alone that ‘cured’ unemployment in Britain and
the US.
The social consequences of the depression, the
despair of the unemployed, the failure to provide
adequately for the poor and the sick, the under-
nourishment of millions of children, unhealthy
slum housing and many other ills in the early
years of the 1930s turned the mass of people on
the continent of Europe towards a search for
new solutions. Since Stalin’s Russia appeared to
have found the answer to banishing the capitalist
trade cycle, communism attracted millions. Their
support was given not only for materialistic but
also for idealistic reasons. Communists fought
fascism and in claiming to provide a better and
healthier life for the poor acted in a way that
seemed ethical and good. The realities of Stalin’s
tyrannical regime were unknown to many, over-
looked or explained away. Mussolini and Hitler
were seen by millions as the saviours who would
restore a sense of national unity, orderly govern-
ment and employment to their people. They had
many admirers outside Italy and Germany, even
some in Britain. The deep divisions and the
turmoil in France discredited parliamentary gov-
ernment in this part of Europe too. In Britain,
the Labour government had ignominiously fallen,
though parliament itself survived the crisis.
Humane and democratic socialism was every-
where the main victim. Such desperate condi-
tions, millions of people felt, demanded not
compromise but radical remedies. The left battled
the right politically, in Spain even on the battle-
field. But there was at least one country in Europe
where humanity, democracy and social progress
were safe and which did not follow the pattern of
most of the rest of the continent.
Sweden had not bypassed the depression, but the
economic slump led to the establishment of a
democratic form of government which deter-
mined the social and economic policies of the
country for almost six decades. It was ceasing to
be a predominantly agricultural country: its steel,
ball-bearings and other advanced industrial prod-
ucts like telephones were in worldwide demand,
in addition to its older exports such as wood-pulp
and matches. Nonetheless, in this large, under-
populated northern region of Europe, farming
continued to play an important role in the 1930s.
The impact of the depression, at its height in
1932 and 1933, was devastating. One in three of
the workforce was unemployed; many farmers
could no longer meet their mortgages and were
forced to sell. But Sweden recovered relatively
quickly from the crash compared to the rest of
Europe and it was politically strong and stable.
The credit for this must go largely to the coali-
tion administration of the Farmers’ Party and the
Social Democrats, led by the Social Democrat Per
Albin Hansson. In the first three years of the
administration, bills to promote active state inter-
vention were passed, regulating the working
hours of agricultural labourers, statutory holidays
and unemployment insurance. The simple slogan
was to make Sweden ‘a home for all its people’
and so to create social harmony.
By 1939 Sweden’s unemployment problem
had been solved and the plans for a welfare state
had been worked out. The Social Democrats,
since their election victory in 1936, had become
the dominant political force in the country. The
war postponed the extension of social welfare, but
from 1946 to 1950 the reforms were enacted,
including comprehensive old-age pensions, child
allowances, health insurance and educational
reforms. The Swedish people were to be safe-
guarded from ‘cradle to grave’, in sickness and in
health. The socialist element of the government
policies was to tax the better-off heavily to pay for
the welfare state and to redistribute income,
rather than to try to nationalise private industry.
1
THE DEPRESSION, 1929–39 163
Unemployment (percentage of total labour force)
Britain Germany US
1923 8.1 9.6 2.4
1930 11.2 15.3 8.7
1931 15.1 23.3 15.9
1932 15.6 30.1 23.6
1933 14.1 26.3 24.9
1934 11.9 14.9 21.7
1935 11.0 11.6 20.1
1936 9.4 8.3 16.9
1937 7.8 4.6 14.3
1938 9.3 2.1 19.0
