DENMARK. 



267 





into a land party and a town party, but the 

 present parties seem to be tired of their inter- 

 minable contest, and the vote on the new oleo- 

 margarine bill indicates a tendency toward the 

 same political grouping of interests that pre- 

 vails in Sweden. The increase in German im- 

 port duties has nearly closed one of the main 

 outlets for important agricultural products, 

 and more recently Sweden has raised her tariff 

 and thus shut off another large market for 

 Danish exports. The constitutional crisis has 

 prevented the conclusion of treaties of com- 

 merce and navigation for the extension of 

 foreign markets, and even the renewal of 

 treaties that have expired, like the one with 

 Spain. The Danes are troubled about the in- 

 jury to their commerce and shipping interests 

 that the German Xorth Sea canal is expected to 

 cause. Some propose a rival canal across Jut- 

 land, connecting the Cattegat with the North 

 Sea; others have revived the old idea of a 

 Scandinavian customs union ; and many states- 

 men of both parties think that a good" part of 

 the Xorth Sea trade can be preserved to Den- 

 mark by establishing a free port at Copenhagen 

 besides the customs port. For the examination 

 of this last mentioned project both houses of 

 the Eigsdag have voted considerable sums of 

 money, and the Government has appointed a 

 commission to take the subject in charge. 



The Constitutional Crisis. The chronic conflict 

 between the Executive and the Folkething over 

 military and naval appropriations was renewed 

 when the Government brought in the budget 

 in January, 1888. When the struggle began, 

 on the accession of the Estrup ministry in 

 1876 and the first presentation of the fortifica- 

 tion scheme, the people sustained the position 

 taken by the lower house by electing a Lib- 

 eral majority of two thirds. After repeated 

 dissolutions, the Liberals have retained their 

 preponderance, numbering 75 in the present 

 Folkething, against 27 Conservatives. At first 

 all the ministers were taken from the Lands- 

 thing. Later, three of the seven were chosen 

 from among the Conservative members of the 

 representative chamber. The budget of 1889 

 was amended by the committee of the Folke- 

 thing, to which it was referred, and early in 

 March was passed in the modified form by a 

 vote of 78 to 10, with 13 abstentions. The 

 budget committee of the Landsthing restored 

 the army appropriations and the items of the 

 provisional budget of the previous year that 

 the lower house had stricken out. A joint 

 committee of both Houses was unable to frame 

 a budget that was satisfactory to the Folke- 

 thing. which, moreover, stood out against the 

 fortification project that was again presented 

 by the Government. For this the sum of 

 1,887,112 kroner had been raised by voluntary 

 contributions before April 1. when the King 

 closed the session and again decreed a provis- 

 ional budget. The Government bases its action 

 on an article of the Constitution that author- 

 izes the promulgation of provisional laws in 



cases of urgent necessity ; and the Hoiesteret 

 decided, when the question was brought up in 

 a private suit, that the provisional decrees are 

 constitutional unless they are rejected by both 

 branches of the Legi.-Iature. Legislation by 

 Executive edicts has not been confined to the 

 ordinary finance law, but the criminal and 

 press laws have been modified by provisional 

 laws, which the Folkething has subsequently 

 rejected, while the Landsthing, without ex- 

 pressly ratifying them, has refrained from ad- 

 verse action. The Rigsret, which is alone 

 competent to decide constitutional questions, 

 has not yet passed upon their validity. The 

 Minister of War announced, after the rejection 

 of the project for fortifying Constantinople on 

 the land side, that the work would neverthe- 

 less be begun, and that the Government would 

 obtain the money where it could find it. This 

 project has been before Parliament for fifteen 

 years. Some of the military authoriti 

 well as the majority of the Folkething, con- 

 demn the plan, because it transcends the finan- 

 cial abilities of the country, and it would take 

 nearly the whole Danish army to man the 

 fortress, leaving three quarters of the country 

 defenseless. 



From both parties proposals have gone forth 

 for the cessation of the long dead-lock. Be- 

 fore the reassembling of the Parliament on 

 October 1, party caucuses were held to con- 

 sider the basis of a compromise. The Govern- 

 ment has promised the associated labor organ- 

 izations to bring in measures for the establish- 

 ment of superannuation and invalid insurance 

 funds, and is disposed to follow the German 

 scheme of social legislation as a means of coun- 

 teracting socialism, which is spreading among 

 the trade-unions. The majority of the agri- 

 cultural labor-unions of Zealand in 1888 united 

 formally with the Social Democratic party, 

 while the minority set up a political programme 

 embracing superannuation pensions for labor- 

 ers, abolition of indirect taxes and duties on 

 necessaries, secrecy of elections, and improve- 

 ment of the common schools. The Social 

 Democrats demand woman suffrage also. The 

 Liberal Opposition in the Folkething is divided 

 into groups, called the People's party, the 

 Lett, the Progressives, the Liberalists, the Con- 

 stitutional Defense Association, and the Demo- 

 crats. All except Berg's diminished following 

 are in favor of co-operating with the Conserva- 

 tives in productive legislation. Only ten mem- 

 bers of the Folkething still support the former 

 leader of the Liberal party in his demand for 

 ministerial responsibility to Parliament and 

 the selection of the Cabinet from the majority. 

 Some of the present leaders of the Opposition 

 are ex-Ministers Klein and Krieger, who, with 

 other Moderate Liberals, left the Ministerial 

 party in 1887. The Liberals have recently 

 conceded the complete legislative equality of 

 both houses of the Rigsdag and the right of 

 the King to appoint counselors of his own se- 

 lection. 



