Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/1211

Rh

tion in 1919, the Norwegian Industrial Confederation, after the dis- solution in 1918 of an earlier (1886) union, the Norwegian Mutual Trade and Industry Association. The organ of the Confederation is the Norwegian Industry, which since 1919 has been published weekly in Christiania. Another organization for safeguarding indus- trial interests is found in the Norwegian Employers' Association, established in 1900. In 1921 it included about 2,200 undertakings, employing about 85,000 workmen. The administrative head- quarters are at Christiania, and its organ is The Employer, which appears twice monthly in Christiania.

Insurance. Private insurance work is carried out in Norway part- ly by mutual companies and partly by private joint-stock companies. During the war the number of companies, especially stock companies, as well as the amount insured, premiums, etc., increased very greatly. Prior to the war there were 25 joint-stock companies which carried out insurance against loss or damage; in 1915, II new companies were established, 12 in 1916, 27 in 1917, and 40 in 1918. The total number of insurance companies in 1921 was about 120, with a nominal share capital of 160,000,000 kr., of which half was paid up. There are 8 life insurance joint-stock companies, with a total capital of something over 6,000,000 kr. in addition to 3 mutual life insurance companies. Besides these companies there is the Norwegian Fire Office (Brand- kasse), which has always taken the leading part as regards the in- surance of houses and buildings. The companies which made the greatest progress during the war were those doing marine insurance, the number of which increased from 17 in 1913 to 77 in 1918. The total capital of Norwegian insurance companies at the end of 1920 was estimated to amount to about 500,000,000 kroner.

Recent Political History. On the dissolution of the Union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 the internal party strife, which for a generation had exhausted the best energies of the country, ceased. It had been carried on between the Conservative party chiefly an official party, which up to the severance of the union with Sweden sought to maintain this union so long as it could be carried out in a form in accordance with Norwegian national feeling and the old Left, which still maintained its traditions dating from the 'eighties of the igth century, when Johan Sverdrup (see 19.813) was all-powerful in Norway's domes- tic politics. The negotiations with Sweden under successive Governments had in 1905 reached a deadlock, and a crisis in the union presented itself at the same moment when the Norwegian parties were prepared to unite for common action. It was the fortune of Chr. Michelsen (b. 1857) to find this concord. With the liquidation of the union, and the consequent revision of the constitution as his sole programme, he formed in 1905 the so- called " 7th of June Government," which practically had the whole Storthing and the whole of the people behind it. Mean- while a new electoral party had entered into politics. From 1890 Labour had begun to separate itself from the Radical Left, and nad formed the Social Democratic party, which subsequently increased in numbers and influence at succeeding elections, both in the Storthing and municipal councils. Although this party was not represented in the 1905 Government, it was nevertheless capable of forming a group which afterward had to be reckoned with. Simultaneously the new trade-union movement continued to progress, and gradually secured a separate influence in politics. On June 22 1906 the coronation of the new Norwegian King took place at Trondhjem, and thereby the mandate of the joint Government was consummated. The Storthing, however, con- tinued its functions until a new National Assembly should be elected in the autumn. Chr. Michelsen personally opened the election campaign on June 26 with an address at Trondhjem outlining his programme. In it he recommended continued cooperation between the parties in order to " safeguard and consolidate the results of 1905." The Government programme involved the maintenance of the coalition, with a leaning towards the Left, and provided a basis for the " new labour day " which was now to be inaugurated. This standpoint so far secured the adhesion of the electors that there were elected 77 Liberals and Left of all shades, the majority being Coalitionists, while 36 Conservatives were elected who would only promise a conditional support to the Government, and 10 Socialists who stood in direct opposition to them. The position of the Government was there- fore weakened after the meeting of the new Storthing, and its opponents combined themselves into a constantly more aggressive opposition. Attacks on the Government were notably strong during the spring session of the Storthing in 1907, when the ques-

tion of establishing by law one of the " concessions " recom- mended by the Radical Left for the purpose of conserving the natural resources of the country came into the foreground.

In fact, the pivot of Norway's politics during 1906-12 was the so-called " Concession-case," i.e. the right of foreigners as well as of natives to hold, by Government concession, real prop- erty in Norway, especially waterfalls, mines and forests. This question came to the front during the second half of 1906, and in 1907 it gradually became obvious that it was about to cause a split in the majority bloc. However, this did not take place until after the withdrawal of Michelsen from public life in Oct. 1907, when the Cabinet was reconstructed by Jorgen Lovland (b. 1848), Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Michelsen Government. It was Mr. Lovland who negotiated the treaty guaranteeing the territoral integrity of Norway, signed on Nov. 2 1907, by Norway, France, Germany, Great Britain and Russia. One section of the large Government majority was in sympathy with the liberal " concession policy " of the Government, whereas the radical wing of the same majority claimed the issuing of laws that would limit the invasion of foreign capital. This conflict on one of the greatest problems of national economics finally led to a rupture, the result of which was the establishment of two different parties, the Radical or " Consolidated Left," and the " Liberal Left." In March 1908 Lovland's Cabinet, backed up by the Conserva- tives, and the Liberal Left, was driven to resign by the opposition of the Radicals and the Socialists. Gunnar Knudsen (b. 1848) formed a new Cabinet (March 18 1908). Besides being Premier he held the portfolio of the Minister of Finance. In his Govern- ment the radical Minister of Justice, Johan Castberg (b. 1862), attained great influence, especially as regards the elaboration of the new Concession Laws, which were passed in 1909. These laws, concerning (i) waterfalls, mines and other real property, and (2) forests, were sharply opposed by the Conservatives and the Liberal Left, as representing too severe an encroachment upon private property. In consequence of this opposition a reorganization of the Liberal party took place in March 1909, initiated by Chr. Michelsen, the former Premier. The cooperation between the reorganized Liberals and the Conservatives resulted in a new majority for these parties at the next general elections (Oct. 1909). This majority included 63 Conservatives and Liberals, as against 47 Radicals, n Socialists and 2 Independents.

In the meantime an old question of controversy between Norway and Sweden had been settled. From olden times the suzerainty over a certain group of submarine skerries (shelves) in the Kattegat, the Grisebaaer (Swedish: Grisbadarne), situated between the Norwegian group of islands, the Hvaler, and the Swedish islands of Koster, in the waters south of Fredrikshald, had been a matter of dispute between the two countries. The Grisebaaer, on account of the lobster fisheries in these waters, are not without a certain economic value. On March 14 1908 a convention was concluded between Norway and Sweden, by which the question of the right drawing of the border-line between these skerries was submitted to arbitration by the Hague Tri- bunal. The decree of the Tribunal, on Oct. 23, decided that the border-line be drawn in such a way that the Grisebaaer proper fell to Sweden, and a group of smaller submarine rocks, the so- called Skjottegrunder, to Norway.

When the new Storthing met in Jan. 1910, Mr. Gunnar Knudsen tendered the resignation of his Ministry. It was with some difficulty that a new Government was formed, but finally, on Feb. i 1910, the leader of the Liberals, Wollert Konow (from Fane, near Bergen, b. 1845), succeeded in constituting a Cabinet, consisting of Liberals and Conservatives, the former being pre- ponderant 'within the Government, although the latter repre- sented the majority in the Storthing. Women, having obtained in 1907 conditional rights of Parliamentary voting, were, in June 1910, granted by this Government the unrestricted Municipal vote. While the Konow Cabinet was in power a new Concessions Act and a new municipal taxation law were passed, both in 1911. In the same year, a new cable communication was established between Norway and Great Britain (Arendal-Newcastle).

The disproportionate representation of the parties in the