Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-01-29


those trees into bolts. She took her
hus bands spokeshave and rived those
out into shingles-good white cedar
shingles. She packed them nicely
into bunch and took that bunch on
her back on a dark November day
with the snow sitting down, She. took
that bunch of shingles five miles
through the woods on her back and
battered 1t at the corner store for
bread for her children and medicine
for her husband. Now, my friends.
that woman does not need to be
Americanized. She is Americanized al
ready from the start tapplause) and
she is filled. as most every Swede in
that colony is filed. with the old. orig
inal sound principles of our Puritan
fathers. Of our Pilgrims who landed
800 years ago on Plymouth Rock
honesty. religion. industry. economy
and love for all that is high. and hate
for all that is base and low
Now, my friends. at the first of ii
many thought in the Legislature of
Maine that the Swedes would be pau
pers. and the general opinion among
the Americans settled in northern
AroostooK around them was that the
thing would never be a success in the
world and that within a year every
body would clear out, the Swedes
probably go west and the whole thing
be failure. My own American
friends around there used to come in
there out of curiosity and spend the
night now and then and spy around to
see how things were going on. Soon
after I got the Swedes in there / was
going out one morning and / overlook
one of the principal men of Caribou.
the nearest village. He had been in
ever night and was going out Well.
I was glad to have company and I
commenced to talk to him and tell
him what magnificent people these
Swedes were. what a great success it
was going to be. and that II was go
ing to make the wilderness blossom
like the rose, for I was enthusiastic
in those days and I stuffed him chock
full. He did not take it in very read
lily. He stood it just as long as he
could and at last. when he could stand
it no longer, he turned on me and
looked me squarely in the face and
said: 'Mr. Thomas. you may say
what you like. but tell you there aint
bottles enough in that colony to hold
the tears those poor deluded crea-
lures will shed before their first win
ter is. out" Well. now. there are a
great many bottles in the colony. and
7 40 hal;
tear in any one of them, and there
has not been drop of rum in any
one of them either, and the colony
has succeeded.
Now. my friends. that colony has
gone on; it has broadened out it's
clearings. They are smooth and
beautiful fields now of grain and
grass. and the great potato fields
where the long lines of potatoes, so
beautiful in bloom, run way to the
horizon, and they are happy in there.
They have succeeded. They have
fine farm houses, 1-2 stories the
most of them: well-built great
barns: large potato houses. They
soon had the best horses in Aroos-
took county. They have now COS
as good automobiles as there are
anywhere. They have their schools
as we'll as their churches and l want
to tell you one fact about the schools
which I found there. We had a cele-
bration last summer, some of you
know of it. We celebrated the fif-
tieth anniversary and we were proud
to celebrat cit. Now, they have II
schools, some of them graded. Those
schools all taught the English lam
guage by Swedish schoolmasters and
schoolmarms, and that is not all.
There are today seven Swedish
schoolmarms teaching in the adjoin-
ing American towns-teaching Eng
lish to the Yankee boys. They are
us, my friends, and
the secret of it all is this. Frugality.
honesty, hard work, religion-but the
principal and chief of all is hard
work. Now that is the secret of the
future Of Maine. We have alto
gether too much wilderness land that
is not populated. We have today too
many abandoned farms in Maine.
many of them in the older counties
of the State. What we need is men
who will go into the wilderness and
men who will take abandoned farms.
We want first of all, our own sons to
do that. understand there is today
in the older counties over 1000 aban-
doned farms with buildings on them.
That my friends ought not to be in
this good State, of Maine. Let us
have this policy in the State, to get
men here, good men, the best of men.
their wives and families and in some
way without too much aid, for I do
not believe in coddling people, get
honest. Industrious, working men
with their families, without too much
expense to the State. to take I'D and
occupy and turn into farms such
portion Of the timberlands of Maine
as are adapted to agriculture. and
also to assist our own sons and get
if We can, to take I'M
these abandoned farms. Then Maine !
will go ahead. Did you know that
N 1850 Names advance stopped?
Maine not only stopped but went !
backward in population for the first |
and only time in her history. In 1870
our good State of Maine numbered I
1864 less population than she did fer
years before. She stopped in her ad. |
vance. she paused. Then came .
wave of good sons and daughters |
from across the ocean. That wave |
Checked the retrograde movement
Ebb tide was turned to flood. ana |