enormous emigration to the United States. Two-thirds of the Norwegians
of the world live in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.
Nearly every Norwegian farmstead has kinsmen in our country; and the
strong and vigorous always emigrate, thus leaving the farms at home in
the hands of the old and infirm. America has been greatly benefited by
this almost incessant exodus; for the Norse peasants have, without an
exception, made splendid citizens, the best, in fact, that have come
to us from Europe.

Commenting on the enormous emigration from the Norwegian farms,
William Eleroy Curtis remarks:

"Notwithstanding the large emigration of young people, for whom the
Norwegian farms are too small, it is apparent that the development of
Norway is continually progressing along the highest lines, and that
the tendency of the people, is upward socially and industrially, in
culture and in wealth. The population of the kingdom not only holds
its own, but shows a slight increase which seems remarkable because
of the continual drain of young, able-bodied men and women who have
removed to our western states. In all public movements, in all
social, commercial, and industrial activities, in art, science, and
literature, in wealth and prosperity, Norway stands abreast of the
most advanced nations of Europe; but its progress is not won without
greater effort than any other people put forth, and the application
of thrift and industry elsewhere unknown, but which is required in a
climate so bleak and inhospitable, and by a soil so wild and rocky.
None but a race like the Norsemen could have kept a foothold here."

Norwegian economists recognize the loss to the country through
emigration, and in recent years the national parliament has attempted