The politics and religion of the papers reflected the variegated opinions of different parties and sects, and of men who would found new parties and denominations, but Lutheranism and Republicanism have been from the start the dominating influences. A historian of Lutheranism named 16 Swedish Evangelical Lutheran periodicals in existence in the United States in 1896.[313] About the same time a Democratic paper remarks grudgingly and sourly: "It is worthy of note that of the fifty or sixty Norwegian papers in the United States, including two dailies, all are Republican tho at rare intervals some may bolt individual nominations. Generally, however, they are amazingly steadfast to party--moss-backed and hide-bound, in fact."[314] [313] Lenker, _Lutherans in all Lands_, 771. [314] _Madison Democrat_, Oct. 6, 1898. The strong hold which this press exercises upon its subscribers is excellently illustrated in the large sums of money raised from time to time through its agency in behalf of sufferers from fire and famine in the North European peninsulas. By editorials and special correspondence, by subscriptions and the publications of lists of contributors, by stimulating concerts for raising relief moneys, these journals have pursued the shrewd, enterprising, and, at the same time, benevolent schemes of advertising, followed by their American contemporaries. In 1893 _Skandinaven_ received and remitted to Norway for the relief of sufferers from a landslide in Thelemark more than $2,700.[315] When a great fire nearly destroyed the city of Aalesund, that journal in the winter and spring of 1904 gathered and sent to Norway $19,000, mostly in sums ranging from $.25 to $2.00; at the same time _Decorah Posten_ remitted more than $12,000 for the same purpose.[316] The great famine in northern Sweden and Finland in 1902-3 gave rise to a similar collection of money; the editor of the _Svenska Amerikanska Posten_, the powerful Swedish newspaper of Minneapolis, headed the list for his paper, and at the end of several months the contributions through this one journal reached the total of approximately $18,000.[317] Of course not all the money so liberally poured out to aid the unfortunate by the Baltic or the North Sea, was transmitted through the agents of the newspapers, but it is true that almost the sole inspiration for the gifts came more or less directly from the Scandinavian press. Probably out of $175,000 sent from the United States to the famine sufferers in 1903,--and America's quota was about one-half of the total handled by the Swedish central committee in Stockholm--the newspapers were instrumental in raising fifty per-cent.[318] [315] _Skandinaven_, May 3, May 31, 1893. [316] _Ibid._, Jan. 27-April 30, 1904; _Dannevirke_, March 30, 1904. [317] _Svenska Amerikanska Posten_, Feb. 17, June 30, 1903. [318] _Hemlandet_, Feb. 25 (quoting from _Nya Dagligt Allehanda_ of Stockholm for Feb. 7), July 15, Aug. 19, 1903.