops were brought from 

 St. Petersburg. The secret police kept all sus- 

 pected persons under surveillance. 



On Sept. 30 a series of imperial ordinances 

 swept away some of the constitutional guarantees 

 that were Vouchsafed to the Finns by the Empe- 

 ror Grand Duke in 1809. The supreme adminis- 

 trative authority, hitherto vested in the Senate, 

 was transferred to the Governor-General, who has 

 power conferred on him to decide any adminis- 



