Evening star., 1949-03-16
fThe Third of Fipe ArticlesJ
by WiiIiom H. Harrison

BY WiiIiom n. Harrison =
In Scandinavia it is said Of the
Swedes that they are Germans in
human form. The quip is not un-
complimentary. On the contrary.
it may be interpreted to mean that
here are q people who combine
warmth of heart. q fine sense Of
the art of living and . genuine
love of freedom with technical
and administrative skill of very
high order and with q tendency
to be serious about protocols
people, in short. endowed with
Germanic efficiency and q touch
of formality. yet altogether unlike
the legendary Prussian in their
friendly, democratic personality.
Both the personality and the
skill have made Sweden. with its
population of 1000, 900, one of the
most progressive and stanchest OF
all democracies. enjoying stand
ard Of living that is equaled by no
other European country, except
possibly Switzerland. The largest
of the Scandinavian nations, it is
land of mountains, lakes and
forests wooded and industrialized
as are few others anywhere in the
world. Rich in iron ore deposits
and in actual and potential hydro
electric power. and blessed with
agricultural resources capable OF
meeting nearly all domestic needs,
it has good reason, given peace,
to look to the future with conf
depce.
Vet, as of today. Sweden is in
trouble. Like so many other coun-
tries, it faces the difficult problem
of reordering its production and
export import operations to earn
the dollars it must have to keep
its economy going at high level.
Although neutral during the war,
the Swedes suffered economically.
The blockade crippled their for
eign trade. Rearmament expen-
ditures upset them internally.
Much of their industrial equip
ment wore out and could not be
replaced. Then. with the arrival
of We day. several things hap
pened. Germany. one OF the key
Swedish markets both for selling
and buying, disappeared. and the
general overall pattern Of multi
lateral world commerce. pattern
vital to Sweden's proSperity-was
shattered.
Slow to Restrict Imports.
Equally important, Sweden,
while offering large-scale eco
nomic assistance to several Of its
stricken neighbors, miscalculated
the extent and depth Of the
worlds dislocation Immediately
after the war. In 1945. 1t was
strong In terms of foreign ex-
change, possessing large reserves
of gold and dollars. A great part
of those reserves. however, were
lost in the post-1945 boom when
they were spent. willy-nilly, on all
kinds of imports to meet the pent-
up consumer demand. Not until
1947 were steps taken to restrict
buying abroad to the buying OF
essentials fact that helps ex-
plain why Stockholm. the beau
tiful capital, is still so lush with
luxury goods in such big depart
ment stores as the NIX.
Another miscalculation, accord
ing to some Swedes, was the gov
ernment's~ decision in 1916 to
effect an upward revaluation Of
the Swedish crown from ~ to
the dollar to 3.6. In the opinion
of certain industrialists, this has
operated against their effort to
sell goods to the United States
and the Western Hemisphere, and
they claim that If there were a
devaluation back to the ~ figure,
they could increase their exports
to us by is per cent. The point,
however, is an arguable one which