^SVENSKA
PRESSEN
The only Swedish Newspaper in B. C
Circulation This Issue 5.000
VANCOUVER, B. C- Torsdagen den 6 februari 1941,
Circulation This Issue 5.000
Nr. 5.
Sweden’s Progress Through
Social Democracy
Finlands nya president en fredens omhuldare
Vi vill ej ha fred under vilka
By ERNEST A. SPONGBERG.
The present-day Sweden is acknowledged as the country far-thest advanced on the road to real democracy. Its social legisla-tion, its cooperation and control-led capitalism, the harmony between employer and labor, the rights and privileges and compar-ative high living standards at-tained by the working c'ass have been quoted as proof of this ad-vancement.
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It was not always so. Every improvement has been preceded by great efforts. The transformation has not taken place abrupt-ly, but is the fruit of gradual de-velopment, the achievement of a generation. Obstacles in the path toward socal justice were removed only slowly through never-ceasing activity on the part of the organized masses. The foundation for the modern Sweden was la d sixty years ago by indomitable representatives of the workers.
piessed the unforgettable motto: "Workers of the world, unite You have nothing to lose by your chains, and a world to win”. They il um:nated central Europé with the hope-inspired theory, that the labor and the income of society should be bome and enjoyed with greater equality by all its mem-bers. without exploitation of one by the other. These students of social actions and reaetions, for the first time in the annals of man-kind, gave to the world an eco-nonre »nd materia istic interpretation of history. Temporarily, the peop’e s movement lies crushed to éarth and bleeding, on the Euro-pean continent. where arrogant' usu-pers of populär nghts defend the thesis that the individual exists for the State. But Freedom, although now trampled under dic-tators' iron heels, will rise agam, when tyrants fall, as they must, sooner or later.
■	i, i-j -x > i	Spreads to Sweden
who preached solidanty and loy- I
alty to the idea of the class strug- The new ecOnomic evangel spread in due time to Sweden. The ( conditions there existing, had pre pared the soil for welcome seed To contrast the present and
HAN REPRESEN TERAR KULTURELLT SETT OCKSÅ FINLANDS BaDA SFRaKGRUPFER.
Finlands nva 5 1 år gam’a president R sto Ryti tiFhör icke något av de stora politiska partien och har dä*för utsetts till sitt höga ämbe‘e enbart på gmnd av sin d: pdighet. Samma elektorer söm 1937 efter en bitter politisk kamp va’de Kal io, utsåg nu nästan enhälligt statsministern till h?ns efterföljare.
President Ryti har växt upo i en tvåspråkig socken i västra Ny-'and, där fadern ägde ett giedel-stort hemman. Han talar därför
Were Disfranchised.
Before the year 1881, and for decades afterwards, great num-bers of Swedish workingmen were praetieally disfranchised. Eligibili-ty to a seat in parliament was predicated on ownership of rea! property, and income above a certain level, and citizens with
the past, let us consider what took place in the sawmill district ol Sundsvall in the spring of 1879. The workers were housed, under congested conditions, in company-owned barracks. The mill-owners arbitrarily cut the wages of the
utsågs till sistnämnda viktiga post redan vid 34 års ålder.
Herr Ryti är en fredens man. som helst vill lösa problem på fredlig väg. Han gjorde allt vad som stod i hans förmåga att undgå kriget med Ryssland, men då detta en gång bö-jat gjorde han sitt yttersta att tillbakaså fiendens anfa'l. Förvånansvärt nog äger han även en god kännedom . om militära frågor och i försvars-”ådet väger hans inlägg tungt. Då Rvti såsom statsminister förutsåg krigets slutliga utgång yrkade han på fred med Ryssland hällre än' att ytterligare offra tusentals unga män. Då kriget var slut åtog han sig även den svåra uppgiften att i ; egenskap av statsminister leda landets återuppbyggande.
Finlands regeringsform giver k- i ke presidenten någon vidsträckt politisk maktbefogenhet. Han sitter enbart såsom ordförande i , s*atsrådet och kan vetobelägga riksdagens bes ut. Men man kan dock taga för givet, att den nya presidenten kommer att utöva ett betydelsefullt inflytande på Finlands framtid.
SVENSKT IKÖPEN HAMN.
