Anton Nystrom Was Born at Gothenburg on February 15, 1842
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BEFORE I AND AFTER 1914 D 5\1 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library D 511.N99 1916 Before, durina and after 1914 3 1924 027 808 991 % Cornell University ?/ Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027808991 BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER 1914 BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER 1914 BY ANTON NY8TR0M TRANSLATED BY H. G. DE WALTERSTORFF WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY EDMUND GOSSE, C.B. LL.D. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1916 I\ix|.ci:,--Svn^ ^x^1•^^^, V^r'isteiy&^-l Printed in Great Britain tf^, ^.^.IX INTRODUCTION Much has been said about the dehcacy of Sweden's political disposition, and the outpourings of such Swedish activists as the egregious Sven Hedin have had enough, and more than enough, notice given them by English journalists. The pro-German opinions of this small class of Swedish militarists and meddlers are not those of the vast majority of the inhabitants of eastern Scandinavia. Too little has been said in any of the Allied countries of the existence of a consistent and powerful literature in which some of the foremost intellects of Sweden protest against the crimes of Germany. If we desire to know the real views of the best minds in Sweden, we ought to make acquaintance, not with the violent propaganda of a noisy court clique, but with the volumes of Professor Ernst Wigforss and of Herr C. N. Carleson, the remarkable Black Week of Herr Anton Karlgren, the essays of Professor N. Eden, the leading arti- cles in the principal Swedish newspapers, Dagens Nyheter, Stockholmstidningen, Goteborgsposten, Karlstadstidningen, and many others. If further evidence were needed that Sweden, as a whole, is not pro-German, it is found in the constant flow of speeches by the leader of the Social Demo- cratic Party, Herr Hjalmar Branting, and by the late Liberal Prime Minister, Herr Karl Staaff. The very fact that an admiration of German methods and an indulgence for German kultur have been more widely spread in Sweden than anywhere else outside the borders of the Central Empires gives a special value to the opinion of those Swedes who have had the courage to oppose the v vi Introduction stream of lying literature steadily flowing from Berlin. More and more, as the truth has filtered through to Scan- dinavia, honourable and able writers in Sweden have weighed the issues in the balance, and have decided in favour of the Allies. But it must never be forgotten that German propaganda is not merely untiring, it is protean. At every turn of the war it takes new shapes, and baffles the uninformed by its ingenuity and its impudence. The judgment which survives its attacks in a friendly neutral country is healthy indeed, and a peculiar value attaches to the exposures made by Swedish writers of authority, in which the guilt of bloodshed is brought home to Germany with overwhelming force. But among the protagonists whom we have mentioned, none carries more weight or speaks from a riper experience of men and affairs than Herr Nystrom, whose views are presented to the English public. Some notion of the career and activity of so remarkable a writer may be welcome to his English readers. Anton Nystrom was born at Gothenburg on February 15, 1842. He studied medicine at Upsala and at Stockholm, and with a Thesis—the title of which betrays his lifelong interest in practical matters. The Foot and the Right Shape of the Shoe—^he began his long literary career in 1867. He spent two years in visits to foreign medical schools, successively making himself at home in Copen- hagen, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and London, and then, in 1869, he settled down to be a practising physician in Stockholm. He had, however, from early youth com- bined with scientific investigation a passion for philo- sophical speculation, and this found its earliest expression in 1873, in a volume entitled Jesus and Christianity viewed from a Scientific Standpoint. In London and in Paris he had become acquainted with the views and writings of Auguste Comte, to which he was instantly attracted, and in 1875 he made a profession of the Comtist faith. He introduced Positivism into Sweden, founded a journal, was recognized by Pierre Lafitte as a mainstay Introduction vii of the movement, and lectured through Sweden on the philosophy of Comte. This exposition of Positivism was Dr. Nystrom's principal occupation until after 1879. In 1880 he started the practical work by which he is doubtless most widely known in his native country. This was a far-reaching effort to raise the intellectual level of the working classes of Sweden. He founded the Working