On September 18, 1866, the first number of the _Svenska Amerikanaren_ was published. I quote from the article announcing my having assumed editorial charge of the paper as follows: "It shall be my ambition to so write as to advance the interest of the laboring people of our nationality, and to guide them in becoming good American citizens. I am one of that class myself, and during my residence in the settlements of the West I have learned to know their wants." The paper was very favorably received both in this country and in Sweden, and, under the name of _Svenska Tribunen_, is still exercising a great and good influence among the Swedish Americans. The following winter (1867) the legislature of Minnesota established a state bureau with the purpose of inducing immigrants to settle in the state, and I was appointed by Gov. W. R. Marshall to be secretary of the board of emigration, with the governor and secretary of state as _ex-officio_ members; the Rev. John Ireland, now Catholic Archbishop of Minnesota, was also for a time a member of that board. The St. Paul _Press_ for March 14, 1867, contained the following concerning the new board: "The state board of emigration, composed of Gov. Marshall, Col. Rogers and Col. Mattson, was organized yesterday, and a general plan of operation agreed upon. We learn that the board concluded that, with the limited means at their disposal, it was not advisable to employ agents to work in Europe, but to use every practicable effort to turn immigrants to Minnesota, after their arrival in this country. Efforts will be made to procure the publication of facts in regard to the state, in eastern and European journals; to make arrangements with railroads, more advantageous to emigrants than, heretofore and to afford them through interpreters and otherwise reliable information in regard to the best routes to the state from eastern parts. To give the emigrant a general idea of the characteristics of every locality in Minnesota, it is proposed to procure a map or chart of the state, showing its boundaries, streams, lakes, navigable rivers, timber and prairie sections, etc."