TWO GEORGIANS EXPLORE SCANDINAVIA 
A Comparison of Education for Democracy in Northern Europe and Georgia 
by RALPH MCGILL and THOMAS C. DAVID 
GEORGIA PROGRAM FOR THE 
IMPROVEMENT OF INSTRUCTION IN THE 
PUBLIO SCHOOLS 
State Department of Education M. D. COLLINS 
State Superintendent of Schools Atlanta, Georgia 
 
 TWO GEORGIANS EXPLORE SCANDINAVIA 
A Comparison of Education for Democracy in Northern Europe and Georgia 
by RALPH MCGILL and THOMAS C. DAVID 
 
GEORGIA PROGRAM FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF INSTRUCTION 
 
M. E. THOMPSON Director 
 
PAUL R. MORROW Director of Re8earch 
 
CELIA C. MCCALL Assistant Director of Research 
 
State Department of Education 
M. D. COLLINS State Superintendent of Schools 
Atlanta, Georgia 
1988 
 
  FOREWORD 
This publication is presented to teachers, pupils and other citizens who are interested in solving the difficult economic and agricultural problems of Georgia. The experience of the Scandinavian democracies in solving the same problems is enlightening and encouraging. The fundamental place of education in the ultimate solution of these problems is the justification for this publication. 
Readers will find these articles by Mr. Ralph McGill and Mr. Thomas C. David both timely and interesting; their thoughtful consideration by forward-looking Georgians hi invited. 
M. D. COLLINS, State Superintendent of Schools. 
S. V. SANFORD, Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. 
 
  TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
I. INTRODUCTION, ADERHOLD____________________________ 7 
 
II. SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES, McGILL 
 
11 
 
Education and Legislation Deal with the Problems of the People__________________________________________ 11 
 
Making Happy Landowners by Co-operation and Legislation -_____________________________________________ 16 
 
Problems of Agriculture Are Solved by Intel- 
 
ligence and Co-operation 
 
21 
 
Intelligent Co-operation Makes Tenants into 
 
Successful Landowners 
 
26 
 
How the Danish Farmer Plans His Farm Program __"___________________________________________________________ 31 
 
Paper Making and Forest Conservation in 
 
Scandinavia and Georgia______________________________ 35 
 
Consumer Co-operatives 
 
40 
 
Social Problems and Education 
 
47 
 
Problems of Labor and CapitaL 
 
51 
 
III. A GEORGIAN AMONG THE DANES, DAVID 57 
 
How the Danish Farmer Lives 
 
57 
 
The Danish Farmer Plans________________________________ 64 
 
The Small Farm Owner Is SuccessfuL__________ 71 
 
We Go to the Apple Show 
 
76 
 
The Danes Are Adaptable 
 
80 
 
The Danes Are Thrifty 
 
85 
 
Grundtvig, the Savior of Denmark 
 
90 
 
Agricultural Education Among the Danes 97 
 
Denmark Is Fascinating 
 
101 
 
Denmark, a Land of Small Farms 
 
104 
 
Great Are the Danish Co-operatives 
 
107 
 
The Nature of the Danish Folk High SchoollL113 
 
5 
 
 :~ . 
 
 I. 
INTRODUCTION 
O. C. ADERHOLD, Professor of Rural and Agricultural Educa- 
tion, College of Education, University of Georgia 
The purpose of this publication is to provide teachers and others with the reactions of two Georgia citizens who have made observations of the democratic way of living in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They have written simple and interesting stories of the lives of these peoples and have shown, definitely and concretely, how the use of intelligence and co-operative action can build nations of prosperous and happy people. The stories written by tnese two men are reproduced for your enjoyment and benefit. 
The first series of articles was written by Mr. Ralph McGill, Sports Editor of the Atlanta Constitution. Mr. McGill is one of the outstanding newspaper men of the country. He was sent to the Scandinavian countries by the Rosenwald Fund. Mr. McGill understands the problems of the South and is concerned that opportunities are provided to solve these problems. 
The second series of articles was written by Thomas 
c. David of Danielsville, Georgia, to his sponsor, the 
Rotary Educational Foundation of Atlanta. Mr. David was graduated from the University of Georgia in 1933 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Education with a major field of study in agriculture. Since 1933 Mr. David has spent much of his time in educational work. He is genuinely concerned with the problems of rural life in Georgia. His ability, interests, background and education qualify him to write intelligently about the peoples and institutions of the Scandinavian countries. 
7 
 
 The great masses of our people have come to believe that the spirit of Democracy is America's finest and richest heritage. Dpring the last few years mu~h has been said and written relativ~ to the importance of the public schools placing emphasis upon the development and perpetuation of democratic ideals. Teachers have devoted themselves to getting a better understanding of the meaning of Democracy and the techniques for promoting it among those who are influenced by the teacher and the school. 
Few peoples and countries of the world believe in the ideals of Democracy today. Denmark, Norway and Sweden have given to the world outstanding examples of Democracy in action. These north European countries, situated among a host of selfish, ignorant and dictator controlled peoples, stand out like beacon lights and present today some 'of the best examples of human relations based upon and guided by the fundamental principles of Democracy. 
Before reading these articles which picture the successful working together of people in these countries, it might be well to emphasize the important elements that make for Democracy. 
If the schools of Georgia are concerned with the promotion and development of the spirit of Democracy, then they must become concerned with leading students into real and genuine problems, encouraging the formulation of hypotheses, using experience and factual information in testing inferences, and drawing conclusions and making generalizations based upon evaluated facts. This means that schools need to shift the emphasis from the accumulation 0] subject matter to the discovery and systematic thinking through of real problems. Teaching methods then must emphasize techniques of ~iscov ering problems, techniques of leading. students into problems, methods of stimulating students to draw inferences and formulate hypotheses, techniques and meth- 
8 
 
 ods of using personal experiences and tested information in the solution of the problems, and techniques of assisting students in drawing conclusions and making appropriate generalizations. 
A second major characteristic of the spirit of Democ- 
racy is the emphasis placed upon a genuine concern about the welfare of others who are affected by the solution of the problem at hand. It is recognized that systematic or reflective thinking may take place which would result in conclusions that would be detrimental to both individuals and to society as a whole. This means then, that if the school is to promote Democracy it must not only place great emphasis upon the development of systematic thinking but also a sympathetic concern for those who are affected by the solution of the problem. This systematic concern for others is the basis upon which co-operative programs are built. 
The articles of Mr. McGill and Mr. David show how the educational programs in Denmark, Norway and Sweden have developed peoples with the ability to solve co-operatively their individual and social problems in a manner that has made for great progress in the last one hundred y~ars. The South, and particularly Georgia, would soon become the "garden spot" of the world, should our educational forces throw their influences to the development of the spirit of Democracy. 
A careful reading of the articles in this publication will probably stimulate many questions among teachers, students and laymen relative to the public educational program in Georgia, such as: 
Should the curriculum in Georgia schools be reorganized to place emphasis upon individual, commt;mity, state, national and world problems? 
Should the problems of soil erosion, wasteful use of forest resources, home beautification, home conveniences, improved crops and livestock, local co-operatives, etc., become basic in the curriculum in Georgia schools? 
9 
 
 Is there a need for a new type of school to deal with. the problems of out-of-school youth, and adults? 
Can the teacher training program in Georgia develop teachers to deal with important economic and social problems facing the people in the rural areas of the state? 
Is there a need for social and economic legislation in Georgia that would encourage more co-operative activities? 
10 
 
 II. 
SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES 
RALPH MCGILL 
EDUCATION AND LEGISLATION DEAL WITH THE PROBLEMS OF THE PEOPLE 
It was Ben Hill who said that no matter how expensive education might be, it still was worth more than had been paid for it. 
After more than two months in SCI;mdinavia, it i~ perfectly obvious that practical education has made possible the progress in social legislation, in co-operation and in agricultural aids which distinguish the scene in north Europe. 
Before coming to these countries I had read many books in an effort at preparation. Most of them were factually correct. But too many of them sought to pre~ent the system to America as one immediately to be adopted. Their enthusiasm had led them to some exaggerations, notably in the field of co-operation. 
It is perfectly true that Scandinavia, and notably Sweden and Denmark, have made superior progres~ in social legislation. They have, as one American who had visited here and studied their plans told me before leaving America, "removed the three thorns from the heart of the average man." They had provided for education of all children regardless of the financial statu~ of the parents; they had provided hospitalization for all. Even if one wishes a private room at a hospital with the best doctors, the charge is not more than $15 and $18 per week. That charge includes everything. And the best doctors and the best hospitalization may 
11 
 
 be had for as little as 50 cents per day. This includes nurses, food and all care. But that must do for a separate article. They had, in addition to these, provided for care in old age. 
The Three Thorns in a Man's Heart 
"What are the three thorns in a man's heart?" this American business man had asked. "They are the fear that his children will not be educated; that if illness comes he will not be able to give his wife, his children or himself the .best of care; that when he and his family become old they will be thrown on the mercy of the public. The Scandinavian countries have removed those thorns." 
He had summed up the situation well. That is the social legislation of which one hears. America could learn some of the methods. There are the systems of rural credits and of co-operation and land tenure which could be studied with profit. 
But the sincere idealists who have sought to present the entire system as one now fitted for America were dreaming. They had seen these things, and they are inspirational in many respects, but had not looked behind them. 
Education is behind it. Not merely the education of the ordinary schools, but the adult education which has meant so much to the Scandinavian peoples. I can imagine one of our politicians, speaking with great irony and asking what good the knowledge of a book or of his country's history will do a farmer who is hoeing cotton or ploughing corn. Yet, facts are facts. An educated man with at least some idea of how to rationalize himself with the world about him is better prepared for making his lot a better one and for making his community an improved one. 
12 
 
