APPENDIX D 



THE LOANS FROM THE STATE. CHEAP 

 MONEY AND ITS ABUSE 



Article from the "Jyllandsposten" Friday, November 4, 1910 



The Small-holdings Bill 



There has happened in the case of the Small-holdings 

 Act and similar Cheap-loans Acts what has chanced to 

 so many other sound and good ideas : they have been 

 swallowed in political agitation. For many, many years 

 we have witnessed an eager race for the housemen's votes. 

 The programmes of the parties made the housemen their 

 pets, and a violent agitation was begun in order to satisfy 

 that class of the population. Twenty years have already 

 passed since the Conservative programme spoke of the 

 necessity of doing something tomake it easier for theagricul- 

 tural worker to acquire a house of his own with a suitable 

 parcel of land. In 1895 the "Left" party made a higher 

 bid by demanding the parcelling-out of land for house- 

 men's holdings, and even the M Agrarforeningen " (the 

 Agricultural Society) thought fit to require that the number 

 of small-holdings should be kept up and even augmented. 

 But so many good wishes in a mass, carried under com- 

 petition of an eager agitation, ran the risk of resulting in 

 hurried work, and they did not u claw off the shore." 



After the political reconciliation in 1894 an Agricul- 

 tural Committee was appointed, and one of its objects 

 was to find out how it was possible to create cheap hold- 

 ings on favourable terms for the benefit of agricultural 

 labourers. Two years later the said Committee issued a 



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