140 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



orchards of fruit ; and on a knoll the village church, with rude 

 square white tower and steep red roof, completing a scene of great 

 beauty. A little off the road was to be seen a woman milking a 

 tethered cow, her baby in a perambulator near by, her dog yoked 

 to a small cart containing the milk can. On the right was a field 

 of camomile, and about 50 women busy pulling the white flowers. 

 But nowhere man, woman, or child sohciting alms ! No vagrants ! 

 No roadside mendicancy ! 



It will have been seen that the hired agricultural workman has 

 not the same opportunity to save money as in Scotland ; though 

 it must be added that he does not yield to the same temptations 

 to waste. The prices of the staple articles of diet approximate to 

 those current in Great Britain. If margarine, rye-bread, and 

 Russian produce are used to any extent the household budget is 

 probably lower. Clothing is from 15 to 20 per cent, cheaper. 

 Boots are about the same. The working classes and peasant 

 farmers, however, wear at their daily work wooden-soled shoes, 

 which cost 2s. 3d. a pair, and last a long time. It is the rule for 

 workmen to contribute to a Sick Benefit Society by way of 

 insuring against illness. The State provision for poverty and old 

 age has been very carefully thought out. A strict discrimination is 

 made between pauper relief and old age relief, no discredit whatever 

 attaching to the acceptance of the latter. The old age pensioner 

 nmst be 60, and have no conviction for crime or record of a 

 disorderly and extravagant mode of life against him. The amount 

 of the pension varies according to locality. In Copenhagen the 

 average pension for a married couple is £9, 3s. 5d. ; for a single 

 person, £7, 9s. 3d. In the smaller towns it is £9 for a married 

 couple and £7, 15s. for a single person. In rural districts it is 

 £5, 4s. 4d. for a married couple, and £3, lis. lOd. for a single 

 person. Of course, these are really augmentations of income, the 

 old age pensioner as a rule being not " destitute." The fixing of 

 the amount of the annuity is in the hands of local authorities, who, 

 by a recent enactment, make no deduction on account of other 

 income held by the pensioner up to the value of £5, lis. Id. It 

 is believed that this enactment has the efffect of inducing workmen 

 to save a capital yielding at least £5, lis. Id. per annum. But 

 the position of the Danish agricultural workman has really to be 

 viewed in connexion with his opportunity of rising into the class 

 of small farmer. His life need not always be confined to the 

 daily round of paid labour. He has the chance of a career. A 

 very small amount in hand of the purchase price of a farm, with a 

 loan obtainable at easy interest, enables him to exchange the lot 

 of the wage earner for that of the cultivating owner, and to come 

 within the mnge of influences that we call "the magic of 

 property." 



Needless to add, the Danish rural folk are of sober habit, 

 deeply religious, and law-abiding. Fine old Lutheran churches, of 

 which they are naturally proud, are numerous. The public-house 

 is unobtrusive ; the drunkard scarcely known. The police force 

 in Denmark is said to be a little over 300 strong, half of the total 



