PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE EARLY EUROPEAN IMMIGRANT.
THE SWEDISH COLONISTS.
Last but not least of the settlers from Europe who settled north of
the Qu'Appelle we come to the Swedes. The Scandinavian, whether Swed-
ish, Norwegian, Danish or Icelandic, needs no eulogy from us. If the
Swedes came in battalions they would be welcome in any country under
the sun which needs development. No one has ever challenged the wis-
dom of encouraging Swedish immigration to the full and it is a matter for
regret that more of them have not been induced to settle among us. In
the hard years the Swedish colonists suffered with the rest of us. Where
the next sack of flour, or rather the cash to pay for it, was to come from
was a problem they had to face and overcome in more than one of the
early years, but they endured with a quiet courage and fortitude beyond
all praise, and won out. These settlers of the early years were, speaking
by and large, men not only of fine physique, but of high character, law-
abiding, clean-living, religious, industrious. Unless we have misread
him there is one great feature in which he is pre-eminent, not only among
European settlers, but among all settlers. Most of our citizens would like
to get rich quick if they could, and so they turn over more sod than they
can cultivate properly; buy adjacent land which is an incubus-for the
land they cultivate is expected to pay principal and interest on the land
which is lying idle; they take chances which leads in many instances to a
millstone of debt. Not so these early Swedes. They were not and are not
speculative farmers; but farmers who bend their efforts to making a com-
fortable living. When the settler had replaced his original house by a
roomy and comfortable dwelling; when he had as many cows as could be
fed, milked and cared for without making slaves of his household; when
he had as much under cultivation as he could properly cultivate without
being harassed periodically by the problem of hired labour, he was apt to
be philosophically content. When his grain, his butter, his hens, his sur-
plus young stock were sufficient for his wants, with something to spare
for a rainy day, or rather for a dry season, he was apt to plod along in a
condition of more or less philosophical content, not killing himself, or his
women and children, in any wild adventures to attain riches. If all our
farmers were like the Swedes the cry for rural credits, for a state organ-
ization to enable the farmer ostensibly to develop his place for the general
good of the State, but in reality to get comfortably into debt and stay
there-this cry would not be so persistent as it has been in the past, and
probably will continue to be in the future. The men who have succeeded
best in the best sense, are those who came in absolutely on their own, and
Bibliography follows:
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