Sweden, 1873 $ .66 $ $.46 $ Norway, 1873 .28-.43 .42-.55 .21-.31 .55 Denmark, 1872 .54 .80 .40 .60 U.S. (Western), 1870 1.34 1.84 .97 1.40 Minnesota, 1870 1.60 2.50 1.17 1.67 U.S. (Western), 1874 1.15 1.58 .93 1.35 Minnesota, 1874 1.00 1.50 .75 1.25 [197] _Ibid._ Mechanics and skilled laborers, per day Blacksmiths Carpenters Sweden, 1873 $.80 $.80 Norway, 1873 .90 .85 Denmark, 1873 .85 .65-.85 U.S. (Western), 1870 & 1874 2.88 & 2.66 2.98 & 2.72 Minnesota, 1870 & 1874 3.03 & 3.00 2.92 & 2.50 Domestic servants, female, per month Sweden, 1873 $2.14-8.00 Norway, 1873 (cooks) 2.42-3.59 U.S. (Western), 1870 & 1874 9.43 & 9.28 Minnesota, 1870 8.98 The eloquence of these figures, and of the conditions behind them, was not left to do its work by chance in the private letters of immigrants or in the occasional pamphlet. States and counties, as well as railroad corporations disseminated very widely and systematically the knowledge of the opportunities open to the laborer in the great West. If he were a man who would progress from a temporary tho necessary factor in construction or in the field, to a permanent settler taking up vacant land, so much the better for the State and the corporation. Fortunately for those great railroads, which were pushing construction and receiving large subsidies in public lands, they found just such men in the Swedes and Norwegians. As the Rock Island railroad pushed across Illinois and Iowa, as the Northern Pacific built out through Minnesota and Dakota, and as the road now known as the Great Northern carried its lines from St. Paul into the Red River valley, and on across North Dakota, the Scandinavian and the Irishman supplied the demand for labor front 1850 to 1890, in precisely the same way as the Italian, Pole, Mexican and Greek have been doing in later years.