orm of 1909, and whereas the elections were previously indirect,
they are now direct. No person may be elected to the upper chamber who
is not of Swedish birth, who has not attained his thirty-fifth year,
and who during three years prior to his election has not owned taxable
property valued at 50,000 kroner or paid taxes on an annual income of
at least 3,000 kroner.[828] A member who at any time loses these
qualifications forthwith forfeits his seat. Members formerly received
no compensation, but under the reform measure of 1909 they, as
likewise members of the lower chamber, are accorded a salary of 1,200
kroner for each session of four months, and, in the event of an extra
session, 10 kroner a day, in addition to travelling expenses.

[Footnote 828: These amounts were substituted in
1909 for 80,000 and 4,000 respectively.]

*655. The Lower Chamber.*--As constituted by law of 1894, modified by
the reform act of 1909, the lower chamber consists of 230 members
chosen under a system of proportional representation in fifty-six
electoral districts, each of which returns from three to seven
deputies. The number of members to be chosen in each of the districts
is determined triennially, immediately preceding the balloting. Prior
to the franchise law of 1909 the suffrage was confined, through
property qualifications, within very narrow bounds. The electorate
comprised native Swedes twenty-five years of age or over who were
qualified as municipal voters and who possessed real property to the
taxed value of 1,000 kroner, or who paid taxes on an annual income of
at least 800 kroner, or who possessed a leasehold interest for at
least five years of a taxable value of 6,000 kroner. In 1902 it was
demonstrated by statistics that of the entire male population of the
kingdom over twenty-one years of age not more than thirty-four per
cent could meet these qualifications.

*656. Beginnings of the Movement for Electoral Reform.*--As early as
1895 insistent demand began to be made in many quarters for an
extension of the franchise, and in the Riksdag of 1896 Premier Bostroem
introduced a moderate measure looking toward that end and involving
the introduction of proportional representation. The bill, (p. 593)
however, was defeated. Agitation was continued, and in 1900 the
Liberals made electoral reform the principal item of their programme.
In 1901 there was passed a sweeping measure for the r