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emigration.
669
invitation to the meeting, setting forth the main features of the proposed
programme, was signed by some ninety people in representative positions
and belonging to different political camps and classes in society, chiefly
members of both chambers of the Riksdag.
According to its programme, the Association aims at being representative of
the whole country and proposes to work on an organized plan for the
prevention of emigration.
Its activities follow two lines: firstly, to spread information on the question,
and secondly, to organize systematic, practical work to combat emigration.
By means of its work of spreading information, the Association aims at
promoting a vigorous and clear-sighted policy in the emigration question, and at
increasing the knowledge of Swedish and American conditions among the people,
especially the masses. With regard to the former object, the point is to shed
a light on the problem by means of investigations and enquiries, especially by
gleaning such information., as can be gained from the countries where the
emigrants have settled; this information can serve to guide the work at home and
more particularly to suggest measures to check emigration, With regard to the
latter object, the point is to counteract the current exaggerated impressions of
prospects and possibilities abroad, especially in America, and to set forth the
possibilities and advantages of the mother country before all other countries,
especially for the native worker.
The work of spreading information is carried on partly by means of lectures
(to which the Association had, up to the end of 1913, attracted about 135 000
hearers) and pamphlets, by articles in the newspaper press, and so on; partly,
by means of the quarterly magazine of the Association, called "Hem i Sverige"
("Home in Sweden"), and its various series of publications. Thus, in the
Association’s series of pamphlets have appeared articles on the following subjects:
"The unevenness of the incidence of communal taxation in rural districts"; "The
State domains and their administration"j "Industrial life in Norrland and
Emigration’. There have also appeared accounts of the Swedish "Own Homes"
movement and of Housing conditions in the United States, etc. In the series,
"Investigations concerning Swedish Industrial Life", have been published the
results of more extensive investigations as to the output of work, the economic
development of Norrland during the latter half of the nineteenth century, etc.
The practical and economic side of the work of the Association, aiming at the
prevention of emigration, is chiefly concerned with giving advice and guidance
as to means of livelihood in Sweden, and tries to reach the youth of the
country, especially in the rural districts, from whom the ranks of the emigrants are
chiefly recruited. For the performance of this side of its activity, the
Association has started information bureaus and labour exchanges; these are arranged
according to läns — chiefly in those where emigration has committed the worst
ravages — and there is a central bureau in Stockholm. They follow attentively
the labour market in the country, are connected with institutions for finding
work for workers, with private employers, with the agricultural societies’ "own
homes" boards, and with "own homes" companies and societies. They also fulfil
the mission of indicating where employment is to be found and where there is
agricultural land for sale, and of negotiating the purchase or leasing of small
parcels of land, etc. The bureaus try especially to help agricultural workers
over the formalities encountered in connection with the acquirement of land
— matters of surveying, legal confirmation of ownership, mortgages, etc. —
and at the same time they try to exploit the possibilities afforded by the State
"own homes" loan movement.
At the beginning of the year 1914, there were altogether 15 bureaus at work,
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