HJALMAR BRANTING has been, throughout the war, the open friend of western democracy, believing the ideals for which the Entente is fighting to be the same as his own. At the beginning of the spring drive he published in Social-Demokraten a fervent prayer that Prussian militarism might be again defeated as it was at the Marne. Branting was born in Stockholm in 1860, a member of the intellectual class. He entered the Social-Democratic ranks by way of journalism and, in 1908, was sent to the Riksdag on the Liberal ticket, the first Socialist to enter that body. He has made himself to a remarkable degree the personal leader of the democratic elements in Sweden.

HENRIK WERGELAND was in Norway the moving spirit of the struggle for freedom that shook Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century. He would have gone, like Byron, to fight in Greece if he had had the means, and wrote of England as the "sharp-beaked eagle rising from her foggy nest to aid the Greeks." A visit to Paris, in 1831, fired him with memories of the July revolution of the year before. Though Norway had already achieved political freedom, he set himself the task of liberating his countrymen intellectually and socially. His early death in 1845 cut short many schemes for the betterment of the common people. His occasional didactic vein appears in the verses, "Lowly Are All Thy Ways," while his pure poetic gift is shown in the scintillating fragment, "The Dream Genius Speaks." The translator, Illit Gröndahl, is a Norwegian man of letters living in London.

RAGNA BERGLIOT ESKIL is a young Western writer, an occasional contributor to the REVIEW.

ALBERT ENGSTRÖM is known as a cartoonist as well as a writer. He is the editor of the humorous paper Strix in Stockholm and the author of numerous volumes of stories and sketches. Charles Wharton Stork is a frequent contributor of verse translations.

ARNE GARBORG, though much younger than Björnson, Ibsen, and Lie, may be said to belong to the same literary constellation, and is the only one yet writing. He is less widely known, partly because he has chosen the landsmaal as a medium for many of his most characteristic works. Among these are the somber stories of religious life among the peasants and the long poem Haugtussa, from which we print two fragments. The translator is Miss Thora Grönvold, teacher of Norwegian and English in the high schools of Faribault, Minnesota.

OLIVER A. LINDER is himself a popular writer on Swedish life in America. A collection of short stories and poems by him was published under the title I Västerland as the first volume in the series of Swedish-American literature inaugurated by the Augustana Book Concern. Mr. Linder has been in newspaper work for more than thirty years and, as editor of Svenska Amerikanaren in Chicago, is one of the foreign-language editors who render America loyal service by interpreting her ideals to those newly arrived.

DR. MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN AND HIS GRANDSON, MASTER FRANCIS O'REILLY OUR AMERICAN MINISTER TO DENMARK CONTRIBUTES TO THE CURRENT NUMBER OF THE Yale Review A SYMPATHETIC ARTICLE ON SCANDINAVIAN IDEALS AND PROBLEMS. WRITING OF DENMARK'S HOPE THAT ENGLAND, RUSSIA, AND THE MORAL FORCE OF THE UNITED STATES WOULD PREVENT HER NATIONAL EXTINCTION, HE CLOSES THUS: "THESE HOPES ARE GONE. DENMARK FED ENGLAND, SHE EXPORTED CERTAIN PRODUCTS TO GERMANY, SHE HAD MADE HERSELF THE FOREMOST SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURAL NATION OF THE WORLD, SHE WAS THE FREEST, SHE WAS WORKING OUT THE IDEALS OF HER NATIONAL LIFE WITHOUT DESIRING TO ACQUIRE TERRITORY OR TO INFRINGE ON THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS; BUT THE MOMENT THE UNITED STATES ENTERED THE WAR, SHE AND THE OTHER SCANDINAVIAN NATIONS GAVE UP HOPE OF ANY PROTECTION OR HELP, AND THEY HAVE NOW DETERMINED TO BAND TOGETHER IN AN INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC UNION. THE WORLD HAS DESERTED THEM, AND THEY HAVE DETERMINED TO DO THEIR BEST TO BECOME INDEPENDENT OF THE WORLD."

