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162
INDU STRITIDN IN GEN NORDEN
Ön this occasion I need
mention no other than the
invention of the screw
propeller, which, in its
release of steamships from
the limitations of the old
paddle wheels, made
modern waterborne traffie
possible. But Ericsson
had a möre intimate
relation than even this to
Mid-West waterways. He
built one of the first of
his new steamers upon
the Lakes to ply between
Chicago and Oswego and
years before
screw-pro-pelled steamers assumed
importance in carrying
trade of the world they
had been, through his
energies, largely adopted
upon the Lakes. Ericsson visualized our great interiör
waterways in the United States as of the first
importance in the resources of our country and rejoiced in
his participation in their upbuilding.
No occasion of this charader wöuld be complete,
whether in celebration of the great services of John
Ericsson to our country or in the discusskal of problems
in their modern light to which he made great
contri-butions during his lifetime, that did not also make some
references to the great blessing which our country has
received from his mother country where after fifty
years of American citizenship he was reclaimed to be
buried as one of her great sons. No student of American
li fe can overlook the character of the many racial
strains which now melt into our American people.
Racial characteristics are not evanesoent things—they
are the metal which makes the strong alloy of America.
Nor has any metal contributed möre to the strength
and temper of our people than that of Scandinavia.
The Swede, Ericsson, came of a people whose thrift
and love of learning planted its fine qualities in all
our Midwest. And möre than tha,t these sons of Sweden
were of a country which held aloft the light of
free-dom since before history was written, and Ericsson but
followed his national instinct in his service under
Lincoln. Every race produces individuals whose talents and
character adorn them as blossoms in a garden. And it
is from these flowers that new idea, new courage, new
inventions, new inspirations spread like pollen to all
the world.
Sweden has produced an extraordinary proportion of
these blossoms and they have indeed fertilized the fruits
of all the world’s progress. We, in America., have had
untolcl blessings from Celsius, Linné, Scheele, Nobel,
de Laval, Jenny Lind, to mention but a few of them.
And Ericsson gåve particularly to America of his great
talents both in war and in peace.» —
Trettiosex år hava förflutit mellan dessa av
amerikaner uttalade omdömen om John Ericssons
personlighet och gärning, och vid många tillfällen,
minneshögtidligheter, under loppet av de mellanvarande åren hava
andra amerikaner i ej mindre högstämda och gripande
ordalag hyllat det stora minnet.
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