society now had $209.50, more money than ever before, and a problem of what to do with it.

In Minnesota Temperance League meetings the members of the Apilanlehti had become aware of the funeral benefit societies which existed and now decided (1934) to start one of their own with the capital on hand. Their plan called for 75c annual dues from members in return for $75 to be paid in case of death, plus free coffee to be served to all at members' funerals. Expenditures, however, soon began to exceed income, so it became necessary to raise the dues to $1 and cut the benefits to $50. With this, a favorable balance was achieved, and successful program evenings and the good health of members brought the capital up to $450 in 1938.

Within this altered framework, then, Apilanlehti was in a position to carry on modest activity, to participate in the Delaware Tercentenary project and in 1939, finally, to turn its attention to Finnish relief : in a meeting in December the society donated $15 of its own funds and appointed a committee to solicit additional money. That seems, once more, to have been the last spurt of activity, but it was not until January 1947 that a meeting of nine members voted, 5 to 4, to terminate the society again - at a point where its financial status was even better than before, with $707.33 cash on hand.

Workers' societies also made their appearance on the local scene, to fall later under the IWW influence as did so many others. From at least one of them, the society in Sturgeon, there was a splinter faction which became communist and was still alive as such in the 1930s. However, these local societies did not own their own halls, for the simple reason that the halls were independently owned by associations set up for the purpose. This meant, in practice, that the halls could not be considered the property of any political organization. In Alango, for example, it was the Alango Farmers Association, set up in 1914, as the first of this kind, which owned the hall. John Hiltunen was president, Nestor Kutsi vice-president, Gust Laine secretary and Isaac Kymberg treasurer. The association invited membership and declared its purpose to be `educational and purely social activities.' For decades, then, there were dances and plays in the association's hall, which was even enlarged in 1935. In 1940, however, with only 14 members left, it was no longer possible to maintain the premises, which were then given to the local cooperative organization as a gift. This was a `cooperative guild' which had been started in 1930, with Hilda Wirtanen as its first

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