

DENMARK. 



215 



was 33,389, of 2,913,849 cargo tons; cleared, 34,- 

 313, of 844,567 tons of cargo. There were 33,650 

 vessels entered and 33,667 cleared coastwise. The 

 merchant fleet of Denmark and the colonies com- 

 prised 3,252 sailing vessels above 4 tons, of 158,- 

 303 tons, and 521 steamers, of 250,137 tons. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 length of railroads in operation in 1901 was 1,810 

 miles, of which the state owned 1,108 miles, built 

 at a cost of 247,492,711 kroner. 



The number of letters and postal cards carried 

 in the mails in 1900 was 95,791,494; of newspa- 

 pers, circulars, samples, etc., 87,321,089. 



The Government telegraph-lines in 1900 had a 

 total length of 2,413 miles, with 8,601 miles of 

 wire. The length of telephone-lines was 1,351 

 miles, with 2,620 miles of double and 595 miles of 

 single wire. 



Colonies. Iceland has an area of 39,756 

 square miles, a small part of which is productive. 

 The population in 1900 was 70,927. The imports 

 in that year were valued at 2,386,000 kroner, and 

 exports at 2,993,000 kroner. The coast and deep- 

 sea fisheries are the principal resource of the 

 population. Fishermen from all the countries 

 bordering on the North Sea visit the fishing- 

 banks. The Althing, the autonomous legisla- 

 ture, passed a law in 1898 by which trawling in 

 Icelandic waters is prohibited, and inhabitants 

 of the island are forbidden under penalties of 

 imprisonment to aid or abet trawling. Fishing 

 with trawling-nets from steamers has depleted 

 the fisheries on which Icelanders depend for a 

 living, and therefore the territorial waters have 

 been vigilantly patrolled and the law strictly en- 

 forced against steam trawlers. British owners 

 of these vessels have complained of confisca- 

 tions due, not to illegal trawling in territorial 

 waters, but to the storms of the northern seas 

 which compelled their vessels to seek a port of 

 refuge. A fisheries convention was concluded by 

 Denmark in 1901 by which trawlers are no longer 



the world, are visited every year by Government 

 steamers which bring the supplies they need and 

 take away the oil, furs, and other arctic prod- 

 ucts, which are purchased by the Government 

 and resold in Europe. The value of imports in 

 1900 was 831,000 kroner; of exports, 340,000 

 kroner. 



The Danish West Indies are the islands of .S7. 

 Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. When Wot 

 Indian islands were in a more prosperous condi- 

 tion than at present the sugar, rum, and molasses 

 of the Danish Antilles found a ready market in 

 the United States. Of late years they have suf- 

 fered more than most of the other islands from 

 the depression in their main industries. Nego- 

 tiations have been going on for years looking to 

 their transfer by purchase to the United States 

 (see WEST INDIES). 



Legislation. The question of the sale of the 

 West Indian possessions of Denmark to the 

 United States was the main subject of discussion 

 in the Rigsdag in 1902. The treaty for their 

 transfer was signed at Washington on Jan. 24. 

 1902. It was ratified by the United States Senate 

 on Feb. 17. The Danish Steamship Company, 

 which has a large traffic in the Atlantic, opposed 

 the sale, and it was distasteful to the upper 

 classes of Denmark. The signing of the Brussels 

 sugar convention seemed to promise a better fu- 

 ture for the islands. When the treaty was laid 

 before the Folkething its opponents debated long 

 against it, but it was ratified on March 18 by 

 an overwhelming majority, only 7 voting to 

 reject it outright and 19 withholding their votes, 

 desiring the matter to be left to a vote of the 

 people of the islands. This proposition found 

 favor in the Landsthing,. which voted to delay 

 the decision until the qualified electors of the 

 islands indicated their desire by a plebiscite. 

 Meanwhile various enterprises designed for the 

 economic benefit of the islands were promoted 

 in Denmark, chief of which were a new steamship 

 company to start a regular service between North 

 Sea and Gulf ports, and a plantation company, 

 which intended to buy up land in the islands and 

 have it tilled scientifically under the direction of 

 Danish agriculturists. Objections were made to 

 the treaty on the ground that it did not secure 

 to the islanders American citizenship and free 

 trade with the United States, although former 

 ministers in their negotiations with the United 

 States Government had stipulated for these priv- 

 ileges. The Folkething would not accept the pro- 



excluded from territorial waters They have lib- vision inserted by the Landsthing that the inhab- 



erty to navigate and anchor if they enter them 

 through stress of weather or ignorance of the 

 currents, but they must stow away their trawling 

 gear. The Icelanders have sought a larger degree 

 of autonomy, which the Danish Government is 

 quite willing to concede. In 1901 the Althing 

 passed a resolution requesting that the Minis- 

 ter for Iceland in the Danish Cabinet should 

 always be a person acquainted with the Icelandic 

 language. The Danish Government submitted a 

 constitutional reform bill to the Althing con- 

 vened in special session by which not only will 



itants of the island who have the right to vote 

 for members of the colonial councils first take a 

 vote on the question, but agreed by 98 votes to 

 2, with 5 abstentions, to have a plebiscite taken 

 of all the male inhabitants of the islands, as was 

 done in 1867, when the former treaty for the 

 sale of the islands was made, which failed of 

 ratification in the United States Senate. The 

 Landsthing by 33 votes to 30 insisted on its own 

 amendment, and the matter had to be postponed 

 till another session. The electors to the two co- 

 lonial councils, to whom the Conservative major- 





a special minister for Iceland be appointed who ity in the Landsthing proposed to refer the ques- 

 ' " --' ' .....- --j. 



knows the language of the island, but the seat 

 of the ministry is transferred from Copenhagen 

 to Reykjavik. Besides fish, the Icelanders export 

 sheep, wool, and mutton, and also ponies of the 

 shaggy northern breed. The imports are cereals, 

 groceries, and textiles. The trade is shared with 

 Denmark by Great Britain. 



are only 366 in number, while the adult 

 male population exceeds 6,000. There was a pos- 

 sibility that the electors might pronounce in 

 favor of the sale by a slight majority. The 

 amendment of the 'Landsthing was therefore 

 framed so that the Rigsdag would not be bound 

 liy tin- vote unless the feeling in the islands as 



The Danish colony of Greenland has an area of indicated by it was undoubtedly in favor of the 



46,740 square miles, with a population in 1900 

 of 10,516. These people, cut off from the rest of 



sale. The Agrarians, who constituted an over- 

 whelming majority of the voters of Denmark, were 



