The German is lasting in his sympathies and his antipathies and leisurely in his mental processes. It takes him long to make up his mind and longer to get an idea out of his head. In his thinking he tries to grasp more things at a time than does the Celt. Not for him the simple logic that proceeds from one or two outstanding factors in a situation and ignores all the rest. He wants to be comprehensive and final where the Latin aims to be merely clear and precise. It is this very complexity of thought that makes the German often silent, his speech heavy or confused. But just this relish for details and this passion for thoroughness make him a born investigator. This is why, on the practical side, the German-American has most distinguished himself in work that calls for long and close observation, such as gardening, viticulture, breeding, forestry, brewing, and the chemical industries. Thirty years ago there was an outcry that the Germans were introducing into this country the virus of anarchism and socialism. It is now clear that German socialism, instead of being a shattering type of thought, is in fact highly constructive. However bold and iconoclastic he may be in his thinking, the German, with his respect for authority, his slow reaction to wrong, and his love of order and system, is a conservative by nature. The children of revolutionary immigrants are milder than their fathers were; and the German-Americans are now very far from leading the van of radicalism. [Illustration: 1826-30 8000 1831-35 49000 1836-40 109300 1841-45 110000 1846-50 337800 1851-55 672400 POLITICAL REACTION IN GERMANY 1856-60 316100 HARD TIMES IN UNITED STATES 1861-65 242500 CIVIL WAR IN UNITED STATES 1866-70 577600 1871-75 532700 1876-80 220200 HARD TIMES IN UNITED STATES 1881-85 1031500 { MILITARISM AND OVERPOPULATION { 1886-90 548200 { IN { 1891-95 432600 { GERMANY 1896-1900 120100 HARD TIMES IN UNITED STATES 1901-05 214300 1906-10 211400 Immigration from Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland, 1826-1910] CHAPTER IV THE SCANDINAVIANS Although Leif Ericson discovered America in the year 1000 A.D., his countrymen made no serious use of his find until the latter part of the nineteenth century. It is only sixty-four years since the memorable visit of "the Swedish Nightingale," Jenny Lind, opened our eyes to the existence of the Northern peoples. In fact, the few thousands that about this time began to filter in were first known as "Jenny Lind men." Now there are among us a million and a quarter born in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, and, counting those of Scandinavian parentage and grandparentage, it is safe to say that a quarter of all this blood in the world is west of the Atlantic.