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A meeting to consider ways and means of economic co-operation after the war was arranged by the chambers of commerce and business organizations of the three Scandinavian countries, and was held in the Riksdag building in Stockholm, September 14 and 15. The chairman of the meeting was Mr. K. A. Wallenberg, the banker. Several members of the Government were present. Professor Bredo Morgenstierne of Christiania spoke of the need for a careful preliminary study of the whole situation, and ended with an urgent appeal to the three brother nations to stand by one another, even at the cost of sacrificing some of their individual interests. The chief topics of consideration were questions touching the customs, shipping, and the right to utilize natural resources such as mines and waterfalls. Representatives of manufacturing interests and technical experts met in Stockholm, September 19, to discuss the means of devising substitutes for the various things now unobtainable. Chief among these are mineral oils for fuel and for machinery, and experiments have been made, though not with perfect success, for utilizing wood tar oils for both purposes. Motors have been reconstructed to allow the use of tar oil, and many parts of machinery hitherto imported are now made in Sweden. No substitutes have been found for fats and for the raw materials of the textile industries. Electricity has long been in use for household and agricultural purposes in Norrland, Dalecarlia, Vestergötland, and other districts where great electric plants are located. An effort is now being made to extend the use through all the country districts, and especially intensive work is being done in Uppland. The importation of coal from Germany has decreased from 2,859,750 tons for the first six months in 1916 to 634,138 for the first six months in 1917. The need of the Swedish manufacturers is so great that they have been anxious to pay almost any amount for fuel, and the German Government has taken advantage of this fact to increase the price by 25 kronor per ton in violation of all contracts. Since Sweden now has a complete embargo on meat, it was necessary to obtain a special license to export cattle that had to be sacrificed on account of the dearth of fodder in the fall. Permission was given at the beginning of September to export 5,000 animals to Norway and Finland, and at the beginning of October to export 6,000 animals to Germany. The latter roused some criticism in Liberal newspapers as likely to interfere with the American negotiations. Two monuments have been raised by the inhabitants of Bohus Län in southwestern Sweden over the graves of German and British victims of the North Sea battle whose bodies drifted ashore and were buried there. About fifty Swedish concerns took part in the great annual market of Nisjnij Novgorod in Russia.

Norway

A standardized coarse bread, made by mixing rye with wheat, is sold at a moderate price in Norway with the aid of a state subsidy. Until recently this bread was sold in unlimited quantities, but, beginning November 1, the Government has introduced the rationing system which has long been in use in Sweden. The object is to make people eat freely of potatoes, which are fairly plentiful. Experiments are also made with preparing potatoes in huge drying machines for mixing in the bread and with substituting barley and oats for wheat flour. The movement to make Norway self-supporting in the matter of food has resulted in increasing the tilled area of the country by twelve per cent. in 1917. The two preceding years show an increase of about four and a half per cent. each. The park surrounding the summer palace of the King and Queen at Bygdö was pressed into service for raising potatoes and was said to promise a harvest of a thousand barrels. A Norwegian concern, called the Borregaard Company, has acquired the property of the Kellner Partington Paper Pulp Company, valued at a hundred million kroner. It includes the Sarpsfos waterfall and a large part of the ground on which Sarpsborg is built, besides extensive forests in Norway and Sweden, and a plant in Salzburg, Austria. The annual product of the company has been 150,000 tons of wood pulp. The acquisition is considered the greatest step that has yet been taken to make Norwegian industry independent of foreign capital. After the Luxburg revelations, Morgenbladet in Christiania published, a-confessedly incomplete list of Norwegian vessels that had disappeared leaving no trace. The list included fourteen ships the fate of whose crews the Norwegian Government had not been able to ascertain even by inquiry of the British Admiralty. A few days later, the paper published another list of thirteen vessels known to have been sunk in routes to and from South American ports covered by the telegraph system centering in Argentina. This takes into account only those lost since the unrestricted U-boat warfare went into effect. The United States Government has issued a license for the exportation of the provisions required by Roald Amundsen for his coming expedition, and he intends to start for the northern coast of Siberia in his new boat Maud in June, 1918. Amundsen has a state subsidy for the expedition of 200,000 kroner, and an additional donation of 50,000 kroner from Mr. A. F. Klaveness, the ship-owner, has just been announced. The explorer has himself staked his entire fortune on the trip. The municipality of Christiania has a "fuel central' operating with a budget of 24,000,000 kroner. An enormous supply of wood has been laid in for the winter, and ration cards are issued to the people.

Books

ARNLJOT GELLINE, a Verse Romance. By Björnstjerne Björnson. Translated from the Norwegian with an Introduction and Notes by William Morton Payne. SCANDINAVIAN CLASSICS, Volume VIII. New York: The AmericanScandinavian Foundation, 1917. Price $1.50.