 Every Adult Can Read and Write 
I visited the head of the schools in Norway. 
"I think it is true," he said, "that in Norway every adult can read and write his country's language." 
I like to go about these countries because all of them a.re somewhat approximately the size of Georgia as regards population. Sweden, of course, is larger. But not so much that comparison of methods is not possible. 
The population of Norway, for instance, is not much more than 2,820,000. It is about what Georgia's is. 
They are a race of mountain people with all their independence and individualism. Through all the history of Norway runs a thread of democracy. It is, as few people stop to think, a new country in that it has been a separate and individual nation only since 1905 when the tie with Sweden was severed. But through all the years of the union Norway had its own parliament. They had parliaments in Norway as early as the ninth century and no,where today is there a loud voice which would seek to change this democratic ideal. 
Again, it is obvious that it has been education which has nourished and maintained this ideal and has made of these people a literate and articulate people. 
Norway's System of Public Schools 
I visited the public schools of Norway. It includes the public school, the primary school as we know it. Then comes the middle school, comparing with our high schoo-Is; then the gymnasium, comparing with our junior colleg~s, and then the university. In addition there are, in this country with a population no larger than Georgia's and-an agricultural area no greater: 
. Thirty-five agricultural schools. 
Seven schools for small landholders. 
18 
 
 Seven horticultural schools. 
Five schools of dairying. 
Five schools of forestry. 
Sixty-two schools for housewifery. 
Many of them are small and operate during the winter when the farmers are free. Their total attendance is no greater than that of the Georgia agricultural schools, or such at least, is my estimate, the exact Georgia figures not being at hand. But it is important to note that they are located, these 124 schools which are in addition to the regular school system, in strategic points where the people can reach them without too much expense. They are conducted much more simply and are schools, and not "rah, rah, rah" machines with football teams and the like. 
Produce Farmers, Not County Agents 
They strive, too, to produce farmers and not a supply of county agents who will take state jobs and remain carefully away from the farm. 
I found, in the public school, or primary school, they were teaching the usual studies and in addition one foreign language-English. Just last year a law was passed that no primary teacher would be graduated from the teacher's school without a teaching knowledge of English. 
It is a nation of readers-as are all Scandinavian people. There are in Norway, as aforesaid, less than 3,000,000 people. It is estimated there are 700,000 families. The total circulation of all the newspapers of .this nation is 1,200,000, or about two newspapers per family. There are, for these people who number no more than those of Georgia, 1,300 public libraries, 4,700 school libraries. They are supported by appropriations from the state. 
It is estimated that Norwegian people read about three and a half books per capita per year. There are bookstores everywhere and the publishers issue cheap editions 
14 
 
 of new works. It is possible to buy Miss Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind for about $2.25 in a paper binding. It is a large book. The average length novels of the best sellers are to be had for lessand there are issued popular editions of books published in the past year at about $1.00. Rental libraries thrive. 
Schools Make Communities More Attractive 
That is a part of the picture. Getting back to the schools, there are in addition to the ordinary school system and the agricultural schools, 29 Folk High Schools, copied from Denmark; 30 young people's schools and 36 provincial schools which work on the folk school plan. 
All these schools afm at adult education. They make the rural sections and communities more attractive. They bring the world there and so few of them leave the farm to go seeking the world. 
The students must be at least 17 years of age. There are few books beyond the song book and a few books on literature. They are passed out during the lectures. There are lectures and discussions. As in Denmark, they go into history and literature and learn of its men of prominence. They learn arithmetic. They have courses of history-economics-all this has brought a cultural dovelopment to Norway as it has to other Scandinavian . countrieswhere the folk schools were adopted from Denmark andits idea. 
Experiments? Well, they have been going on in Denmark for more than 100 years and they are 70 years old in Norway. ~ They are attended primarily by farm people. The agricultural schools give credit for work in the folk schools.. There is no doubt but they have had a tremendous influence in rural sections. 
Everywhere in Norway one finds the halls of adult education. There are 100 study circles under the direction of the board of education. 
15 
 
 There are now "winter schools" for rural communities just opening this year to be carried on as folk schools. 
I saw one of the study circles. It reminded me very much of the two or three clubs in Atlanta, Georgia. There was a topic assigned and a paper read and a discussion. The members here were farmers and the paper was read on the Oslo conference-a conference of the Scandinavian nations. 
These Men Won't Listen to Demagogues 
These men would not listen to a political demagogue. At least, they would not listen with much patience. There are such study circles in all sections of the country. They are not large groups; usually there are in these study circles about 12 or 14 men. The women have about the same number. 
There are groups such as Dr. Cullen B. Gosnell has attempted from Emory University-forums in which all the people .in rural communities participate. 
Back of all progress there must be an enlightened people. Before the tenant farmer can be rescued from his state, before the "three thorns" may be pulled from the heart and mind of the average citizen, there must be an education to prepare the way. I think democracy thrives best with education. And that Lincoln had some of this in mind when he spoke of a government of the people, for the people and by the people. 
MAKING HAPPY LANDOWNERS BY CO-OPERATION AND LEGISLATION 
Now and then figures can be dramatic. As, for instance, some official reports from the United States, from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. 
While the South is engaged in a struggle to restore to 
many of her landlesS peoples ownership of farm land as 
16 
 
 an incentive toward better economics and better citizenship, these reports become news. 
Denmark has increased, through government aid, the number of farms by more than 20,000, the crop area by more than 1,000,000 and the timber area by more than 430,000 acre~. 
Sweden, where industrialism arrived fairly recently, has created, since 1905, more than 45,000 new agricultural holdings. They are all free holders, a8 in Denmark. 
In Norway, the past two years saw 12,000 new people on new farms. In the last generation about 50,000 new holdings were created. The plans call for 20,000 new ones in the next ten years. 
Farms in Georgia Decrease 18 Per Cent 
The Georgia experiment station report of 1935, Georgia Land Use Problems, stated that in the last decade the number:-of farms in the state decreased about 18 per cent. In the rich Piedmont cotton belt a full two-fifths of the crop area was lost between 1919 and 1932. 
It showed that two-thirds of all farm operators were tenants and that of all operators one-third were sharecroppers. It showed that two-thirds of all counties lost population between 1920 and 1930. 
The government report showed a decrease of 17.7 per cent in farms in the state between 1920 and 1930, and from 1930 to 1935 a decrease of minus 2 per cent. More than 55;000 farms disappeared in the first decade mentioned and from 1930 to 1935 there were more than 5,000 to go out of cultivation. 
Tennessee is a state which produces, as does Georgia, cotton and tobacco. 
 Tennessee's Losses an:d Gains Shown 
Tennessee showed losses in 1910-20, 1920-30 but gained back some farms in 1930-35: The number of tenants increased Substantially each decade. 
17 
 
 Kentucky, a tobacco and grain state, regained some of her farms in the 1930-35 period but showed a substantial increase in tenant operators. 
Mississippi, with a decrease in the number of operated farms during 1920-30 of 25 per cent, improved in the latter period of 1930-35 but still had a minus percentage for that period. 
The South presents the worst picture, generally, although the slowing up of tenancy has been somewhat encouraging. It is admitted, of course, that the mere renting of land is not in itself an agricultural evil. But the lease system and the system of tenancy which it created, with a shifting nonprofitable sector of rural population, was an abuse and an evil which left in its wake, and which is still leaving in its wake, eroded land, wornout land and wasted, ruined forests. 
Legislation Aids Farming People 
The figures of the Scandinavian peoples and countries are interesting because, while land legislation designed to restore land to landowners who farm it and to correct the abuse of land and the loss of crop area is new in America, it has been in operation here for 25 or 30 years and the results are to be seen, not as probabilities, but as actualities. 
Progress has been accomplished. Yet in no one of these countries is there, of course, satisfaction, calm Utopian days, and surcease from all pain and problems. The number of books and magazine articles written presenting Scandinavia as a sort .of perfect dream world, already is beginning to exasperate state officials even though it be excellent for tourist purposes. 
Scandinavian countries are trying new methods. Their "new deal" has been going on for many, many years. It has been a constant trying of methods with a discarding of many of them. The old problem of income for the 
18 
 
 farmer, of high wages for the industrial worker and low ,rents fQr one and all, the high cost of food and all the other problems are to be found here. 
But despite all this, these countries have made progress in sociallegislation, in farm rehabilitation and in developing a general culture that is high. 
Agricultural Help Forging Ahead 
The methods in the agricultural rehabilitation have been fiomewhat similar. In Norway and in Sweden there never were the number of tenants that Denmark knew. Yet the problem of building up agriculture has gone ahead, not backward. Land has been added to the crop a'rea. Forests have been maintain'ed despite annual cuttings. 
Denmark began aiding farmers to own land as early as 1899 when loans were available-. Sweden began in 1905. Norway started at about the same time. 
The government has not attempted to do it all. Always there have been administrative agencies, national, county and local. ' 
The successful applicant, who must meet a rigid list of requirements, is allowed two loans. He is permitted one for the land and one for the buildings, improvements and equipment. He may borrow up to nine-tenths of the appraised value of the land. Most of the farms are small ones. The maximum loan for these is $2,278. It is secured by a first mortgage on the entire holding. Nothing is paid for five years except interest. Thereafter interest and payments on the principal are made at the low rate of 2l4. per cent semi-annually. 
, Larger Loans onBig Farms 
For larger farms the loan is of course larger, reaching $8,040. The rate of repayment, which begins after five years, is extended over thirty years. 
19 
 
