the organization of country life in denmark
in europe the man whose situation most nearly corresponds to that of the negro in the southern states is the peasant. i had seen pictures of peasants before i went to europe, but i confess that i was very hazy as to what a peasant was. i knew that he was a small farmer, like the majority of the negro farmers in the southern states, and that, like the negro farmer again, he had in most cases descended from a class that had at one time been held in some sort of subjection to the large landowners, the difference being that, whereas the peasant had been a serf, the negro farmer had been a slave.
in regard to the present position of the peasant in the life about him, in regard to his manner of living, his opportunities and ambitions, i had but the vaguest sort of an idea. the pictures which i had seen were not reassuring in this regard. the picture which made the deepest impression upon my mind was that of a heavy, stupid, half-human looking creature, standing
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in the midst of a desolate field. the mud and the clay were clinging to him and he was leaning on a great, heavy, wrought-iron hoe, such as were formerly used by the negro slaves. this picture represented about my idea of a peasant.
in the course of my journey through italy and through austria-hungary i saw a number of individuals who reminded me of this and other pictures of peasants that i can recall. i saw, as i have already said, peasant women sleeping, like tired animals, in the city streets; i saw others living in a single room with their cattle; at one time i entered a little cottage and saw the whole family eating out of a single bowl. in sicily i found peasants living in a condition of dirt, poverty, and squalor almost beyond description. but everywhere i found among these people, even the lowest, individuals who, when i had an opportunity to talk with them, invariably displayed an amount of shrewd, practical wisdom, kindly good nature, and common sense that reminded me of some of the old negro farmers with whom i am acquainted at home. it is very curious what a difference it makes in the impression that a man makes upon you if you stop and shake hands with him, instead of merely squinting at him critically in order to take a cold sociological inventory of his character and condition.
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some of the pleasantest recollections i have of europe are the talks i had, through an interpreter, of course, with some of these same ignorant but hard-working, sometimes barefoot, but always kindly peasants. the result was that long before i had completed my journey i had ceased to take some of the pictures of peasants i had seen literally. i discovered that the artist whose pictures had made so deep an impression upon me had sought to compress into the figure of a single individual the misery and wretchedness of a whole class; that he had tried, also, to bring to the surface and make visible in his picture all the hardships and the degradation which the casual observer does not see, perhaps does not want to see.
it was not until i reached denmark, however, that i began to feel that i had really begun to know the european peasant, because it was not until i reached that country that i saw what the possibilities of the peasant were. before this i had seen a man who was struggling up under the weight of ignorance and the remains of an ancient oppression. in denmark, however, this man has come to his own. peasants already own a majority of the land. three fourths of the farms are in their hands and the number of small farms is steadily increasing. in denmark the peasant, as a certain gentleman whom i met
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there observed, is not only free, but he rules. the peasant is the leader in everything that relates to the progress of agriculture. the products of the coöperative dairies, the coöperative egg-collecting and pork-packing societies, organized and controlled by the peasants, bring in the markets of the world higher prices than similar products from any other country in europe.
the peasants are now the controlling influence in the danish parliament. when i was there half the members of the ministry in power were peasants, and half the members of the cabinet were either peasants or peasants' sons.
let me add that there is a very close connection between the price of the peasants' butter and the influence which the peasants exercise in politics. for a good many years, up to about 1901, i believe, the most influential party in denmark was that represented by the large landowners. forty years ago the peasants had all the political rights they now possess, but they did not count for much in political matters. at that time there were two kinds of butter in denmark: there was the butter made in the creameries of the large landowners, called gentlemen's estates, and there was the butter from the small farmers. in other words, there was "gentleman's butter" and "peasant's butter."
