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Among the more important conditions of industrial
development, personal capacity is always the most
important. We have spoken of the workmen, of their
progress, capacity, and wages. Just as important are
the personal qualities found in the heads of the
different industries. One reason for our belief in the
industrial future of Finland is that the same men are
able to manage business of varying kinds; the same
names reappear as heads of different departments.
This fact leads us to believe that they are as well able
to develop industries which belong naturally to the
country as those which merely live by artificial tariff
protection.
It is not without reason that the wealth of the
waterfalls is spoken of. In 1889 the chief of the
Department of Communication, the late Baron G.
Alfthan, ordered an examination of the waterfalls;
but although this examination has not been extended
to the rivers running out into the Polar Sea and the
White Sea, nor to the northern portion of the rivers
running down to the Gulf of Bothnia, 700 falls with
above two million horse-power have been measured.
It is true that the utility of the falls in the
northernmost part of the country is less because of the ice at
the bottom during the greater part of the year, and of
other impediments; and in a great number of other
rivers the power of the falls is dissipated in rapids
instead of forming concentrated water-power. This is
in consequence of the somewhat low elevation of the
country. Among the large lake systems, however, the
lakes not only form reservoirs securing a regular supply
of water, but the large body of water coming out from
these lakes creates everywhere a sufficiently
concentrated force. Large falls are found in the northern
rivers running out into the Gulf of Bothnia, but in
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