20 Bille—A History of the Danes in America. 
other, each one talking on a different subject, and paying no 
attention to the remarks of the previous speaker. It was sel¬ 
dom that any definite plan was adopted for doing the business 
of the society, and when a plan or regulation was finally adopted 
it was seldom followed out in action. There is even a case on 
record where it was voted, seventeen to six, to discontinue a 
certain discussion. The discussion was still carried on for an 
hour or more, without any break other than was necessary to 
take the vote to discontinue. 1 In spite of all this chaos a num¬ 
ber of projects, besides the union with the mother church, have 
been set on foot for carrying out the G-rundtvigian pet idea of 
creating a little Denmark in the United States. The most im¬ 
portant of these are: (1) The establishment of Grundtvigian 
high schools and parochial schools. (2) The planting of col¬ 
onies. (3) The organization of a society for the maintenance of 
Danish sentiment and language. 
THE HIGH SCHOOL. 
This subject comes to the front for the first time at the 
annual meeting at Chicago, 1876. Though no definite action 
was taken in the matter, the discussion brought out very de¬ 
cided differences of opinion in regard to what ought to be done. 
Both sides were agreed that something ought to be done by the 
church to educate the young, and that the main object should 
be to make good Lutherans; but the G-rundtvigians maintained 
that this could be done, as far as the Danes were concerned, only 
through the Danish language and by appealing to the Danish 
sentiment and memories,— while the opposition insisted that 
the old ballads played no part in the scheme of salvation, and 
that as a matter of fact the children born in this country had 
no Danish memories and sentiments; 2 but this latter was the 
opinion of only two men, N. Thomsen and Lilleso, and had at 
the time no influence in deciding the course to be pursued. 
After considerable more discussion and delay it was finally de¬ 
cided, at the annual meeting of 1878, this time without opposi¬ 
tion, to establish a Grundtvigian high school. It was supposed 
1 Kirkelig Samler, 1884, p. 497. 
2 Id., 1876, p. 296. 
