If our ancestors could only rise for a single day from the graveyard, they would marvel at all the new ones that occurred in their Finland in less than fifty years. What would they think if they looked drawn from an iron horse at a hurry, or saw a ship go without sailing against the wind, or catch a letter in a few minutes from 70 mile distance, or pull fire with a match or hear the noise of the thousand spinning iron rolls in a big spinning machine? They would consider all this for magic.
Nevertheless, many now complain that today's inventions take away from the poor worker his honest bread. Yes, it is true that hundreds of thousands in Wiborg County lost their merit when the Saima channel removed their freight goods. It is true that the railroad takes even more away, that the seaman can no longer tamper with the sewing machine and that the diligent spinning knife is in vain spinning his yarn at the cutting edge of the factory. During the transition period, it is difficult for many. But soon, now the breadless work will throw elsewhere, the machine can not be confused with the human being. She will surrender to the machine the mechanical work, requiring only body power or diligence, and retaining the chores that her thinking spirit may be with in the work. The more nature's powers are her boys and girls, the more the human time and the habits of cultivating the forces of his soul, which are so often obscured by the bodily work. She will more and more get rid of the trash of the dust, to serve God, her Creator, as his free children, and make his will on earth.
Such a great liberation work, God has introduced our age through the mechanical inventions. But it is required that the spiritual and moral powers within us must be the earthly desires superficial. What does it make for men if she gains the whole world and hurts her soul? We sat down in peace and quiet to enjoy the abundance of the new age, or forget God, to praise only the men's nose, though, the trauma of a new dust with all evil suffering will have power over us, and we shall be despised as perceived as many other people are forgiven before us in their vigilance or their courage. We who have received so much in front of our fathers must be the more humble, faithful and laborious in the work the Lord God has given us.
How our country grows in prosperity through the living forces of the new age, we see it in our eyes, and it says today's state of affairs, or political science. As history presents to us a past and already completed time, the statistics record the present conditions that are still in the process, and treat them with each other, or in earlier times. This is instructive. It shows us with illustrative figures if a country goes forward or back in prosperity, population, good practice, knowledge or more. Since 1865, there is a statistical office in Helsinki, which each year weighs on its scale as well, what the country is worth.
If we ask this vicious value meter then he answers that in 1810, the income of the Finnish krona, taxes and tulip burden and other funds amounted to 6 million 700 000 marks in the current currency. In 1835, they had risen to 8 million 560,000 marks; but currently they average up to 20 million a year. About the country, ie the individual assets, we get an idea, when we know, that the crop's harvest is estimated to be 100 million in common years; annual commodity trade in trade and shipping amounts to between 160 and 240 million; that the factories produce more than 30 million, the rockworks for 8 million a year; that butter is carried out in ordinary years for 10 to 12 million, and that the exports of planks, tar, wood and other forest products since 1867 exceeded 30 million, but 1873 and 1874 more than 40 million, which, however, are due to temporary high prices for the foreign market.