How great is the loss, year by year, sustained by Norway through the emigration of Norwegians to Ameria; and how much money is annually being sent to Norway by these emigrants? One of the readers of Skandinaven asks this question.

The latter half of the question is comparatively easy to answer satisfactorily; but the answer to the former part of the question cannot, for reasons easily understood, be answered with equal accuracy. During the past year there was sent to Norway from America, in the form of postal money orders, about ten million kroner; during the previous year the amount was about eleven million kroner. About one million kroner was sent to America from Norway during the past year. The greater part of this amount was probably inheritance money.

A certain amount of money was sent to Norway through the banks. A reliable Christiania paper, which investigated these matters a couple of years ago, 2came to the conclusion that during the year in question there was sent from America to Norway a total of about fifteen million kroner. Deducting the amount of about one million kroner which goes in the opposite direction, the net amount sent from America to Norway each year would be about fourteen million kroner. It is probable that the amount is somewhat greater now. In the total mentioned above are included amounts placed in Norwegian banks by Norwegians in America, and money sent to assist Norwegians who wished to emigrate to America. The amount of money involved is not fully known.

The main figure on the credit side where Norway is concerned is, of course, the emigrants. The economic gain for America through the immigration from Norway is, of course, many times greater, estimated in dollars and cents, than the amount of money which Norwegian-Americans are sending to Norway. The emigration from Norway in latter years (not counting 1903) has been in the neighborhood of twenty thousand each year, some years considerably larger, other years somewhat smaller. For the greater part the immigrants have been young people able 3work, or youths who would soon become capable workers. The economic value of a young man of twenty has been estimated at $3,500. If it be supposed that only one fourth of the number of immigrants from Norway belong to this class, the value of these Norwegians alone would add $17,500,000 per year to the economic power of America. It is, therefore, not too high evaluation if a Norwegian army of immigrants of 20,000 people will add to the production power of this country by considerably more than one hundred million kroner per year.

The loss of Norway is not as great as the gain of America, however, because a part of the emigration is natural; that is, some of those who emigrated could not find enough to do at home, and in such cases it was better that they should leave. It is not easy to determine what Norway has lost through emigration. The following estimate is presented for what it is worth:

First of all we need to consider what it has actually cost the country to produce these 20,000 persons. The lowest average amount that has been mentioned is one 4thousand kroner, that is, twenty million kroner for the entire annual group. The cost of the tickets for two thirds of these (one third of the emigrants travel on money sent from America) is estimated at a minimum of two hundred kroner per person on the average; that is, a total of about two and one half million kroner.

It may safely be assumed that one half of the emigrants could have found employment in Norway, so that they really should not have left their homeland. The lowest value for the country of these people is, on the average, two thousand kroner. In leaving the country they caused a loss to Norway of about twenty million kroner. As one reads the accounts of lack of farm laborers everywhere in Norway, one finds ample proof that there is a real case of national loss. Thus there is probably no exaggeration at all in estimating the economic loss to Norway, caused by the emigration of twenty thousand able people, at about fifty million kroner, while America's gain through the immigration from Norway is far more than twice as great, even though it be admitted that a certain 5number of the immigrants go to the dogs in the new country.

In other words, Norway is giving to America every year a "memorial gift" or other gifts amounting to three of four times as much as it receives from America in the form of money sent by the people who emigrated. If, now, we consider this situation from the point of view that the Norwegians in this country represent America in this matter, then we can hardly speak of "memorial gifts" or other gifts to Norway. Money paid to a man to whom one is indebted is not ordinarily called gifts. A "debt of honor" would therefore be a more suitable term than a "memorial gift" when we are considering the gathering of money in connection with the Norwegian festival to be held in 1914.