Aftenposten
- Power from Nore to Eastern Norway as early as next autumn!
- The political plague.
- The Argus lottery.
Aftenposten's page of 2 November 1926 led with an upbeat report from the state's Nore hydropower works in Numedal. The large tunnel carrying water from Tunhovdfjorden toward the power station had been fully blasted through, as long as the Gravehals tunnel but with a 40-square-metre cross-section, and the headline promised power for Eastern Norway by the following autumn. An editorial titled “The political plague” mocked the reasoning that blamed a Conservative government for the first case of a disease simply because it had occurred on its watch. A short notice thanked a carriage and body works for giving Fiat spring gaiters to the paper's Argus lottery.
Translation
Power from Nore to Eastern Norway as early as next autumn!
The great tunnel which is to carry the water from Tunhovdfjorden to the mountainside above the power station has been completely blasted through. It is just as long as the Gravehals tunnel, but its cross-section is more than 1½ times as large, 40 square metres.
The political plague.
It is, after all, a fact that we have a Conservative government; likewise it is a fact that the first case of the disease has occurred under it. What, then, is missing in the chain of proof? For politicians, truly, it often takes less than that to establish cause and effect.
The Argus lottery.
From Carl Heffermehls Vogn- og Karosserifabrik A/S we have received, for the Argus lottery, a set of “Jeavons Gaiters” (spring protectors) for Fiat cars. Heartfelt thanks!
Context
How far the Nore works had come, and when the power actually flowed
In November 1926 Aftenposten reported that the headrace tunnel from the Tunhovdfjorden reservoir had been blasted through. Store norske leksikon records that this tunnel was driven from three side adits and that its average advance of about one metre a day attracted great attention at the time, which helps explain why the paper gave its completion a large, exclamatory headline. The headline's promise of power for Eastern Norway “as early as next autumn”, meaning autumn 1927, proved optimistic. According to the same encyclopedia, the first generating units at Nore were put into operation in 1928, so the paper's forecast ran roughly a year ahead of events.
Why the state's Nore project mattered
Nore was the project through which the Norwegian state first became a builder of large power stations. Store norske leksikon notes that the state bought the Nore falls in 1907 and spent the following years drawing up plans for a power station, and it states plainly that the state's engagement in large power projects began with the development at Nore. That public stake is part of why progress there was news in the capital. The timing, however, proved difficult: according to the same source, the economic slump in Norway after Nore I came into production made it hard to sell all of its power. The 1926 report stresses how soon the power would arrive and says nothing about who would buy it.
“The political plague” and Norway's first foot-and-mouth outbreak
Norway's first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease began in Sørlandet in the autumn of 1926 and, after being effectively combated, ended in spring 1928, according to Store norske leksikon. The editorial's “first case of the disease” occurring under a Conservative government fits that timing, although the excerpted lines do not name the disease. The government in question was Ivar Lykke's, in which the Høyre politician Ole Bærøe served as minister of agriculture from 1926 to 1928. The editorial is sarcastic: it lines up two “facts”, a right-wing government and a first case under it, asks what is missing in the chain of proof, and mocks politicians who need even less to settle cause and effect. The excerpt itself does not say who was trying to pin the outbreak on the government.
What the Argus lottery was for
The Argus collection was an annual Christmas fundraising drive that Aftenposten organised and ran from 1916 to 1986. A large share of the money came through the Argus lottery, for which a number of larger advertisers contributed prizes; the notice thanking a carriage and body works for a set of gaiters for Fiat cars is a small example of exactly that kind of donation, printed in the run-up to Christmas. The aim, according to Store norske leksikon, was to give extra help before Christmas to needy people who received no other support. The drive was started by the journalist Augusta Stang, and editor-in-chief Einar Diesen took a strong personal interest in it.
Original
Kraft fra Nore til Østlandet allerede næste høst!
Den store tunnel, som. skal lede vandet frem fra Tunhovdfjorden til fjeldsiden over kraftstationen, er færdigsprængt. Den er like saa lang som Gravehalstunnelen, men tversnittet er mere end 1½ gang saa stort, 40 kvadratmeter.
Den politiske pest.
Det er jo en kjendsgjerning, at vi har en høire-regjering, likeledes er det en kjendsgjerning, at det første sygdomstilfælde er indtruffet under den. Hvad mangler saa i beviskjeden? For politikerne skal der sandelig ofte mindre til for at kunne konstatere aarsak og virkning.
Argus-lotteriet.
Fra Carl Heffermehls Vognog Karosserifabrik A / S har vi til Argus-lotteriet mottat et sæt» Jeavons Gaiters «(fjærbeskyttere) for Fiat-biler. Hjertelig tak!