[249] Hall, Immigration, ch. viii.
[250] Dr. E. Kraft, “The Physical Degeneration of the Norwegian Race in North America,” The North, Jan. 3, 1893,—translation from Norsk Magazin for Lægevidenskaben; Ch. Gronvald, “The Effects of the Immigration on the Norwegian Immigrants,” appendix to the Sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Minnesota, (1878), II, 507-534.
[251] The North, Jan. 18, 1893, translating the article mentioned.
[252] Bryce, American Commonwealth (3rd ed.), ch. lxxx; Matthews, American Character, 20-34; Roosevelt, American Ideals, ch. i, ii.
[253] Statesman’s Year Book, 1900, 1049; Kiddle & Schem, Dictionary of Education, 452. In the latter work, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland are marked with asterisks, signifying that they are practically without illiteracy. The contrast of these figures with the percentages of illiteracy of some other European countries is very striking. In 1890 the percentage of illiterates in Austria was 40%, in Hungary, 54%, in Italy, in 1897, among conscripts, 37.3% (reduced from 56.7% in 1871), and among those persons marrying, males, 32.9%, females, 52.13% (reduced respectively from 37.73% and 76.73% in 1871). For Russia the percentage is probably about 80%, perhaps as high as 90%. See Statesman’s Year Book, 1900, 374-375, 392, 744-745. Statistical returns relating to German army recruits indicate that in 1896-7 only about .11% could neither read nor write. Ibid., 592. See also, Hall, Immigration, 46, 48, 54, 61, 141.
[254] History of Fillmore County, Minnesota, 346, 463,—a Norwegian school for one year in a private house, then an English school; Sparks, History of Winneshiek County, Iowa, 16-17.
[255] For a discussion of the Bennett Law in Wisconsin, see pp. 167 ff.
[256] Beretning om det syttende Aarsmöde for den Forenede norsk lutherske Kirke i Amerika, 1906,—“Parochialraporter for Aaret 1905.”
[257] “Sammendrag af Parochialraporter”, Beretning om det syttende Aarsmöde for den Forenede norsk lutherske Kirke i Amerika, 1906, LVI; J. J. Skordalsvold, in Nelson, History of the Scandinavians, I, 241.
[258] See catalogs of these institutions.