The task of establishing a regular steamship line between Norway and America, with large, up-to-date, and speedy ships, is now under way both in Norway and in this country. Exact information concerning the undertaking and the traffic prospects upon which it is based are to be found in the company prospectus which recently appeared in Skandinaven and other Norwegian papers.

The idea of such a line is not new. The matter has been discussed off and on in the Norwegian press for more than twenty-five years. At the beginning of the eighties it was throughly discussed in the Christiania papers by prominent business people and others. This question, as well as a number of others, was pressed aside by the great political tasks which, one after the other, demanded solution.

At last these obstacles have been removed, and Norway is now able to turn its 2attention more and more to practical undertakings to improve the economic conditions of the country. One of the most important of such undertakings is based on the need for a speedier and less expensive regular connection with America. The demand for such a connection has made itself felt with increasing intensity since the dissolution of the union with Sweden.

The question was thoroughly investigated from every side before it was presented to the public in its present form. To start with, the Norwegian business world was split into two camps: there was a Danish proposal for the organization of an American line to serve the three Scandinavian countries in common. This idea received considerable support in Norway, but a number of other Norwegian leaders held that an independent Norwegian line was the only arrangement which could satisfy the demands of the country, and that such a line would also yield sufficient revenue. The discussion of these proposals was broad and thorough. The result was that the Danish proposal was rejected as unsatisfactory from several points of view, and the Norwegian sentiment became centered on the completely Norwegian line.

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The last proposal in its present form is, then, the result of mature deliberation, and it is being supported by the leaders among the Norwegian shipbuilders and businessmen all over the country. The promoters have laid before the public those items of information concerning goods and passenger traffic and transport conditions, which form the basis for their calculations concerning the feasibility of the line. Everybody who is interested will therefore have an opportunity to form his own opinion concerning the undertaking.

The information presented is very exhaustive, and the calculations have been made most carefully. The promoters do not promise more than they know the line can yield; they do not calculate on the best results that might conceivably be obtained; they base their figures on the very least which under any circumstances may be counted on. Their calculations are of a type to create confidence among thinking men and women.

There is good reason to state that the Norwegians deserve to be trusted when the question concerns seafaring. What Norway has accomplished on the sea during the past thirty or forty years is greater than most people imagine. The 4business of seafaring has earned enough to meet Norway's deficit of about one hundred million dollars in the exchange of goods with foreign countries. This was a comparatively easy task in the days of the sailing ship....The ships required relatively small capital to build and equip; they were mostly built in the country itself, from Norwegian material and by Norwegian men; and the seamanship of the Norwegian sailors was a factor of the greatest importance. These conditions offered opportunities to Norway which were fully understood and utilized.

A very different situation followed upon the transition from sail and wood to steam and steel. The business of the shipbuilder and operator under the new conditions required far greater capital, and, at the same time, the seamanship of the sailors came to play a less important role. The fact that under such conditions Norway has been able to change its commercial fleet from sail to steam as speedily as it did, notwithstanding keen competition from the great countries where capital was plentiful, and has retained fourth place in the list of the world's seafaring people--all of this reads almost like a fairy tale. Yet, as we know, this is the truth. And throughout the period of this 5transition, the commercial fleet has brought home, year after year, one hundred million dollars as its net earnings, enough to cover the unfavorable trade balance of the country....

This is a notable achievement. It proves that the Norwegians fully understand how to earn money through their shipping; that the ocean is the road to power and honor and the well-being of Norway, even in our days. It proves that one may rely on the calculations and estimates of the Norwegian shipping operators in regard to matters of shipping. When these people have decided to establish a Norwegian-American line in the conviction that it will pay, the undertaking will be welcomed both in Norway and among the Norwegians in America with confidence [in its success].

Stock in the Norwegian-American Line may be obtained in America from Consul E. H. Hobe, St. Paul, Minnesota. The leaders of the new undertaking could hardly have made a better choice for representative.