In the lyric-epic poem Arnljot Gelline, we have Björnson in his first, purely Norse, period. The hero is an outlaw who joins the forces of King Olaf Trygvason and falls with him in the Battle of Stiklestad for the cause of Christ against the older gods. The story is told in a series of vivid episodes, each with a mood and metre of its own. To a reader unable to appreciate the stern reserve power of Norse poetry, such a piece will seem bare in subject and abstruse in style, but to him who catches the tone it will be rich in inspiration. The alternations of gloom and radiant vision are like the changing lights of a broken storm on the North Sea.

Dr. Payne has followed the original in rhythm and rhyme, with the result that he conveys to the reader much of its atmosphere. He is most happy where the verse is freest and least rhyme is required. Here his phrasing has great directness and dignity, together with a sweep that carries one along breathlessly. In the more set passages, the inversions of the English are at times disturbing. Fortunately the great moments come where the translator is most completely submerged in the scenes and emotions of the poem. A compact introduction and notes with full quotations from the Heimskringla and Björnson's other sources make the volume attractive alike to the general reader and the scholar. C. W. STORK.

ANTHOLOGY OF SWEDISH LYRICS FROM 1750 TO 1915. Translated in the original meters by Charles Wharton Stork. SCANDINAVIAN CLASSICS, Volume IX. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. 1917. Price $1.50. This splendid volume of SCANDINAVIAN CLASSICS, representing the product of forty-five modern poets, is the first comprehensive collection of Swedish lyrics in English. Some of these have appeared before in American periodicals, and the poet-translator became well known to English-reading students of Swedish literature last year through his Selected Poems of Gustav Fröding.

Dr. Stork has wisely followed his customary method of giving us, first of all, good English poetry. But he has also followed the original with sensible faithfulness and has realized fully his double difficulty and responsibility as a translator and, in a sense, as a pioneer anthologist. The most striking characteristic of this collection is the translator's sympathy for Swedish poetry in general, and his scrupulous efforts to reproduce the spirit of the original. In this he has been surprisingly successful, even in the rendering of Bellman, whose unique improvisations can seldom be appreciated apart from the music. Dr. Stork's enthusiasm for Runeberg is well founded, and even admirers of the Swedish will find it decidedly worth while to read aloud the translation of Sven Dura, the hero of which, a simple-minded Finnish Horatius, has no parallel in modern literature.

The value of this anthology is enhanced by the addition of all the editorial accessories that are necessary in a work of this kind, such as indexes, brief biographical notes, and an historical sketch of Swedish poetry. It will be heartily welcomed by all lovers of good verse, and the translator should feel encouraged to add another volume, of a more historical character perhaps, including some Swedish folk songs and such names as Charlotta Nordenflycht, Julia Nyberg, Vitalis, Hedborn, Karl August Nicander, and Wilhelm von Braun.

ADOLPH BURNETT BENSON.

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SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE in the ORIGINAL LANGUAGES OFFERED

Buy your Scandinavian books in this country from the Publisher's authorized agency. They do not cost you more and you do not have to wait for the books, as we carry an enormous stock of the best literature right here in New York. We can procure for you any book obtainable in either of the Scandinavian countries at the lowest rate and in shortest possible time. We supply the largest libraries in this country with all kinds of Scandinavian books. Write to us for information about books you would like to get, or ask us to send you free catalogues. LET US GET ACQUAINTED

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The index of the AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN REVIEW, Volume V, will be ready December 15, and may be had free by application to this office. Those who desire may send in the six numbers for 1917 with $1 and have them bound attractively in cloth with gold lettering and the seal of the Foundation stamped in gold on the side. The volume will be returned postpaid.

Madame Signe Lund has won the $500 prize awarded by the National Arts Club for the best musical setting for the prize poem "The Road to France," by Daniel M. Henderson. Madame Lund comes of the distinguished Norwegian family of artists of that name. She is an American citizen and has two sons in our army, one in France already.

An interesting excursion was made by the Ygdrasil Literary Society of Madison, Wisconsin, on July 29, to the little town of Muskego. The first Norwegian newspaper of America appeared there just seventy years ago, and three years earlier the first Norwegian church was built there. The most eminent son of Muskego, Colonel Hans Heg of the Fifteenth Wisconsin, was commemorated in an eloquent speech by Professor Julius E. Olson.

The REVIEW joins with the many friends all over the country who congratulate Mr. Henry Hertz upon his seventieth birthday. Mr. Hertz has at all times been active in public service for his adopted country and particularly for the Danes in the United States. He is a member of the Foundation Advisory Committee of Chicago.

When answering advertisements, please mention THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN Review

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