A Speech in the Riksdag when the Conservative Ministry, by Refusing to Consider a Revision of the Constitution, Took the Step that Led to

M'

Its Fall

R. SPEAKER, Gentlemen: The answer we have just heard confirms the rumors, that have been circulating for the last few days to the effect that the Government would refuse to grant the demand formulated in the interpellation, that it should "devote all its power and influence to creating conditions favorable to a revision of the Constitution." In my opinion, it is a matter of regret that the Government has thus missed an opportunity to do a great deed. Its refusal seems based on the mistaken supposition that a revision of the Constitution at the present juncture would tend to divide our people. I am convinced, on the contrary, that it would unite us as nothing else could. It would demonstrate that the party in our country which has often in the past resisted progress is capable of rising above old prejudices and viewing the situation with a wider outlook, an outlook worthy of the great times in which we live.

We supposed, when the interpellation was made, that the Swedish Conservatives would have been sufficiently impressed with the international movement for political equality, which is advancing the world over, to show clearly that they too had learned something from the passing events. We supposed that they would modify their former principles enough to unite with the other parties in seeking a line for the continued progress of our country on the only possible basis, that of democracy.

There is no need of expatiating on that world-wide development from which we too can learn a lesson. I need not dwell on the experiences of our great neighbor in the east, except to say that, whatever her present troubles, one fundamental fact remains: the

power of the Czar, that cornerstone of reactionism in Europe, has crumbled in the dust and, in all human likelihood, will never rise again. If we turn to the south, we hear voices there too rising and demanding reforms in tones that will not be denied, and we can hardly conceive of a Germany emerging from a world war the same junker-ridden country that went into it. Similar reports come from Austria; there is discord indeed, but with it a conviction that the future belongs to democracy. As for Hungary, the people are in the midst of a struggle for universal suffrage; the powerful opposition has been broken and has been forced back from the position where it was entrenched before the war. In England, woman suffrage in particular has taken a great forward stride.

So we see that democracy is advancing there too.

It may be said, perhaps, that we cannot compare ourselves with the great belligerent countries, that we small neutral nations have more than enough to cope with in providing the means of our own material subsistence, without thinking of constitutional reforms, now while the world is on fire. But even if we admit that, what are the facts? In the midst of the world war, Denmark has taken whatever steps remained for the complete democratization of a constitution that was democratic even before. There too, the problem of woman suffrage has been solved; there too, the equality of citizens in the elections for both chambers, which we here are putting forward as an uncompromising demand, has been safeguarded. Norway must be counted out, but for the excellent reason that reforms have progressed so far in Norway that there is no immediate reason for direct continuation. In another neutral country, however, in Holland, which in many ways has come in closer touch with us during the war, a truly universal suffrage has been adopted under a system

more liberal than that formulated in this country by any party except the Socialists, keeping the franchise entirely distinct from any question of taxes paid or anything of that nature. The movement has been carried through by all parties in full accord and with the support of the Conservatives, who have known how to yield to the imperative demands of the situation.

In view of these facts, it is not too much to say that, in the midst of convulsions more violent than Europe has known for centuries, the nations and not only the nations but the conservative partieshave felt and sensed that, in order to live and to attain that very unity which our prime minister has pointed to as necessary in these trying times, the antiquated privileges of the ruling classes must be swept away. Such unity can be reached on democratic ground and there alone. This has been realized everywhere, and it is a pity that the Swedish Conservative party, unlike conservative parties in other countries, should put itself on record as not having known the time of its visitation.

Clearly, the present great upheavals have their effect even on the countries not directly involved in them. Issues are raised and become vital in a way that would not have happened but for the tremendous events round about us. We are fully aware that these issues must be met by each country in accordance with its own particular needs and the division of power between its classes. There can be no question of our adopting Russian methods or Russian measures, as we have sometimes been accused of wanting to do. These may be justified and explained by the conditions that gave rise to them, but are not to be followed blindly. We have no intention of patterning ourselves after others, and yet I believe the brief survey I have just made of the forward march of democracy everywhere will bring home forcibly the similarity of conditions in all capitalistic countries. Democracy is coming and can not be downed. It can no more be downed in our country than in others. I am constrained to say it: there is something small in a policy that refuses to recognize and admit this fact. Such a policy sees in the development of a democratic age nothing but the fact that on these points party programmes differ, and one might risk getting "no" for an answer here and there, if one were to venture a bold stroke. This is not the attitude we looked for. We hoped that the mere influence of the times would bring thinking men, even those of a different political complexion from ours, to another viewpoint.

The Government, however, chooses to point to the great tasks for which, as the prime minister again explains, it was formed, namely to uphold an inviolable loyalty to all sides, and to relieve, as far as possible, the daily increasing difficulties that harass our national housekeeping. These are great tasks indeed, and no one can for a