 On state-owned land leases are provided which are paid at the rate of two per cent semi-annually on the assessed value of the land. He may, at the end of a period of years, buy the land or extend the lease. 
This has been going on for 35 years. It is not an experiment. Similar legislation has been provided in the other countries. Denmark has added thousands of farms. More than $75,000,000 has been spent. It is coming back. 
In Sweden 75 per cent of the new holdings have been successful. In Denmark the rate is higher. 
Imagine what would happen in any southern state if several thousand new farms were added each 10 years and if 75 per cent of them proved going concerns. 
There are limitations on the government ownerships. The occupant must insure his buildings, must operate and not sub-let; may not sell part of it or buy other land without consent of the Department of Agriculture. He may not mortgage his property through a private agency until he has paid part of his debt to the state and then only to the amount that he has made such repayment. 
Holdings Free from Debt Seizure 
It is arranged that his holding may not be seized for debt and this automatically means he cannot obtain credit on his land for some private debt. 
The machinery for such work is just beginning in America. In these countries it has been going on for almost 40 years. They had their share of failures. They made their share of mistakes. 
The resettlement and rehabilitation groups in America, the first experiments, proved partially successful. Much should have been learned to avoid the mistakes of those departments in the administration of the present fund. 
A state can remake its agricultural "plant." These nations have no miracle workers, no special plans. They 
20 
 
 have had many, many failures. But they have accomplished much. 
And they, small and lacking in military power and being, by the very nature of their position on the map and their products, competitors, have a difficult struggle to keep all this hard-won social and economic progress. 
It can't be accomplished in America in a year or two, or three or five. We must expect the hostile press to report the failures of the few and ignore the success of the majority: 
Meanwhile, adult education and some method for the new farmers to market ahd buy must be developed. That, too, is vital. 
PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURE ARE SOLVED BY INTELLIGENCE AND CO-OPERATION 
In Scandinavia the ag,ricultural experts ask what is going to happen to the new farmers being created in America by the farm tenancy legislation when they bring their first crops to market. 
"They will not be financially strong as they begin with their new farms," the experts say. "What provision is there for a fair chance to market their products at a profit? Your first consideration must be, not the consumer and his prices, but the producer and his prices. Low prices are fine for city consumers but if the farmer is, as you Bay in America, broke, then everyone becomes broke." 
This particular conversation was in Norway. 
"Listen," I said, "I know you are going to talk about community co-operation for the farmers. All I know is that in America most of the co-operative farming, selling and buying is done in the Middle West where Scandinavians settled and that little of it is done in the South. In addition, I'd rather you state the case. I prefer to be a reporter of it, not a propagandist." 
21 
 
 "House Raisings" and Co-operatives 
"I have read American history," he said, "and the old 'house raisings' where the neighbors got together and helped build a house were merely community co-operatives. Why can't they do the same in their farming'? 
"You've heard a lot about co-operatives for the farmer in Denmark and you'll hear some more in Sweden. Our story is more applicable to American than any other country. In the first place we are more like Americans in our individualism and our naturally independent thinking. We are more the individualist than the Dane. 
"And in Norway agriculture was harder hit by the depression than in Denmark. The prices dropped below those of any other commodity. We had our mortgage sales on farms as you did in America. 
"That's why I say we are the best study for America. Those Danes have been in line for years. They learned the value of collective buying and selling before anyone else. We were too independent. We wanted to be the individualist. And so we saw the end come, so to speak, with the world depression. 
"So the Norwegian farmer said, 'Well, I wanted to be free and I was ruined. Now, I want to be free and the way to do it is to have something to weather a storm. I borrowed cheap money and now I'm paying back expensive money. Now my farm is also depreciated in value. The mortgage is unpaid. And about all I've got left is my individualism and my freedom to starve to death in the most painless way possible.' That's what he said." 
"Don't make a speech," I said, having known the man for two days and therefore being able to suggest. "Tell me what happened." 
How Government Assisted Farmer 
"The first thing that happened was that the government saw the need for immediate help. It created a special 
22 
 
 bank and this relieved the ordinary banks from dealing with questionable debts. The state financed all those who needed help. The country was divided into districts and each one had a governor. The parliament voted the bank 15,000,000 kroner, not quite $4,000,000, and allowed it to borrow up to about $22,000,000 with the state as security. But parliament was smart. No losses were to be carried by the bank. The creditors of the farmers were about to lose all. They agreed to accept the arbitration of the government in each case where the farmer couldn't make it. 
"Suppose the debt was $5,000. The forced sale would bring about $2,500. This means then-to avoid losing more than that should he struggle along with a farmer who can't even pay interest-he sells or writes off half the debt and gets out with half his money in cash. 
"The state then made a loan to the farmer of 30 per cent of his new debt of $2,500. It enabled him to m~ke repairs, get machinery, buy seed and take over a debt which he could hope to pay. The creditor was saved a long struggle which, in the end, would bring him nothing to speak of. The government's fair offer saved him time and trouble and expense. The loan is free from interest for three years so he had time to make a start. He pays 3 per cent interest after three years but nothing on the principal until after five years. Other farmers were able, with a loan, to pay back all their debts. At any rate, the private banks were not strained and the farmers were aaved." 
Farmers Saved for Time Being 
"That is, they were saved for the time being. But if they could not solve their old problem of marketing they would be headed back fOr the same old trouble. That's what worries me about your new farmers in America. 
"Well, our farmers organized their district co-operatives. Many of them have no national organization. Some 
23 
 
 have. The beginnings were small with the entry fee set at about $15 to $25. We haven't grown as has Denmark. Some of our co-operatives are large and ~trong. Others are content to market their own district and let it go at that. In the beginning it was stressed, as now, that it must be a purely voluntary co-operation." 
Development of Co-operatives 
"In the beginning of co-operation in bacon, for instance, there were imports to satisfy the home consumption. Today we export. Members of the co-operative "deliver their pigs to the co-operative as they do their cattle and sheep. Only as much is placed on the market as it will stand. The co-operatives are able to borrow money for a start but most of them prefer to start slowly and gradually work toward their own slaughterhouses and storage. The meat that is held back is disposed of later, or it is salted and cured and sold in that fashion on that market. Some is exported. Here we hold down production by fees on foodstuff, allowing only so much at a cheap price. But I think we will change that. 
"In the beginning the farmers of a community got together.. graded their potatoes, their pigs and other products and sold them at the best price, getting a bette,r one because they had a sizable amount to sell. They were not, as one poor devil is, compelled to take what he can get." 
That is a part of the story. Probably 70 per cent of the milk-and milk prices have come down each year-is handled by ~o-operatives. They bought together as they sold. The farmers had no fight with any other group, the "middleman" forces not being so strong. The advantage of collective strength and bargaining power in agriculture is obvious. 
Co-operatives and Politics 
Each member of a co-operative is allowed one vote. He may own a large farm or a small one, four cows or 30, 
24 
 
 two pigs or 60. He has one vote. They have learned, have the Scandinavian farmers, to act for themselves. They had a long struggle. It is not something which can be created overnight. It is independent and the co-operative unions are not members of any organization other than their own unions. In Norway the farmers, or Ag,rarian party, vote with the Social-Democrats and keep that party in office despite the fact it, or itself, has no majority. 
In Sweden, the farmers align with the Social-Democrats. 'But in Denmark, curiously enough, the small farmers support the Social-Democrats, but the middle farmers and the large farmers support the conservatives. 
The Socialists are peculiar. They believe in private property and high wages and everything a good Socialist is not supposed to believe in. 
The co-operatives, for the most part, join with the Social-Democrats. In Sweden the consumer co-operatives,' which frequently war with the producers, are almost entirely labor, or Social-Democratic in politics. 
No Need in America for European System 
The need in America is not for the European system of co-operation. The need is, however, for some community effort at selling and buying. The small farmer with his small lot of potatoes, his bale or so of cotton, his small lot of bacon, his one beef cow, his vegetables-cannot have the same opportunity as would be possible through organized community selling and buying. It provides that necessary uniformity of supply. 
There again, must be years of experimenting. It is something which must work itself out. And while the grass is growing, as they say in Norway, a few cows may die. But progress will be present. 
Whether one agrees or not-it is something about which to think. And out of it may come something beneficial. 
25 
 
 INTELLIGENT CO-OPERATION MAKES TENANTS INTO SUCCESSFUL LANDOWNERS 
In all the Scandinavian countries there is interest in the American experiment with farm tenancy and the new laws designed to remove the more able tenant from economic serfdom and make of him an independent American who tills his own soil. 
Scandinavia, still working out new legislation, casting aside old and trying the new which seems more likely to succeed, provided for ownership of small farms in legislation enacted more than three decades ago. 
Producer Co-operation 
But, at the same time there developed in the Scandinavian scene another factor which, their economists say, made it possible for the farmer, and more especially the small farmer, to succeed. 
That was producer co-operation. 
Now, there are co-operative societies of all sorts in Scandinavia. They are an important part of the social scene. They are growing in strength and influence. The consumer co-operatives have become "big business" and are not opposed by other large businesses in general. Only in the retail field, where an organization of retail tradesmen oppose the consumer co-operatives, is there real opposition. 
It must not be thought that the co-operatives rule the business world, as might be thought from books such as Mr. Marquis Childs' on the Swedish co-operative!'!. 
Powerful Factors 
The consumer co-operatives do about 20 to 25 per cent 
of the food business in Stockholm and about 12 to i4 
per cent of the entire retail business in all Sweden. They are a powerful factor which regulates prices and keeps them down. But they do not control private business except in their influence on prices. 
26 
 