En svensk kulturvecka i Köpenhamn avslutades med en fest i Rådhuset söndagen den 19 jan. Vid denna rä'voro det danska kungaparet och k onprinsparet
betingelser som helst
Stockholm den 19 januari: — Ledande representanter för samtliga regeringspartier uttalade vid årets remissdebatt i riksdagen sin fasta vi ja till fortsatt samarbete inom regeringen och sin fasta föresats att till det yttersta bevara
4
STATSMINISTER HANSSON
landets frihet och att underkasta i s g de härför behövliga uppoffringarna. Anslutning till ett pro-g am för fred i förening med Sveriges frihet och självständighet var statsminister Per Albin Hanssons formulering av målet för den
earnings in the lower brackets employees. Fheir fighting spirit could not vote. The laborer had was aroused, and th-ey de— been taught in schools to be pa- manded a restoration of the triotic above everything else, to former wage scale. When it take pride in the nation's past was turned down. they quit work. and the old deeds of military i Under improvised red f.ags 1,000 valor, when the blue and yellow men in overalls marched to the emblem was carried by conquer- public square and camped.
ing arms across Europé, under, Gustavus Adolphus and Charles the Twelfth. Up to the time, when this narrative Commences, he had 1 never been trained to analyze his own status and take an inventory of conditions in the body politic. j
Hopeless Looked to U S.
The pieture of the nation in those days is quite different from that of today. Working hours, for industrial as well as agrieultural laborers, were unreasonably long, and wages pitifully small- No won der that the lack of promising prospeets within the boundaries of their native land caused many to cast longing eyes across the Atlantic ocean. Between the years 1851 and 1881, more than. half a million of the most energetic Swedes had emigrated to the prai-ries of North America, where land could be had by anyone with a will to work and possessed of a pair of strong arms.
Those who stayed at home, ac-cepted as something unescapable the exploitation that foldwed in the wake of the heartless industrialism which from England swept over Europé in the middle of the last century.
Counter Movemen4 Set In.
Tumed Oot Mil tary.
The provincial governor arr.v-ed, in tzaristisk style, at the head of 300 soldiers and, in the name
Continued on page 8.
PRESIDENT RYTI
flytande landets båda språk, samt äger förståelse för de två språkgruppernas kultu ella behov. Det--ta är särdeles viktigt just nu. då återuppbyggnadsarbetet lätt fram-kalar svåra s itningar. Man kan därför säga, att presidenten både politiskt och kulturellt representerar hela Finland.
Den nya presidenten behärskar också engelska språket. Under sin viste se i London 1934 blev han medlem av juristförbundet i England. Såsom chef för Finlands Bank har han haft god användning för sina språkkunskaper- Han
svenska utrikespo’itiken.
Känslan av samhörighet med de nordiska grannländerna under ströks kraftigt av flera talare i båda kamrama.
Debatten präglades vidare av det brydsamma finansiella läget. Särskilt underströks faran av inflation, som med alla medel måste motarbetas- I övrigt berördes aktue la spörsmål, såsom förhållandet mellan regering och riksdag. försörjningsläget, bränslefrågan-etc. i en moderat kritik, dess nationalkänsla förädlas och1 Ett ovanligt intermezzo inträf-hårdnar under det växande yttre Tade, då talmannen i Andra Kam-
samt talrika representanter för dansk elit. Tidningarna framhålla detta såsom en lika märklig som lovande manifestation av nordisk samhörighet i dessa tider. Allmänt betygas, att intresset för svenskt i språk och svensk vitterhet aldrig varit större. Nu förestår en samlingens tid. De svenska diktarna medförde budskap från Sverige till Danmark, att vi svenskar ingalunda misströsta om det danska folkets okuvliga livskraft och att vi med beundran fö ja hur
t ycket. Den svenska avdelningen |
av föreningen Norden anordnar en motsvarande dansk vecka i Stock holm i vår,
W/ien tragedy struck beloved Finnish leader
maren, August Sävström, två gånger nedklubbade professor Vilhelm Lundstedt, nä; denne angrep rättsväsendet och domarna mot fru Else Kleen och T orsten Kreu-ger. Andra gången meddelade talmannen, att han ämnade fråntaga professor Lundstedt ordet för resten ay dagen, om denne-icke efterföljde varningarna. Bifall hä’sade de därpå följande ta-la-e, som angrepo Lundstedts underminering av rättsordningen ocb
uttryckte tillfredsställelse med mannens ingripande.
Statsministern framhöll i kort anförande i debatten.
tal-
ett att
vad representanter för samtliga regeringspartier yttrat rörande utrikespolitiken var ingenting nytt men det var dock värdefullt att understryka hela folkets fasta föresats att till det yttersta bevara friheten och skapa de medel, som om det gäl'er,. krävas härför. Det är givet, sade han, att vi i vår strävan att bevara freden använda alla möjligheter att hålla oss utanför kriget men därmed är det ingalunda sagt, att vi efter-st-äva en fred under vilka betingelser som helst. Den fred vi å-stunda är en fred förenlig med vår frihet och självständighet. Statsministern berörde det missförstånd, som uppstått om den-svenska viljan och hå Iningen i den norska frågan, och erinrade om att under finsk-ryska konflikten yppats samma missförstånd inför vårt förhållande till Finland. Nu liksom då nödgats svenskarna avvakta ett gynnsammare läge för att få sin ståndpunkt klarlagd utåt och få missförstånden tillrättalagda. Det bör bli en gemensam uppgift för regering och riksdag att förverkliga den levande känsla av sammanhållning, som finns hos det svenska folket och som utgör vår styrka, slutade statsministern.
