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Show SClOlilll NEWS SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT HAP-PENINGS 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 Scandinavians , In America. DENMARK. iJcmmirk'.s jirccarious .situation ro-iKHrdliif; ro-iKHrdliif; fuel, uliicli liorctufon; has ln'iwi iiliiKist cxcliislvi'ly i 1 1 1 1 i-1 j f j l'nini IiiKliiiicJ miij Ccnnaiiy, lias !( 1 to tin; .iiil.rodiK-tion of a bill to exploit lionu; resources, forests, peal hos and llm-itcd llm-itcd deposits of lignite coaU Tin; measure meas-ure provides thai owners not working tln.'Se most intensively must turn them over to the government to be so worked and anl horizes compulsion lo enlist necessary labor and the use of 'troops. The country lias been on the vorjo of a fuel famine for two months and only the most stringent restrictions restric-tions as to the consumption, including early closing for business houses and restaurants, has enabled it to tide over the crisis without shutting down llghllug plants and street cars. The final net of more than fifty years' effort (o bring the Danish West Indies under the American flag was I completed with formal ceremonies at )the state department recently when 'Danish Minister Brim was handed a jtreasury warrant for $J5,00(,000, the (purchase price, and wireless messages were sent to the American and Danish wuithorilles at the islands to lower the iDanlsh Mag and raise the Stars and FINLAND, In the present wur many prominent finlaielers have been deported to Siberia, Si-beria, but In spito of ail the wrong done by the Kussiau government, the Finnish nation lias been absolutely loyal loy-al to Hussia. The Fiulandcrs never have listened to tin; templing words of (e-nnan agents, who have tried to start a revolt In Finland, thus menacing men-acing I'etrogrud in the rear. The Russian Rus-sian revolution seems now to be ready to give Finland tin- reward for her loyalty loy-alty r 1 1 1 1 autonomy. If this policy is carried out in the right way, there Is no doubt thai Finland, with her old ; culture anil developed industries, will play an important part in the new Russian Rus-sian republic. The Finlanilers are democratic and this will make them especially adapted to the new regime In Hussia. Tin; fate of Finland has demonstrated to the world that a nation, na-tion, lilled with a real patriotic spirit, can never be subjugated. The Finnish patriotism has won the sympathies of all the civilized nations. Leaders of the Finnish party have agreed on a new senate of 12 members as Finland's supreme executive. Six are Social Democrats, the largest party par-ty in Finland, and the others are the old Finnish party, the Young Finnish party and the Swedish Popular party. The new government bus also organized organ-ized a judicial department excluding reactionary ollicials with Russian associations, as-sociations, appointing instead the country's best jurists. The tremendous change, brought about in the situation of Finland, is best illustrated by the fact that Judge SWnhufud has been appointed to be attorney general of that country. Judge Svinhufvud has been known as one of the strongest opponents of the Uussillcation of Finland, and at the beginning of the war lie was therefore exiled to Siberia by the government of the czar. Stripes. With the formal transfer the Islands become kown as the Virgin Islands of the United Stutes. Rear Ad-imlral Ad-imlral James II. Oliver was named as governor of the Islands, i , The Danish government has not replied re-plied to the inquiries from Washington regarding the admission of armed American merchantmen to Danish ports, but the indications are that it will follow the example of Holland In barring them. The American minister, Dr. Maurice Fgnn, bus hud several conversations on this subject with the foreign ollice, but has not cited a precedent pre-cedent which the Danish authorities regard as adequate to justify reversal of the present policy. Norway, Denmark and Sweden practically prac-tically have recognized the Russian democracy by entering into relations with the new government. SWEDEN. The king accepted the resignation of ithe entire cabinet headed by Premier jllammarskjold. The Swedish ministry resigned March 5, but King Gustaf requested re-quested the ministers, to retain their offices, which they consented to do temporarily. The resignation on that occasion followed a defeat of the government gov-ernment in getting only $2,700,000 instead in-stead of three times this amount, for which tlie cabinet asked from the riksdag. riks-dag. Carl Johan Gustaf Swartz has Jieen requested by King Gustaf to form a new cabinet. Mr. Swartz was minister minis-ter of finance in the LIndman cabinet from 1900 to HUl. In politics he is a Conservative and chairman of the rlks- NORWAY. Hotel accommodations are very scarce in Stavanger. Day after day there is not a cot ' to spare at the Grand, and the books show the names of many w ho are waiting for a chance. An elderly gentleman told his experiences experi-ences as follows : He wired some days ahead in order to be sure of getting a room ; but when he arrived there was no room. He went to two other hotels, hut all in vain. So he had to return to the train and sleep in a car which was really too cold for him. He spent a large part of the next day hunting for hotel accommodations. He finally landed in a little boarding house near the quays. The gentlemau next went to Satidnes, where there was no room to spare in the hotel. This time he was permitted to spend the night at the Aalgaard factories. A new building is going up at Hille-vaag. Hille-vaag. It is to be used as a factory for turning out a new kind of fishhook. From prehistoric times to this day the barb, or beard, of the hook has been placed on the inside of the point of the hook. August Thorlng came to think that the barb would catch better if it were on the side of the hook. He made a number of hooks and had them tested, test-ed, and the reports were to the effect that fewer fish got loose from the new hooks than from the old ones. This settled the matter. The inventor had his fishhook patented in a number of countries and now a company, backed by ample capital, la to manufacture manu-facture the Thoring fishhook on a large scale. dag budget committee. The new premier pre-mier is a large factory owner, Is chancellor chan-cellor of the Upsala university, a member mem-ber in the directorates of various banks and is considered a high authority in financial matters. The commission to M. Swartz to form a new ministry may undoubtedly be taken as an indication of the king's desire to see the present state policy continued along substantially substan-tially the same lines as heretofore. How the Liberals will regard his appointment ap-pointment is not yet known, but Hjal-mar Hjal-mar Branting, the Socialist leader and editor of the Social Democraten, has given notice of open war from his party if an attempt should be made to form another Conservative ministry. The Liberals have not produced any real leader since the death of Karl Staaff, and the Social Democrats have never been eager to take over the responsibilities re-sponsibilities connected with forming a cabinet. This made M. Swartz the best candidate for the premiership under un-der the present circumstances. King Gustaf's offer of the premiership to M. Swartz means a new epoch in the political po-litical history of Sweden. It is the first time that an out-and-out business man has been selected for the position. The war with all Its complicated economic problems, even for neutrals, has taught Sweden, the necessity of business-like government, from the top down. Smallpox has broken out in northern pweden and strict precautionary measures meas-ures have been taken in many industrial indus-trial centers. I It Is true that one of the chief alms iof Sweden's trade policy after the war will be to increase the Swedish ocean tonnage. But the demand for freight-carrying freight-carrying steamers will be so great that there can be no danger of competition with Norway, which possesses one of the world's leading merchant marines. The Scandinavian nations have seen that It is possible to overcome many-prejudices many-prejudices if good will be shown on both sides and the unity, now prevailing, prevail-ing, will probably stand the hardest Jests in V lie future. King Olav Trygvesson was the founder of the city of Trondhje'm, which for centuries was known by the name of Nldaros (the mouth of the Nid river). Now it is proposed to erect a monument to him at the public market mar-ket place. Dyre Halse, a wholesale merchant, has donated $13,500 to the monument fund as a starter. All Norwegian Nor-wegian sculptors and artists have been asked to prepare sketches for the monument. One thousand three hundred hun-dred and fifty dollars will be given as premiums for the best sketches, and a select few will be bought at the rate of almost $200 apiece. Between 300 and 400 Swedes are engaged en-gaged in the building trades in Bergen. Work is more plentiful in Norway than in Sweden at the present time. It is expected that many more Swedes will come to Bergen by the time the work of rebuilding the burned portion of the city is started in dead earnest. The people of Bergen are never in a hurry, but when they finally make up their minds to start they will be sure to do things, and do them thoroughly. Even the jailbirds testify to the cosmopolitan cos-mopolitan character of the Norwegian capital, the number of nationalities represented running from half a dozen to a dozen. The net profit of the Brager paper mills for the year 1916 was about 100 per cent, and the stockholders received a dividend of 25 per cent. Four persons who were walking from Nols to Nordmjale, on the Ando island, were overwhelmed by a snow-slide snow-slide in a valley at Mela. One of them managed to get out without aid, and be went on his way to get help. He returned with a number of men, who began to dig for the three lost ones. One of them was dead, but the other two were alive, although they had been Imprisoned in the snow for live hours. The Krogstad cellulose factories distributed dis-tributed a dividend of 15 per cent for the year 1910. |
