The Well-Stocked Cellar

From Sweden, prosperous neutral in two world wars, determined abstainer from Europe's common effort to ward off a third, TIME Senior Editor Henry Anatole Grunwald cabled:

IN Stockholm, beneath a quiet house, there is a deep, vaulted cellar, where candles substitute warmly for the sunlight. This is a favorite refuge for Swedes, not from bombs, but from the menaces of life in general. Rich, excellent food is served, limited only by the lack of imagination in Swedish cooking; beer flows from great casks, unfortunately diluted by edict of a government which believes that drinking can be curbed by alcohol-content laws.

The restaurant is called The Golden Peace, and it represents perfectly the Swedish idea of the good life. Swedes like the open air and the magnificent shores of their lakes, but politically and spiritually most of them live in a well-protected, well-stocked cellar, with "Peace" hopefully written over the entrance.

National Argument. A young newspaperman ruefully told me that neutrality is the great Swedish superstition. Sweden has not been in a war since 1814, has spent most of her efforts since then on staying out. Her decision to stay out of the North Atlantic alliance is almost universally accepted. Practically everyone you meet, however, feels it necessary to explain Sweden's position. They all give the same argument, as if the whole country had been briefed.

First they tell you that their heart is really in the right place. As Prime Minister Tage Erlander puts it: "We are politically neutral, but not ideologically." Just the same, Sweden will not become part of any bloc; she will fight only if she is attacked. Thereby--so runs the argument--she is actually doing her neighbors a favor: if Sweden had joined NATO, the Russians would have had a perfect excuse to take Finland. (The Russians don't need an excuse to take Finland.)

As for Norway and Denmark--the argument goes--Sweden could not help them by joining NATO, since Sweden is at her peak in armament now. Thus Sweden has a buffer in Finland, and Norway and Denmark have a buffer in Sweden. (Many Swedish military men will privately tell you that the defense of Scandinavia would be stronger if coordinated.)

Barrels That Fly. The fact is that the Swedes are jolly glad to have stayed out of World War II, and intend to stay out of any World War III. At the same time, they are building up their defenses.

They have the best air force in Europe outside Britain. They make their own jets, the "flying barrels," certainly no match for Russia's but rated highly. They have a respectable navy, a military force of 50,000 men. They figure that in war they could mobilize 500,000 men in a matter of days.

Commander in chief of Sweden's defense forces since last spring is General Nils Svedlund, nicknamed "The Great Thunderer." At 52 he was moved to the top over several older generals, e.g., Carl Ehrensvard, an excellent officer who fought against Russia in Finland's Winter War. Ehrensvard would have got the top job, but the cautious government considered him too outspokenly anti-Russian.

Class Non-Struggle. Sweden's government rules with a kind of benevolent despo-socialism. Nobody seriously objects to it, and with reason, for it works: materially, Sweden's workers are better off than any others in Europe.

The Socialists have organized a decent kind of materialism in which poverty can be abolished, and have combined their secular order with Chrisitan decency. But Swedish life is controlled and regulated to a degree difficult for an American to imagine; not that these people are not free, but they have a polite and padded kind of freedom. This is the doing not only of the Socialists; Conservatives and businessmen talk a great deal about the need for more individual initiative, but none of them seems willing to fight hard for it.

The Socialists have nationalized only a small number of industries. They are still committed to full nationalization and the abolition of monarchy, but they wouldn't dream of pressing the issues.

The recent case of the Soviet spy Andersson (TIME, Nov. 12) has shaken Swedes into realizing that their cellar is not as safe as they had thought. They have shaken off most of the old habit of thought that made the Communists somehow part of the progressive Left. They grapple with the Reds, day by day, election for election, in union meetings and in the workshops. The Communists now poll only 4.8% of the vote; in 1946 it was 11%.

The Welfarest State. The Swedish welfare state takes care of its citizens from the womb (prenatal benefits to mothers), to birth (maternity hospitals), to infanthood (home assistants to young mothers), through school (free lunches), to jobs (vocational training), through sickness (next-to-free hospitals), through accidents (invalid insurance), through mental troubles (free psychiatric advice), through old 'age (old-age pensions), to the tomb (funeral benefits), to salvation, if possible (state-paid preachers).

This benignity is supplemented by the vast Swedish cooperatives. They operate 8,000 retail shops, ten regional wholesale houses and 40 factories producing everything from canned goods to shoes. The cooperatives have a network of schools, newspapers and housing projects.

The Swedish way of life does peculiar things to the human spirit. Stockholm is a city without tragedy; its absence is as striking as excessive silence. One begins to wonder whether the people in this clean, prosperous, well-ordered place ever feel violent emotions or commit violent acts.

After a few days in Stockholm I found myself asking people, "Isn't there anything wrong with Sweden? There must be." And there is. One government official said: "In a country that has established an orderly society, there comes a time when one begins to ask oneself 'What next?'"

A lot of Swedes are asking themselves this question and finding no answer. The result is a deep undercurrent of emotional unrest. It has many symptoms. A few months ago Stockholm was treated to the spectacle of gangs of prostitutes, homosexuals and assorted hoodlums mixing it every Saturday night in Berzelii Park to the delight of onlookers. The divorce rate has jumped from 7.7% in 1939 to 14% in 1950. Sweden has one of the world's highest illegitimacy rates and one of the highest alcoholism rates.

Liquor is rationed to three bottles a month, two of wine, one of spirits. In restaurants you are allowed only 10 centiliters (about two 1 1/2-oz. shots) with a meal. Some restaurants put an artificial chicken before a "diner."

Juvenile delinquency is high. Officials blame it largely on the fact that jobs are easy to get. A 17-year-old is likely to make 500 kroner a month ($96.50) and has money to burn on drink and excitement. Most of the juvenile crimes are thefts of cars and motorcycles, done for the hell of it.

Said a clergyman of Sweden's Lutheran State Church: "Our churches are empty. We do not seem to be able to interest the young. But nobody else seems able to interest them either."

Invisible Wall. Are these Swedes happy? They usually say yes. But the panorama of Swedish life seems to say no. An invisible wall seems to divide them from each other and from the world. Each sits in his own little cellar, inattentive to the riven world and determined to enjoy his own Golden Peace which--he feels--hard work, right thinking, progressive sewage disposal and a little luck have earned him.

Sweden would be an asset to Western defense, but nothing will get the Swedes out of their cellar except a war on Sweden.

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