June 27, 1902 Part II

First Annual Report of the Kalevan Kansa Board of Directors 1902
Kalevan Kansa Membership 127
Financial Report

Although all the members of the KK have had a chance to follow the doings of the board of directors, as well as the different stages of our cause on the pages of the Aika-paper, it might be useful to have an overall look at the series of events that have gathered us here on this island in the Pacific Ocean.

Each and every one of us Finns feels that we are not the kind that tear down, we are the kind that build. We are not the kind that eat the fruit that the labour of others has produced, our highest goal is to grow fruit of our own labour.

We long for peace and order, but also for freedom and independence.

None of us, who have been driven away from the once so peaceful shores of Finland, can therefore say that the idea of a new Finnish homeland would be one that he made up. No! Every real Finn carries that idea in their heart, even if it looks as if he is used to the godless tumult, which is currently raging in the civilized world.

It is natural that something exceptionally good was bound to happen when the representatives of new thoughts, who left Finland in search of a new fatherland due to the latest political events, ended up among the home-seekers, who had pushed their way through into the most distant west of America. We haven’t been building a castle in the air, that wouldn’t fit in with the real conditions or be able to fight a practical battle against them. But neither have we discarded the eternal basic truths that have been forgotten by the rest of the world that is now at the brink of disaster. As sturdy as the black soil of Malcolm Island lies beneath our feet, as strongly as the legal foundation of our company is safeguarded by the Union Jack, shines the light of truth among us, guiding our steps towards knowledge and goodness.

Ever since our brothers Matti Halminen and Matti Kurikka began their correspondence, a new current has begun to grow among those of our citizens that have found their way to the continents of America or Australia. With a mysterious force this current has led together the steps of those striving towards the light and towards freedom.

Small was the group, which first started furthering the Kalevan Kansa cause here in Nanaimo and in Extension, only 20 men, from which one soon left his place. These men were: M.Kurikka, A. Oberg, H. Kilpeläinen, J. Kangas, J. Pelto, M. Halminen, P. Hakulin, G. Hermanson, V. Mattson, H. Tanttari, J. Tanttari, K. Henrikson, V. Rossi, J. Klemola, J. Parkkoomäki, H. Baund [?], V. Saarikoski, M. Löfbacka and M. Kytömaa.

But our cause has progressed steadily and surely. Since this was all about carrying out an idea, it was natural to also begin with the ideology. We first founded our own newspaper, which immediately published a pure and intransigent program, without any business-views whatsoever. They would have messed and covered up the message of the paper. The newspaper was nominally founded as a separate entity of the KK, but from the beginning on we saw to it that in the future it had to be merged into the KK colonization company. The paper has done its duty in keeping the KK-cause active, explaining questions that have not yet been so clear to our brothers and sisters.

The Aika-paper, however, had no influence in acquiring the island, because its writings are still unknown to the government as well as to the people of this country. Our ideas are just as unknown to the English-speaking citizens as the ideas of the Christians of the first century were to the Romans and the Greeks.

We have therefore often had to fight obstacles that have seemed invincible before we have been able to crystallize our idea into company articles which were in unison with the local laws, before we were able to legalize our company, before we were able to make the authorities take us seriously and get them to cooperate with the representatives of our company, and before we at last were able to make an official contract with the government about handing the island over to the K.K.C.C.

What worry and harm to the leading men of our cause has caused alone the fact that the forests of the island were taken into the care of the Industrial Power Company. This matter wasn’t properly solved until recently. All this has been unknown to the public.

The company has so far been led and run by the board of directors, which was chosen by the first shareholders. Conciliatory spirit and brotherhood has been so great among the members of the board that we have hardly ever needed to vote on issues. They have always been cleared in discussion.

The following men have been members of the provisional board of directors: August Oberg, Gustaf Hermanson, Austin McKela, Matti Halminen, Herman Tanttari, Johan Parkkoomäki, Herman Baund, Johan Pelto, Pekka Hakulin, Heikki Kilpeläinen, Johan Klemola, and Matti Kurikka as president. Hermanson has been the vice chairman of the board, McKela the secretary and Oberg the treasurer.Our cause still seemed incomplete at the end of last year, when comrades Tanner and Maikson came from Fraser River to Nanaimo. They had provisions with them and offered to take their own boat to Malcolm Island. It was a rainy autumn and the funds of the company were low. But the enthusiasm of the mentioned comrades eliminated all doubts. Other brothers were immediately asked to join and so Henrikson, Kytömaa and Rossi went along.

Our beginning wasn’t a grand one. We must, however, honour the brothers, who left to clear the first bit of wilderness in those conditions. Had they not gone through with it then, the first steps would have only been taken this spring. The work of the first expedition didn’t bring any remarkable results, but could we have demanded much?

Since then, we have made progress step by step. Our labour forces and our financial resources have grown ever since. We have now come to the point where it is no longer the fault of a few individuals, if we let our cause fail.

The KK now has 127 members, from which 20 have not within the time limit fulfilled the conditions demanded by the board of directors, and who must therefore be considered as uncertain. Some of these have actually resigned their membership, but have again applied, so that most of these 20 are likely to eventually meet each other in Sointula. In addition there have been some applications, which the board of directors has not yet decided on. Lately the number of applicants has been rising noticeably together with other progress we’ve made. Since the company’s funds have only partly been accounted for on Malcolm Island although the fund has been in Nanaimo, the board of directors cannot give exact figures of the company’s transactions in the middle of the fiscal year. The main thing is that the financial situation is very advantageous, and we haven’t been forced to make any such commitments, which we wouldn’t be able to pay on time with full certainty.

Before the 15th of this month shares had been bought for $3 313,60 in cash and for $150,00 with shares of the Aika-paper. What has been paid with labour has not yet been counted. There is $114,45 received as donations, from which $108,95 is in the piano fund and $4,00 in the immigrant help fund. $300,00 has been collected as advancement for building houses, there is $3,00 in other income. To arrange its debts, the Aika Publishing Company has been granted a $200,00 loan. The expenses have been as follows: founding expenses, travel etc. $380,30, machinery, boats and equipment, tools, kitchen utensils and other gear $1 388,90, clothes and shoes $410,90, food stuffs $1 019,40, wages $250,00, printing $100,00, medicines $3,50, rent $3,50, altogether $3 556,50, so that the company now has $174,55 in cash and $150,00 in the shares of the Aika-paper. From the machines and tools there is a credit of $600,00, and $400,00 from food and clothing supplies. Including the earlier mentioned advance payment the company has a debt of $1300,00 – not including the wages of the fullmembers.

As you see, we couldn’t have made a better or faster start without large sums of private capital or loans.

When the board of directors now hands over its power and shifts its responsibilities to the general assembly of all present KK members, it sees as its duty to once more remind every member of the great truth, which should never be forgotten, when big decisions for the company are made:

Nothing human can be built without co-operation and no co-operation is possible without order. There can be no order without leadership.

So if you wish to maintain what we already have, choose those amongst you, to whom you can entrust the leadership of your cause, but when you have chosen them, trust them as much or even more than you trust yourselves.

A nation that can permanently govern itself through trustees chosen from its own ranks, is able to rule the whole world.

Sointula, B.C. June 20th 1902

MATTI KURIKKA,
President,

AUSTIN McKELA,
Secretary

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