THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIA N REVIEW 
Denmark 
49 !) 
Q]\one of the important questions on the political order of the day 
readied a final decision during the month of May. Some of the pro¬ 
posed new laws continue to pass back and forth between the two 
houses of the Rigsdag, while others are under discussion in the various 
committees to which they have been referred. If the various meas¬ 
ures now before the Rigsdag, including the new law on the Defenses 
of the Realm, the new Church law, the new law on Old .Age Pensions, 
and the new law on indirect taxation of restaurant business as well 
as on the sale of chocolate and candy, are all to be passed during the 
present session of the Rigsdag', adjournment will not be possible be¬ 
fore far into the month of July. IJ Very few changes have been made 
in these proposed laws; they are practically the same now as when 
they were presented by the Government, and there is every prospect 
that they will be passed without alterations; for both the Liberal 
Left, the government party, and the Conservative People’s party 
seem to have not only the wish but also the will to bridge over the dif¬ 
ferences between the two parties, thus insuring a majority in favor 
of the government measures. CJ The Industrial party, on the other 
hand, has recently opposed the government on several important 
points, including the questions of defenses, of old age pensions, and 
of indn ect taxation, but inasmuch as this party has only three repre¬ 
sentatives in the Folkething and none in the Landsthing, its influ¬ 
ence is not sufficient to endanger any of the measures of the govern¬ 
ment, since none of these have such a narrow margin that the lack 
of support from the three members of the Industrial party can make 
any difference. <J The Radical Left, the government party during the 
war , convened JVIay 20 in the city of Sonderborg m Slesvig', and framed 
a new programme to take the place of the original party programme 
which dates back from a meeting in Odense in 1905. The Socialists, 
with whom the Radical Lefts co-operate in the most important ques¬ 
tions, believe that the new programme indicates a movement in the 
dilection of socialistic principles, but the Radicals claim, and with 
justice, that they still base their politics on liberal, not on socialistic, 
ideas of government. CJ On May 27 the oldest member of the Danish 
Landsthing, Mr. Peter Rojsen, passed away in the eighty-fifth year 
of his age. He was a member of the Rigsdag as early as 1866 and 
voted with his father, who was then in the Landsthing, against the 
revision of the Constitution which was passed at that time and which, 
among other things, established a privileged representation for the 
upper house, a measure that was not repealed before 1915 when the 
present Constitution went into effect. During the best years of his 
manhood Peter Bojsen was head master of a People’s High School 
and Seminary. He was also active in agricultural matters. 
