The effectiveness of this movement is sarcastically summed up by a correspondent of _The North_, in reporting the Republican convention: "M. N. Johnson's Scandinavian League has evidently come out of the small end of the horn. To be sure M. N. was made the chairman of the convention and the dear Scandinavians got honorary mention in the resolutions: but M. N.'s chairmanship was evidently devoid of results beneficial to the Scandinavians, and as for resolutions--talk is cheap!"[437] [437] _Ibid._, Aug. 28, 1889. After the fall election the same paper, October 9, announced: "The Scandinavian Union thus seems barren of results.... Peace be with its ashes!"--because it secured only 5 senators and 18 representatives in the State legislature. In an editorial in English _Skandinaven_ discussed "Governor Sheldon's Mistake" in 1893: "Upwards of one-third of the population of South Dakota is of Scandinavian birth or origin, while Scandinavians furnish not less than one-half of the Republican vote of the State. Governor Sheldon is apparently oblivious to this fact; for in making his appointments he saw fit to ignore the Scandinavian-American citizens of South Dakota. For the sake of the Republican party of the State this mistake is very much to be regretted. The Scandinavians are sensitive of their rights as American citizens.... What has the Republican party of South Dakota done to Governor Sheldon that he should deal it such a dangerous blow?"[438] Five years later the governor of Minnesota was accused of a like offence in that, on the State boards appointed by Governor Merriam, the Scandinavians were "insufficiently represented," having only five out of one hundred members, or one-twenty-fifth, when they constituted one-third of the population of the State.[439] [438] _Skandinaven_, April 5, 1893. [439] _The North_, Jan. 22, 1890, quoting in translation from _Fædrelandet og Emigranten_. The pettiness of these squabbles over political "recognition" and spoils is well illustrated by a letter written in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to a Minneapolis newspaper in 1889: "While our people here number over 3000, and the Irish only 1400, the latter hold a still larger percentage of offices than they do in your city. This year for the first time the Scandinavians (or more correctly speaking, the Danes) have succeeded in obtaining a place on the police force"![440] [440] _The North_, July 17, 1889.