Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1939-04-27
Thousands Meet
In Welcoming
Danish Couple
Capacity Attendance Shows
Esteem in Which Royal
Pair is Held.

The two-day welcome Minnesota
accorded the Danish Crown Prince
and Princess must have made their
hearts warm with appreciation. From
the first moment they set foot onto
soil until they waved good
bye at the Milwaukee station in st.
Paul, Prince Frederik and Princess
Ingrid were objects of admiring thou
sands. The climax of the welcome
was reached when public reception
in their honor was held Saturday
night in the huge Minneapolis audi
forum at which a program of music
and speaking was enjoyed.
Valdimar Bjornson, radio COM
mentator and Minneapolis Tribune
editorial writer, spoke to the throng
and welcomed the couple in behalf
of the Icelandic people and Hjalmar
Petersen, former governor, spoke in
behalf of the Danish people. Gov
ernor Harold E. Stassen gave the Of
fetal state welcome and all this was
answered by the Crown Prince.
Text of Bjornson's Talk.
Native-born Icelanders and their
descendants in America experience a
particular pleasure in greeting your
Royal Highnesses, who are the first
members of the Danish royal family
ever to visit this country. History
gives sentimental point to that pleas
ure, for it was the great-grandfathe
of your Royal Highness, Crown Prince
Frederik-His Majesty, the good King
Christian IX-who was the first of all
to visit Iceland The strains
of Iceland's prayerfully majestic ma
tional anthem, played and sung here
tonight, were first heard when they
in the ears of Christian TX
and his attendants as they visited
Iceland in 1874, celebrating the one
anniversary of the Saga
Isles first settlement.
Christian TX brought with him to
Iceland, IS years ago this summer,
the constitution which paved the way
for restoration of liberties enjoyed
ten centuries before by the nation
which has still today the worlds
oldest existing parliament. Those
whom the ties of birth and kinship
Join with that northern isle are, nat
urally, happy at the privilege of well
coming the great-grandson of an
esteemed benefactor.
Proud of Danish Union.
Celebrating, as Iceland did on the
first of last December, the twentieth
of her Independent status
in the Danish-Icelandic union, Ice
landers and their descendants rejoice
in the amity of the bond which unites
them with Denmark in the person of
the king. Neither nation is large.
the state which tonight
rejoices in the privilege and honor of
being host to your Royal Highnesses,
is twice the size of Iceland and five
times larger than Denmark, yet the
fertile fields of Denmark support a
population about 80 times greater than
that of Iceland, and million more
find homes in Denmark
than in Minnesota. In Denmark, Ice
land has friendly "big brother" in
the Scandinavian family of nations,
and in the Danish dynasty it has a
royal family dear to the hearts of
those who love liberty and who adj
mire unfailing tact and friendly lead
ership.
In greeting the royal guests whom
so warmly welcomes to-
night, and honoring thereby the ma
ton they symbolic, I have been
asked to speak as well for the Ice
Ianders of all North America, in a
request which has come from the
committee of the Thjod-
raeknisfjelag Islendinga Vestur-
heimi, or Icelandic National League,
with headquarters in Winnipeg, Man
itoba-a group which is the official
spokesman, on this occasion, for the
10000 Icelanders, native born and
first and second generation in this
country, who are now numbered in
Canada and the United States.
Greetings From Icelandic People.
Personal ties are made warmer by
this glimpse of your Royal Highness,
Prince Frederik, and of your gra-
cious wife, her Royal Highness, Prin-
cess Ingrid, whose father, Crown
Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, was
80 welcome guest here last year.
You are royalty after democratic
Americas own heart. The warmth
If personal greeting encompasses
along with you, however, the people
whom you tonight symbolic. I speak
Tor the Icelandic portion of your dual
as one whose parents left
iceland in childhood. This brief word
If greeting might fittingly close with
he citation of another extended to