 The producers' co-operatives have not developed in Sweden as have the consumers' societies. It is only in the past few years that the farmers have begun to develop their own co-operative societies. 
In Denmark the story is reversed. There, because agriculture is the dominant industry, the producers' societies are dominant and the consumers' co-operatives are just beginning to develop and to reach into the cities from the small rural communities where they have been developing. 
Marketing System Urged 
In Stockholm, Sweden, Gunnar Myrdal, member of parliament and economist of international' fame, expressed the opinion that the American farm tenancy measures would not succeed as desired unle3s provision was made for the new farmers to market their crops to the best advantage. 
Other economists to whom I have talked have expressed the opinion the southern states should assist their farmers in the forming of co-operatives, since they inevitably lead to a more prosperous agricultural population, to better farm products and to generally improved agricultural conditions. 
The consumers' societies, which in Sweden filled a vacancy and supplied a service which did not exist, grew up because of a need for them. They did not oust, especially in the retail foods, any group of food shops. The chain food store really is just making an appearance in Sweden. It did not exist before, and it is, by adopting . the co-operative method of marketing and display, making a sure advance. 
Little Chance for Farmers 
It has been found that the southern farmers, especially the smaller ones, have little chance in the present more or less haphazard methods of marketing. 
27 
 
 "The first state to assist its farmers to form co-operative market groups will outstrip the rival states/' said the head of the co-operative group in Denmark. 
"What happens? The small farmer produces some butter, a little bacon, some grain. He cannot take it to market and obtain a good price. We found our small farmers, dependent on bacon and butter, trying to save up enough butter for sale. It reached the market in poor condition. They got little for it. 
"The co-operatives gave him his chance. His little butter or his small amount of milk, or his two or three pigs went in with the butter and milk and the pigs from other small farms. They were sold at the best market, and he received his share, based on what he had contributed." 
Essence of Democracy 
"That is the essence of democracy. What is democracy but the action of the whole to obtain the best results for the individual members? 
"What is a co-operative? What would one be in America? How would you work one in your own state? A group of your farmers, in a certain community would form a society. They would agree to pool their products. 
"They would agree to grade them and not toss the whole lot, small potatoes, large potatoes, poor butter, good butter, inferior cotton, superior cotton, on the market in one mass. They would market their products intelligently. 
"They would buy fertilizer in large lots at a better price than they could obtain by buying each a few sacks or each a ton. They could buy their seeds in the same manner. 
"The result would be a raising in standards, in accom plishments and in an increased prosperity." 
28 
 
 Enough Problems Now 
"The small farmer, who has just bought his farm, has enough problems to face without having to carry his own small products to market and fighting the battIe of fluctuating prices and the competition of large farmers with great amounts of produce who may flood the market and make his own small lot of little or no value. 
"Make him a farm owner, and then make for him an opportunity to be a successful one through co-operative marketing of his products and co-operative purchase of his supplies." 
That is the method employed by the Scandinavian farmers, particularly the Danish farmers, and now with growing enthusiasm by the farmers of other Scandinavian countries. They are not united with the producers' societies. In many respects they clash. The two are not one. They have grown in the northern countries because there was a need for them. 
Few American Co-operatives 
In America there are a few co-operatives. They have been growing slowly, meeting with some setbacks. Cooperatives in Scandinavia experienced dozens of beginnings before they achieved stability. 
The co-operative wholesale agencies of the great vegetable sections and the well-organized producers of other states cause to be shipped into Georgia each year thousands of dollars worth of products which Georgia could supply if there were organized production. 
It is something, at least, about which to think. Scandinavia found the small farmer lost in these modern days of marketing and price fluctuations without co-operative effort by the various communities. 
A. E. Drejer, secretary of the Danish central co-operative committee, says: 
29 
 
 "Of the 3,600,000 people in Denmark only 400,000 are co-operatives. Yet the co-operative dairies handle 90 per cent of all milk and the co-operative societies handle 50 per cent of the butter, more than 80 per cent of the bacon and 25 per cent of the eggs. About 25 per cent of the import feed stuffs was bought through co-operatives. The co-operative movement has become an institution." 
Danes Through the Mill 
The Danish farmer went through, in 1870, about what the farmers of the South are going through today. That is, the latter are realizing that they must add to their farms poultry and cattle and gardens. 
The small farmers believe that without the co-operatives they would be lost. 
"I know," they say, "that my products are given the same care and treatment as those from a large farm. Further, the price is fixed, so I get as much for my products as does the larger farmer. I do not have to sell at a smaller price because I have less." 
The small farmers are organized in their own communities. Most of these societies belong to the national union. Their own credit banks finance them. 
It cannot be denied they are part of the great agricultural strength of the nation. By making the small farmer a land owner and by making it possible for him to market his products, Denmark has maintained an independent, hard-working group of solid citizens. 
Ownership Not Enough 
Whatever the answer may be, it must be admitted that mere provision of opportunity to own land is not enough. 
The Danish farmers are book farmers. One of them said in a conversation about America: "The farmers of America will learn that books and organization and knowledge of markets are necessary." 
30 
 
 The Danish farmer reads newspapers and books. The middleman does not get the bulk of the farmers' money. The farmers get it. 
The large cities of the South are numerous enough to remake agriculture. If the Georgia farmers were so organized they could guarantee certain produce to the grocery stores in Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta and the other cities of the state; if Tennessee could supply Nashville, Chattanooga, Memphis and Knoxville; if Kentucky could fill the grocery bins of Louisville and Lexington and Frankfort and her other cities-agriculture would profit to an extent impossible to estimate. 
The markets are there in most of the southern statesready cash markets. There is no organization of farmers to fill them. 
Until the consumers of the cities and the producers of the cities work together, there will be no real solution of local markets for home-raised products. 
It is a problem that cannot be blinked at. 
Co-operative societies in various sections of the state and agreements with city merchants might be the answer. If it isn't, then something else must be developed to take its place. 
HOW THE DANISH FARMER PLANS HIS FARM PROGRAM 
We had gone to Slangerup, the old capital city. 
"We will stop at five small farms and go in and talk," said the teacher, who was driving me in a rented car. "I will explain it." 
And that is how the copy of the Atlanta Constitution of January 23 found its way into five Danish farm homes. It was the copy telling of the Constitution's Plant-to-Prosper competition, designed to supply a great impetus to the agricultural welfare of Georgia. 
31 
 
 The translation was carefully done. The Danish farmer, whose position is comparative with that of the Georgia and other cotton and tobacco state farmers, in that the Dane also has two cash crops, bacon and butter, seemed to express this attitude and opinion: 
They Want to Know About U. S. Farmer 
"We would like to enter such a competition..... It is unusual, is it not, to find a newspaper which is so willing to pay cash to aid the people who read it? .... Tell us about the American farmer, does he have as many worriel'l as we? .... Why do they not live from their own products? " 
The Danish farmer, dependent on a foreign market, cannot believe any other farmer has his worries. Nor can he understand a farmer who does not first feed himself and his family. That has been the first concern of the Danish farmer-he feeds himself. He eats better than anyone else in Denmark. 
Danish Farmers Follow Old Plan 
They looked with interest at the copy of the Constitution. I felt a great pride in the paper, in being a part of it. It becomes more than a job when that job is concerned with a paper which is dedicated to the service beyond that ordinarily supplied by a newspaper. And I thought, sitting before the fires in the homes of Danish farmers, watching them as they had the Constitution's article read to them, of how many farmers in Georgia must be reading it and feeling, in the opportunity offered, a chance to become independent and to help make the state the great prosperous commonwealth it has a right to be. 
On each farm I asked the old question: 
"Tell me how you plant to live at home?" 
The Danish farmer follows the old, old plan. He rotates his crops. He plants with an eye to producing, as far as possible, food for his own stock. He plants to supply his 
32 
 
 own table with bread and meat and with vegetables and with butter. He grows pigs to sell and he never fails to grow enough pigs to have his own meat. His cows supply milk and butter. He never slavishly follows his two real crops, pigs and butter. He stresses them. They are his cash crops. He lives on his others. He keeps his soil intact and productive. He knows no erosion or soil depletion. No soil here "wears out." 
It should be kept in mind that more than 90 per cent of the Danish farms are owned by the men who till the soil. Every government of modern years has devoted itself to legislation making this possible. The number of farms has been increased by about 20,000 in 30 years. 
Many of Them Ask Naive Questions 
Many of them ask naive questions. One of those to whom we talked owned, or was paying for, 18 acres of land. He had five cows, three horses, chickens, pigs and good machinery. His cottage of stone had three rooms. It was painfully clean. It was whitewashed outside, as were all the farm buildings. 
"Is it true that this newspaper publisher will pay men 14,000 kroner just to persuade them to grow food for their own table?" they asked. (There are about four "kroner" in the dollar.) 
I assured them that it was. They wagged their heads, some of them, in an attitude of incredibility. They regard America as a land of wealth and of great promise. Many of them have fantastic ideas about it and I am afraid that in the years to come there will be a new folk study abol,lt Slangerup to the effect that in America farmers are paid to grow things for their families to eat. 
New Declaration of Independence 
We speak of the independence of the farmer. And yet, it is true that this independence has become more of a tradition and less of a fact as the economic pressure took 
33 
 
 away land and profit and opportunity. It may be that this plan of the Atlanta Constitution will be a new declaration of independence for the farmers of Georgia. 
The Danish farmer has his problems. His lot is not the idyllic one which many have pictured it. He has severe problems, surrounded as he is with export and import limitations thrown up by other governments and, of . necessity, by his own. Yet he remains independent. He feeds himself. He may not, in bad years, have too much money. But you may travel the length and breadth of the land and you will not find the dejected, hopeless, discouraged group which makes up a large quota of the American farming population. 
 
