were induced to come to try their fortune. Often a con-siderable part of a village in one of the northern European countries came in a body, all the people settling together in Minnesota or Dakota.

The reason for the migration into the West both of the native-born Americans and of the foreigners has, as we have pointed out, been economic. We miss the religious motive so prominent in the beginnings of New England. The Scandinavians and Germans have gone into Minnesota and Dakota for the same reason as that which separated Abraham and Lot on the plains of Sodom, "the land became too narrow for them." Sometimes the fact that there is not room for all in the home country has been made evident by a famine or a crop failure. The great Irish immigration to America began with the famine in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Political agitation and disappointment in central Europe gave an impulse to emigration which has never ceased, and, coming at a time when the Northwest was being opened up to settlement, a German influence was impressed upon some of these States.

Railroad companies have not been slow to see the advantages which would come to them with the rapid settlement of the lands through which their roads passed. The railroads in the Northwest had large holdings of land, given them as an inducement to build, and they were anxious to dispose of these. More than that they wished to gain the money which would come from transporting emigrants. They desired to have their roads pass through sections of prosperous farms that they might haul the products to market. They offered inducements in the way of cheap transportation and cheap lands to invite a desirable emigration. They have their agents in Europe who are ready to give advice and encouragement to possible emigrants.

Land companies have used the same methods, and the States, realizing that their prosperity would depend upon the coming of desirable emigrants, have established bureaus

of immigration and appointed commissioners of immigration to assist in this work. Wisconsin may be taken as an illustration of this. In 1878, a State Board of Immigration was established, whose duty it was "to enhance and encourage immigration to this State from other States and from the Dominion of Canada and from Europe. This board shall have authority to provide for the collection of statistics and useful information concerning the climate, products, population, and agricultural, mineral, and other resources and advantages of this State, and for the printing and dissemination of the same in such languages as it may deem necessary."

In the pamphlets issued by this board were set forth the advantages of the social and educational privileges, and the religious and political freedom to be obtained in the New World and particularly in the States of the Northwest. Just the points were emphasized which would appeal to the best class of immigrants: citizenship at the end of a year's residence; right and justice for all; freedom and equality before the law; the right to hold any office in the State except those of governor and lieutenant-governor after a year's residence in the State; and the promise that "men coming here and entering into the active duties of life identify themselves with the State and her interests and are to all intents and purposes Americans."

The commissioners sent these publications to England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, or caused them to be given to the emigrants on their arrival in New York. Advertisements were inserted in European newspapers. By these means, as well as by personal conversation, the tide of emigration from northern Continental Europe was turned toward the Northwest, especially toward Wisconsin.

The nationality which is the most important, numerically, in the Northwest is the German, and Germans have had more influence on its development than have any other immigrants. In the early part of the nineteenth century there was a considerable German migration from Pennsylvania

across the Ohio. These people settled in that part of Ohio nearest the Pennsylvania line.

There were Germans who came directly from the fatherland to Ohio in 1833, but the great emigration did not begin until near the middle of the century. The economic causes which led to the coming of the other emigrants operated with special power in Germany, and added to these was the effect of the failure of the popular movements of 1830 and 1848. After the latter date emigration to America became very popular, and two-thirds of the Germans who left the fatherland between 1850 and 1860 went to the West. The majority of the emigrants of other nationalities coming in the same decade remained in the East. This is especially true of the Irish.

There was a careful study of the best places for settlement in the United States, and Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin were considered desirable by the Germans; of the three, Wisconsin became the favorite State. There were good reasons for this decision, such as a suitable climate, generous land laws, and ease of access. There was a strong desire on the part of German patriots to make Wisconsin a German State.

While Germany had no lands suitable for colonization it was the desire of many to preserve the customs of the fatherland in some place where the people would have a larger degree of liberty than was possible in the home country. Immigration societies were formed, and, in the periods of political disappointment, many Germans turned toward America. Their idea was to form a State in which the language should be German, in which there should be German art, literature, law, and so forth. The Northwest was selected as the best place for this experiment on account of its growing strength and the position which it was sure to have in the development of America. It was suggested that a beginning be made with fifty thousand acres of land; that when two hundred settlers had arrived a democratic State be formed; but none of these plans came to anything.

The emigrants came, but they settled where business interests dictated, and not in isolated settlements which should be ruled by idealists. The effort to found a State which should be distinctly German was discouraged by the wisest among the leaders of the newcomers, who brought the rank and file to see that their best interests would be served if they would give up this Utopian idea and contribute to the development of American nationality. This counsel was followed, but the wide agitation of the subject led to a better knowledge of America and the decision that the Northwest was the best location for German emigrants.

The State Immigration Commissioner estimated that between sixteen and eighteen thousand Germans came to Wisconsin during the eight months covered by his report in 1853. In May, June, and July, 1854, the number was not less than sixteen thousand, and they have entered in large numbers since that time. The same general reasons which led the Germans to come to Wisconsin brought them to the other States of the Northwest, and these also have a very large and valuable German element in their population.

The Scandinavians form a very desirable part of the foreign population of the Northwest. They are intelligent, vigorous in mind and body, industrious, and loyal to American institutions. They do not herd together in the cities or follow any one occupation. They are farmers, merchants, manufacturers, and professional men, as well as artisans and day laborers.

The Scandinavians resemble the native Americans more closely than do any other of the races foreign to the United States. These resemblances may be traced in manners and customs, political and religious instincts, and in personal appearance. They find it an easy matter to learn the English language, because it is so closely allied to their own. It is often difficult to distinguish the first generation of American-born Scandinavians from Americans.

There was little immigration from Scandinavia until 1836, when two shiploads of emigrants arrived in New York.

There were about three hundred and fifty of them, and nearly all went into the West, where there were already small settlements in Lasalle County, Illinois. More immigrants joined this colony in 1837 and 1838, so that it became a settlement of considerable prosperity.

The first Norwegian settlement in Wisconsin was made in 1830, near Beloit, in Rock County. A second settlement followed, in Racine County, in 1839 and 1840. This consisted of thirty or forty people. The third in Wisconsin, the Koshkonong settlement in Dane County, was made in 1840. It soon became large and prosperous, and is to-day the wealthiest Norwegian settlement in America. Norwegians settled in Chicago in 1836.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, emigrants from Norway and Sweden have come in large numbers and have selected the northern States of the Northwest for their homes, so that in some of the northern counties they outnumber all other immigrants. They are, as a rule, farm dwellers, and this to a greater extent than any other element of the European migration. This habit is the strongest among the Norwegians, of whom in 1900 only twenty-two and four-tenths per cent resided in the cities of the United States.

An important element in the settlement of the early Northwest was the Scotch. They were never numerous, when their total strength is compared with that of the Germans or Scandinavians, but they were influential out of proportion to their numbers. Taking with them their Scotch inheritance of thrift, frugality, and business ability, they settled in considerable numbers in Columbia, Buffalo, Green Lake, Kenosha, Marathon, Trempeleau, Racine, Walworth, and Rock Counties, in Wisconsin, and are found in nearly every other county in the State, not in colonies, but scattered among men of other nationalities. While many of them were farmers, others engaged in commercial enterprises. The greatest financier of the early West, Alexander Mitchell, the founder of "Mitchell's Bank," was a