never been cause of speaking of rapacious capitalism and oppression of labor; the actions which were taken, and which the bourgeois supported, made any such talk untenable as a political slogan.

Just as significant for the development of unity was the cultural development. The very achievement of independence presupposes a definite, high cultural level. Although Finland had many shortcomings in this respect, even before their independence the people had met these qualifications and thereby had been able to rise to a national consciousness. Independence placed the intellectual and economic weapons in their own hands, and cultural advance could be directed toward aims chosen independently. Although the Finns did not show sufficient vigor in the pursuit of higher intellectual culture, by which an international cultural level is measured, so much the more attention was paid to cultural work to benefit the masses. In the growth of national consciousness this fact, plus the spirit with which this cultural mission was accomplished, has had a decisive significance : the loyalty of the ignorant is the passivity of the slave, while unity is conscious adjustment which only the educated can make. The expansion of the school system and the stipulation of compulsory education have formed the foundation of Finnish cultural life. Voluntary educational work, especially in workers' circles, has taught the love for the western way of life, for democracy, which, in spite of all its shortcomings, is capable of progress and safeguards the greatest treasure: individual freedom. As late as November 1917 the people of Finland were half-grown in this respect, but the trials of the last two decades have enlightened them. The opportunity that democracy offered, of participation in the political life of the state in terms of proportional representation, accustomed the left to have faith in parliamentary processes. In elections not much more than a year after the civil war, the Social Democrats again received 80 seats in Parliament and became the biggest political party. Although some changes in this figure later took place, the left kept more or less the same representational strength throughout the period under discussion. It gave a strong basis for the reform legislation which the party fostered in Parliament and which was aimed at the improvement of the economic position of the working class.

Since Parliament also had a sufficient number of bourgeois members who realized the necessity for these social reforms, it was possible to cooperate across party lines, and the resulting numerous reforms proved to the workers the efficacy of the parlia

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