In the early part of 1880, the well-known Swedish newspaperman, Stadling, completed a long visit to the United States and published, on his return to Sweden, a splendid book about America, a book which shows strict impartiality and a keen sense of observation, but contains very little of interest about the Swedes in America. Cecile Gohl, Ernst Beckman, and others have also written their impressions of America. But all fail to grasp the story of Swedish-America.

Waldenstrom studied America, and the Swedes here, from a biased viewpoint, and left, as a result, an incomplete and unsatisfactory portrayal of Swedish life on this side of the Atlantic. Isidor Kjellberg and E. H. Thornberg have 2done more justice to the subject, but the former handled it too briefly, giving only sketchy impressions in a few short articles, and the latter devoted, in his newspaper articles, more space to other questions.

The one who has most truly and most comprehensively described Swedish-America, as it manifests itself in daily life, is Johan Person, in his collection of narratives entitled In Swedish-America, as well as in other sketches and articles in the newspapers to which he has been a contributor.

However, he is himself a Swedish-American, and what a Swedish-American has to say, be it as true as the gospel, and be it presented in the most perfect form, wins no hearing in Sweden. Critics and other literary judges cannot, of course, deny it recognition, but no effort is made to recommend it. The general public remains unimpressed, and is content to keep its old, idiotic conceptions of Swedish-Americans, rather than listen to a Swedish-American's account of his countrymen.

If anything is to awaken the Swedes' interest in their compatriots it must be written by an outstanding figure from Sweden itself. Therefore, I had high hopes when I first read about Wickstrom's intended visit to America. But this traveler found so much of interest in Japan that he had no time left for Swedish-Americans.

One thing is certain--no foreigner can get an authentic conception of the life and environment of our people during a three-thousand-mile cross-country tour where the few short stops are taken up by banquets and lectures. His opportunity for personal observation is nil, and the information he may absorb is naturally anything but comprehensive; he collects garbled word pictures and does not come face to face with reality. The persons with whom he comes in contact cannot always give him a true impression of Swedish-American life and spirit.

In Vestkusten (The West Coast) I read that Dr. Wickstrom, while in San Francisco, was a guest at a banquet that was to be very select, being 4arranged by one of that city's most admirable and intelligent Swedes. Through some carelessness in selecting the guests there was a snob in attendance, a man who only wants to be Swedish on special occasions, such as visits by dignitaries from Sweden. A traveler who does not stay long enough in one place to observe conditions carefully, and who meets such men as this one, naturally gets a distorted idea of Swedish-American history and progress. It takes time, much time, to come to a proper understanding of small but important details.

I see by Dr. Swensson's letter to Svenska Tribunen, dated May 16, that he heard Dr. Wickstrom speak in Denver, and received the impression that the speaker "knew that some Swedish-Americans were engineers, draftmen, or orators and that one had been a governor, but aside from this appeared to be unfamiliar with Swedish-American life, and appeared to be certain that the public in general knew little or nothing about the Swedes in America." In short, he had as little knowledge of us as have Swedes in Sweden generally.

Dr. Swensson sums up this man's knowledge thus: "He knows that we are many, that we send money home to Sweden to keep our relatives; he knows that we are well-liked as servants, maids and common laborers; but he does not know that the Swedish people in America already are a cultural force; that they take prominent places in every conceivable field; that they have a highly respected name in schools and universities, both as teachers and students; that they are prominent in the world of affairs, in the arts, and in music; and that they participate in a live manner in political life etc."

Dr. Swensson expresses the hope that the traveler will realize that the Swedes in this country know far more about Sweden than many of those at home.

Since we now must give up the hope that through Wickstrom the achievements and victories of our people, in material as well as spiritual realms, may become known in Sweden, we must direct our expectations toward another visitor, Carl Sundbeck, a Swedish philosopher who formerly lived in America. Sundbeck has published in Sweden a book called The Swedes in America. He 6has been granted a state subsidy of 3,000 Kronor to enable him to study the Swedish emigrants and their children, as well as the English language, and the interests and educational activities of the Swedish-Americans. He intends to travel through the United States, and remain long enough to familiarize himself thoroughly with his subject. Under these circumstances we can expect that he will succeed better than his predecessors in convincing the Swedes at home that they have no reason to look down upon us or to pretend superiority.

A Swedish-American, Dr. Gustaf Andreen, has, during a prolonged visit to Sweden, given many lectures on the Swedish-Americans and, in addition, has been successful in awaking interest in one of the Swedish-American institutions of learning. It is to be hoped, of course, that Mr. Sundbeck will succeed in promoting a closer relationship between Swedish-America and Sweden.

"How much greater prospects of success these recent endeavors would have had, 7had they been started a little earlier!" Thus a Stockholm newspaper editorializes, recalling the almost forgotten incident at the Riksdag of 1869, when an unusually far-sighted and patriotic man, C. A. Lindhagen, Counsellor of Justice, sponsored a government project to send all the Swedish emigrants to the Upper Mississippi Valley, which at that time was almost wholly unpopulated. If his plan had been accepted, there would be in Minnesota, the Dakotas, and the bordering parts of Canada a Swedish section with perhaps 1,500,000 inhabitants, a land where the Swedish language and Swedish culture would be preserved.

Not a single voice in the Riksdag was raised for the acceptance of Lindhagen's motion. He had asked only 30,000 Kronor, too, to cover the cost of leading the emigrants to the new territory. The Riksdag killed the motion and, thus "cut off the possibility of securing for 30,000 Kronor, a future for Swedish Culture on the other side of the Atlantic." So, concludes the newspaper, "all who are familiar with the history of Swedes in this country know what care, sacrifice, and effort it has cost individual persons, since then, in 8their endeavor to assemble the Swedes in Colonies and to interest them in Swedish culture, religion, and literature. These efforts would have been unnecessary if the Swedes in Sweden had shown a little more interest in their emigrating countrymen when Mr. Lindhagen sought to bind for all time to come, the old motherland with its offspring in the foreign land, and to establish our language in a vast section of the New World.