and one hundred and fifty by the rural districts. Each must have
property worth $270, or have leased $1,600 worth of land for five
years, or pay taxes on an income of $214. These are also the
qualifications for voting for members of the parliament.

There is very little of politics in Sweden. There are three parties,
known as the conservatives, the liberals, and the socialists. The
conservative party is comprised of the aristocracy, the church, the
agricultural classes and people of conservative sentiment generally.
The liberal party is composed of progressive elements, the theorists,
the artisans, the machinists, and the thinking men among the
laboring element, who advocate a reduction of the tariff on imported
merchandise and free trade so far as possible; a separation of church
and state on the theory that no man should be taxed to support a
religious faith that he does not believe in; a reduction in the army
and navy and other official expenses; the modification of the election
laws as above stated; rotation in office, so that all shall have a
chance, and they oppose the general tendency to centralization in the
government.

The socialists go a little farther. They are not so radical as those
who go by the same name in Germany, France, and other European
countries. They are very moderate in their views. They favor most of
the planks in the liberal platform, and, in addition, advocate the
adoption of socialistic reforms, the loaning of public money without
interest to the poor, public pensions to the helpless, sweeping
reforms in the labor laws, and the purchase and maintenance by the
state of all public enterprises that affect public welfare, such as
the street-car lines, the insurance companies, the banks, etc.
The peasants in the country are protectionists and belong to the