Grand Forks daily herald., 1916-02-01

| ION aS 10 prevent any COntraDanO
from reaching them either directly or
Indirectly bids fair, according to pres
ent appearances, to bring Sweden into
! the war on the side of the central pow
erS before many weeks are past.
King Gustav, whose mother was a
German princess; his queen, who as a
sister of the reigning Grand Duke of
Baden is a grandchild of old Emperor
William: his brothers, and in fact all
the members of his family save the
i English born crown princess, a daugh-
ter Of the Duke of Connaught, have
been endeavoring ever since the be-
ginning of this great international con.
aagration in August 1914, to commit
Sweden definitely to the cause of the
two kaisers. The court of Stockholm
is entirely prO-German. So too is the
/ old aristocracy, while nearly all the
lawyers, the physicians. the college
professors and the Lutheran clergy
having received at any rate a portion
of their education in German univers-
tiles, are pronounced in their Teuton
sympathies. The Swedish army, too, is
pro-German.
The only element that has been
against the nation participating in the
fray against the allies has been that
of the commerce and industry of the
country. For as long as they have been
able to carry on trade with Germany
on the one hand and with Great Brit
ain, the United States and all other
neutral nations on the other they have
been reaping golden harvest; lar
vest which it was thoroughly 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 di-
rect trade with the overseas 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 merchants, in
conjunction with the government, have
organized certain so-called oversee
trusts. the members of which pledge
themselves to refrain from re-export-
ing to Germany any foreign goods i'm
ported under their auspices.
Sweden, however, has all along de-
clined to consent to anything Of the
kind, taking the ground that it 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
4 suggestion of a supervision by the
allies consular agents within her bor-
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 policy
is best shown by the fact that her i'm
ports from the United States alone
during the last twelve 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
neutrals has had the effect of dimin-
ishing exports from the United States
to Germany by $316.000,0OO for the
year 1915. But American exports to
| Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Hol-
| land 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 mil
lions.
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
nomic siege of the central powers.
Realizing this, England has now
announced her intention of blockad-
ing all Germany's ports in the Baltic
as effectively as she had blockaded
those of the North sea.
This means that period Of great
economic depression will have to be
faced in Sweden, that her industries
will be thrown out of employment and
that her foreign trade will dwindie
down to far below its ante bellum
proportions. 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-
Migration, are abandoning their oppo.
sitton to their sOvereign's views and
fun OF bitterness against Great Britain
are now ready to give their consent
to q participation Of the nation in the
fray, against the allies.
A CLEVER MAN.
1 e - sSra