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the peasant butter, however, was only worth in the market about one half as much as that from the gentleman's estate. when the price of peasant butter began to rise, however, the political situation began to change. year by year the number of coöperative dairies increased and, year by year, the number of peasant farmers in parliament multiplied. in other words, the danish peasant has become a power in danish politics because he first became a leader in the industrial development of the country.
denmark is not only very small, about one third the size of alabama, but it is not even especially fertile. it is an extremely level country, without hills, valleys, or running streams worth speaking of. i was told that the highest point in denmark, which is called "heaven's hill," is only about 550 feet above sea level—that is to say about half as high as the tower of the metropolitan building in new york. as a result of this a large part of the country is windswept and, in northern jutland, where the danish peninsula thrusts a thin streak of land up into the storm-tossed waters of the north sea, there were, forty years ago, 3,300 square miles of heather where not even a tree would grow. since that time, by an elaborate process of physical and chemical manipulation of the soil, all but a thousand square miles have
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been reclaimed. the result is that where once only lonely shepherds wandered, "knitting stockings," as jacob riis says, "to pay the taxes," there are now flourishing little cities.
another disadvantage which denmark suffers has its origin in the fact that more than one third of the country consists of islands, of which there are no less than forty-four. in going from copenhagen to hamburg the train on which i travelled, in crossing from one island to another and from there to the peninsula, was twice compelled to make the passage by means of a ferry, and at one of these passages we were on the boat for about an hour and a half.
riding or driving through denmark to-day is like riding through illinois or any other of the farming regions of the middle western states, with the exception that the fields are smaller and the number of men, cattle, and homesteads is much larger than one will see in any part of the united states. i have heard travellers through denmark express regret because with the progress of the country, the quaint peasant costumes and the other characteristics of the primitive life of the peasant communities, which one may still see in other parts of europe, have disappeared. one of my fellow-travellers tried to make me believe that the peasants in europe were very much happier in the quiet, simple life
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of these small and isolated farming communities, each with its own picturesque costumes, its interesting local traditions, and its curious superstitions.
this seems to be the view of a good many tourists. after what i have seen in europe i have come to the conclusion, however, that the people and the places that are the most interesting to look at are not always the happiest and most contented. on the contrary, i have found that the places in which the life of the peasants is most interesting to tourists are usually the places that the peasants are leaving in the largest numbers. emigration to america is making a large part of europe commonplace, but it is making a better place to live in.
the reorganization of agricultural life in denmark has come about in other ways than by emigration, but it has left very little of the picturesque peasant life, and most of what remains is now kept in museums. i noticed in going through the country, however, two types of farm buildings which seem to have survived from an earlier time. one of these consisted of a long, low building, one end of which was a barn and the other a dwelling. the other type of building was of much the same shape, except that it formed one side of a court, the other two
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sides of which were enclosed by barns and stables.
upon inquiry i learned that the first type of dwelling belonged to a man who was called a husmaend, or houseman; in other words, a small farmer whose property consisted of his house, with a very small strip of land around it. the other type of dwelling belonged to a man who was called a gaardmaend, or yardman, because he owned enough land to have a gaarde, or yard. in denmark farmers are still generally divided into huse and gaarde; all farmers owning less than twenty-four acres are called "housemen," and all having more than that are called "yardmen," no matter how their buildings are constructed.
as a matter of fact, it is not so long since conditions in denmark were just about as primitive as they are now in some other parts of europe. jacob riis, whom i learned, while i was in denmark, is just as widely known and admired in denmark as he is in the united states, says that he can remember when conditions were quite different among the homes of the people. "for example," he said, "i recall the time when in every peasant's family it was the custom for all to sit down and eat out of the same bowl in the centre of the table and then, after the meal was finished, each would
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wipe the spoon with which he had dipped into the common bowl, and without any further ceremony tuck it away on a little shelf over his head.
"to-day," he added, "danish farmers wash their pigs. the udders of the cows are washed with a disinfecting fluid before milking. when a man goes to milk he puts on a clean white suit."
not only is this true, but the danish farmer grooms his cows, and blankets them when it is cold. he does this not only because it is good for the cow, but because it makes a saving in the feed. although denmark has more cattle in proportion to the number of inhabitants than any other part of europe, i noticed very few pastures. on the contrary, as i passed through the country i observed long rows of tethered cattle, feeding from the green crops. as rapidly as the cows have consumed all the green fodder, usually four or five times a day, a man comes along and moves the stakes forward so that the cattle advance in orderly way, mowing down the crops in sections. water is brought to the cows in a cart and they are milked three times a day. all of this requires a large increase of labour as well as constant study, care, and attention. in other words, the danish peasant has become a scientific farmer.
