Speeches and Song
It was a given that Swedish Day at the A-Y-P on Saturday, July 31, 1909, would be a particularly festive affair, given the considerable Swedish population in the Seattle area in 1909. More than 40,000 visitors passed through the A-Y-P gates that day, making it one of the better-attended days of the fair. Swedes and non-Swedes alike began arriving at the fair in droves during the morning, but the actual festivities did not begin until shortly before 2 p.m., when a picturesque line of men and women, dressed in traditional multi-colored Swedish costumes, formed behind a group of cars at the main gate. Accompanied by the A-Y-P band and hundreds of singers who were to sing in the jubilee cantata during the Swedish Day program at the Natural Amphitheatre, the group paraded through the A-Y-P grounds amidst a lively display of American flags and blue and yellow Swedish flags and bunting. At 2 p.m. the cavalcade arrived at the Natural Amphitheatre, which was packed to the brim with approximately 17,000 people.Minnesota Governor John Johnson had been scheduled to lead a parade through downtown Seattle from King Street Station to the fair’s main gate, along with Washington Governor Marion Hay (1865-1933). But shortly before Johnson’s scheduled arrival at the station, fair officials learned he would not arrive in Seattle until the next day. He was also scheduled to be one of the main speakers in the Swedish Day program, and his absence forced a quick enlistment of a replacement speaker. The program kicked off with a medley of songs from the A-Y-P band, including “Massa’s in the Cold, Cold Ground,” “The Arkansas Traveler,” and “Yankee Doodle.” Exposition president John Chilberg (1867-1954) spoke, and then, after announcing Johnson’s no-show, introduced the surprise orator of the day, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger (1858-1922). Ballinger was not unknown to the crowd: He had been mayor of Seattle between 1904 and 1906.
Ballinger quickly rose to the occasion, lauding the Swedish people and their contribution to the United States in general and the Northwest in particular. Owning up at the start to not being a Swede, he finished his speech by saying he would want to be if he were anyone else. The crowd loved it. The program concluded with the jubilee cantata, made up of 300 men and women dressed in traditional Swedish attire, singing solos, duets, and mixed choruses, set amidst a backdrop of Swedish and American flags on the stage. The cantata itself was a cleverly done allegory celebrating, in song, the Swedish success story in America from the time of their first arrival in the seventeenth century until 1909. It was a transcendent end to the program.
Afterward there was a brief reception between 4 and 5 p.m. in the Swedish Building, followed by a banquet between 5 and 8 p.m. for about 600 people in the Washington State Building. At 8 p.m. the United Swedish Singers took the stage in the Natural Amphitheatre and wowed the crowd with their musical prowess, but the evening was topped off with an appearance by the fabulous prima donna of the Royal Opera Company of Stockholm, Madame Anna Hellstrom-Oscar. “[She] took the audience by storm,” described the Post-Intelligencer the next morning. “Following each of her selections she was forced to respond to many encores” (Seattle P-I, August 1, 1909, p. 2).
A Scandalous No-Show
But the gala celebration was overshadowed by Governor Johnson’s no-show. Andrew Chilberg, president of the Swedish Day Association, had personally visited Johnson in St. Paul earlier in July to request the governor’s presence at Swedish Day, and left believing that the governor would be there. The governor later said he had made no promises but instead had planned to stop off for the day in Spokane, arriving in Seattle the following day, August 1, in order to participate in Minnesota Day at the A-Y-P on August 3. But exposition officials believed Johnson was coming for Swedish Day, and would arrive in Seattle by special train at 12:25 p.m. on July 31st. A reception committee of VIPs planned to meet Johnson at the depot, followed by a grand 30-car parade along a decked-out 2nd Avenue to the exposition, where Johnson was scheduled to be the orator of the day at the Swedish Day program. Fair officials did not learn that Johnson was not coming until about an hour and a half before he was expected to arrive.
Though a native-born Minnesotan, Johnson was the son of an impoverished Swedish family that had been abandoned by their alcoholic father. He left school at 13 to support his family and rose through the ranks to become the governor of Minnesota in 1905. He was a popular and effective governor, and thousands of Swedes considered his success story an inspiration. When he didn’t show at Swedish Day, it caused a stink. Initial bewilderment quickly gave way to acrimony. Each side pointed the finger at the other. Both the Post-Intelligencer and The Seattle Daily Times eagerly covered the spat, giving it more press than Swedish Day itself. Johnson arrived in Seattle on the afternoon of August 1 and posed, smiling uneasily, for the cameras at King Street Station. Still the sniping continued.Then suddenly, a truce. Johnson reiterated he had not intended to deliberately snub Swedish Day, and John Chilberg called him early on the evening of August 3 (Minnesota Day) and offered to give him a personal tour of the exposition. Johnson, his wife, and three daughters soon arrived, where they boarded rickshaws and toured the grounds, then partied on the Pay Streak until nearly midnight. Chilberg and Johnson even smoked “peace pipes” together as they made merry on the Pay Streak, and by the end of the evening seemed to be best buddies.
Johnson’s health was known to be precarious, and when the brouhaha first erupted there were questions about whether health issues (he had recently been operated on twice for what was said to be appendicitis) had forced him to stop in Spokane. These questions were lost in the subsequent uproar -- but seven weeks after his triumphant trip with Chilberg down the Pay Streak, Johnson died at age 48.