The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-04-08
SEEKING FOR NEW HONES
THOUSANDS OF YOUNG SCANDINAVIA
ANS PREPARING TO COME TO
THE NORTHWEST
FEAR MILITARY CONSUMPTION
Tide of Immigration Would BIZ.
Larger If RenIty Holdings
Could Be Disposed

immigration from Sweden and Norway
tC the wheat fields of the Northwest bids
fair to attain unprecedent proportions
this year, according to a statement made
yesterday by Mayor j. A. Johnson, of
Fargo. Mr.. Johnson has just returned
from a visit to The Scandinavian penin-
sula, after an absence of forty-siX years.
He says he was prepared to find great
changes there but the realization was
much greater than his expectation
There has been a remarkable develop
mont in all Of the countries named. The
principal cities have had extensive
growths and the advance in Industrial
lines has been something wonderful.
Sweden, he says, has just passed
through great boom and is now suffer
ing from its effects, there having been
remarkable advance in land values,
particularly in the cities. The bottom
has fallen out now, and financial de-
preston is the result. This thu eatens to
continue for some time to come. AL
ready there has been a number of dis
aStrouS failures and more are expected
Then there is the prospect of the PASS
age of a very drastic conscription law,
which will compel almost every male
person who is not too old to serve in
the army. This has been brought about
by the threatening attitude of Russia to-
wards Sweden. With the fate of Finland
staring them in the face, the Swedish
people are very much alarmed and are
preparing to defend their country and
prevent it's absorption by Russia.
These two things have caused a wide
spread feeling OF unrest and great de-
sire, especially among the young men, to
leave the country and come to the Unit
ed States. The main thing which stands
i,,
migration is the inability to sell real
estate because of the financial depres-
sion. Mr.. Johnson says that if real prop
erty could be easily disposed of there at
anything like its value, the immigra-
ton to this country would exceed in
volume anything III the history CT
Sweden.
Times in Norway, also, Mr. Johnson
says are hard because of frosts which
have injured the crops and on account
OF the great failure of the fishing IN
dGStry, which is the mainStay of that
country. A great many NorWegians are
preparing to come to the United States,
and more would come if they could get
away, but the stringent 1mmig grafton
laws of this country operate to deter
many from coming over wno have little
or no means, but who would make good
and prosperous citizens were, they once
here.
THOUSANDS ARE LEAVING
Notwithstanding the difficulties in the
way, thousands of young men are leav-
ing Scandinavia, and the Allan liner
Tunisian, upon which Mayor Johnson
sailed from Liverpool, brought ], lis pas
engers, a large number of whom intend
ed to make the Dakotas their home.
One of the things, Mr.. Johnson says,
surprised him most was the widespread
knowledge and use of the English Ian
guage in the Scandinavian countries He
says that he was given a dinner party by
the mayor of VeXio, near which city he
was born, which was attended by about
dozen gentlemen. The mayor made a
congratulatory speech in honor of his
guest in the Swedish language. While
Mr.. Johnson can speak Swedish well
enough fer ordinary conversational uses,
he found himself unable to make a lit
ting reply to the mayors address in that
language, so he reSorted to English and
discovered that, by speaking slowly,
every person at the table could readily
understand him.
While in Copenhagen, Mr. Johnson
called upon Minister Swenson, Of Albert
Lea. He says Mr.. Swenson is the most
popular representative which the United
States has ever sent to the Danish court,
and that his house Is the only one of all
those of the foreign legations in Copen-
hagen at which the members of the royal
family, from the crown prince down, feel
at liberty or inclined to call informally
Mr.. Swenson, he says, Is doing great
work for the United States, which will
be particularly felt in the matter of i'm
migration.