Doing Something for Farmers 
 
For years and years people have been talking about helping the farmers. Now, the Constitution has decided to do something for the farmer. It has taken, according to the people here to whom I have talked, the most logical step-the stimulating of pride and the offering of a tangible reward. The offer supplies an immediate objective. 
 
Meanwhile, the Danish farmer, owning his own land, proud of it, interested in everyday affairs, subscribing to newspapers, reading farm journals, entering the annual competitions for bee, pig and dairy products, improving his products, wishes he could enter such a competition as the Constitution is sponsoring. 
 
The Danish farmer has learned domestic agriculture 
 
and commercial agriculture are two different things. 
 
Farming on a commercial basis means crops for the fam- 
 
ily and the stock, livestock for milk and meat and a sur- 
 
plus for home consumption, agencies for selling his pro- 
 
ducts, and a state which maintains agencies actively 
 
aiding agriculture. 
 
. 
 
It is a type of farming possible only to farm owners, and I think, to a literate farm population. 
 
34 
 
 It is impossible to see just how tremendous may be the influence of this Constitution plan for the farmers of Georgia. 
PAPER MAKING AND FOREST CONSERVATION IN SCANDINAVIA AND GEORGIA 
It was after dinner at the home of one of the editors of a newspaper in Sweden that we sat looking at a birchwood fire and talking. 
"Tell me about this new pulp mill business that you people in the South are starting," he said. "We here in Sweden are afraid of it." 
He got up and brought around a copy of the magazine, Fortune, which carried a story of the new industry made possible by the inventive mind of a Georgian, Dr. Charles Herty. The article included maps with little colored dots indicating the various cities where manufacturing plants were in construction or were to be built. 
"The Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway and Finland are beginning to worry," he said. "Is it true that the South can produce wood pulp for newsprint?" 
I tried to tell him of the southern pine section-of Georgia with its millions of acres of slash pine. But also I thought of the flaming forests each fall, of millions of dollars in grown and young pine trees casting a red light across the skies at night. I tried to tell him of driving into South Georgia and of swirling smoke obscuring the roads by day. 
The European can never understand many things about the American people because they cannot conceive of the pioneer habit of mind. They do not understand the vastness of America and how this vastness brought about an attitude of mind which seemed to say, "Let the land wash away, cut down the trees, burn the forests, there is plenty' more left." 
35 . 
 
 Now that millions of acres are washed away and forest."l are gone, it is necessary to plan. Yet the old pioneer habit of thinking of the land and the forests as inexhaustible remains. 
Scandinavian Forests Turned into Money 
Georgia's forests and the pine sections of the South could be turned into money as they have been in Sweden and Norway and in Finland. 
The Norwegian paper industry is not of very late date. I like to write of Norway because the population is about the same as Georgia's. Many countries eclipse Norway as paper manufacturers. Norway exports most of her paper products. It is not too idle to think of the South in the future as exporting paper to all the newspapers of America and exporting paper to box companies and to packing companies. 
Norway has 41 paper mills. In addition, there are pulp mms which produce many tons of pulp for export with America the chief purchaser. 
What is it worth? Last year Norway received about 200,000,000 kroner for her export trade alone. The Norwegian kroner is worth exactly 25 cents in American money. Which means that Norway received $50,000,000 for her paper and pulp. 
Meanwhile Sweden is exporting more pulp and paper than Norway and Finland's export paper and pulp trade is growing with amazing rapidity. In Sweden the development of the paper pulp and paper industry is regarded as one of the chief features of the economic development of the nation. In 1935, the latest Swedish figures available. Sweden exported paper pulp alone valued at 270,000,000 kroner. The Swedish kroner if{ worth a bit more than an American quarter. Sweden received more than $65,000,000 for her export pulp. 
36 
 
 Paper Sales Bring $60,000,000 to Sweden 
In addition to the pulp exports, the sale of other forms of paper brought in another $60,000,000 to Sweden alone. The report of the Swedish government says, "It was not until the manufacture of wood pulp began to flourish that the paper industry can be considered to have developed into a big industry." 
The South could, and can, be elevated to a much higher financial position and the general level of income raised by the development of the pulp industry. Yet the work is being carried on by a small group and most of the capital is coming from interests outside the South. 
Returning to Norway, it is found that 65 per cent of the forests are owned by individual farmers; 20 per cent by the state and municipalities and 15 per cent by private corporations manufacturing pulp and paper. 
The Norwegian laws as to forestry are similar to those of other Scandinavian countries. In former years the forests were left to the will of their owners. Large tracts of forests on the western coasts were entirely destroyed. 
A businessman does not permit his employees to destroy the building or the equipment in it. Yet it is safe to say that not a single farm in Georgia and few in the South find their owners particularly concerned about the trees and about the burning of large tracts of forest land by the tenants on the farms. 
There is nothing which I cherish more than an American citizenship and the traditions of America. Yet I must confess that uncontrolled individualism and independence not always seems to produce the desired result. If it is the theory of rugged individualism that the farmer may let his land go to ruin or may ruthlessly destroy the forests with no replacements, then it isn't producing a good result. There is a higher duty. 
"Cut What Timber Is Right and Proper" 
The land, in a sense, is there for a purpose. It is to 
37 
 
 supply something. And surely the fact that the report of the Georgia Agricultural Department shows literally millions of acres lost to production through abuse is not a striking monument to the individualism of the farmer. 
I do not submit Norway's laws, which are similar to that of other Scandinavian countries, as perfect or as desirable in the South. But some sort of law is desirable. 
Norway and the other Scandinavian countries say this to a man who owns forests: 
"Cut what timber is right and proper. But if you cut unwisely and begin to destroy your forest through greed, we will take away from you the right to cut any trees at all. And until that restriction is lifted, only the forest inspectors may mark trees on your land for cutting." 
There is excellent co-operation. The Scandinavian farmers seem to realize that the best individualism and independence is that based on possession of land and of forests. They enjoy perfect freedom as long as they obey the law. 
The Norwegian Forest Association was organized in. 1898, just 40 years ago. In those 40 years it has planted 320 million trees. School children have planted 60 mil lion and young people's societies 20 million trees. In the same period the association has had dug 40 million yards of ditches and brought 300,000 acres of land into a condition which permitted planting of trees. 
Education is a factor. It is possible these articles have too much to say about education. But one keeps finding it here. \Vhat we can learn from the educational systems of these countries is this: they teach more than lessons in books; there is more to be learned than memorizing certain facts in books; the teaching of civics means more than the teaching of certain printed facts about government and the duties of citizenship. 
Children Are Taught Value of Forests 
The children in Sweden and Norway are taken on trips to the forests each year. They are taught that the forests arl 
38 
 
 more than just the property of the man on whose place they groW. They are a part of the national wealth. They mean more money for the nation so that it may have better schools, better hospitals, and so on. They are taught that any man who abuses his forests is destroying not only his oWn property but also a part of the heritage of the nation. They are taught that such policies create unemployment. 
There is no movement to destroy the right of private property. But it does rest on a new basis, that of the relative property right. 
And so, Norway's forests grow and continue to bring in an enormous revenue and to provide work for thousands. That, it seems to me, is independence and individualism more to be desired than that which permits, in the name of individualism, greedy and ruthless destruction of land and forests. 
It seems to me the great hope of the future in America lies in the South. And wherever I go, I try to see things in the light of what the South might do-of what my own state of Georgia might do-with the same resources and the same opportunity. 
I recall hearing, two years ago, legislators saying that too much was spent on education, that five and even three months of schooling were enough for rural sections; that what was needed was more work and less education. In Georgia, now, a nine-month school has been guaranteed the rural sections. U ndoubtedly, education is the basis for advancement-an education which teaches a pride in state and nation, an education which raises the general cultural levels of citizenship and community life; an education which teaches practicality and not mere automatic memorizing of facts and figures. 
Then we can begin to create more forests, more industry, more land and to produce more wealth. 
The pine lands of Georgia and the coastal South can be turned into enough money to bring about a new era. So can 
39 
 
 the fisheries of the South. The awakening will come. By edu- 
cation and planning we can hasten it. * 
CONSUMER CO-OPERATIVES 
While we waited for the automobile to arrive, one could see across the street at this Stockholm corner a grocery store with the sign, "Konsum." 
It is a sign which becomes the most familiar sign in Sweden. It appears in newspaper ads, on wall signs, in books, on pamphlets .... "Konsum." 
It indicates a store of the Swedish co-operatives. S. A. Stahre, of the Co-operative Union, arrived with his automobile. We started on a trip in which Stahre wanted to show some of the visual effects of co-operative consumers' and wholesalers' stores. He was not a propagandist but was, on the whole, one of the fairest men encountered on the trip to the north countries. 
"First," he said, "let me say that some of the things which have been printed about us are immensely flattering but somewhat exaggerated. 
"Our organization of members does about 12 to 14 per cent of the retail trade in Sweden. In Stockholm we do about 20 to 25 per cent of the retail food business. Our membership totals about 30 per cent of the population. Our chief asset is good will. 
"And lest your readers think that co-operatives are something which is peculiar to the north countries, or to socialistic tendencies, let me say that in England, the bulwark of conservatism, there are more co-operative societies than in all the Scandinavian countries put together; that the same is true of the republic of France and that the same applies to the farmers' co-operatives. England and France have more than all four of the Scandinavian countries put together." 
* Italics by the editor. 
40 
 
