while the Communist Party was forced to appear in public under cover names and was able to harvest only the halo of martyrdom in the eyes of its supporters.

But the victors were by no means unanimous either; the schisms among them cut almost as deep. As soon as the fighting was done, monarchists and republicans were bitterly opposed to each other. Differences of opinion on the course of foreign policy, especially on the relationship to be sought with the Bolsheviks, seemed irreconcilable and were decided only by majority decision. The position to take on pardoning prisoners and on other settlements in the aftermath of civil war were the subject of argument for years. The language battle broke out in flames again when the independent country had to decide on the relationship between the Swedish-speaking minority and the Finnish-speaking majority. In addition to everything else, the arguments over the defense establishment seemed impossible to solve.

A counterbalance to Finland's internal weakness, nevertheless, was its advantageous foreign situation, characterized in the first years of independence both by weakness in Russia due to lack of organization and by the attempts to achieve security within the framework of the League of Nations. Thus Finnish independence did not seem threatened at that time, and it was possible to focus all attention on internal reconstruction.

The point of departure in the preservation of independence lay in the economic and cultural conditions of the country. Their development during the last few years of Russian domination formed a natural starting point. The Finnish economy was based on the activity of the enterprising farm population and on industry which utilized native raw materials. Although the Finnish economy depended very acutely on economic developments abroad, those world developments seemed favorable as far as Finnish production was concerned. In a world in the process of rebuilding, Finnish wood products in particular found an expanding market. The rising economy made possible a higher living standard, and since patriotism in spite of everything depends not only on spiritual feelings but also on what a nation can provide for its people, precisely this increased feeling of economic security and well-being was an important factor in a growing feeling of solidarity and determination to safeguard the country's independence. Linked with the growing economic capacity was action aimed at increased social welfare, appearing in manifold ways both in legislative acts and in industry, tending to level the gulf between labor and capital. In independent Finland there has

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