05/23/2026
Here is the second article from Aika May 23, 1902. This is written by Matti Kurikka, one of the founders of Sointula.
OBJECTIONS
The Need for Money
Life Without Authorities and Underlings
My comrade A.B.M. recently mentioned that the great Darwin once said it was the stupidest people who are always sure that this or that endeavour will never succeed. But the wiser and more experienced a person is, the more careful he will be in speaking out decisive claims on an
issue that is not fully clear to him. The strangest thing is that also in this case, stupidity and churchliness always go hand in hand. How self-assertive were the bishops and other
representatives of churchly wisdom in their infallibility, when they mockingly asked Columbus: if the earth were round, then how could it stay in its place in the air and how can the people
underneath stay on its surface without falling down? Right now we are living underneath, but we are still not “falling” into the air. The claims of those suspecting the cause of the Kalevan Kansa [People of Kaleva, KK] are just as wise. “How can hundreds of men stay unanimous?” “How can a cause like this be started without large sums of money?” “What kind of living is living without authority and underlings?”
These are the questions that are being asked all over, and if the person asking can’t get a straight answer right away, he is certain that a satisfactory answer cannot be given at all.
How can thousands of men in the Dunsmuir company be unanimous? Because they are forced to be. He, who doesn’t want to go to work unanimously, can stay away from work. And then he doesn’t have to go to the porridge pot either, i.e. get his monthly pay. Has the KK cause
purposelessly been organized in the form of a modern incorporated company? No! We have resorted to an intermediate form of the development in practice, because the current members of the KK themselves are products of a capitalistic society and in the beginning they will long for the same type of means to reach unanimity that they are used to in the markets of the world. But as the entire KK has become acquainted with the new conditions where the old forms are unsuitable, they will be easy to get rid of.
So how are we to stay unanimous When needed, we are to have authorities, who demand obedience. Will anyone let a half wild horse loose in a pasture? No. But as soon as it is tame enough, lets others pet himself and be harnessed, then it can be let go on its own. Such is the case with the members of our company as well. Those who come to work for the company in order to become full members, but are still not quite aware of the laws of harmonious community life and organized free labour, they need a leader. The K.K.C.C. is an incorporated company, which requires its officials to keep an eye on the interests of the company, just as any other company would. Let the men themselves choose, under whose directions they would preferably work. But he who has been chosen, needs to be obeyed. If he is unsuitable a new one will be chosen.
How can a big project like this be started without large sums of money?
Did Abraham have large sums of money when he moved from the civilized east to the west of the time? Did the first Finns have large sums of money, when they first moved to the Finnish peninsula? And what about William Penn when he arrived in Pennsylvania?
It is work that creates riches from nature, not money.
It is true, however, that nowadays money is needed, if one wants to have a cultural life in addition to just taking care of the necessities of life. But does a worker of today have a cultural life? Is he sure of its continuation, if he just happens to be one of the lucky ones at the moment? Nothing of the kind! Compared to Malcolm Island the mining town of Extension is like a muddy backyard compared to a blooming meadow. The three dollars earned per day is compensation for
continuous humiliation and subordination compared to the freedom and comradeship that brightens everyone’s face on Malcolm Island, even though the dinner table isn’t groaning with pies and greasy meat-dishes.
But if our cause is urgent, if we want to liberate ourselves from the capitalistic society as soon as possible - in this case we do need money, large sums of money, at least several thousand dollars. And we are bound to get it. One congenial spirit after the other is waking up from his sleep, sighing deeply and thinking: “a man should be taken by his words” and “matters are cleared by talking”. After Väinämöinen [The epic hero of the Finnish national epic Kalevala. Translator’s note.], no one has been able to create something new simply by singing. If we want to acquire modern machines that will help us get our island into a habitable condition without wasting our labour and if we want to turn our company into a profitable business, then of course we need money. But what is stopping our congenial spirits from coming here with their belongings, from investing their money into the shares of our company, from getting a house and a lot from the company, from doing the kind of labour for the company he is fit for, and from fulfilling his physical and spiritual needs and those of his family in the protection of the company? What in the Lord’s name is stopping you? What is holding on to you so hard, dear brothers, that you are dawdling and hesitating, you, who happen to have a thousand dollars or two? Do you really feel so safe in the turmoil of roaring America, that you have a reason to assume you will lose the good that you have, lose it here, where nature is full of riches and friends full of affection? Poor people, you are so blind. When light has changed into darkness, is it any wonder that darkness is so great? You are afraid to look ahead, even though you can already see the bright morning sun. You can see each small shadow cast by a stone or a stump, but you cannot see the light yet. Your
mind is still set on continuing the game that the capitalistic system has fooled you into, a game you have become accustomed to. A gambler doesn’t have time to look out for a storm that is rising, to help his dying friend or take part in a sing-a-long. After all, just then they might draw his ticket. It’s the same thing with many of you, my dear friends. Although ten of you could unanimously free yourselves and a hundred others from wage slavery, you keep on looking for
good “places” at the risk of your life.
But let us not condemn each other. Each one of us knows our own personal reasons and motives best. It is true, that we do need money for our great endeavour, but it is not a question of large sums. Slowly and steadily we have already managed to collect so much that our cause is not put into shame, although many congenial spirits are doing their best to disgrace it.
So what will become of life without authority and underlings?
Yes, we are indeed striving towards a life, where no one neither orders nor obeys, because just as ordering is brutal, obeying is degrading. But how we will arrive at this stage of development can naturally not be clear to those still living at a Mosaic stage of development. In their limited and animalistic world orders and punishments are a necessity.
But has the reader ever seen well raised children, who are never ordered around, but who always do what their mother and father tell them to do? They are children whose parents have taught them to choose between right and wrong, between good and bad by themselves, as soon as their understanding has taken its first steps. They are children, whose parents never get angry, but nevertheless punish.
Ordering is brutal and obeying is degrading! Many a gifted child understands this better than their
parents living in darkness. These innocent creatures, you see, have been to the place where one doesn’t order or obey, later than their parents. A true human is asked, and if one is not a savage, one will be ready to grant the request.
It is that small word “please”, which shows that in the Anglo-American world personal equality has long since been recognized. This word, you see, proves, that they have long since learned to realize, that by asking politely one can make even the proudest and most obstinate person to consent to something, only inferior races can be brutally ordered.
Are we Finns worse than other Americans? Is it because an American has been rolled into the wage-slavery of business tycoons in the last decades, that we would have lost our natural sense of freedom up to the point where we are not able to fulfill our duties without the constant “hurry
up”? If there are such individuals, we will simply drive them away. The spiritual nobility we are planning to grow and develop into, is a selected body that can’t accept just anyone.
I have grown up in a home where the master would smoke and chat with his hired men and always tried to stay on friendly terms with them, and yet his orders were always carried out. In the old days this happened everywhere in Finland where the master would drink buttermilk from the same pail with his day-labourers. Was the work not done because of this?
As you see, the claims the opponents of our cause are presenting in their ignorance are so very weak. And they do not have any stronger arguments against us. Because there can be none. Just as ludicrous as the arguments of the opponents of Columbus, are the arguments of those who claim that temperate, Finnish workers couldn’t organize into a legal and great incorporated company, which guarantees a permanent job to its members. Following the example set by the Finnish farmers of the old times, the company will organize its affairs in a way where it finally neither has to buy anything from the outside nor sell anything to the outside. All heavy labour will be done by the machines and man, liberated from the curse of labour, can direct his attention to intellectual pursuits and eternal ideals.
Matti Kurikka
