SMALL-HOLDING OWNERSHIP 225 



ever, a large body of opinion in Denmark which looks 

 on the State small-holdings with favour and even with 

 enthusiasm ; which does not believe them to be a mere 

 political " dodge" ; which is convinced that they are 

 doing great good in the land. There is no need to 

 recapitulate in this summary views that have already 

 been expressed by many witnesses. Still I will ask 

 the reader to listen to another judgment, that of 

 Mr. Niels Pedersen-Nyskov, a member of the Danish 

 Parliament and himself a farmer, who, as I was told 

 on all hands both by Government officials and others, 

 is one of the first and most respected authorities on 

 this subject. 



In a long letter which he has been so good as 

 to write to me, after setting out the provisions of 

 the law that the reader can study for himself, Mr. 

 Pedersen-Nyskov says : 



M I have worked on this problem for ten years, 

 and I am sure that few abuses have arisen under 

 the law. Indeed, when the Commission (of Manage- 

 ment) is carefully directed they cannot easily arise. 

 In the previous laws (those of 1899 and 1904) there 

 was a provision that the small-holders' properties 

 could not be burdened with other debts in addition 

 to that to the State. This provision has been deleted 

 from the last law (that of 1909) as it was open to 

 abuse and of no practical value, for the simple reason 

 that further mortgages can hardly be placed when the 

 State has already advanced the small-holder nine- 

 tenths of the value of his property, inclusive of that 

 of stock and implements. 



11 The law, as I know from experience, has appar- 

 ently resulted in a very considerable improvement in 

 the condition of the land-workers. Their progress 



p 