Sweden has helped and is now helping i	her stricken neighbours
Each drawback has its compen-sation, says Emerson. A counter-movement was inevitable. The capitalistic control of the means of produetion and distribution, with its resulting ens'avement of the masses, brought into existence a force, destined to be the ulti-mate executioner of the -unjust system. I refer to the materialis-tic coricept of social relationships which was first promulgated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their Manifesto, which may be truly called the Declaration of Independence by the world's workers. On this basis, the soc:al democratic party of Sweden was founded, and it still rests thereon, although its most extreme aims have not as yet been fully realized
New Hope Bom.
Marx and Engels gave the op-
This speetaeular scene along a > great strain of guiding his coun-main Street of Helsingfors shows try through the horrors of war the farewell given to ex-President | and through the gigantic task of Kyosti Kallio of Finland, as he ■ readjustment and rebuilding, — left for his country home and re- i
tirement. The beloved leader nev-er boarded his train. He was seiz-ed by a heart attack and slumped
which even now and for some time to come taxes the Finnish statesmen and people to the ut-most. President Kallio decided to
into the arms of his friend, Field resign from his important post. Marshal Mannerheim, and short- On the 19th of December he took
ly after died in the station.
1 part in the election of his succés-
His health giving way under the I »or, the then Prime Minister Risto
Since a little over a year ago sands and war materials in con-
Sweden s sister nations to the east and to the west have each for a period been engulfed in war. What has been the attitude of Sweden? Has it been indiffer-ence and a closing-the-door attitude on her part? We think not. We feel that Sweden has played
siderable quantities found their way to the war zone.
At the end of March', two weeks after the peace had been concl-uded, aid from Sweden was found to have reached over 1 00— 000.000 crowns ($25.000.600) in cash donations from the people
the part of a good neighbour, ! of Sweden; large Joans by the
that she has done all she could do Government; commodities for — and that she has wisely refrain- | tens of millions; besides Sweden ed from such action as would ■ receiving 8/000 refugee mothers, have subjeeted her, also, to the children and old people and 1,000 ravages of war and made things wounded Finnish soldiers. The ever so much worse for the entire 1 total support in money and com-! modities was over 500.000.00(1 crowns ($125.000.000).
North.
Perhaps a summary of the more important measures of assistance
to Finland and Norway might help to clear away the opinion prevailing in some people’s minds that Sweden has looked to no-thing but her own interests dur-ing the periods of war and sub-sequent hardships and suffering in her neighbouring countries.
HELP TO FINLAND.
Shortly after the Russo-Finnish war broke out a Relief Campaign was started för Finland. The Roy-al Family topped the list with 26,-000 crowns and in six days the fund had reached the imposing I figure of 6.000.000 crowns, or i $1.500.000. At the same time
Ryti, pietured elsewhere on this several organizations had sent page, and the same evening he large quantities of clothing and was to leave for his country home, l commodities to the stricken areas.
when death overtook him. He was But this was only a small begin-
Swedish volonteers to a num-ber of 9,000 had served under the Finnish colors, and an additional 5,000 were in the course of leaving Sweden when peace came. Of war material Sweden sent 65 aeroplanes, 80 cannons, 250 anti-tank guns. I 00 anti-aireraft guns, 90.000 rifles and 42.000.000 shells. After the war was over, most of the volonteers remained to help with the reconstruction work, and 500 automobiles from Sweden assisted in the evacuation of Karelia.
The willingness of the Swedish people and Government to con-tinue helping to the uttermost of their ability the sister nation across the Gulf of Bothnia, confronted with tremendous problems as a result of the war and a hard peace,
67 years old. On December 22nd ning- In a few weeks the fund had has not ceased. Among reports his remains were removed from! reached 40 million crowns ($10,- °f assistance over the last ew Helsingfors to Nivala- Almost the 000.000), supplies were sent by months we find considera le ere-entire population of the Finnish the carloads, several ambulance dite *n money and goods grante and went by the Swedish Government; and and went	nearly 3
capital turned out to give their units were outfitted
departed leader a last tribute and over, complete with staff and me- besides that near y . Pre j dical supplies, volonteer fighters fabricated houses with a tota ca c rossed the border by the thou- 1
farewell.
Continued on page 8.