DENMARK AND THE DANES 



157 



service, and sick or disabled teachers are 

 looked after in a pecuniary way. 



Tuberculosis is one of the scourges of 

 Denmark. Teachers who have been af- 

 flicted with the "white plague" during 

 their service receive a pension of two- 

 thirds of their salary. 



It is rather interesting at this moment, 

 when a serious agitation in this country 

 is beginning for the betterment of the 

 teaching class, to note that the Danish 

 Government provides for the meeting of 

 a growing cost of living by a rule auto- 

 matically increasing the salaries of the 

 teachers to meet their expenses ade- 

 quately. 



The tendency of legislation in Den- 

 mark is to abrogate landlordism without 

 destroying the legitimate rights of prop- 

 erty, as the tendency of the cooperative 

 movement was to destroy the inefficient 

 and proliteering middleman. 



During the war the decrease of Danish 

 emigration to the United States gave the 

 government a pretext to provide more 

 land available for farming. The new 

 election law, which included suffrage for 

 women, increased the number of voters 

 and likewise the number of those who had 

 the right to own land. 



Under the new law, no money was re- 

 quired in order to acquire a piece of land ; 

 good character, a certain certificate of 

 energy, and the right to vote were all the 

 qualities necessary. The would-be land- 

 owner was obliged to pay interest at 4 

 per cent on the fixed value of the land. 



It must be remembered that in Den- 

 mark a farm is not valued by the number 

 of acres it contains, but according to the 

 stock, the implements, and the condition 

 of the soil. 



The energy and knowledge of the 

 previous owner are assets to him in dis- 

 posing of his land. 



THE DANISH FARMER THE FREEST IN THE 

 WORED 



The evolution of the laborer on the soil 

 can be easily traced in Denmark through 

 the growth of the democratic . spirit, 

 which gradually destroyed serfdom, to 

 the present time, when the Danish farmer 

 is perhaps the freest in the world. 



The constitution of 1848 liberated Den- 

 mark from a condition of dependence 

 largely brought about by the gradual 

 transference of all power to the king or 



to the aristocratic landowner, and the de- 

 struction of the ideals of the Middle Ages 

 in Denmark. 



It is a curious fact that in Denmark to- 

 day, where the great landowner is not 

 an absentee and has no tradition of ab- 

 senteeism behind him, the common people 

 have an almost bitter antagonism toward 

 the aristocratic caste. And this is all the 

 more strange, since the great landowners 

 in Denmark till their soil and make it 

 productive. 



The complaint that the English agri- 

 culturist makes, that thousands of acres 

 of land are mere unproductive pleasure 

 grounds for "the dukes" — not so long ago 

 the objects of Lloyd George's antagonism 

 in England — would be groundless in Den- 

 mark. 



THE LANDOWNING ARISTOCRACY MAY 

 DISAPPEAR 



Just at this time it looks as if the Dan- 

 ish landed estates would be cut up into 

 comparatively small holdings. The aboli- 

 tion of the majorats, which practically 

 means the disappearance of the law of 

 primogeniture and of the law of entail, 

 would mean the disappearance of a land- 

 owning aristocracy. 



There is an aristocracy in Denmark, an 

 aristocracy of a very high class, as a rule, 

 but it has lost its privileges. Its titles 

 have even less value socially than they 

 have in France, which is a republic, and, 

 under the usage which makes all the sons 

 and daughters of a count or a baron 

 counts and countesses or barons and 

 baronesses, titles soon lose their distinc- 

 tion, and new titles of nobility are no 

 longer given. 



The aristocracy, which for a long time 

 controlled the Upper House, fought hard 

 against the subdivision of the land, and 

 its members were not sympathetic with 

 the Danish system of credit banks, by 

 which any man of good character, with 

 a very small sum of ready money, might 

 be able to own a farm. 



The would-be farmer must be over 

 twenty-five and under fifty years of age 

 and he must have worked in agriculture 

 for four years. Two reputable citizens 

 are required to sign a guarantee as to his 

 standing in the community and his repu- 

 tation for honesty. He then offers to pay 

 one-tenth of the cost of the land and a 

 certain sum in addition as a surety that 



