Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-08-05
SWEDISH PEOPLE
BREATHE EASIER
Citizens of Country at Last Feel Sat
isfied That Their Hing Is Determine
ed to Keep Out of War.

Stockholm CORES pOndenCe OF the
Associated Press. 1.-The Swedish peo-
pie are breathing more easily now than
at any time since the war began. They
are convinced at last that their king
, and their government are determined
to maintain a strict and impartial neu-
trality until peace shall have been de-
clared and they are pIunging with re-
newed vigor into a prosperity unprec-
edented in the history of the country.
That Sweden would give up this
prosperity and the happiness which
has come with it for the perils, the
poverty and the misery of war seemed
unthinkable to the foreign observer,
but it cannot be denied that the pOliti-
| cal and international crisis through
which the country passed the latter
| part of May brought it dangerously
near to the brink of catastrophe. Not
that the people wanted war-far from
/ it-but the anti-Russan propaganda
carried forward by an influential
group of politicians known as the &C
twists attained for a time a momen-
tum which threatened all the dictates
of neutrality and was outspOkenly an
/ effort to force Sweden into war with
I her traditional enemy, Russia, and
/ thus ally this part of Scandinavia with
the central powers.
This -activiSt movement was de-
! nounced by the socialists and liberals
in the Swedish parliament as more
! prO-German than pro-SWedish and was
referred to on one occasion by Social
! isfl Leader Branting as having a dan
gerously strong financial backing. "
/ The pro-German press OF Sweden car
ried the campaign at times to a VIC
/ lent extreme and the bitterness en-
/ gendered between these papers and
! those representing the liberal and So
cialist elements of the country may
not be effaced for years to come
The liberals and socialists frankly
| feared for a time that the influential
activists would win over the support
of the conservative party, which still
| controls the upper house of Parlia-
ment and is supposed TO more than
hold the balance of power in what is
theoretically a coalition cabinet. But
when the test came, when the situa-
ton was at its worst, the cOnserva,
tlVes threw their strength with the
other two parties in determination to
keep Sweden out of the war at any
cost.
1t so happened that the activists
campaign designed to upset the neu-
trality of Sweden, actually brought
| about an agreement among the con
tending political factions of the Swed-
1sh parliament which has given Swed-
/ ish neutrality a stability and a stand
ing before the belligerent nations il
| had not enjoyed before. This agree
ment was the immediate result of an
activists Interpolation in parliament
calling attention TO the alleged per
manent character of Notifications he
ing erected by the Russians on the
AIand Islands in the Baltic. and ask
ing what the government proposed to
do about it At night the lights of the
Alands are visible from the eastern
most points of Sweden and the nearest
or these isles is but six hours sail
from Stockholm. Russia had given in
formal assurance TO Sweden that the
Notifications were only temporary, be
ing erected Tor the purpose of protect
ing certain mine-felds and thus de-
lending the islands from possible can
ture by the Germans Sweden was
further assured that the fortificatious
would be removed at the end of the
present war
The Aland Islands command abso-