The DansJc Folkesamfund. 
38 
affairs; but in the main it is a ministers’ quarrel and the con¬ 
servative common-sense members of their congregations look upon 
it with decided disapproval, while the large majority are not in¬ 
terested enough to find out what the quarrel is about or to 
range themselves on either side. There is a possibility that the 
split will in the end make the Danish church somewhat more 
efficient than it has been so far; for hereafter the Inner Mission 
faction will have an opportunity to pursue its somewhat aggres¬ 
sive systematic policy without interference by the Grundtvig- 
ians, which will be a great advantage in carrying out its plans. 
Besides, this faction will undoubtedly in the course of a few 
years have formed a firm alliance with the Danish Church Asso¬ 
ciation, a society organized in 1884 by six Danish ministers 
and their congregations, which up to that time had belonged to 
the Norwegian-Danish Conference. In 1890 this society had a 
membership of 3,493, and church property amounting to $44,775. 
They have established a school at Blair, Nebraska, and this as 
well as all the church work of the association is conducted on 
the same plan and in the same spirit that prevail in the Norwe¬ 
gian church societies. But the fact that only 3,493 out of the 
132,543 Danes in America in 1890 belonged to this society, 
shows that it cannot be very popular with the majority. The 
two societies when united will not at the utmost contain more 
than 10,000 members. These, however, will be likely to work 
together more harmoniously and more earnestly than the 
Grundtvigians and Inner Mission people, and may succeed in 
maintaining some quite efficient schools and a few united con¬ 
gregations. 
As far as the Grundtvigians are concerned, their past seems 
to prove conclusively that there is no future for them in this 
country. They will get but little support from the old settle¬ 
ments ; they are unable to establish new ones from the Danes 
already in this country. Neither can they hope much from an 
immigration from Denmark, for in the first place such an im¬ 
migration is not liable to be very extensive in the near future, 
because the social and economic conditions in Denmark are and 
promise to be fairly good; besides this, the Grundtvigians will 
be, as they have been, the last ones to emigrate, for they are 
3 
