DENMARK. 



243 



expanse of over 3,500 square miles in Jutland, 

 long denuded of the original forest, was a com- 

 plete desert of heath, morass, and sand dunes. 

 The Government and individuals gave abundant 

 support to the scheme of reclaiming this area. 

 A society was organized that obtained a member- 

 ship of 25,000 persons, divided among 50 branches. 

 The reclamation of the lands was effected by 

 means of drainage and irrigation canals, the 

 planting of forests and hedges, and the distribu- 

 tion of marl brought by specially constructed 

 railroads. Colonies of agriculturists established 

 themselves on the farms recovered from the 

 heath and sand, supplementing them by planta- 

 tions of their own, the state guaranteeing 25 per 

 cent, of the cost of planting permanent forest. 

 Other societies and companies engaged in similar 

 reclamation works, and the state and local au- 

 thorities also bought up tracts of arid land to be 

 planted with trees. An efficient system of edu- 

 cation in forestry and the reclamation and util- 

 ization of waste land was organized, and experi- 

 mental farms and special schools were founded. 

 The result has been thus far that 2,000 square 

 miles have been brought under cultivation as 

 farms, pasture lands, or forest. It has also had 

 the educational effect of giving a new impulse 

 to farming and stock raising throughout the 

 country. The mechanical trades of Denmark, 

 which are largely concentrated in Copenhagen, 

 have been all organized in trade unions, and 

 these are united in a compact organization, the 

 Central Association of Trade Unions, which is 

 closely federated with the Social Democratic 

 party. Of the 80,000 workingmen engaged in in- 

 dustrial production, practically all are members 

 of trade unions and of the Social Democratic 

 party, which exercises a great influence through 

 the party organ, the most widely circulated news- 

 paper in Denmark. This paper brings in a large 

 revenue to the party, which has several well-ap- 

 pointed clubhouses, each with a central hall, 

 where lectures and political addresses are given. 

 The party has also established a co-operative 

 bakery in Copenhagen, which sells good bread 

 at low prices, forcing competitors to do the same. 

 Lately a co-operative butcher shop and curing 

 establishment has been started. The party has 

 also established a system of exchanging country 

 children and city children during the summer 

 vacation. The industrial employers have organ- 

 ized themselves in a central federation in order 

 to be able to cope with the federation of trade 

 unions, and they were ready for a trial of strength 

 and eager to seize an opportunity before their 

 organization should show signs of disintegration. 

 An occasion was found in a dispute that grew 

 out of a strike of joiners in some of the villages 

 of Jutland. After the central association of 

 trade unions had come to an agreement with the 

 employers' federation for the settlement of the 

 strike, the striking joiners refused to accept the 

 terms agreed upon. The employers' federation 

 therefore, on May 2, 1899, declared a general 

 lockout of the whole joining trade, involving 

 about 3,500 men. The Jutland joiners, some 300 

 in all, now repented; but the employers were 

 determined to force the main issue for which 

 they were organized. Accordingly, they formu- 

 lated a series of demands, the rejection of which 

 would result in a lockout of all the men employed 

 in carpentering, building, engineering, and the 

 iron trades, embracing half the industrial popu- 

 lation of Denmark. One demand was that all 

 agreements made between the central associa- 

 tions of workmen and employers should be bind- 

 ing on all local branches of the trade unions; 



another was that employers should have the en- 

 tire direction of the organization and arrange- 

 ment of labor in their factories; a third stipu- 

 lated that no permanent employees, foremen, etc., 

 should be members of trade unions ; a fourth was 

 that all agreements between masters and men on 

 questions of wages and hours of labor should 

 be terminable on Jan. 1 of each year instead of 

 on notice given a certain number of weeks or 

 months beforehand. The workmen's federation 

 was unwilling to undertake the responsibility of 

 carrying out the first of these demands, and all 

 the others they rejected on principle as consti- 

 tuting a vital attack on the position of the 

 trade unions. The last one especially would 

 cause all settlements of labor disputes to come 

 to an end at the very time of year when work- 

 ingmen were least in demand, and consequently 

 least able to bargain for favorable terms. Their 

 main demands having been rejected, the employ- 

 ers' federation on May 24 declared a general lock- 

 out of all men employed in the building and iron 

 industries or others connected with these, such 

 as plumbers, painters, tinsmiths, and the like. 

 The sympathy of the Liberal party, the press, 

 and the general public was with the workmen in 

 this struggle, which the employers had forced on 

 for the purpose of crushing unionism. Leading 

 men of all parties joined with the Social Demo- 

 crats in a scheme for providing intellectual en- 

 tertainment and instruction to the workingmen 

 during the period of their enforced idleness, and 

 thus preventing them from falling into drunken 

 or slothful habits. Lectures on historical and 

 scientific subjects, dramatic entertainments, po- 

 etical recitals, concerts, visits to museums and 

 picture galleries, and courses of reading and in- 

 struction were arranged with the assistance of 

 almost all the teachers and professors of Den- 

 mark. The workingmen, on their part, em- 

 braced eagerly the opportunities offered to them 

 and their families for acquiring knowledge and 

 instruction. The permanent trade court on June 

 24 declared unanimously that the lockout was 

 inconsistent with the expectations the unions 

 were justified in founding on the existing agree- 

 ments with the employers. Abandoned by their 

 own representatives in this court, the employers' 

 federation, which already had great difficulty in 

 keeping the smaller employers in line, although 

 at first with conditions that were considered un- 

 acceptable by the trade unions, agreed to accept 

 the offer of the court to act as a board of con- 

 ciliation. The workmen's confederation having 

 accepted the proposal at once, a compromise was 

 at length effected in this manner. 



Navigation. The number of vessels engaged 

 in foreign trade entered at Danish ports during 

 1897 was 32,036, of 2,712,224 tons cargo; cleared, 

 31,424, of 713,671 tons cargo. Of coasting vessels. 

 35,389 were entered and 35,431 cleared. 



The merchant marine on Jan. 1, 1898, consisted 

 of 44 steamers, of 182,702 tons, and 3,652 sailing 

 vessels above 4 tons, having an aggregate ton- 

 nage of 173,406. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 total length of railroads in operation in 1897 

 was 1,532 miles. The state lines comprised 1,087 

 miles. 



The postal traffic in 1897 was 80,821,201 letters 

 and post cards and 74,403,222 newspapers, books, 

 and samples. 



The state telegraph lines on Jan. 1, 1898, had 

 a length of 2,088 miles, with 8,549 miles of wire. 

 There were 597,437 internal, 1,262,734 interna- 

 tional, and 149,617 official messages sent during 

 1897. The telephones, which belong to the Gov- 



