Finns in Minnesota

Supporting Finland During the 1930s and 1940s

64  people oF minnesota when national WPA leaders demanded access to the $1.5 million of annual sales generated by the CCE. When CCE delegates gathered for a contentious annual meeting in April 1930, the Communists’ request was voted down 186 to 43, essentially ensuring that a large majority of cooperatives would follow a politically neutral course.(These Finns, nevertheless, viewed the envisioned cooperative commonwealth as a “third way”—an alternative to both capitalism and communism.) The dissenters withdrew from the CCE andeventuallycontrolledfortysmall“UnityAlliance”stores in the Upper Midwest,one-half in Minnesota.By 1945,only a few alliance outlets remained in the state, whereas some seventy stores were affiliated with the CCE.110 The CCE’s training courses prepared hundreds of Finns for positions as store managers, bookkeepers, and clerks. Einar Kuivinen, the son of Finnish immigrants, found this training invaluable following his election as the first state president of a reorganized Minnesota Farmers Union in 1941. Raised in rural New York Mills, a community known for promoting “cooperatives for mutual benefits ,” and identified as an “extremely cooperative-minded” person, Kuivinen was president of the state’s most liberal farmers’ organization from 1942 to 1944 and 1946 to 1949, a time when it expanded from a few hundred members to nine thousand.111 Supporting Finland During the 1930s and 1940s For centuries, Finland had remained a distant and unknown place to most Americans. But then, following the convergence of three events during the mid- to late 1930s, Finland suddenly found itself receiving considerable favorable attention from the American government and public. These same events would also contribute to unprecedented unity within the greater FinnishAmerican community. First was Finland’s diligence in repaying its loans to the the Finns  65 United States.Finland was one of fifteen European nations that, from 1918 to 1920, borrowed money for relief and reconstruction purposes; the Finns used their loan to relieve a severe food shortage. In 1934, during the worldwide economic depression,Finland was the only nation that met its loan commitments. When U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull commented on Finland’s willingness to keep “faith with its financial obligations,” more than three thousand articles applauding the Finns’“consistent steadfastness”appeared inAmerican newspapers.112 Secondwasthethree-hundredthanniversaryof theNew Sweden colony,celebrated in 1938.It was originally intended as a singular Swedish American event: Finnish Americans were scheduled to mark their anniversary in 1941. The U.S. Congress, however, voted to combine both celebrations in 1937,and President Franklin D.Roosevelt quickly submitted a formal invitation to Finland. Former congressman Oscar Larson headed the national American-Finnish Delaware Tercentenary Committee, which commissioned Finnish sculptor Wäinö Aaltonen to create a large commemorative monument, dedicated in Chester, Pennsylvania, on June 29, 1938; the site included two benches fashioned from Minnesota granite. Ceremonies celebrating the Delaware valley settlement also occurred in several of Minnesota’s Finnish communities, including a Cokato program attended by Governor Elmer Benson and several thousand people.113 Third was the Soviet invasion of Finland, anticipated during summer 1939 and initiated in late November. Concerns over the fate of the civilian population saw Duluth’s Finns organize a General Relief Committee for Finland on November 7,followed two weeks later by the formation of a Help Finland Committee in Minneapolis.Both groups immediately began raising funds and collecting clothing and medical supplies.114 One week after the Soviet assault commenced on November 30, former U.S. President Herbert Hoover agreed 66  people oF minnesota to head the NewYork City–based Finnish Relief Fund,Inc., which would assist the“noncombatant population and the refugees who are the sufferers from unprovoked aggression .” Hoover traveled both to Minneapolis and Duluth; the ten thousand people who gathered in the Minneapolis Auditorium on December 29—the largest single display of American support for Finland—heard Hoover,Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, and U.S. Senator Henrik Shipstead extol the Finns’ valor, pluck, and heroism. Among the Twin Cities groups offering assistance were Swedish and Norwegian organizations and churches; the Minnesota Artists Association, whose members donated some artworks for sale at auction; participants in “Take a Hand for Finland”card tournaments who gave their winnings to relief efforts; and two St. Paul radio stations that devoted some Sunday morning programming to Finnish topics. Elsewhere, seventy Minnesota communities organized Finnish Relief Fund committees, many headed by nonFinns such as Dr.L.W.Boe,president of St.Olaf College...