 What of Co-operatives in America? 
"All right," I said, "now my obvious question is what yOU think about co-operatives in America?" 
"I don't know," he said, "I would think agriculture must inevitably develop some co-operatives. I don't know if the plan would work in your cities for the consumers. It may. 
"Let me say that our consumer co-operatives have grown because there was a need for them. If there is no need for them in America, then they won't develop. If they begin they likely will begin with the trade unions." 
"Explain how you got your start in the food business in the cities." 
"I'm glad you asked that. Some of the books written about us make it appear we have wiped out all other business. There is no fight between retail business and the co-operatives. We have grown, side by side. It is interesting to note that now there is beginning new opposition for us in the multiple shops, or chain grocery stores as you call them. They are adopting our measures and methods and are growing. 
"We do think we keep down prices in retail businesg. And we are in opposition to any monopoly which keeps up prices. 
"You might say we had virgin territory in our methods of retail food business. We did not, as some people seem to think who come here to visit us, force out of business any other stores. 
"There were no chain stores in business. We now see them developing, copying our shops and our methods of packaging and display. You may be sure of this-when the co-operative stores cease to give service, to pay dividends to their members and to sell at a lower price, there will be no co-operative progress. Our only reason for survival is service." 
41 
 
 Higher Prices, Higher Dividends 
"In Denmark they have, on the whole, somewhat higher prices but dividends of a higher level. Here we keep prices low and the dividends are smaller, about 3 to 5 per cent. 
"It might be explained that members of the co-operatives are not bound to buy from co-operative stores. Co-operatives are a perfect democracy in that their members control them by votes and in that members are free to buy where they choose. Which brings me back to what I said before, that co-operatives begin to fill a need and exist because they do fill it." 
The usual methods of the co-operatives are to enter the purchases of each member on books. At the end of the year the member is paid a dividend. It is a nonprofit organization, the only funds kept back being those for a sinking fund to help finance new enterprises. 
"What business are you in?" 
"We did in 1937 about 217 million kroners of business in our wholesale co-operative business, selling to retail co-operatives. Our total retail business was about 600 million kroner. The kroner is worth about 27 cents in American money. So you see what the business is in dollars. That represents an increase over the 1936 bus iness which was 195 million kroner and 512 million kroner, respectively. 
"That turnover in a country of 6,000,000 people was done by 735 co-operative societies all belonging to the co-operative union and having about 4,000 retail outlets. 
"We are in the food business, in the margarine busi ness, in shoes, in electric light bulbs, in flour, in rubber goods, including boots and galoshes, in office machines, in artificial silk, in the manufacture of diaphane, which is your cellophane; we make refrigerators, washing rna chines, vacuum cleaners." 
42 
 
 Co-operatives Own Large Department Store 
"In addition we own and operate the second largest department store in Sweden." 
All of which may give an idea of what an extent the co-operative societies are in business. With about 30 per cent of the population as members and with 98 per cent of the members regarding his co-operative as a sort of religion, it is obvious what an influence the co-operatives have. 
The co-operative idea began in England. In the Scandinavian countries its beginnings saw failure after failure. The beginnings sa w the idea ridiculed, opposed most violently by banks and by retail business. There is opposition yet from the smaller retail merchants. But there is none from the banks or from so-called big business. There is a very good reason. Co-operation is big business in Sweden. 
The trip began with a visit to Luma, the electric light plant. The story of the development of the cooperatives' business is not one flattering to its opposition. Each time they played into the hands of the co-operatives who long ago learned the value of advertising and telling their own story. 
"When the co-operative announced it planned a lamp plant, the opposition reduced prices. The co-operative shrieked its 'We told you so'." 
Today the plant is international, supplying co-operatives in three other Scandinavian countries and also co-operatives in Scotland. 
The same story was true of the rubber factory, where boots and galoshes, a necessity in winter, were to be made. So it was with the other efforts to break down monopolies. The opposition seemed to lose all judgment and played their cards as the co-operatives wanted them played. 
43 
 
 We saw the flour mill, the bread plant and the macaroni factory, three large separate plants, on the island which the co-operative union owns. There also live 350 families in co-operative flats and one-family houses. 
Co-operative Union Publishes Magazine 
The co-operative union publishes a magazine, We. It has a circulation of about 530,000 weekly, the largest circulation of any publication in Sweden. In it are published propaganda articles for the business and also fiction by the leading writers of Sweden. From that beginning the firm went into other fields and now publishes many books by leading economists of all nations and also some popular fiction. 
We saw the school, three large mansions bought from one of Sweden's most wealthy men and transformed into a school for co-operatives. There come all the workers from the co-operative stores, learning how to keep a shop, learning display, advertising, merchandising. They come at the expense of the c~o-operative and go through schooling. From these schools come the promotions. 
The Konsum shops look so much like our own smart grocery shops of America that only the sign is different. 
The general rules are: Membership is open to everybody, they are owned by the members and controlled by them, the return on the share capital is limited to 5 per cent, the surplus is distributed among the customers proportionately to the value of their purchases, the societies observe strict political and religious neutrality, business is done on a cash basis, the societies promote the economic and social education of their members. 
They sell to nonmembers but the dividend they receive applies on shares in the co-operative. Note the low prices and the practice of selling to the general public. 
The co-operative wholesalers have to compete with the non-eo-operative wholesaler and if his prices are cheaper they buy from him. 
44 
 
 Albin Johansson Behind It All 
Back of it all is a financial and business genius, Albin Johansson. He is given credit for turning the government back from its efforts to create a government monopoly on gasoline and coffee. He has kept peace between the farmers, whose co-operatives must be added to those of the consumer and wholesale union, if one is to get the true picture in Sweden. He heads the co-operative union. 
Consumer co-operatives in Scandinavia vary in their relationships v.rith farmers. In Sweden the farmer is courted. In Sweden, Norway and Finland the co-operatives largely are supported by members of the trade unions. Trade unions in the large industrial centers have led the way. In Denmarh: all co-operatives have their members largely among farmers. In Copenhagen the movement is gaining but to date the labor leaders are not quite friendly because only in Denmark are the farmers, the small farmers excepted, in the conservative party where they help wield a tremendous influence. 
r visited the head of the Danish co-operative in the 
new office building in Copenhagen. 
"In the past 10 or 15 years we have been making progress. in the cities. Our business is increasing, wholesale and retail, 9 to 10 per cent per year. Our dividends are from 6 to 20 per cent. These are the dividends paid back to the customers. Surely and not so slowly as before the working class people are joining the co-operatives. You must remember we are not industrial as in Sweden and other countries." 
In Denmark a turnover in 1936 of 195,776,214 kroner. The Danish kroner is worth about 22 cents. The cooperative union operates 22 factories of which two, the coffee "roastery" and the margarine factory, are large ones, doing more than $2,000,000 business each year. In the cities the grocery turnover in 1936 was more than 13,000,000 kroner as against 12 million for the year before. 
45 
 
 Each small village has its co-operative store, a sort of general store. 
Books on Co-operatives Written in Europe 
Many thick books have been written about co-operatives in Europe. Any articles must, of necessity, be sketchy. 
This one has attempted to give a sort of picture. I think it explains, for the first time, that the food stores began because there were no others like them. They had a virgin field. Today the chain store is developing under private o\vnership. No one, before the co-operatives, had tried modern marketing in food. 
Co-operatives are inevitably tied in, as far as support goes, with the trade unions. Only in Denmark are the co-operatives a farmers' organization. 
They have held, as have the chain stores in America, to the cash and carry plan. They do all the business but about 12 to 14 per cent of the retail business in Scandinavia. This, of course, refers only to the consumer co-operative unions and not to the farmers' co-operatives with their bacon, milk and meat "centrals." 
And conservative England, where they began, has more than the rest of the world put together. There are almost 8,000,000 members in Great Britain and the co-operative trade of the consumer co-operatives is 12 per cent of the total retail trade of Great Britain. 
Private Business Increases In All 
Private business continues to increase in all co-oper ative countries. During the period of co-operative growth in Sweden, for instance, the number of private business firms has increased 100 per cent. 
Merchandising has been improved and perfected by co-operatives in Europe but the standards are not as high, in the food stores for instance, as in the chain food store! 
46 
 
 in America. Cellophane wraps, for instance, are just beginning to be employed. 
It has been progressive but it has created nothing new. Co-operation, I think, is a state of mind. It grows slowly. It comes because a need is felt for it. 
As for America-apparently there has been no need in the minds of the people of the income class who have made those in Europe. The consumer co-operative officials frankly say they sec small chance for consumer co-operative development in America. 
Thus far this has been an attempt to tell the story, as briefly as possible, of what has happened in Sweden. I would close with a personal observation which is that in America the farmers, and especially those who are being rescued from the tenant class and given a new start in life, arc those with the greatest claim to a need for some sort of co-operative plan for marketing their products. 
SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND EDUCATION 
Each of the north countries in Europe-the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, have achieved remarkable results with temperance in lands where heavy consumption of hard liquors used to be the rule. 
And just as one bumps into education in looking at what has been done in the system of land tenure, cooperation, and all the social legislation, so does one bump into it looking at the reduction in alcoholic drinks and in drunkenness. 
Norway and Finland tried prohibition and ran into an increase in crime and smuggling and drunkenness. !'\orway got rid of prohibition and even the temperance party doesn't care for that method. Sweden and Denmark, by different methods, set to work to educate the people not to drink to excess. 
47 
 
