(Elma) Huttula and Tyyne Olli." Reports such as this appeared regularly in all Finnish newspapers, highlighting the success the children of immigrants throughout the country were achieving, even while their parents were going through a slower and more painful process of Americanization.

One of their tribulations was reflected in a case brought to court by John E. Sweet of the U.S. Department of Justice, the case of John Svan vs the United States Government, which threatened to prevent any Finns from becoming American citizens on the ground that they were Mongolian and hence ineligible for citizenship. In fact, Svan and 16 of his fellow Finns were denied citizenship until the lower court judgment was reversed by Judge William A. Cant at the U.S. District Court sitting in Duluth on 17 January 1908. With this decision the Finns were able to sigh with relief and were in a position to continue their program of becoming Americans. In the early years this was but a matter of a few formalities, and it was not until later that applicants for citizenship were required to have a knowledge of the forms of American government, to have some idea of geography, etc. To be sure, there were evening schools set up where all these matters were explained, but of what use were these to people who did not know the language of the country? The Finns had to start evening schools of their own and mutual help programs to solve this besetting problem.

There were many factors present td make this process a difficult one. First of all, of course, there were the preconceptions the Finns held of the land to which they were coming: its wealth, it heroes, democracy, freedom, equality, a country where one's past did not matter and where one forged one's own future, in a land of haste, skyscrapers, industrialization. With such notions in mind, a miserable mining community in Minnesota could not but leave them dumbfounded. Disappointment followed disappointment, difficulty followed difficulty, from the strangeness of the language to the problem of finding a job. This led in many instances to a burning homesickness, and the homesickness in turn led to - Americanization. It was necessary to remain in this land to which one had come at least long enough to save enough money to return to the old country, but the very delay involved made it possible for the process of Americanization to set in. At times this began so imperceptibly that the person involved was unaware of it, particularly in its form of getting accustomed to a new daily life in one's own corner of this vast

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