The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-11-29
WHAT OF SWEDEN?

pear to be SO shaping themselves as to
make it possible that the Swede, instead of
the pawn which he has been for so many
years in the large game of life, is to become
the chief prize of all the nations of the
world.
Hardy and strong, stoical from great
privation, cursed with certain fatalism,
heritage of his past, when Thor and Odin
were his gods, and imbued with splendid
courage with which his Viking fathers END
dowed him, the Swede has grit enough and
backbone enough to withstand much that
punier nation might not be able to endure
Yet it is true that today both the allies
and the Central Powers are looking to-
wards Sweden with much anxiety as to
what stand she will take in the world prob
lem, whether to align herself with the
forces which fight for democracy or to put
behind her the traditions of the past and
sell her soul for bread that body may be
nourished, and for coal that she may be
warmed.
With the allies refusing her bread. and
with her coal supply in the hands of Ger
many, with her people finding it more
difficult each day to feed and clothe and
warm and care for their families, it is small
wonder that the world is looking towards
this hardy nation in doubt and foreboding.
And yet there is something in the nature
OF the Swede which is opposed to all that
he must pay for his daily bread from the
hands of the Germans; there is so much
tine courage, SO much idealism beneath all
his rugged exterior, that it is hard for de-
mocracy to lose faith in him.
The Swede has suffered much And the
time seems now to have arrived when he
may rise up and with all the strength of his
orm, give blow for blow. And, while he
gets his revenge for a past that has been
fhrn1r0f xx,11i c1, 1, h,e
rneasurably humbled, the little nation of the
North will be putting coal into his cellar,
bread upon his table, warm clothing on his
babies
The Swede suffered privations for so
many lean years. And the fact that it was
very largely German capital which put him
On his feet and made him one of the great
Industrial powers of the world-that is, it
was German money which turned cottages
into palaces, which brought into Sweden
such wealth as the little country had rever
known-which made rich nJ>n of poor men
and millionaires overnght-and this long
before the great world war had been de-
clared. All these point to German vic
tory in winning the Swede to fight on the
side of the Central Powers
And yet-deep within the soul of the
Swede there is something strong and fine
and splendid. Under his grim visage there
burns fire lighted centuries ago by his
Viking forefath>ys. In his ears the voice
of liberty has sounded for so long that
something whispers to democracy that the
Swede cannot betray the house that is his
The weather. classes and the conserva-
tives, for the most part, are for Germany
But Sweden, fortunately for democracy. is
not yet so rich that she can count out the
humble folk, the men and the women, who
make up the great mass of people, who
have struggled long against the bondage
of wealth, the, power of might.
Democracy is still looking towards
Sweden with hope. The winter days are
hard and the nights are black and bitter
it may be that the Swede will sell his soul
for bread And it may be that Thor and
Odin, from their strongholds in the noun
tains, will arise and put on their armor
and lead the hardy little nation to victory
that only victory which counts in the large
sum of life-victory of SOUL kingship of
spirit-and that Sweden will go back to
Il e days of bitter bread of harsh privation,
of keen suffering, rather than to take that
which is surcharged with treachery and
stepped in disloyalty to- all the traditions
which have been kept sacred for so many
hundreds of years.
Mrs. Blanca de Saulles has the sympathy
OF the New York public it is easy to see