Man's Institute in Stockholm, with courses of popular lectures on almost every branch of scientific knowledge. Here he developed a system of education, by means of evening courses, completed in a period of eight months in the year. The scheme was conceived in a manner extremely adaptable to the habits of the Swedish artisan, and it enjoyed a surprising success. In its second year the Institute was subventioned by the city and later by the State, and it branched out into similar bodies formed in all the principal towns of Sweden. Dr. Nystrom remained director of the whole enterprise, and when, in 1894, the Institute was able to build itself a fine hall in Stockholm, he received an ovation from a huge assembly. He himself lectured here regularly on anatomy, physiology, and the history of civilization. The results of his medita- tions on the last-mentioned theme were given to the public in what is the most important of his numerous literary works, his Allmdn kulturhistoria (General History of Civilization), which appeared in six volumes between 1886 and 1892. This work the author designed as a sort of " systematic encyclopaedia or a circle of scientific information." He seeks in it to bring all the natural sciences into relation with sociology. No other work of the kind, executed with anything like the same fullness, exists in the Swedish language. In more recent years Dr. Nystrom has extended his labours in the direction of political history, and has published a series of volumes in which contemporary problems are carefully examined. In The Main Political Danger for Scandinavia (1901) he faced the situation in which the North, and particularly Sweden, finds herself viii Introduction in relation to her powerful neighbours. In The Wars of Eastern Europe between Russia, Poland, and Sweden (1903) he went still more deeply into this inquiry. In the pre- ceding year Dr. Nystrom had visited Alsace-Lorraine, and he recounted his impressions in a volume which was published simultaneously in Swedish, French (with a preface by M. Millerand), and German. He proposed the return of the provinces to France in exchange for the cession to Germany of some of the French colonies, a solution of the difficulty which he fancied might lead to a settled peace. In the course of the present work it will be noted that Herr Nystrom has not yet abandoned some hope of a restoration of European balance by means of an interchange of colonies. Of the medical theories of Dr. Nystrom, exposed with great frankness and sometimes with a certain audacity, it is not necessary to speak here. Nor of his valuable contributions to pure sociology, such as his Christianity and Free Thought (1908) and his essay on the protection of the children of the poor (1911). Enough has been said to show how multifarious have been his intellectual activities, and it will easily be recognized how valuable the opinions of such a man must become when they deal with questions of the moment on which his vast range of experience has given him authority to speak. That Dr. Nystrom, after full reflection, has so unhesitatingly pronounced in favour of the Entente Allies must be a matter of sincere pleasure to all patriotic Englishmen. Edmund Gosse. AUTHOR'S PREFACE It is after a certain amount of hesitation that I have made up my mind to pubhsh this work. Perhaps it will meet with disapproval, seeing that it is not only a reiteration of the notes exchanged between the Powers before the outbreak of the World War and of their leading features, but an attempt as well to inquire into the causes of the war, and must therefore grapple with the question of responsibility. In all neutral countries the citizens have been exhorted to maintain a neutral attitude in their discussions concern- ing the nations at war, and to refrain from expressions of opinion in favour of this country or that. I have seen recently in an Italian paper warnings to this effect, but these warnings had, it seemed, chiefly the object of warding off enemies from Italy, and Maeterlinck's pro- paganda on behalf of Belgium was looked upon there with some alarm, as it might tend to arouse popular indignation against Germany and thus jeopardize an unbiased judgment. On this point there is much to be said. I admit that general expressions of opinion and demonstrations are improper and may prove harmful in a country which has affirmed its neutrality ; but that individuals could be absolutely neutral in discussing one or other of the bel- ligerent Powers in this the vastest war in the history of man, is unthinkable. We hear in Sweden, in private circles, the most diverse views based on ancient sympathies for this country or that, on personal relations, faith in the ix — X Author's Preface opinions of a certain newspaper, more or less veracious information, etc.