28 Bille—A History of the Danes in America. 
very incompetent if not positively dishonest; and these opinions 
are being duly noticed and emphasized by opponents of the 
Dansk Folkesamfund. It is doubtful indeed if these attempts at 
settlement have done as much to unite the Danes as the ill 
feeling created thereby has done to separate them. 
THE DANSK FOLKESAMFUND. 
This society was established in 1887, under the auspices of a 
number of ministers and laymen of Grundtvigian tendencies. 
The aim of this society is set forth in its constitution in the 
following language: “We establish this society in the belief 
that there is a need for an organization which will unite all the 
Danes in America who desire to maintain the Danish character 
and wish to aid in the labor of increasing our spiritual inher¬ 
itance and making it fruitful, not alone for our own benefit or for 
that of our fatherland, but also for the benefit of the land to 
which we are now united by the strongest of ties. 
When we Danes in America wish to perpetuate in America what 
is Danish, it is partly because of the inborn love we have for 
all the things that belong to our fatherland; but it is also because 
we are convinced that by so doing we are advancing the best 
interest of the land to which we now belong. When it is ad¬ 
mitted that the meeting of people from all nations, on American 
soil, there to communicate with one another in the English 
language, is an historic event of first importance, it is mainly 
because the various nationalities thereby secure an opportunity 
to communicate to one another the results of their best thoughts 
and labors. In order that such an interchange may take place 
it is necessary that each nationality maintain its own language 
and remain in intimate association with the mother country, 
for only in this way is it capable of transmitting its posses¬ 
sions to others. We believe the Danish nation has a spiritual 
inheritance not wholly without value to humanity in general, 
and we wish to contribute our share toward human advance¬ 
ment. ” 
To advance the interests of humanity in general, then, is the 
chief end of this society, and to keep in touch with the language and 
life of Denmark the chief condition necessary for reaching this aim. 
