228 RURAL DENMARK 



holder, who has got all there is to have and desires to 

 keep it, will in nine cases out of ten vote Conservative. 



This is a matter which it does not come within 

 my province to argue in the present book, that is as 

 absolutely non-political as anything can be. There- 

 fore I will only say that as most men are influenced, 

 consciously or unconsciously, by their strong convic- 

 tions and desire, also consciously or unconsciously, to 

 advance a state of affairs in which those convictions will 

 triumph, in both cases there is probably a modicum 

 of truth in the criticism. Still more probably it is not 

 all the truth. At any rate for my own part I am con- 

 tent to believe that each school of thought advocates 

 what it holds to be best, without reference to its 

 political opinions or to its individual advantages. If 

 this is not so, then indeed we may begin to despair 

 of the republic. 



When, however, we come to consider the views of 

 Mr. Waage and his friends upon their merits, I must 

 confess that personally I do not find anything in them 

 that carries conviction to my mind, at least so far as 

 Denmark is concerned. As I have already shown, 

 it is difficult to see that the position of a State tenant 

 would have any great advantages over that of a State 

 freeholder. The latter has roughly about a hundred 

 years in which to discharge his debt to the Govern- 

 ment, and I do not suppose that his annual repayments 

 on account of purchase price, &c, amount to much 

 more than would his annual rent as a tenant. Of 

 course the difference is that at the end of a hundred 

 years he, or rather his remote descendants, will own 

 an unencumbered property, whereas if he is a per- 

 petual leaseholder they, at that date, will not have 

 bettered their position, but will be called upon to 



