Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - II. The Swedish People - 3. National Characteristics. Moral and Social Conditions - Social Conditions, by Theophil Andersson, Ph. D., Actuary at the Board of Trade, Stockholm
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
144
II. TH B SWEDISH PEOPLE.
of a state where both modern ultra-democratic and ancient aristocratic
institutions and tendencies prevail, the latter are still, socially, in
many cases preponderant. — Concerning the nobility — still surviving
in large numbers — many noble families have sought to ward off
financial decay by the institution of entailed family estates; this
process is, however, since 1809 prohibited by law.
Strained relations between the different social classes in Sweden have,
however, been mitigated, by that fellow-feeling which, as has been
frequently pointed out in these pages, is a characteristic trait running
through all classes of the community. Hence it is that all dissensions
and infringements of others’ rights, that do occur in the course of
practical life, are set at rest with less friction than might be expected from
a consideration merely of the written and unwritten laws of the land.
Yet another circumstance, contributing in its measure to this state of
things, is that to rise in the social scale is perhaps nowhere so easy of
accomplishment as in Sweden, nor do such advances probably anywhere
occur so frequently as here. That may be attributed principally to
higher education being practically open to all, by reason of the low
rates charged for instruction at the public colleges. Thus, at these
colleges no less a percentage than 20 to 25 are the sons of peasant
farmers or artisans, and about one half of the total number educated
at those schools belong, in general, to the so-called lower classes.
A great number of the most prominent men in Sweden can thus
trace their ancestry back to a member of the lower classes with bnt
one or two intervening generations; the upper and lower classes are
consequently strongly bound together by the very closest of ties,
namely that of blood. The significance of this will be apparent, if the
reader reflects on the striking contrast in certain other countries, where
the difference of class often amounts almost to a difference of race.
Additional contributory causes towards the leveling of social
distinctions in Sweden may be found in the high status to which popular
instruction has been raised; in the, comparatively speaking, equal
distribution of wealth; and, finally, the self-consciousness of the
individual, that centuries of political freedom have brought in their
train, and which asserts itself sxiperior to any and every sort of
infringement.
For a statement concerning the distribution of wealth in Sweden,
there exists, it is true, a considerable collection of data from recent times,
but as they have been arrived at for the purely administrative purposes
of the exchequer, it is not easy to make use of them here for scientific
purposes. Nor is the matter simplified by the tripartite assessment of wealth
adopted: real estate in land, other forms of real estate, and income
derived from capital and labour, without any information forthcoming as to
when and in what proportion any two or all three of these species of
wealth are held by one and the same individual.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
