12 APRIL 1940, Page 6

It has been observed quite rightly that the isolationist Middle

West of the United States is the part of the Union where citizens of Scandinavian extraction most predominate. I discovered that the first time I was in Minneapolis. Scandi- navian names, mainly Andersen, in the local telephone- directory were as thick as Smiths and Joneses here. A univer- sity professor in that city told me that when he was motoring in California in the previous summer he overtook a car with the Minnesota number-plate, and called out to the driver, "Hello, Mr. Andersen." The man stopped and asked, "How did you know my name was Andersen? " "Isn't it?" "Why, yes, it is." "Well, I saw you came from Minnesota." Much the same as the case of Brigham Young in Utah, of whom Artemus Ward affirms that "about every child he meats calls him Par, and he takes it for grantid it is so."