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one difference between the farmer in denmark and in other countries is that, whereas the ordinary farmer raises his crops and ships them to the market to be sold, the danish farmer sells nothing but the manufactured product, and as far as possible he sells it direct to the consumer. for example, until about 1880 denmark was still a grain exporting country; in recent years, however, it has become a grain importing country. grain and fodder of various kinds to the value of something like twenty-five millions of dollars are now annually purchased by danish farmers in russia and neighbouring countries. the agricultural products thus imported are fed to the cattle, swine, and chickens and thus converted into butter, pork, and eggs. the butter is manufactured in a coöperative dairy; the pork is slaughtered in a coöperative pork-packing house; the eggs are collected and packed by a coöperative egg-collecting association. then they are either sold direct, or are turned over to a central coöperative selling association, which disposes of the most of them in england. the annual exports to england amount to nearly $90,000,000 a year, of which $51,000,000 is for butter, nearly $30,000,000 for bacon, and the remainder for eggs.
as a gentleman whom i met in denmark put
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it: "if denmark, like ancient gaul, were divided into three parts, one of these would be butter, another pork, and the third eggs." it is from these things that the country, in the main, gets its living. there are in denmark, as elsewhere, railways, newspapers, telephones, merchants, preachers, teachers, and all the other accessories of a high civilization, but they are all supported from the sale of butter, pork, and eggs, to which ought to be added cattle, for denmark still exports a considerable amount of beef and live cattle. the export of live cattle has, however, fallen from about $21,000,000 a year in 1880 to about $7,000,000, but in the same period the excess of butter, bacon, and eggs has risen from something like $7,000,000 to over $70,000,000. meanwhile the raw production of the danish farms has increased 50 per cent. and more, the difference being that, instead of producing grains for the manufacture of flour and meal, the danish farmers have turned their attention to producing root crops to feed their cattle. this means that the peasant in denmark is not merely a scientific farmer, as i have already suggested, but he is at the same time, in a small way, a business man.
the success of the peasant farmer in denmark is, as i have already suggested, due to a very large extent to the coöperative societies
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which manufacture and sell his farm products. through the medium of these the danish peasant has become a business man—i might almost say, a capitalist. i do not know how much money is invested in these different coöperative dairies, egg-collecting and pork-packing concerns, but all denmark is dotted with them, and the total amount of money invested in them must be considerable. there are, for example, 1,157 coöperative dairies, with a membership of 157,000. the number of coöperative pork-packing societies is 34, with a membership of 95,000.
as soon as i found to what extent the peasants were manufacturing and selling their own products, i naturally wanted to know how they had succeeded in getting the capital to carry on these large enterprises, because in the part of the country from which i hail the average farmer not only has no money to put into any sort of business outside his farm, but has to borrow money, frequently at a high rate of interest, to carry on his farming operations. i found that when the farmers in denmark began establishing coöperative dairies some of the well-to-do farmers came together and signed a contract to send all their milk which they were not able to use at home to the community dairy. then they borrowed money on their land to raise the money
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to begin operations. in borrowing this money they bound themselves "jointly and severally," as the legal phrase is, to secure the payments of the money borrowed—that is, each man became individually responsible for the whole loan. this gave the bank which made the loan a much better security than if each individual had secured a loan on his own responsibility, and in this way it was possible to provide the capital needed at a very moderate rate of interest.
