Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-09-26
SWEDEN OF TODAY
Features Which Americans
Might Copy.
CHEAP TELEPHONES
MINES WHERE THE FINEST OF
IRON IS FOUND.
Chance for Another Steel Trust-Lum
Der Yard of Europe-Big
Game Preserves

copyright, 19O3 FRANK u. CarTenter-)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
STOCKHOLM.
How would you like a first-class telephone
at dollar a month? That is what they
have in Stockholm There are two tele-
phone companies here. one belonging to the
government and the other owned by a syn
dictate of Germans. Neither company
charges more than $40 year per dwelling
and this charge includes radius of forty
miles about Stockholm. 1t gives you 400
conversations a year and for a few dollars
more the service is unlimited. Business
houses pay only s25 and some only $40. The
government service covers all Sweden. 1t
has 5000 subscribers. of whom $500 are in
Stockholm. The German service has $4,000
phones and both companies have public
pay phones on almost every street corner
Street Telephones.
l like the street telephones. They stand
alone on the corners or in the parks looking
like sentry boxes walled with glass. Each
has slots for small coins and in each is
printed the rates for Stockholm and all
Sweden. You can have a five-minute talk
with any one in Stockholm within a
radius of forty miles outside of 1t for two
and one-half cents. or to any part of Swe-
den for seven cents.
There are telephones in the restaurants.
some of the tables having electric connec-
ton. Suppose you are eating there and
want to send a message home or to ask
question of some one In another part OF the
country. All you do is to crook your finger
and the waiter brings phone to your
table and you talk away.
1 have a telephone in my room at the
hotel, and this is the case with every
guest here. The phone has a switch, SO
made that by turning it 1 am in communi-
x.{h he ffina hal1
that on reversing l am in connection with
the central station, and can bring all Swe-
den and Norway to my ear at moments
notice.
ficials, for the government runs the tele-
phones. They are very polite. and you
don't have to ring more than once. They
pronounce the word hello" as though II
were spelt 'haloo," with the accent on the
last syllable. and they never tell you the
line is busy when it Is not. At present all
the wires in Stockholm are being placed IN
underground conduits, and altogether the
lines are extensively constructed. Not
outstanding this the companies make
money and pay dividends at a 21s-cene rate.
Sweden's New Iron Mines.
The Swedes are opening up new ron ter
ritory north of the Arctic circle. Away up
in the region of long days and long nights
they have discovered mountains of iron
with the sea. They are importing Ameri-
machinery to get out the ore. and am
not sure but that American cars will carry
1T to the ports. The road runs from the
gulf of Bothnia, in Sweden. to the hacbor
of Ofoten, on the Norwegian coast OF the
Atlantic. The latter harbor is free from
ice the year around.
Along this road are enormous deposits OF
excellent ore. One of the peaks is ST. feet
high and it is all iron. There are Other &C.
na,l,,y 10 = fro,
hundred to hundred and eighty feet thick.
In all there about 233,000Vo0 TONS of
now in sight. and some of 1t is very
fine. The iron mountains of Gellivare are
also in northern Sweden. Their rlineS are
of great extent and the ore is rich.
A Chance for Trust.
There is good chance for steel trust
here. Not a big one like the United States
Steel Company, but little one of million
or so, which would pay large dividends. l
refer to getting the ownership of the Dan
nemora mines, which produce the finest
iron known to man. These mines are now
owned by ten companies, working under
agreement not to manufacture more than
1000 tons year. They make the iron with
charcoal. and ship 1t all over the world in
light bars The ore Is so fine that it sells
for S1O0 a ton when other iron is worth only
$780, l am told the Dannemora iron might
bring twice as much just as well. 1 met a
man who is interested in one of the COM
panies. and who wants trust formed to
control the output. Said he:
I'VE have the only iron of it's kind in the
world, and the kind that makes the finest
steel. The best cutlery establishments of
England. Germany and United States use
1t, and they would buy it If we charged
double the price,
This is probably true. The Swedish iron
makes the best tools. the best drawn wire
and the best nails for riveting. Thirty-five
years ago there was not a horseshoe nail
driven in the United States that was not
made of Swedish iron. 1t can be bent
coiled and twisted in cold state without
breaking. Our minister to Sweden tells of
a Swedish steamship which, in fog. ran
at full speed into an upright cliff. The
shock was such that the bow turned around
into a spiral, but not plate of the iron
was broken or cracked
President Roosevelt's Swedish Razors
This Dannemora iron is famous for MAX