From the Baltic to the sea in the West, from the waving grain fields of Skane to Norrland, where rich iron deposits are found, a sad sighing is heard. It is not for some big brother that our relatives and friends in Sweden are mourning; no, it is the desire among the young people to emigrate which calls forth the sighing, this low, sad whisper which now and then bursts forth into a shout of opposition against those who are ruling the country.

In endless procession do the children of men leave their homeland to seek their fortune in far and distant lands. To America they come by the hundreds of thousands, these people whom a poor nation is giving to a rich nation. Hundreds of thousands of fully developed 'forces'! The poor country becomes poorer as it pays for the development of these 'forces', but if these people could be prevailed on to stay at home, 2then, as one author says, the poor country would become rich. This author is right.

But each cause has its defenders, and emigration from Sweden has a defender in Professor Knut Wicksell, who states his case in the popular science columns of Verdandi. He maintains that emigration is necessary, that it is even a desirable movement, which ought to be encouraged. By means of figures he seeks to show that the excess of births over deaths in Sweden is too great in proportion to the opportunities for work. An outflow of 'forces' by way of Ireland is his ideal, and he holds that if such an outflow were to take place, the Swedish people would improve their lot.

How much more sympathetic and more truly patriotic does one find the words of Eskilstuna Kuriren!

"We have been dreaming--and thousands have dreamt with us--that our dear Sweden, poor in population but vast in area, a land of mighty waterfalls, of enormous forests, and of inexhaustible deposits of ore, might some day require all of the country's native-born population.

"We had been thinking--and thousands have been thinking with us--that emigration is a national danger, that our little country cannot afford the yearly sacrifice of tens of thousands of its best young people.

"We had believed--and many thousands believed with us--that means ought to be provided to make emigration unnecessary, so that the nation could utilize these young 'forces' at home.

"For the realization of our dream it is merely necessary that the nation awaken from its state of lethargy and sluggishness; that, in addition, we find capable leaders and statesmen who are ready to take steps for the creation of a great and strong Sweden."