when the farmer brought his milk to the common dairy he was paid a price for it a little less than the average market price. this added something to the working capital. at the end of the year a portion of the earnings of the dairy were set aside to pay interest charges, another portion was used to pay off the loan, and the remainder was divided in profits among the members of the association, each receiving an amount proportionate to the milk he had contributed. in this way the farmer in the course of some years found himself with a sum of money, equal to his individual share, invested in a paying enterprise that was every year increasing in value. in the meanwhile he had received more for his milk than if he had sold it in the ordinary way. at the same time, out of the annual profits he received from his share in the dairy, he had, perhaps, been able to put
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some money in the savings bank. the savings banks have always been popular and have played a much more important part in the life of the people than they have elsewhere. at the present time the average amount of deposits in proportion to the number of inhabitants is larger than is true of any other country in the world. for example, the average amount of deposits in the danish savings banks is $77.88; in england $20.62; in the united states $31.22. at the same time the number of depositors in danish savings banks is considerably larger than in other countries. for example, there are fifty-one depositors for every hundred persons in denmark. in england the corresponding number is twenty-seven.
the most remarkable thing about the danish savings banks, however, is that 78 per cent.—nearly four fifths—of them are located in the rural districts. that is one reason that danish farmers have not found it difficult to secure the capital they needed to organize and carry on their coöperative enterprises. with the money which they had saved and put in the savings bank from the earnings in the coöperative dairies they were able to borrow money with which to start their coöperative slaughterhouses and egg-collecting societies.
but these are only a few of the different types
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of coöperative organizations. a danish peasant may be a member of a society for the purchase of tools, implements, and other necessaries, of which there are fifteen in denmark, with a membership numbering between sixty and seventy thousand. he may belong to a society for exporting cattle, for collecting and exporting eggs, for horse breeding, for cattle, sheep, and pig breeding. finally he may belong to what are known as "control" societies, organized for the purpose of keeping account, by means of careful registration, of the milk yield of each cow belonging to a member of the society, and of the butter-fat in the milk, and the relation between the milk yield and the fodder consumed. the value of these societies is found in the fact that the annual yield per cow in the case of members of the control society was 67,760 pounds, while in the case of cows owned outside of the society the amount was 58,520 pounds.
through the medium of these different societies, some of which are purely commercial, while others exist for the purpose of improving the methods and technique of agriculture, the farming industry has become thoroughly organized. first of all, there has been a great saving in cost of handling and selling farm products. not many years ago the danish farmer used to send his butter to england by way of hamburg,
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and there were at that time, i have been told, no less than six middlemen who came between the farmer and his customer. now the coöperative manufacturing and selling societies sell a large part of their products direct to the coöperative purchasing societies in england. in this way the farmer and his customer, the producer and distributer, are brought together again, not exactly in the way in which they still come together in some of the old-fashioned market places in europe, but still in a way to benefit both classes. for one thing, as a result of this organization of the farming industry, farming methods and the whole technical side of the industry have been greatly benefited. a striking evidence of this fact is found in the following statistics showing the rapid increase in the annual yield of milk per cow in the period from 1898 to 1908:
annual yield
per cow in
year
pounds
1898
4,480
1901
4,884
1904
5,335
1907
5,689
1908
5,874
i might add, as showing the extent to which danish agriculture has been organized in the way i have described, that now denmark
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produces about 253,000,000 pounds of butter every year. of this amount 220,000,000 pounds come from the coöperative dairies.
behind all other organizations which have served to increase efficiency of the farming population are the schools, particularly the rural high schools and the agricultural schools. it is generally agreed in denmark that the coöperative organizations which have done so much for the farming population of that country could not exist if the rural high schools had not prepared the way for them.
i have described at some length, in another place, my impressions of the danish schools, and shall not attempt to repeat here what i have said elsewhere.[5] i would like to emphasize, however, certain peculiarities about these schools that have particularly impressed me. in the first place, the schools that i visited, and, as i understand, practically all the schools that have been erected for the benefit of the rural population, are located either in the neighbourhood of the small towns or in the open country. in other words, they are close to the land and the people they are designed to help. in the second place, and this is just as true of the rural high schools, where almost no
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technical training is attempted, as it is of the agricultural schools, the courses have been especially worked out, after years of experiment and study, to fit the needs of the people for whom they are intended. there is no attempt to import into these schools the learning or style or methods of the city high schools or colleges. there is in fact, so far as i know, no school in existence that corresponds to or of which the danish rural high school is in any way a copy.
