DENMARK: AN EXPERIMENT STATION 105 



sions, Schleswig and Holstein, to Germany. Cheap 

 agricultural produce from the American West threat- 

 ened her home as well as her foreign market. Politi- 

 cal and industrial depression settled upon the people. 

 There was little to justify hope under these condi- 

 tions. Yet to-day Denmark is one of the wealthiest 

 countries in Eui'ope in proportion to its population. 

 The average deposits in the savings-banks are 

 $77.88. In England they are only $20.62 and in 

 the United States $31.22. The number of depositors 

 in the banks is higher than in any other country, 

 being 51 out of every 100. And 78 per cent, of the 

 savings are in the rural districts. There is a tele- 

 phone in nearly every fair-sized farm, while Danish 

 cattle, Danish bacon, and Danish eggs are recognized 

 for their superiority all over the world. Before the 

 war Denmark supplied Germany with a considera- 

 ble part of her cattle; the Danish dairies supplied 

 England with butter and the British people with 

 bacon and eggs. There were no high-cost-of-living 

 investigations in Denmark; there are no monopolies 

 or trusts, and, while the country has few persons of 

 great wealth and relatively little industry, more 

 has been done for education, and intelligent edu- 

 cation, than in almost any countr}" in the world. 



How was this brought about in the face of a 

 niggardly nature, a chilly, inhospitable climate, in 

 a relatively poor state surrounded by greater powers ? 



The movement began with education — a strange 



