The Leif Erikson festival at Scandia Hall was a great success. The main speech of the evening was as follows:

"Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I know it is a great disappointment to you not to have Professor Anderson with you on this occasion, as it is the result of his enkindling enthusiasm that Leif Erikson festivals at this time are being celebrated in various parts of the country. It is, therefore, with considerable diffidence that I stand before you to take his place. It was only at his urgent request, and when I remembered the reputation of the Chicago Scandinavians for generous impulses and kindly hospitality that I consented to do so. It is, I assure you, a great pleasure for me to be here, even though I come as an unbidden guest, but with your kind indulgence, I shall attempt to say something in keeping with this festive hour.

"Scandinavians of Chicago! We are here this evening to help inaugurate a 2Leif Erikson Day, a day which is to commemorate an event that is the first authentic fact of American history, a fact that is of especial interest to us, because it concerns an achievement of the old Norsemen, and was made a matter of historical record by them. To the prosaic mind, that first written chapter of American history may be devoid of any particular interest. It is, however, of such importance that every historian of America must consider it, if he wishes to know the beginning. In the past, this chapter has been a bridge over which many Americans have passed into the rich realm of old Norse history and literature. "To many of us, and especially to our descendants, I say for the children of Scandinavians in this country, what vast and varied interest may not the day prove to them if we enter into the celebration of Leif Erikson festivals with broad-gauged and sensible enthusiasm.

"But, fellow-kinsmen, we must let no one think because we celebrate Leif Erikson Day in commemoration of an event from the history of a remote past that we forget the "living present." As Scandinavians, it is our especial 3privilege to graze in the green pastures of Scandinavian history and literature, to nip the buds and blossoms of song and story which abound there. Our privilege I say aye, and one that will not - shall not - make us lose sight of our duties to this great country, its history, and institutions. It is quite in accord with our Scandinavian idea of things to support these institutions. Their spirit is not new to us, for the political institutions of this country have sprung from the seeds of political ideas planted in English soil during the Viking age, where Northman, Dane, and Norman mixed blood, Angle and Saxon. And now, in the Vineland of our ancestors, we have again, as of old, joined our Anglo-Saxon kinsmen, not only to enjoy, but to help, maintain, strenghten, and develop American institutions. And we shall strive to do our part well. In the past, the Scandinavians have not been parasites on the tree of American liberty. They have been an important small factor in the building up of the great Northwest. They have been tireless toilers of the soil. 'Their furrows oft the stubborn glebe broke' They have, moreover, earned their citizenship through the holy wash 4of patriotism. They, too, marched to the front when it was necessary to save this nation's life. They, too, starved in the prisons of the South. Their blood also stained the waters of Southern swamps and rivers. Their bones lie strewn on Southern battlefields. Yes, the Scandinavians responded to the call of this nation in distress, and will do so again in the hour of danger. "Till Samma Swalt, Till Samma Kamp, Till Samma Don, De Gaar!" (To the same battlefields, to the same wars, to the same death, they all go.)

"The celebration of Leif Erikson festivals would soon be discontinued if nothing more were hoped to be accomplished by them than the historical fact. That has already been established. These festivals must bear a different import. The historical fact is simply a convenient suggestion for a Fore-fathers' Day, as it were. Although the first landing of white men on these shores is in itself an interesting fact, doubly interesting to us because these white men were Norsemen, and it is the very first beginning of the relations between Scandinavia and America. "What then could be more fitting than that 5we as Scandinavians, settled in city and hamlet,and scattered over the fertile prairies of 'Vineland the Good,' should now come together and tell of the deeds of Leif Erikson and Thorfinu, and repeat the story of Gudrid, Erikson's wife, and Snorre, her American born son? But we must do more. "The Leif Erikson festivals should be occasions when the children of Scandinavian blood in this country, now and in the distant future, may have opportunities for hearing something from the history, literature, and music of their ancestors. These festivals must be conducted on broad principles so as to include all Scandinavians, Icelanders, Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. Themes must be chosen not only from ancient, but also from modern Scandinavian history and literature, not forgetting the very interesting field of our own history in this country, beginning with the Danes on the Hudson Bay. Celebrated in this spirit, Leif Erikson Day may be made a day of genuine profit to ourselves, and one not devoid of interest for our American kinsmen.

"When the Northmen landed on these shores, they found grapes in abundance and 6called the country "Vineland the Good." In commemoration of the bestowal of that name, let us continue to make Leif Erikson Day a Grape festival. The luscious grape shall not only remind us of the Vineland voyages, but shall also be symbolic of the abundance of this land when we enjoy such manifest blessings. And the vine, with which we decorate, shall not only be an emblem of the reverence with which we cling to the proud memories of an heroic past, but it shall also incite us to weave about the institutions of this fair land the supporting vine and tendrils of our love, hopes, and our eternal fidelity.

"Let this day also help unite a people that once were united and strong, a people that have sprung from the same root, a people who are bound by ties of blood, culture, and of a historic past."