Note (Back) — Chapter XXXII

664. Politics Since 1891.—July 10, 1891, the Conservative Erik Gustaf Boström, became premier, and thereafter, save for a brief interval covered by the von Otter ministry (September, 1900, to July, 1902) this able representative of the dominant agrarian interests continued uninterruptedly at the helm until the Norwegian crisis in the spring of 1905. With the elimination, however, of the tariff issue from the field of active politics, Premier Boström adopted an attitude on public questions which, on the whole, was essentially independent. In the later nineties there arose two problems, neither entirely new, which were destined long to occupy the attention of the Government almost to the exclusion of all things else. One of these was the readjustment with Norway. The other was the question of electoral reform. The one affected considerably the fate of ministries, but did not alter appreciably the alignment of parties; the other became the issue upon which party activity largely turned through a number of years. All parties from the outset professed to favor electoral reform, but upon the nature and extent of such reform there was the widest difference of sentiment and policy. During the course of the contest upon this issue the Liberal party tended to become distinctly more radical than it had been in the nineties; and it is worthy of note that the rise of the Social Democrats to parliamentary importance falls almost entirely within the period covered by the electoral controversy. The first Social Democratic member of the Riksdag was elected in 1896. From 1906 to 1911 the Conservative ministry of Lindman, supported largely by the landholding elements of both chambers, maintained steadily its position. At the elections of 1908 the Liberals realized some gains, and at those of 1911 both they and the Social Democrats cut deeply into the Conservative majority. When, in September, 1911, it appeared that the Liberals had procured 102 seats in the lower chamber, the Social Democrats 64, and the Conservatives but 64, the Lindman government promptly resigned and a new ministry was made up by the Liberal leader and ex-premier Staaff. The invitation which was extended the Social Democrats to participate in the forming of the ministry was declined. In October the upper chamber was dissolved, for the first time in Swedish history, and at the elections which were concluded November 30 the Liberals and Social Democrats realized another distinct advance. Before the elections the chamber contained 116 Conservatives, 30 Liberals, and 4 Social Democrats; following them the quotas were, respectively, 87, 51, and 12.[835]