YMCA at Allston, Massachusets. The church gradually began to realize the importance of this field, too, and began a large-scale educational program, particularly outstanding in the field of summer schools, the first of which was held at Hancock in 1896. Three years later there were eight summer schools in the Middle West, with a total of 368 pupils, and a decade later there were 39 schools with 2,438 pupils, and in 1920 as many as 80 schools and 3,364 pupils. Many of these were in Minnesota. The subjects always included reading and writing, composition work, basic instruction in Finnish grammar and usage, the geography and history of Finland, plus practice in translation from English to Finnish. Many of the Minnesota schools operated on extremely limited budgets, sometimes even without any textbooks at all, but gradually including at least blackboards and chalk for the teachers and notebooks and pencils for the pupils. For years, the works of Topelius (a natural history and a Finnish reader) served as basic textbooks, and sometimes it was possible to order teaching manuals from Finland, until the period of World War I saw the publication of educational materials under Synod auspices, a primary reader in 1915 and a more advanced one in 1916, with supplementary materials coming from the Sunday School hymnals and from newspapers and magazines published by the church.

The Amerikan Suometar: The newspaper originally authorized by the Synod was called the Paimen Sanomat. Ten years later J. Bäck, J. Holmlund, J. K. Nikander, K. L. Tolonen and R. Ylönen established the Amerikan Suometar as a publishing company, and began publication of a newspaper of the same name on 8 June 1899, with N. J. Ahlman as editor. A year later the Synod purchased both papers and established the SuomalaisLuterilainen Kustannusliike (The Finnish-Lutheran Publishing Company) in Hancock, and the Synod thus was able to reach a wide audience of readers. In later years, this publishing company has continued to publish a considerable number of religious works. Among them has been the Kirkollinen Kalenteri, which began to appear in 1903 and has continued to appear every year since then.

Regional Conference Areas : When the activity of the Suomi Synod was at its peak, on the eve of World War I, it became apparent that work carried out on a nation-wide basis was not sufficiently effective. Even the arranging of meetings brought

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