 Eighty years ago the Swedes drank about 10 gallons of hard drink per capita per year. In 1913 it had dropped to about hvo gallons per capita and in 1936 it was down to a little more than fiv,; litres, or about five quarts. 
"You can do more with education than with laws," said a member of the liquor control board, when I talked with him regarding a hotel and cafe strike which closed everyone in the entire nation with not more than three or four exceptions. And they of a minor nature. 
It already has been told how, under the Swedish law, a citizen may not purchase more than one-fourth of a pint to be consumed on the premises and that only with a real meal. He may purchase, through the control stores, not more than four litres per month snd 80 per cent of the customers are permitted less. 
"Is there any way the law is cheated?" I asked a Swedish newspaperman. 
Citizens Cheat Little on Liquor Laws 
"Just one poor small cheat may be had," he said. "The stranger within our g'ate~, may obtain a temporary permil and then turn over his purchases to a friend in Sweden, That's all. And that isn't much of a cheat. Rather that that, and the small amoJ1nts sailors manage to bring in for themselves and their friends th~ law is airtight. Ani don't think those sailors bring in cases. They get by wit! a bottle or so." 
He rang up a member of the control board. 
"There's a newspaperman here from America," he said "\vho isn't interested in obtaining a T:ermit but wants V see how the law works." 
So, that's how it happened I went down and watchei while the Swedish control board worked at the problel 
48 
 
 which has made one of the most temperate nations on earth out of one of the hardest drinking nations. 
Drinks may be bought with meals-but meals must be bought and the total number of drinks permitted will average about three. That's the hotel and cafe problem which has brought on a nationwide lockout, or strike, seeking to change public opinion-not to change the temperance laws but merely to permit the hotel and cafe men a larger amount of liquors to be sold at a profit. 
This story is concerned with what happens at a control office when a tourist or a Swede comes in for a permit. 
Watches Work of Control Board 
The office is in the monopoly administration building, each district having one. 
One enters. It is something like a bank office. There are chairs. There are small desks with pen and ink and blanks. At one end of the room is a long counter, or desk, behind which are the officials. 
I watched the procedure. 
A tourist came in. His wife was with him. They represented a large American firm and he was on a trip through Europe seeing some of the agencies. 
He told one of the officials that he was a visitor from America that thought it was queer to have so much formality about getting a bottle of scotch in his room and that he had come to see about it. 
"Fill out one of these blanks, please," said the officials. He walked to one of the desks with it and the official who was ihowing me through handed me one of the blanks. 
It required name and address, permanent address, age, nationality. Then there was the question: "Why do yoU require spirits?" 
49 
 
 The American bu~~ine~;small had the answer for them. 
"To drink it," he wrote in his form. After it was handed in he waited-while the files were arranged It was a wait of about 15 minutes during which time he. and others who had come in, waited in this plain roon: yvhich did not promote the desire to drink. 
Eventually number cards were presented to about If people-the American among them-and they were con elucted to another room. 
Under Age of 25 Only 1 Litre Granted 
There the prospective purchasers waited until their numbers were called. They then went, separately, inti one of the several offices. From them came the murmur of voices. 
Each was being quizzed. Those not over 25 were tali they would be permitted only one litre per month-ni more. That was final. Those over 25 were asked ques tions about why they wanted it. 
The American, by saying that his wife was along, tha: he was expecting to entertain friends and member:iJ 0' his firm, was permitted four litres. The Swedes were no' faring as well. l\i(ost of them got cards for less. 
Once they had their cards they still had to go to thl liquor store to make the purchase. And when the nex month came around they had to go back with anoth6 application to fill out. 
The system would not work in America any more thai did the experiment of prohibition. The reason is th~ America has not been subjected to a system of educatiol It was not so many years ago that the Swedes were almo! swept into prohibition. They avoided it and substitute! control of consumption through law bolstered by eduC! tion. Most of the Swedes regard their present system I the most workable one possible. 
50 
 
 Temperance Courses in Every Institution 
Temperance instruction is given in every institution coming under the control of the board of education. It is not a fanatical, emotional education. It is a calm and sane teaching of temperance. It teaches the effects of overindulgence on the individual and the community. It is important to notice that it is combined naturally with the teaching of other subjects. It is not, let it be said again, made a special subject; there is no signing of pledges or any "drive" to force the question. It is made a matter of intelligence, not of the emotions. 
The same idea is carried on in adult education. There are even correspondence courses in temperance. Temperance is not to be confused with prohibition. Temperance, it has been found, makes for abstinence more often than does prohibition. 
Somewhere, somehow, the Scandinavian people got the idea, years ago, of proceeding by education in their matters of government and their social life. 
It is incorrect to view these nations as Utopias. They have their problems, among them being many that are our problems. But they do seem to solve them, or make progress toward solution, by reason and not emotional experiments for which there is lacking adequate mental preparation. 
The problem of alcohol, with lowered consumption and less drunkenness, the problem of prostitution with no. organized vice and the lowest rate of venereal infection in the world, would seem to indicate that education works more effectively than any other one factor, and that laws, when prepared for by education, are therefore more effective. 
PROBLEMS OF LABOR AND CAPITAL 
There seems to be no good reason for ignoring current events while on a search for the sources and methods of 
51 
 
 workable social legislation, as employed by the nortl countries. 
And the most interesting of the current events is thE hotel strike in Sweden which has been going on for ~ couple of weeks at this writing and likely will go on fOI another month or two. 
This is a hotel strike and at the same time a piece of labor warfare which must go down in history as exhibit A in effectiveness, good humor, and perhaps, something of an innovation. 
The hotels in Stockholm are closed. The Grand hotel is locked. So are all the Grand's associates in the business of housing the paying guest. Every hotel in Sweden is closed, a few of the winter sports hotels, and the small "pension" type expected. Not only that, but all the cafes are closed. Everyone of the famous restaurants has the word "stangt" written on the door. In the entire city there are just three cafes open and they employ unorganized labor. 
The city of Stockholm is the capital city of a rather well-known, prosperous European country. And as soon as the strike went on, with some 30,000 people "out," I hurried to Stockholm to inquire into the whys and the wherefores. It required more than a day or so. Or even a week. Because this is the unique strike, or lockout, of the present era. 
No Violence in Swedi~h Strikes 
It is a very good thing, too, that it has come, this strike. There are a number of reasons. It will do, in the first place, to illustrate how sanity prevails in labor and capital conflicts in a democratic country governed by a Social Democrat government. 
They simllly don't have violence. This is one of the oddest strikes on record in this, or any other country. 
52 
 
 But at the same time it is a very effective one, and it is nation wide. 
It might be well to say just here that Sweden and Denmark have made more progress in democratic, social legislation than any other nation. They don't have slums, they don't have illiteracy, they don't have poverty as we know it, and they manage to take care of health, education, poor relief and industrial conditions in a manner which is exciting and admirable. 
Yet they are not yet Utopias as some of our enthusiastic writers who visit here would have us believe. The Swedes have co-operatives as one of the most potent forces in their national and economic life. Yet co-operatives do not make up more than 12 to 14 per cent of the retail business of the nation. Trade unions flourish here as nowhere else. Yet of 1,600,000 employed only 700,000 are in organized labor. 
They have their strikes. Your worker here is an ardent Social-Democrat. Yet, do not think for a moment he is a Socialist. He believes in private property with an intensity that makes housing here and the home-ownership of land one of the big stories. 
Liquor Laws Lie Behind "Lockout" 
The liquor laws of Sweden, models for all others, are behind this unique strike in the hotel and cafe trades. It is a strike by the owners-not the workers. So, perhaps it is best to term it a "lockout." This isn't exactly a correct term, but it comes nearer to explaining it, perhaps. The hotels were locked up by their owners. So were the eafes. 
The really unique feature of it all is that the workers thought the owners were exactly right. They agreed, the workers did, that the owners were in a tight spot. But they wanted more wages. But they insisted on their 
raise and when it wasn't forthcoming they notified their 
53 
 
 employers they would have to go out. So the employers, in sorrow and not in anger, locked their doors. 
Now, the city of Stockholm is a city of about 700,000, if we include its populous areas known as "Greater Stockholm." And it is a bit odd to find all the restaurants closed and all the hotels locked tight. The only places open are the beer cafes. Beer is regarded as a harmless drink. And the small Kondltorl. which sells coffee and sweet cakes, is to be found, in most instances, on the job. But no food is to be had, no vegetables, no steaks, no Smorgast, no soups or fish dishes. Everything is stangt on account of a labor dispute. The beer cafes, inci. dentally, do not sell any food at all. Just beer. 
Cause of Strike Not in Newspapers 
No mention at all is made in the papers of the real cause of the strike. The people laugh about it. The newspapers ran pictures of parliament with members bringing food from home. And the prime minister was in a cartoon which showed him going to his office with a fishing pole over one shoulder and hanging from the pole were sausages, bread and a thermos jug. It was all good-natured. They have got beyond violence in labor disputes here. And that's a very good thing, too, because when your phlegmatic Scandinavian does get angry he is a rather tough customer to handle. 
The strike, or lockout, just didn't seem right. There ought to be some reason for things and a hotel just doesn't lock up and close up for a couple of months unless there is something fundamentally wrong some where. A city of nearly three-quarters of a million people, and all the other cities in an entire nation doesn't just see all its hotels and restaurants close without some thing being done. 
And nothing was being done. The workers were sitting in the beer cafes or in the hondltorls or at home. Parliament was in session. The guests, who had been notified 
54 
 
 before the lockout, were gone. (For two weeks no one has come to Stockholm but now a few are beginning to arrive.) 
The strike, or lockout, ,vas just an ordinary item. It was buried over on the inside of the paper along with the story about the best recipe for puddings. It just wasn't news. And that, mind you, in a town with six newspapers and in a nation which reads papers as much as any nation on the earth. 
How Would U. S. Papers Play Strike? I could imagine Atlanta, Georgia, or Dallas, Texas, or Minneapolis, Minnesota, or Louisville, Kentucky, with eYery hotel and restaurant closed, and I could imagine \"here the story would be in the morning and afternoon papers. It wouldn't be inside with the liver pill "ads." So I started asking a few questions here and there. And the result was that out of it came a story concerning old John Barleycorn, the old gentleman with the red nose, who is to be found in every clime and on every land. Here they had him hobbled and branded and used as a sort of minor mint to keep one corner of the state's strong box filled. But Old John, who actually is well-behaved here under a set of laws which are rather sane, in most respects, is at the basis of the strangest strike in all labor history. 
55 
 
