grants arrived from northern Norway; perhaps 700, at the most a thousand, Finns in all came via Norway; that is to say, about every fifth or sixth Finn living in Tromsö and Finnmark. l7

The recruiting activity was quickly expanded to cover those countries from which the workers in the Norwegian mines had originally come. In addition to industry, transportation firms, the American railroads and European shipping lines sailing from northern ports all came to the conclusion that they needed immigrants. For the railroads, taking a long range view, an increased population, particularly along the rail routes they served, was seen as a support for their traffic, and from a shorter range point of view, there was still the need for laborers to actually build the new lines. The competition between shipping lines forced their agents to find passengers to fill their ships. To build up the America fever, representatives were appointed and branch offices were opened. In Haaparanta, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, the English-owned Allan Line opened an office in 1871 to serve emigrants from northern Finland, and at the same time the Anchor Line stationed officials in Finland. The Finnish steamship lines arranged their own sailing schedules to connect with trans-Atlantic sailings of the bigger lines, and with that, the campaign began to bring results. One of the most energetic recruiters in Finland was a man named Karl Möllersvärd, who had an assistant named Peter Swanberg (Haapa), and these two were chiefly responsible for the trip of the first group of Finns to come direct to Minnesota.'$

The salesmen knew how to appeal to the economic and psychological factors making for immigration. The newspapers carried advertisements regularly, and soon leaflets and brochures were introduced too. In turn, the flood of immigrants led to other, related enterprises, and in 1887 the Finnish Immigration Company was founded in New York, with one G. A. Grönlund as its director, and with men representing it in Finland : V. K. Hultin in Vaasa, Victor Ek in Hanko, and K. L. Holmberg in Seinäjoki. 19 New steamship companies came into existence, and ships were built especially for transporting immigrants, and in 1893 a guidebook appeared, listing thirteen qualified lines. 20 Many of these lines were English, but two German lines were included, as well

17. Kolehmainen, op. cit. p. 51.

18. Letter of George Sheppard to Karl Möllersvärd, dated July 18, 1873. Como Record Room, Foreign Immigration, St. Paul, Minn. 19. E. Sulkanen, op.cit. p. 17.

20. Konni Zilliacus, Käsikirja Pohjois-Amerikasta. Porvoo, 1893.

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