d 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 Bostroem 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 (p. 600)
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 Lib