Fact Sheets re Minneapolis, Minnesota

TRUMAN "NATIONAL MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA ARCHIVES AND LIBRARY RECORDS U.S. STATEMENT (812 alt., 464,356 pop.) Largest city in Minnesota in both area and population and ranks fifteenth among American cities. People Well provided with churches, 290 of which are Protestant, 27 Roman Catholic, and 10 Jewish, every creed is represented in the city - even the Orthodox Greek. By far the largest number of churchgoers have Lutheran affiliations. In the social life of middle-class Scandinavians, their church plays a large part. In a rapidly growing city, amalgamation of foreign groups tends to take place very quickly, and the evaluation of the contribution of each grows increasingly difficult. If to the Scandinavians and Finns can safely be ascribed much of the success of the co-operatives, of the city's smaller national groups, the French, German, Polish, Ukranian, Greek, Negro, and others, it can be said with assurance that all have shared in the making of Minneapolis, and that all have made cultural contributions. Until 1900 the French continued to come to Minneapolis, most often by way of Canada, and for years they struggled to conserve their language and traditions, but it was a losing fight in the face of the hordes of Scandinavians who were all but taking possession of the city. Today their only stronghold is their church, Our Lady of Lourdes (Notre Dame de Lourdes), where sermons in French are still preached every Sunday and in whose parochial school at least a part of the teaching is carried on in the language of their ancestors. After the Civil War Scandinavians swept into Minneapolis in ever increasing numbers. They opened the city's first boarding houses, they became storekeepers, tailors, milk dealers, lawyers, doctors, and bankers. By the seventies there was not a business, trade, or profession in which Scandinavian names did not occur. Washington Avenue became their main business street. At first the Scandinavian population was almost equally divided between Swedes and Norse, with far fewer Danes. But by 1880 Swedes began to outnumber the Norse, and after that date the discripancy grew greater. With the practical cessation of immigration, and the frequent intermarrying into other racial groups, the proportion of Scandinavians in the population has been steadily growing smaller. Today foreign-born Scandinavians make up less than 10 percent of the city's population. Their language and customs are rapidly disappearing as with each oncoming year they grow more and more truly American. Industry Its two chief industries, flour milling and grain elevators, make Minneapolis the bread basket and grain bin for the nation. Its Federal Reserve Bank has made it the financial center of the Northwest. Election Statistics: Hennepin County (Presidential) 1940: Democratic 145,168 Republican 122,960 1944: Democratic 148,792 116,781