Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XV. Sweden in 1914
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But independently of these changes demanded by
the spirit of age, the material and intellectual
development of the people progressed. The peasant became
more and more the owner of the soil. The education
of the people in the course of the century made really
extraordinary progress. It is as successful as anywhere
in Europe. The popular universities in the country—a
recent creation of the Scandinavian mind—represent
something which remains to be created in other European
countries. A series of superior lectures are given for a
few weeks in such and such a rural district. These
lectures are better and better attended, and are
conscientiously paid for by those attending them; every
year a greater number of persons—of both sexes—go in
for the optional examinations, and, what is most
important, no one afterwards seeks any change of
circumstances, but remains quietly on his farm or in his
workshop.
Large stretches of country north of Dalsland and as
far as Lapland were colonised by prosperous enterprises
in connection with metallurgy and forestry. The rich
iron mines of the country were more and more exploited,
and wherever it was possible foundries, steel-works,
machine factories came to transform the famous Swedish
metal into machinery and tools, setting the standard for
modern civilisation. And all around flourishing colonies
of workmen arose, everywhere there were institutions
for securing to workmen and their families the greatest
possible amount of material well-being and of intellectual
and moral development. Socialism, as a political
doctrine, has lately made great progress among Swedish
workmen and peasants; and it was not because the people
were embittered that they sought to extend their rights of
participation in political life, but simply because they
desired more and more to increase the benefits from
their work and to acquire an importance which flattered
their self-esteem as substantial peasants and enlightened
workmen.
However, up till quite lately there existed in Sweden
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