OCR Text |
Show SCANDINAVIAN HEWS SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT HAP. PENINGS IN FAR OFF NORTHLAND. ITEMS FROM THE OLD HOME Resume of the Most Important Events In Sweden, Norway and Denmark Of Interest to the Scandinavian! In America. NORWAY. ' A German writes from Norway: "The conditions in Christlanla today are very much as they were In Bucharest Buchar-est before Roumnnla entered the war," ' he says. "Gold flows in streams and fortunes beyond the dreams of avarice are made In a few days. Men who six months or a year ago did not own the clothing on their backs and hardly knew where their next meal would come from, now roll In wealth. All Norway is in the midst of an insane, fantastic adventure and has but one thought to make money and still more money. The 'goulash barons,' as the speculators furnishing foodstuffs and . other necessaries to the belligerents are called, are in evidence everywhere. Their luxurious automobiles make the streets of the capital unsafe and their princely steam and motor yachts cruise In the fjords and bays. Palaces rivaling rival-ing those of Paris, London, Berlin and , Vienna are growing out of the earth. "The cafe of the Grand hotel has become be-come a kind of an annex to the stock exchange. Day and night the place is crowded with Norwegian, Danish and , Swedish speculators and agents of foreign for-eign governments. Around the little tables, loaded down with champagne bottles and delicacies from all parts of the world, deals amounting to hundreds of millions are made dally. Everybody talks In millions. "That Is one side of ' the medal, but the other looks different. . The cost of living has become so high , In Christlanla that not only the poor, but also the middle classes suffer severely. se-verely. Money is too plentiful, and : has lost Its buying power. The result Is that the prices of all foods and other oth-er necessaries have risen so enormously enormous-ly that only the wealthy can pay them. Rent, food, clothing and fuel are much cheaper in 'half-starved' Germany Ger-many than In Norway, although the latter country is at peace with all the world and piles gold upon gold." In connection with the hundredth anniversary an-niversary of the birth of Johan Sverd- rup, the Norwegian statesman, Prof. . Ilalvdan Koht, in an article in the Ti-dens Ti-dens Tegn, snys : "Henrik Wergeland, . Johan Sverdrup, Bjornstjerne Bjorn-son, Bjorn-son, no names appeal more strongly to the Norwegian nation than these three. Wergeland, the spring gale sweeping' over our national 'new land,' the Norwegian Nor-wegian flag over our new-found liberty lib-erty ; Bjornson, the bard of the people in the midsummer of our national ' strength ; and between these two radiant ra-diant figures, their equal, Johan Sverdrup, Sverd-rup, the statesman who put into action what the other two had preached, and sung, the. steady, shining light In our fight for political freedom. His life is the political history of Norway In more than one generation. Nobody consolidated consoli-dated and organized the groping hopes and longings of our people and shaped their future, our present day, as he did." Senator Knute Nelson spent the holiday hol-iday recess translating the Norwegian law relating to compulsory arbitration, which just has been printed as a senate sen-ate document. The Norwegian law provides pro-vides for the appointment of a tribunal of five to adjust disputes between employers em-ployers and employees, the chairman and two other members to be appointed by the king. One of the two other members mem-bers is to be appointed by the national labor organization whose members are involved, and the second by the Norwegian Nor-wegian Employers' association. The Norwegian act provides that the king may forbid any labor suspension by either side during the arbitration proceedings, pro-ceedings, and labor and wage conditions condi-tions are to continue as they were when the dispute arose until judgment is rendered, ren-dered, or unless the parties otherwise agree. Any person who participates In a lockout or strike while the arbitration arbitra-tion tribunal board Is considering the dispute, is subject to a fine of from $1.34 to $6,700. A Copenhagen dispatch says most of the Norwegian papers have attacked the British minister in Christlania in connection with the embargo on coal proclaimed by Great Britain. The Norske Intelllgenszdler reports that the Norwegian reply has been handed the British representative and leaves no doubt that Norway is loyally maintaining maintain-ing the export prohibitions regarding fish and other goods. The Gazette says that there is a great quantity of coal in Norway and no prospect of a shortage. short-age. Announcement that Great Britain had prohibited the exportation of coal to Norway brought expression of grave fears in Scandinavian legations In Washington that the economic and commercial crises in the Scandinavian countries were Hearing danger points. Norwegian newspapers, as quoted in an Exchange Telegraph dispatch from Copenhagen, say the British government govern-ment lias prohibited the exportation of coal to Norway because of the unsatisfactory unsatis-factory manner in which certain obligations obli-gations were fulfilled by Norway. |