358 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



best provinces. In addition to this she was obliged to pay a 

 heavy war indemnity. Finally, and worst of all, her German 

 market was cut off by the German tariff wall. But as one result 

 of this accumulation of calamities there was developed an intense 

 feeling of national patriotism and solidarity. Out of this feeling 

 grew a number of cooperative measures for the rebuilding of the 

 country, especially in the field of agriculture. Within fifty years 

 Denmark became the most prosperous country on the continent 

 of Europe, and stands to-day as a monument to the efficiency 

 of the spirit of intelligent cooperation. It is a cooperation not 

 forced upon the people by a government, but a spontaneous 

 cooperation growing out of a general spirit of patriotism and 

 mutual helpfulness. Every student who is intimately acquainted 

 with the history of this movement agrees that the popular recre- 

 ations and festivities have been powerful factors in creating this 

 spirit, and that the popular songs and hymns, and the habit of 

 singing them together on all occasions, have given to these rec- 

 reations and festivities a patriotic and religious character which 

 is to be found nowhere else to-day on so la$ge a scale. 



Every college student is familiar with the fact that when a 

 body of students unites upon a common interest, like an athletic 

 contest, there is not the slightest difficulty in getting them to- 

 gether, and when they do get together there is not the slightest 

 difficulty in keeping things going. Even singing seems to be a 

 perfectly natural and fitting form of expression. Precisely the 

 same principle has been seen in operation on a larger scale by 

 any one who has lived through a great national crisis, like a war. 

 When the people are intensely interested in the same thing 

 their gatherings are never dull. Singing together is a natural 

 way of expressing the common feeling, and no one questions 

 its propriety. 



The Danish people have demonstrated that it is possible for a 

 whole people to become as thoroughly united and as enthusiastic 



