Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-06-17
HOLD OF WESTERN
 IDEAS IN NORWAY
Great Changes Wrought by
 American Influences.
REPUBLIC IN ALL BUT THE NAME

fgrnttOn to the United States Haa
 Affected Politics and Business In
 Norway-Possible Results of This
 Infiuence-Method of Electing Mem-
 bers of Upper House In Parliament.
 The evolution in Norway which dis i closed itself in the sudden separation 1 from Sweden had been going on silent ly for the last quarter of century,
 and 1t is largely result of the influ-
 ence of the states lying north of Mis-
 souri on the Mississippi river, says a
 correspondent of the St. Louis Globe Democrat. With Iowa and Minnesota
 and with Nebraska and the Dakotas
 also the people of Norway have been brought into closer and closer rela- tions by increasing Norwegian immi- ! grafton. As result of constant corre- spondence between Norwegians in the west and Norwegians at home Amer ican ideas have taken deep hold and | have overgrown the ideas of the { French constitution on which the un- ion with Sweden under the French
 Bernadottes was based. An idea of these relations is given by the fact that Norwegians in the United States send | home over three-quarters of million dollars a year through the postoff1ce
 department and much larger amounts in bank drafts. They know the town politics of the American west almost as well in Knute Nelson's birthplace in 1 Norway as they are known in Mime sota and also the brands of flour made of Minnesota wheat. American wis.,
 itors to Hammersfest, the northern
 most town in the world,' where the
 sun does not set at all from May 13 to July g, find the same brands of flour they find along the Mississippi river
 and at Tromso, where it lis midnight
 for seven months, monday for three
 months and twilight the rest of the year." they are using the latest im- proved American electric lights dur ing the seven months of night.
 AS result of this close connection, any modern movement" which wins in the politics of Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas or Colorado is likely to appear in Norway very soon. Thus the grant ing of suffrage to women in some of our western states resulted in almost revolutionary changes in Norwegian politics. Miss Gina Krog, who Is call ed the Norwegian Susan B. Anthony" began an agitation for woman suffrage in Norway and made so many of the speeches on the subject which every one knows almost by heart in the American west, that the Conservatives of the storthing, or national parlia- ment. could not keep the property daai-i ification for male suffrage against the results of the agitation. The Norwe- gian Liberals combined with the Rad icals, and between 1898 and 1901 Nor wegian suffrage was reorganized with a close approximation to the Kansas plan of universal suffrage, including suffrage for women in municipal af- fairs,
 In spite of the fact that it has been so long in union with Sweden, with the reigning representative of the Swedish Bernadottes as the executive head of its government, the Norwegian government is already republican in everything but its form, and, while in some respects 1t is more radically re- publican than Minnesota or Kansas. under it's constitution. originally mod eled on that of the French republic, 1t abolished all titles of nobility and all other titles except such as belong to holders of office during their incum- bency. The storthing. which repre- sents the ancient general assembly of the people. out of which the American congress developed, is closer to the American congress than is the parlia- ment of any European country which recognizes the principle of royalty. It repudiates royalty as principle and governs Norway under the constitu- tional theory that the people of Nor way themselves are the source of all power and the authority for all law in Norway. II is this theory which has been acted on in repudiating the king of Sweden as the chief executive of Norway. and If there is intervention" by Germany and other powers now. as has happened before. it will be largely for the purpose of keeping this theory in such check that 1t will not spread beyond Norway and interfere with ex- Isting conditions in the monarchical governments of Europe.
 Under Norwegian law and the exist ing constitution the action of the Nor wegian congress is not in a literal sense a separation" from Sweden. as the two governments were completely separated before in everything except having the same king. who. as king of Sweden. claimed the right. always de nied by Norway. of acting wholly for Norwas in it's foreign affairs.
 This was the point at issue in the ''eonsIlar representation" the king de nied. In his view. allowing the appoint rfent of a single Norwegian consul would have admitted its contention of its own complete sovereignty In the Norwegian view. this sovereignty has always existed because it Is not vas sal state or a province of Sweden. but sister state.- with its own govern ment and laws distinct from those of Sweden and in league with Sweden under a common king for a common