[AV02425] Under the Same Stars: #13 Sweden

a wise man once said why should we not all live in peace and harmony we look up at the same stars their fellow passengers on the same planets we dwell beneath the same sky what matters it along which road each individual endeavors to find the ultimate truth seated at the desk behind me as a young man whom you don't know because you haven't met him yet you will meet him in just a moment and you will know him better in a few minutes he's a young man from another country but the country which with us is in this same one world and he with his people well in the same sky and look up at the same stars as you and I but who is he what is his name what is he doing here well those are questions that I think the P can answer much better than I can my name is Finn Dahlgren I come from clan Sweden a little town of a 7,000 inhabitants situated about 80 miles south of Stockholm there I live with my father placed a veterinary surgeon my mother two sisters and a brother like all my schoolmates of my own own age I have had four years of English three of German to a branch and of course Swedish when I go back to Sweden I have to be more years of schooling with working with the university I have come here to America to attend an American high school for one year the program the organization to which I came is called the American field service and works for better understanding between cultures it is proud of the sponsored the Kiwanis Club in Cedar Rapids Iowa sponsored me and it's long purpose is that of creating better understanding and goodwill we stay in private homes and tries to live as much as possible like American youth I come from a country in the north of Europe where the based on the winter are never bright but where there is never darkness during a summer night in early centuries our country used to be much engaged in wars and all people know about the Vikings who came over here as soon as long before Columbus as it is today since Columbus first could tell the world about his discovery their main occupation was to God and plunder and fight and kill other people but since we became a democracy it has been our main goal to stay out the worst and try to create the goodwill around the world we think we have been successful even if we in wars between world powers in some people's opinion have acted calmly to save our own skin if everything in the world of today turns out well we will next year be able to celebrate our a hundred and fiftieth anniversary of freedom from Wars let us compare a family here in Sweden first the home where of course the American family would live in a house of their own but the Swedish family would have just as big a chance to be living in the modern apartment of tour and three rooms in the kitchen both would have a refrigerator gas or electric stove and possibilities of using a washing machine the American family would of course not lack a car but surely and the sweetest family that would be at least two or three bicycles worst American jumps in his car to take a trip we and in Europe take our lat strong bicycles wherever we are going to school two jobs appointment but just for amusement driving around downtown if you don't happen to belong to every fifth family in Sweden which owns a car you can use the railway of the people for the fare of about $1 for every 50 miles it could carry you almost anywhere in our long land as I said my father is a veterinary surgeon and I like to go with him so therefore I have been able to see quite a few Swedish farms in the area where I live there are larger farms have about 30 to 40 cows and they are all dairy cattle there are on the farms we also have one or several horses and or some big farms they have one two and sometimes three tractors - the horses will always be there if they do not find out a revolutionary thing that can walk up steep Stony Hills in zigzag between trees within the forest where the horse is invaluable so every farm a big piece of the forest usually belongs and there the farmer works during the winter he says that what he makes up money after it out dog is his forest and his grain he says that his calf to not pay very well and you might agree with him as we in Sweden can buy a quarter milk for the price of seven cents or about one third of the price you pay since the war farm labor in Sweden has become especially expensive so therefore the Swedish farmers have covered the American pattern of using more machinery and less labor on their farms thought as we proceed America seems to all the speed steps ahead of us in this respect in Sweden we are most interested in America we read your magazines tramps untranslated Sam still in English and try to make a picture of that big busy land in the West we read about the latest developments and read about standards of living and so on we know how big the Samsun money are that we borrowed after the war but we do not realize that what has been done has been done by canonist and with the attempt of the american people to build up build up viewer can be adopted peace and goodwill it seems as what has been done some Europe it will suspicion only with suspicion the man-overboard were useful to buying products and machinery from the United States when we were able to stand on our own feet we wanted to serve some of our crowd expect in the United States to get money to pay our dollar that well but the United States didn't want her market full of cheap material from Europe but how should we get money to pay our debt with where when the country that had the dollars wouldn't buy the products we had to sell so there we are now standing with a big bill the interest of which is growing larger and larger for everything there is no in Europe a great demand that the United States opens its port to our trade we are certain that we can make some car docks cheaper than you and they would probably be people be preferred by the American public for instance in Sweden we can buy fine prefabricated houses for the price of several thousand dollars if we could find a market for them here in America we would be able to buy for instance instance your cars that are so much in the all over the world all people all around the world like to see movies and so do we in Sweden as about every second movie come from the United States of course we are made a picture in our minds on this country what picture would you get of a country where every second here is team doesn't seem to have a work but still as I able to throw money around himself and living it alive on Broadway in Florida or in Hawaii we have also the understanding that especially you totally lack respect for older persons and those in higher ranks but it is wrong as I found a very nice form of respect here to aided by admiration and not to formality that dissolution in Europe when I came here I was very impressed to find people too religious I had never thought or heard about that Americans should be morally distant for instance we've but there's a great difference in in Sweden we belong to the Lutheran Church which is sponsored by the government the minister's job is to have a sermon once a week at church and once in a while go to the hospital and preach there not visit individuals like here in America but actually preach he also performs marriages and Baptists which is usually done at in the homes he his main job main job is to keep the census and keep records of people who are born who move or die we also have the smaller congregations and they are more like your system with a minister who is paid by collection he is he also takes care of the members back here in America and I think that makes a great difference I found a much warmer feeling belief and enthusiast in your churches which has made a very strong impression on me as I said we in Sweden studies languages much more than you do here in America I have had four years of English for instance and and it is required for everyone in my of my age and we also every subject until you are 17 years of age is required an Avenue gets the same education we carry 50 12 or 15 subjects and we make a pro when we make a schedule for a week instead of one day and repeat the schedule a week after week so therefore we are able to carry more subjects we will also study except these foreign languages we also have them in our Swedish course we have about 20 yards of Danish and Norwegian and study their left literature since I came in September I'm not only fine kind people who are who have been eager to know about Europe and how we live and think if I may have the same nice experience you can be sure that I will tell my countrymen about modern America that you should be better known for their friendliness and a desire for peace than for all the inventions for which you are so famous today you met in Dahlgren from Sweden then is here as annex as a student in one of our high schools in the Middle West in the United States now know somebody you didn't know before a man from another country once was a long ways away back in the time of the Vikings but today not many hours by air so in this ever shrinking world we learn to know more people finns language gets in between us a little bit but is that so important as the things that do not get between us except as bonds which bring us closer together our common likes and dislikes and our needs and our ones in other words our common humanity so we asked you today to meet in Dahlgren from sweden and through him to meet his people a people who dwell with us on this same planet under the same sky and who look up at the same stars