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During the first years of King Oscar's reign the question of national defence was the dominant one, the first chamber contending for an improved system and the peasant members in the second chamber making demands which could not for a long time be conceded. A number of army organi zation proposals were rejected, and during the '8os the question of customs duties caused bitter disputes. The increasing expor tation of grain from the United States and Russia together with the strong industrial competition between all countries resulted in a protectionist movement in Germany and France which extended also to Sweden. The second chamber was protectionist and the first in favour of free trade; in 1887 the majority in the first chamber was so small that it would have been possible to bring about a protectionist system by the collective vote of the two chambers. The king then dissolved the second chamber which returned with a majority in favour of free trade. The Riksdag of 1888 on the other hand accepted the customs system as the general election in the autumn of 1887—through a tech nical mistake in the election of the free trade candidates in Stockholm—had given the Protectionists a small majority. This issue had profound consequences both in the formation of parties in the second chamber and in other respects. New men came forward, the most conspicuous of whom was the landed proprietor E. G. Bostrom, premier from 1891 to 1900 and 1902 to 1905. The question of the national defences was provisionally settled by the Riksdag's decisions in the autumn of 1891 (at an extraor dinary session) and in 1901. In the latter year the Swedish mili tary tenure established was completely abolished ; the training time of the men liable for military service was increased from 90 to 24o days in the infantry and a longer period in the case of the navy and special branches of the army.
At this period new legislation was necessitated by industrial development and the great increase in the number of industrial workers. In 1881 the conditions of labour for children in all factories were regulated and in 1889 a law was passed on pro viding against injury while at work; the former law was amplified in 190o by one dealing with the condition of industrial work for women and children. Trade unions were formed and collective agreements governing labour conditions were arranged between employers and workers. In 1889 a Social Democratic Party was formed and in the autumn of 1896 Hjalmar Branting was elected to the second chamber as its first Social Democratic member. The Liberals and Social Democrats demanded an extension of the suffrage for the second chamber, but it was not until the severance of the union with Norway had given a strong impetus to a closer national union on new lines that the question came to be decided. The severance of the union led to the formation of the coalition ministry of Christian Lundeberg, a manufacturer, whose task it was to carry out the dissolution of the union.
He was followed at the close of the year 1905 by a Liberal min istry with Karl Staaff, a solicitor, as premier. The Riksdag of 1906 rejected his suffrage bill, and the ministry resigned. Rear Admiral Arvid Lindman succeeded, with a conservative ministry and succeeded in 1907 in solving the suffrage question on the basis of universal and equal suffrage (with certain exceptions) together with the democratization of the communal scale of voting and proportional voting for both chambers. Among other important decisions may be mentioned the monopoly in the issu ing of bank notes accorded to the Riksbank in 1897, the restric tion of the right of companies to acquire land in Northern Sweden in 1906, and the part ownership of the State in the Grangesberg Company which owned the Lappland iron-ore mines.
When Oscar II. died on Dec. 8, 1907, the crown fell to his eldest son Gustav V., who still (1928) wears it. Modest and simple in his character, avoiding needless display, but capable of bearing himself with the dignity required by his position, he has been a true king in a democratic epoch. Reforms were carried through, as, for instance, the laws on civil marriages in 1908 and for the protection of the peasants in Norrland in 1909. In the summer of 1909 the country witnessed a great trial of strength between the industrial workers' trade unions and em ployers' associations, accompanied by strikes, lock-outs and a gen eral strike. The idea of the workers was to set society rocking and the situation was somewhat like that which resulted in Eng land in 1926. But society won the battle; the general strike failed. In the autumn of 1911 the election for the second cham ber was held with a doubled electorate and the Lindman ministry gave up office. Karl Staaff formed his second ministry which lasted until Feb. 1914. In the Autumn of 1911 a great committee was set up to enquire into temperance. The Lindman ministry had approved a cruiser of a new type but Staaff's Government set aside their decision. A movement to cover the costs of its con struction by private subscription produced a sum of 17,100,000 kr., and the ship was built. The people had been disquieted by the way the Russians were arming in Finland, and with widespread espionage by the Russians in Sweden. A new workman's pro tection law was passed in 1912, and an Old Age Pension scheme was founded in 1913.
In Feb. 1914, 30,00o peasants met in Stockholm to request the king that the whole question of national defence should be handled simultaneously. The king's answer was favourable, and the Liberal ministry resigned. The king commanded the land shdvding Hjalmar Hammarskjold (q.v.) to form a new ministry. K. A. Wallenberg became minister of foreign affairs. The second chamber was dissolved and the Riksdag reassembled after the election of May 1, 1914. The new Government had a majority in the first chamber but not in the second.