The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1902-08-15
EDUCATION OF THE swEDE.

education and is moulded by enviro-
nment, y said DR.. Andreen land this
is equally true of whole commun-
ity, whole nation. Our education
in the first place American. We or
our forefathers all came here from
diffel ent parts of Europe; we have
settled here in one common country
which we call America; we breathe
it's air and enjoy its advantages
and it is psychologically impossible
to live III a country without learning
to love it.
Il would have you, citizens of
Iowa and Sioux City, speak with
special pride and ambition Of your
great state and of your lovely city.
Not only we who are born here love
this great country of our, but the
immigrants who came here forty
and fifty years ago and became
good and loyal citizen. And pre-
haps nothing contributed more to
the awakening and strengthening
of it's feeling than the struggle. of
the civil war. The men of the north,
who for thousand years in their
history had enjoyed liberty, at once
placed themselves when they arrived
in this country on the side which
battled for liberty and for union.
When Lincoln, after the attack on
Fort Sumter, called for 10000
volunteers and later for 100000
there were hun dreds and thousands
Swedish Americans who offered
their services voluntarily. On all
the great battlefelds of the civil
war their bones lie bleaching as a
testimony to their loyalty. .
"After the war has come the great
economic advance Of America.
And in this advance the sons Of the
north have participated, have done
their share in retaining this
western country and making it
bloom as rose. They have partic-
ipated in the social, religious, edu-
cational and political work, and
have there shown the same honest
and sterling qualities as they did in
conquering the original desert, as
these plains were once well nonin-
ated. They have been imbued with
the American spirit IF progress, self
reliance and success.
1--WE of America, however. must
never forget that the roots of our
civilization are in old Europe. The
struggles of which we read in
history, fought on European soil dur
ing more than two centuries, have
made our American civilization
possible. Every battlefield in
Europe, where noble purpose and
love of liberty led the army, has
fructified also our American soil
and made POSSIBLE the splendid ad-
vance of the two centuries in this
country. Hence, when we think
of the elements of our education as
an American people, our thouhts 60
back not only to Linhcoln in
Illinois, to Washington in Virginia
and to Otis in Bospton-our thoughts
must also cross the ocean and con-
sider the great debt in which we
stand to the fatherland of America,
northwestern Europe.
Each special contingent here
has a right to think with special
fervor of the land where his father
labored; the Celt of Scotland and
Ireland, the Anglo-Saxon of England,
the German of the Rhine and Oder,
and the men of the north of the
Scandinavian peninsula. From
all these countries have come the
valuable contributions to American
advance and civilization. We Swed-
sh-Americans love to remember
tho hero king, Gutavus Adolphus,
who gave his life. together with so
many Of his people, for the boon
Of political and religious liberty
The best of the education, the
noblest of the qualities which we
inherit from the north we should
ever retain; that should ever be our
contribution to the qualities which
ought to belong to ideal American
manhood-honesty, industry, single
ness of purpose aid religious feeling.