Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-02-03

ling Russaacr nand.

of the country. For as long as they
have been able to carry on trade with
Germany on the one hand and with
Great Britain, the United States and
all other neutral nations on the other
they have been reaping a golden har-
vest; q harvest which 1t was thor
oughly realized in Sweden could only
continue as long as present conditions
prevailed.
Swedes Furnish Germans Supplies.
Germany. cut off by the British
blockade of the North sea from all
direct trade with the oversee nations
excepting Sweden, has been obtaining
| through the latter nearly all her for
eign imports. A certain quantity
have reached her through Norway,
Holland and Denmark. But in all of
these countries the leading mer-
chants, in connection with the gov
ernments, have organized certain So
called oversee trusts, the members of
which pledge themselves to refrain
from re-eXporting to Germany any
foreign goods imported under their
auspices.
Sweden, however, has all along de-
clined to consent to anything of tbs
kind, taking the ground that 1t would
constitute an impairment of her SOW
ereignty to tolerate any restriction of
her trade by any foreign power or
powers. She would not listen to any
suggestion of a supervision by the
| allies consular agents within her Dor
ders of the exports to Germany of
goods which had been imported from
abroad. In fact she would not hear
OF any restriction upon either her i'm
ports or her exports. The extent to
which she has benefited by this pol
icy Is best shown by the fact that
her imports from the United States
alone during the last IL months have
risen to figure almost five-fold that
Immediately prior to the war.
The British partial blockade OF Ger
many, according to official statistics
accepted alike by belligerents and neu-
trails, has had the effect of diminish
ing exports from the United States to
Germany by $316,000, 900 for the year
| 1915. But American exports to Sweden.
Norway, Denmark and Holland were
augmented correspondingly TO such an
extent as to account for more than
two-thirds of the decrease in direct
trade from this country to Germany
Sweden has figured most largely in
this connection and has been importing
such vast quantities OF American
goods as to be absolutely beyond the
capacity Of consumption of her meager
population of five millions.
Sweden Blocks England's Plan.
Sweden has indeed all along been
the weak point in the scheme of Great
Britain to cut off Germany from sup
plies from the outer world, and the
allies have become firmly convinced
that as long as Sweden is permitted
to continue to send into Germany not
only all her own manufactures and
produce but also the goods that she
imports from America and from else
where beyond the seas, even from
Great Britain herself 1t Is idle to look
for any complete success of the eco
monte siege of the central powers.
; Realizing this, England has now
announced her intention of blockad-
ing all Germanys ports in the Baltic
as effectively as she had blockaded
those of the North sea.
This means that a period OF great
economic depression will have to be
faced in Sweden. that her industries
will languish, that the laboring classes
will be thrown out of employment and
that her foreign trade will dwindle
down to far below it's ante bellum pro-
portions. The mercantile and indus
trial classes, therefore. who hitherto
have been the most powerful cham
pions of neutrality and who have con-
stituted an insuperable obstacle to the
earnest desire of the king. of the court,
and of his mobiles to Join the Germans
in the present great international con-
fla grafton, are abandoning their op-
position to their sovereign's views and.
full of bitterness against Great Brit
ain, are now ready to give their con-
sent TO participation of the nation
in the fray, against the allies