174 RLUIL MWlllUAN 



resemble Sweden, where also mining is an important 

 pursuit. At present, however, there are few Swedish 

 miners, agriculture and urban callings having drawn 

 most Scandinavians out of the mines, except in 

 Gogebic County. They are a very readily assimilated 

 racial stock and, unlike their neighbors the Finns, 

 are soon lost in the general mass of Americans. It 

 should be noted, however, that among the number 

 of those in Michigan who speak Swedish as their 

 mother tongue, there are numbers (how many can- 

 not be stated) of Swedish-speaking Finns, who, in 

 the opinion of some observers, possess in a high de- 

 gree the tendency to go to extremes in belief and 

 conduct that is associated with the Finnish type. 



The Bohemian population of Michigan has never 

 been large, and niimbered only 10,130 according to 

 the census by mother tongue of 1910. In recent 

 years, however, it has become a much more important 

 factor in the rural districts of some parts of the State. 

 It was attracted thither by the introduction of the 

 cultivation of the sugar-beet and thus is a particu- 

 larly important element in the population of the 

 territory adjacent to Saginaw Bay. In southern 

 Gratiot and Saginaw counties, these Czechs are 

 steadily taking over farms formerly possessed by 

 more familiar American types. T. P. Steadman of 

 Elsie writes as follows in regard to these newcomers 

 who have fallen under his observation : "As a aren- 

 eral thing, they are honest and reliable financially. 

 They are good workers and usually law-abiding, al- 

 though they sometimes fight among themselves. 



