26 Bille—A History of the Danes in America. 
along the line of parochial schools; and the results attained by 
these schools are correspondingly insignificant. Though there 
are no definite statistics on this point, it is safe to say that not 
more than six parochial schools established by this church can 
lay any claim to permanency, and that less than one thousand 
Danish children in this country have attended these schools long 
enough to become biased along the line of G-rundtvigian thought. 
This failure of the high schools and parochial schools is 
probably in part due to a lack of system and of agreement 
among the ministers; but its main cause is found in the almost 
total indifference of the Danes, at large, toward these schools. 
Had there been on an average three thousand Danes in hearty 
sympathy with the cause, they would and could have given a 
more substantial support both in money and men than has been 
given. This indifference is not due to any lack of agitation on 
the subject. The G-rundtvigian ministers have had a fair oppor¬ 
tunity to reach a large number of their countrymen. They 
have been located for years in the most populous Danish 
settlements; they have had the majority in every church con¬ 
ference; and have held almost uninterrupted control of the 
organ of the church, Kirkelig Samler , besides receiving the 
unqualified support of the Danish society for American mis¬ 
sions and o: the secular Danish-American newspaper, Dannevirke. 
There have never been lacking enthusiasts among them who 
have used every means at their command to propagate their 
particular views; while the opposition, within the church at 
least, did not become active before 1887, and then only as a 
small minority. 
THE COLONIZATION SCHEME. 
This scheme was adopted for the purpose of gathering the 
Danes into a few large settlements, which was thought to be one 
of the most effective means of strengthening the church and 
maintaining the Danish language and sentiment. The first 
settlement was established in Lincoln county, Minnesota. Here 
the church secured an option on 35,000 acres of land from a 
land company. The company agreed to sell this land to Danes 
only during the first three years. The first year the land was 