in the third place, all these schools are for older pupils. the ages of the students range from sixteen to twenty-four years, and, in addition to the regular courses, conferences and short courses for the older people have been established, as is the case with many of the negro industrial schools in the south. in fact, everything possible is done to wed the work in the school to the life and work on the land.
finally, and this seems to me quite as important as anything else, these schools, like the coöperative societies to which i have referred, have grown up as the result of private initiative. the high schools had their origin in a popular movement begun more than fifty years ago by nicola frederik severin grundvig, a great religious reformer, who is sometimes referred to as the luther of denmark.
denmark was at this time almost in despair.
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england in the course of the war with napoleon had destroyed the danish fleet, and later, in 1864, germany had taken from denmark two of her best provinces and one third of her territory. grundvig believed that the work of reconstructing and regenerating denmark must begin at the bottom. he preached the doctrine that what denmark had lost without she must regain within, and, with this motto, he set to work to develop the neglected resources of the country—namely, those which were in the people themselves.
the work begun by grundvig has been taken up and carried on in the same spirit by those who have followed him. the results of this movement show themselves in every department of life in denmark—in the rapid increase of danish exports and in the healthy democratic spirit of the whole danish population. the danish people are probably the best educated and best informed people in europe. this is not simply my impression; it is that of more experienced travellers than myself.
on my way from copenhagen to london i fell in with an english gentleman who was just returning from five weeks of study and observation of farming conditions in denmark. from him i was able to obtain a great many interesting details which confirmed my own impressions.
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he told me, i remember, that he had noticed in the cottage of a peasant, a man who did not farm more than four or five acres of land, copies of at least four periodicals to which he was a regular subscriber.
"more than that," he continued, "the farmers' journals which i saw in the peasants' houses i visited seemed to me remarkably technical and literary." this remark struck me, because it had never occurred to me that any of the agricultural papers i had seen in america could be described as "technical and literary." if they were i am afraid the farmers, at least the farmers in my part of the country, would not read them.
as illustrating the general intelligence of the farming population, this same gentleman told me that he had at one time called upon a creamery manager in a remote district whose salary, in addition to his house, which was provided him, was about twenty-four shillings, or six dollars, a week. in his house he found a recent copy of the studio, a well-known english art publication. on his book shelves, in addition to the ordinary publications of a dairy expert, he had caught sight of volumes in english, french, german, and swedish.
i was impressed with the fact that almost every one i met in denmark seemed to be able to
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speak at least three languages—namely, german, english, and danish. i had been greatly surprised on the sunday night of my arrival to meet an audience of fully 3,000 persons and find that at least the majority of those present were able to understand my speech. in fact i had not spoken ten minutes when i found myself talking as naturally and as easily to this danish audience as if i was addressing a similar number of people in america. the people even flattered me by laughing at my jokes, and in the right places. i am convinced that any one who can understand an american joke, can understand almost anything in the english language.
there is a saying to the effect that if you see a large building in germany you may know that it is a military barracks, in england it is a factory, in denmark a school. i never saw such healthy, happy, robust school children as i did in denmark, and, with all respect to danish agriculture, i am convinced that the best crop that denmark raises is its children.
while other countries have sought to increase the national wealth and welfare by developing the material resources, denmark, having neither coal, iron, oil, nor any other mineral, nothing but the land, has increased not only the national wealth but the national comfort and happiness by improving her people. while other nations
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have begun the work of education and, i was going to say, civilization, at the top, denmark has begun at the bottom. in doing this denmark has demonstrated that it pays to educate the man farthest down.
footnote:
[5] "what i learned about education in denmark," chapter xi. "my larger education," doubleday, page & company, 1911.
