Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XV. Sweden in 1914
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very apparent remnants of the former organisation of
the State: very strict Court etiquette; the obvious
preponderance of the Upper Chamber recruited, until
the recent electoral reform, almost exclusively from the
noble, financial, ecclesiastical and academic classes;
the part played by the nobility in the social life of the
capital and of certain provinces. But side by side with
all this a thorough metamorphosis was becoming daily
more apparent in the social spirit of the country. In
Sweden, just as in the two other Scandinavian States,
one looks with admiration on all that has been done
and effected for the well-being and moral raising of the
people, the workmen, the urban lower classes: schools
admirably organised and managed, hospitals almost
luxuriously equipped, summer-colonies for poor children,
beautiful gardens and parks laid out in the most thickly
populated areas, in short all works of really public
utility carried to a pitch of perfection that many other
countries might envy.
When I was starting for Sweden some one said to me:
“Do not forget that it is the most aristocratic country
of Europe.” I found this to be true up to a point. But
if instead I had been told that Sweden was the most
truly democratic country in the world, by virtue of the
care and moral deference shown to the humblest, and
the natural feeling of dignity reigning in all the lower
classes, I should have agreed to that also, and have said
that many of the countries in which there is most talk of
the reign of democracy have done less to safeguard the
rights of the people and their dignity than the three
Scandinavian countries—more especially “aristocratic”
and monarchical Sweden.
Be that as it may, the balance-sheet for the hundred
years of the Bernadotte dynasty and of a constant
policy of peace shows for Sweden truly enviable returns
and figures. A population of nearly 6,000,000 people,
living on an unfruitful soil, near a sea containing few
fish, with a harsh climate—a population not naturally
possessing a naval or commercial spirit—live nevertheless
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