TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.
Johan Gustaf Björklund was born the tenth of November, in the year 1846. His parents were farmers in very small circumstances. His father seems to have been endowed with a good business head and, ultimately, became a real estate owner on a small scale, first in one city and then in Upsala, the principal university town of Sweden. Poverty was familiar to Björklund throughout his life. Doubtless one reason for this was that his consuming interest in sociology and philosophy prevented him from taking those higher examinations, which in Sweden are indispensable for obtaining any official position. He studied, however, for several years at the University of Upsala, but followed no recognized course, and it was only because of the ardent persuasion of his friends that he took a degree as B. A.
In 1884, Björklund moved to Stockholm, where he remained until his death, in 1903. At the University of Stockholm, he took the courses in biology and natural science, and won for himself the admiration and lasting friendship of many of the professors of that institution. During this time he mainly supported himself by teaching philosophy, and among other pupils, afterward renowned, was Ellen Key, the well-known Swedish writer on sociology and the woman question. The most absorbing interests during this period were, however, sociology and the peace movement.
To broaden his views and study social conditions in general, Björklund undertook several protracted journeys to England, Germany, Belgium, and France.
From 1887, Björklund began to publish the fruits of his untiring labor. His first work was, “The Fusion of the Nations.” In that, as in “The Anarchy of Evolution” and “Peace and Disarmament,” Björklund throws his overwhelmingly convincing statistical resources and solid scientific learning in favor of an ultimate universal, but more especially European union of the nations. Toward this goal it is necessary to steer, according to Björklund, if a general “Anarchy of Evolution” is to be avoided; for that is the condition that will prevail, if the state neglects to carry out an organization of society that shall keep step with the degree of material culture reached. “Because during the most profound peace, a nation suffers from its own army the same impeding influences that in time of war is due to the hostile army.”
The last mentioned book, “Peace and Disarmament,” at once made Björklund famous. It was translated into French, German, English, Polish, Dutch, Hungarian and several other languages, and would no doubt have brought its author a Nobel prize, had it appeared fifteen years later. Björklund was now elected an honorary member of the Swedish Peace Society. At the Peace Congress in Bern (1892) his treatise, “The Armed Peace,” was distributed in English, German and French, and the Italian Society, “Unione Operaia Umberto I,” subsequently elected him an honorary member.