Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-05-31
NORSEMEN GRATEFUL TO THEIR
MOTHER COUNTRY.
Notable CELEBRATION IN MIN
NEAPOLIS.
.rof. julius E. Olson Delivers an
Grafton Full Of Patriotic Sentiment
Duty of Scandinavians to Their
Adopted CounGy-Their American
CitiZenships.

Minneapolis, May T.-Norwegian in
dependence day was celebrated here
today by monster gathering OF Scan
dina VANS who listened to various
addresses, the most notable of which
was that given by Prof. julius E.
Olson, of the University Of Wisconsin.
1t was remarkable for the noble Amer
lean spirit breathing through it as
we'll as for the loyal Morse sentiment
it contained. Prof. Olson in part said
! L have noticed that this is not an
exclusively Norwegian celebration
: SWedes and Danes have also been in
yited to participate. l am glad to
! see it. Warmly as my heart today
beats for old Norway, L shall never
! theless, in what l have to say, guard
! against the prejudiceS OF PATRIOTISM
| and shall not purposely utter u word
! 10 wound the feelings of any one. AS
| a Scandinavian of American birth,
anxious to see a kindly feeling OF
kinship among all the Scandinavians
! OF America, / sincerely regret that, in
y >.
! cOmDatS has been Waged between
! Norway and Sweden, for every new
combat has an aftermath OF bitterness,
! prejudicial not only to the stability OF
! the union OF the two countries, but
! also TO the good fellowship OF the two
nationalities even in this country. 1t
! is useless for the ScandinayianS in
!
dtical difficulties between the mother
countries. We may have our ,convic-
lions Oh the questions at issue, and
! may, at the proper time and place,
give expression to them, but this
should never be done in words of
wrath, and certainly not at all on a
day when we are bubbling over with
enthusiasm, and feel like embracing
the whole world. Let us, then, rather
rejoice in the SiOrieS OF d common
origin and common ancestry, treat
4.tuu other IS brothers. and not lend
ourselves to the easy TASK OF tanning
the flames of national jealousy.
We need not, at a celebration like
this, confine ourselves to recounting
the deeds Of the doughty Norwegians
of 1914, whose patriotic efforts were
embalmed in the Constitution of the
18th of May. There are other things
to be said of pre-eminent Importance
to the ScandinavianS as a WHOLE
things, too, that may even please and
instruct our American friends. In fact,
this day may be Of vast and varied
interest, if we celebrate it with broad
guaged and sensible enthusiasm.
Surely no thoughtful American will
pass cenSure upon us. if we, as Scan
uInavlanS, occasionally come together
to commune with the spirit of our
fathers, and review their achievements
in history. That spirit and those
achievements are of such a nature as
to enhance our appreciation OF the
duties of American citizenship.
And for other reasons than those of
blood and patriotism wi we do well
10 continue our love for the Scan
dinavian countries, for they are a
source of perennial interest And
they are of interest to others than
ScandinavianS. | need not mention
scandinavian literature, which long
has enjoyed the enthusiastic admira
ton of a galaxy of foreign scholars.
But to the historical student, for in
stance, these countries are, in a sense,
newly discovered lands. Thus, some
recent German and English investi
gators are emphatically maintaining
:hat these lands have played a more
important role III the drama Of Euro
| pean history than the world is yet
! prepared to e,-ScandinavianS
least of all. scandinavian scholars
! have been, and still are, too much in
clined to believe that their early an
ceStOrs were but an insignificant part
| Of a greater race, the German,-that
! their speech and characteristics are
! the heritage of a greater TeutOnic
| mother Able European scholars are
now contending that Scandinavia was
! the mother, and that the various Teu-
! tonic tribes, from Goth to Saxon, were
her children. In fact, it is already
pretty we'll established that in print
| tive times Scandinavia was a veritable
| cradle of races, "a mandatory of
nations" and that the historical Viking
! Age was but the last of a series Of
! viking ages. 1t would seem that
every country in Europe has, at one
time or another, received such a fructi-
flying stream Of emigration from the
! Scandinavian North as has flowed over
the broad prairies of this Northwest.
That tall, fair-haired blue-eyed race,
whose origin has bewildered scholars,
and has been a puzzle in the history
of every European people from the
4 Greeks to the Celts, is indigenous to
the soil of the Scandinavian peninsu-
las and to no other country in the
world. There it has lived since the
very dawn of European history. There
j a civilization budded and developed
that was Enthusiastically northern.
: And from this northern hive, IN the
course of ages, tribe after tribe
swarmed over all Europe, lending to
every nation with which they came
in contact northern blood and north
} ern spirit.
: This theory. which novelty puts at
: a disadvantage. seems startling, but
!. the cumulative force of the evidence
/ in support of it is equally startling.
The fact is. that the history of Scan
/ dinavia has. within the last decade
been the object of much learned dis
cussion, from which it has become evil
dent that Scandinavian antiquities
| must be much more carefully consid
= III q