Federation of the United States. This Federation was to be directed by a seven-member executive committee, which would call conventions to be held every three or four years.

The Workers' Institute: Not the least of the matters discussed at the Hancock convention was the Workers' Institute, which had been founded in Minneapolis but had been transferred in 1904 to a Duluth suburb, Smithville. "The Finnish Peoples' Institute and Theological Seminary" was the name with which the school had been incorporated, and this school now possessed an adequate site on the shore of Spirit Lake, with a 20-room house which had been remodelled into classrooms. Since funds for this work had come as contributions, the school had an indebtedness of only about $1000, and the fresh start in new surroundings seemed auspicious.

In the first annual meeting after the move to Smithville, the religious groups involved attempted to gain control of the institute, but without success. At about this time there had been much discussion in workers' circles of a school to serve their own needs, and the new school at Spirit Lake became the focus of their attention. With shares available in this Institute to anyone desiring them, at one dollar each, the socialists realized that their opportunity was at hand: in the annual meeting in 1905 the majority of votes were now theirs. Since the new masters felt that theologians did not constitute a fitting faculty for scientific instruction, a new director was chosen, K. L. Haataja, and in January 1905 the Työmies was able to report that "religion has been removed from the Institute, so that there will be more time for teaching English, mathematics, history and accounting."

The curriculum was indeed revised, to include sociology and economics, and research into the socialist movement and its party program. In the annual meeting in 1907, five of the nine members on the board of directors were now socialists. The director, Haataja, had already joined the Socialist Party, announcing, according to the minutes of the meeting, that "the whole world belongs to us, so we must disarm the bourgeoisie while we can, for knowledge is man's best weapon."

The school was renamed and became the Workers' Institute, and in the school year 1907-08 it had 71 pupils, and 70 of them were socialists. This student body organized a `comrades' student union' to discuss student problems; it published an annual called Revolution, and later a quarterly titled Ahjo (The Forge). The change was so complete that the 1909 annual meeting indicated

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