The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-22

bination of circumstances in these imitation days. shortly after the war began Sweden was swept by tidal waves of gold from Russia and Ger many. She sold to the allies as well as to the kaiser, supplying raw ma terials in the way of iron and timber, as well as steel bars and other stuffs for munitions. She sent cellulOse to Germany which was made into cloth- ing, and wrought iron and also cast iron in pig.
 The result was that all the in- dustrials rose i'll value and specula- tion was rife. In 1915 600 new com panies were organized and in 1918 morethan 1,500 flooded the market with new stocks. During the four years of the war the bank clearings increased 500 per cent and the de- posits were doubled and the savings accounts grew by hundreds of mil lions of dollars. The people were shut off from investing abroad and they bought local stocks and Kept on buying, thinking they were mak- ing more money the higher the stocks rose. The war neared it's close. Sweden was shut off from the rest of the world and it's business dwin- dled to nothing Everything fell the companies stopped paying divi- dends and those who owned shares were forced to sell to be able to live. There was no demand for the stocks outside Sweden. They dropped lower and lCwer and thousands were
 ruined. I understand that things are growing better today, but the money of Sweden is on d gold basis, and for this reason the lands of in Hated paper currencies can not trade with her. And so good hard money is here causing ruin while just across the Baltic cheap paper is bringing like condition to Germany. Truly the economic situation of Europe
 passeth all understanding"
 Founded On Gold.
 And still I cannot believe that the financial status of Sweden is des- perate. Most of the business of cen tral and northern Europe is founded on the sands of imitation. Swedish business is based upon gold, and the national debt is only s350 per family The country has assets tf three or four billion dollars, and obligations of only about one-tenth that amount The government has a surplus of more than five hundred million gold dollars
 And then look at the resources tf Sweden. A country like this cannot be permanently injured by any tenn porary money depression. It has farm products which bring in half billion dollars per annum and ten thousand factories which are annu- ally making goods approximatine s50,000,000. The Swedes were selling steel tools long before Tubal-cain, the grandson of Methuselah and brother of Noah, worked at the forge. The forest industries of Sweden alone produce something like S1OO. .O0O, 900 per annum and from it's waterfalls, 1t is now getting about a 1,125,O00 horse power with upwards of 5,0OO,- 900 horse power to develop. The gov ernment, itself, has properties, which are valued at more than SS00,000, 900, and before the World war, these properties were annually yielding about a half billion dollars The in come from them was then equal to two and one-half times the interest on the national debt. At that time the national wealth was increasing and inasmuch as it lies largely in natural resources and national thrift, it is bound to continue to grow.
 Cur New Minister To Sweden.
 The new Minister to Sweden, Ro- bert Woods Bliss, is a professional diplomat He was appointed last spring to this post in accordance with the policy of Secretary of State Hughes who believes that our dip lomatic officers should be trained in the business and rise gradually from secretaries to amba ssadors. MT. Bliss entered the service shortly after he graduated from Harvard in 1900. He began as private secretary to the governor of Porto Rico. A year or so later he was cCunsul at Venice, and the year after that he was con- m ah O hoe Petersburg. He has been stationed at Brussels. Buenos Aires, and Paris, where he was counselor to the em- bassy during the war and the peace conference. Later still he was charge daffaires of our legation at the Hague. He is now only 4S years old, but his long experience ought to make him q valuable minister. \ Royal Romance.
 Our last minister was Ira Nelson Morris, a millionaire pork packer, but a successful diplomat withal. Morris was a democrat and he came from Chicago, but he lived in a palace. He slept in the bed of a prince, and entertained gorgeously for Uncle Sam where royalty trod. Moreover there is an interesting TO- nance concerning his palace. It was built with money furnished by the Czar as a wedding gift to the Prin- cess Maria, one of the royal family Of Russia Her full title is the Grand Duchess Maria Polovna and she was a daughter of the Grand Duke Paul AleXandrovitch and the niece of the Czar who was killed by the Bolshevists. She was married to the second son of the reigning King of Sweden. Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Sodermanlend. After the wedding the Duke came to live in the palace, which afterwards became the Ameri- can Legation. The Prince was then AZ and the Princess IS. They spent their honeymoon in the palace and had a son there. but as time went on the Swedish temperament did not somehow accord with the Russian and the Princess Maria decided to leave. She crossed the Baltic to Berlin and there in a railway sta tion was met by her brother, the Grand Duke Dmitri who, took her back to Russia with him. She es- capped from Russia in time to avoid the terrible fate of others of the Royal family, and ran off to Paris where she got a divorce. When she and these kept her alive for some- time. They were all finally sold, and now she is earning her living by keeping an embroidery and dress making shop at the French capital where she sells goods over the cCun- ter The son. in the meantime, has been adopted by the Queen of Sweden and he is being brought up in the royal palace.
 Prince Wilhelm. who was always fond of the Princess Maria and de- voted to her, has since wandered far and wide in his grief. He has diluted his sorrow with science. having equipped several large exploring eX-