  III. 
A GEORGIAN AMONG THE DANES~ 
THOMAS C. DAVID 
How the Danish Farmer Lives 
I have just returned from a three day bicycle trip through the southern part of the island of Zealand. I could have made this trip easily in one and a half days of continuous riding, without stopping to talk and work with the people in their fields. But as I myself am a farmer and a student of Danish agriculture, most of my time on this trip was spent in talking with these people who depend on farming for a living. Little less keen than my interest in their methods is my pleasure in visit~ ing their homes, drinking their coffee and enjoying the renowned Danish hospitality. Volumes could be written on the Danish coffee and pastry, but I believe these two topics are generally excluded from papers on agriculture. 
Traveling south from Helsingor I rode down the coastal highway towards Copenhagen. Cycling along this road re'quired little effort, and although there are no farms to 'be seen on the highway, the beauty of the scenery is well worth anybody's time. Until I reached Copenhagen ( was never more than a kilometer from the water's edge. Beautiful small villas with flower gardens and trees line the road from Relsingor to Copenhagen, making it seem that the two cities have met. Deciding to avoid delay of becoming involved in Copenhagen's traffic, I turned westward and circled the city, passing through many quaint villages of old houses and narrow, winding streets 
:~ Tbe lotters. from Mr. Thomas C. David of Danielsville. Georgia. are written 
.......JXJn.or. who have sent him to Denmark for a year to study the Danil!!lh .. IIolpM o~educating its people for ..tisfying and profitable life on the land. It ~ t t he wil.l. upon his re.turn. be able to make use of his knowledll'e Bnd 
1IIIIwtL" III bettermg the technIques of agricultural education and farm Iife in 
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 paved with intricate patterns in the cobblestones. Between two of these little towns I stopped at a roadside shop where I bought a drink, and enjoyed the lunch I had brought with me sitting in the cool shade of a forest of beech trees. 
Most or the afternoon I spent riding over small country roads which led me into the very heart of the farming communities. I made slow progress, sometimes retracing my tracks in order to remain near the highway. Everywhere men were busy cutting hay and working in the beet crops, and already the countryside was beginning to look as if it would produce an abundant harvest. I stopped now and then and watched the men as they followed close behind the mowers, stacking hay on big frame racks. Night was drawing on and I decided to spend it in the most inexpensive way possible. For two crowns I had a good dinner at a small seaside hotel, and finished it quickly so that I would have time to look around for a comfortable haystack. After exam ining a few of them and taking note of their location, I selected one in a new-mown field near a fine forest. This one would do. 
Haystacks in Denmark are long rather than round, and all of them have large holes through the center so that proper curing can take place. Having made a really intimate acquaintance with them, I feel well qualified to describe them. In this stack, with my hat stuffed with straw for a pillow, I spent a comfortable night. When the mosquitoes attacked me I covered myself with hay and slept as soundly as a baby the rest of the night, for when I woke again the sun was shining brightly. My baggage consisted of a razor and a cake of soap, and I rode three kilometers to the sea and put them to use. Breakfast at a nearby farmhouse gave me a good start for the day. 
I spent that morning as I had the afternoon before, riding slowly through the lanes and watching the farmers 
58 
 
 at work. At noon I bought a good meal at a farmhouse, and early in the afternoon I began looking for a farm where I could work several hours for my night's lodging and supper. Near Koge I happened upon one that looked interesting, and when I passed the house I made a general survey and noticed that the family was working in a nearby field. I went to them and presented my proposition as well as I could. They seemed interested in my offer, because they immediately presented me with a pitchfork and for three hours we stacked hay, talking all the while. I was learning the methods of these people and at the same time getting an insight into the way they think regarding Americans and other foreigners. They were intensely interested in America, and were constantly asking me if we knew such a method of stacking hay, or if we used this or that implement, and they asked if I had ever worked on a farm. I assured them that I had and they seemed astonished to meet an American who had actually done farm labor. 
At six o'clock the father said, "Come with me," and we went to the house and were given Danish wine and urcad with honey. After that came the task of milking twenty cows. Not until I had actually demonstrated my ability as a milker would they believe I had ever been close to a cow before, and when I began milking with uoth hands it caused quite a sensation. Milking on an a\'erage Danish farm is different from the methods used in an American dairy. The farmer and I carried two small pails to milk in while the small son of the family urought large containers to the field on a big two-wheel cart. I was interested to see that the cows were not urought to the barn for milking, but were staked in the field and milked on the spot. When each cow had been milked, the yield was weighed, recorded and poured into the larger containers. With this job completed, the cows were tied to longer ropes and staked in the field for the night, and I learned that they would remain there to be brought to the barn for the winter only, or for bad weather in the summer. A water tank mounted on 
59 
 
 a cart brings water to them every morning and afternoon. 
I asked the farmer if I might drive the cart to the house and he agreed readily, but before I'd gone very far I realized that the hon;e I was driving didn't understand English. Time only could tell how I would stop him. 'When we came to the barn I pulled on the lines and said "\Vhoa !," but he kept going. There was only one thing to do and I did it! I ran him directly into the wall of the barn, causing the large cans of milk to topple and almost fall off. I had proved myself inadequate for the occasion and it caused a lots of laughter among the spectators. Getting a Danish horse started requires the same tactics one must use on a Georgia mule, but stopping him is a different story. To stop a Danish horse one must imitate the sound of a buzz saw when it hits a knot in a pine plank. 
After this interlude of horseplay the farmer gave two hours of his time to showing me his farm. We walked over his fields and through his barns. I asked many questions and he willingly gave me such information as I was able to understand. I tried to observe everything as minutely as possible. We came at last to his flower garden. Here he showed me his favorite flowers and pointed out varieties which I had never seen, and he told me that every afternoon he spent a few minutes working here among his flowers. His efforts had reaped fine results for the flower beds \vere a riot of bold colors contrasted with the digniLy of well-groomed hedges and clean, smooth walks. Apple trees and pear trees laden with fruit furnished shade for the garden and were examples of the Danish farmer's ability to combine beauty and utility. The courtyard, too, was planted in flowers. Surrounded by the house and three barns forming a square around it, the whole made a pretty picture. 
When we had been given wine and bread at six o'clock I thought we were having supper, but now at eight o'clock we were called to the dining room again. This 
60 
 
 time we really had a supper, for the meal consisted of meat, vegetables, an alw.nehmt supply of buttered bread, and beer, potatoes and hon8Y. For dessert we were given large bowls of strawberries with sugar and cream. I ate heartily thinking this, would be my last opportunity for the night, but no sooner had we finished than we were called to the garden for coffee and c(1kes. Electric lights hanging from branches of the IJear trees were s\\'itched on, and for em hour ',ve 8::tt and tried to make COI1Yel's;,tiol1 by referring to elietlonaries and repeating words and sentences time and again. 
This exertion added to my day's work made me tired 
and sleepy, so at ten o'clock I asked if I might go to hed. Leading the way up a circular staircase, my host carried me to the guest room. It seemed that I was heing t;1I~en to tIle attic, for the hall was really the loft, and its walls were hung with onions and potatoes covered the floor. I IV;]S s111'pri;,eo when my host opened a door leading off from this p:mtry-lil<e corridor and showed me into a small, attractive room papered in blue and equipped with electric lights. 
T:c;aid "good night" to my host and turned my attention to the bed. T h;d heard much about the Danish methods of bcd-making, and I was eager to see just what this hed W;18 like, for it \vas my first experience of sleeping in a farmhouse in this country. The mattress was made of shucks, and there was a thin feather quilt for coverin~. The ;,:heets were buttoned over the mattress and quilt like pillow slip~;, I had expected to fine a fine feather pinen" hut I was di,apIJointecl, for there was no pillow at all but a wedge-shaped bolster instead. It was fil10d \"ith shuch, imd I suppose it was intended to be placed under the head of the mattress to elevate it. hut T di:-:conred thilt I \vas far more comfortable with the hoHer on the floor uncleI' the bed. 'Whatever faults thi.-; hed might have. it was a vast imDrovement over the one T had slept in the night before, 'so with a 
61 
 
 sense of gratitude I fell asleep and slept soundly until I was called to breakfast at six the next morning. 
Until twelve o'clock I worked side by side with a Danish hoy \vho was doing his apprenticeship farming under the supervision of my host. As we worked I saw many familiar sights like those one can see on any farm, whether it be in Denmark or Georgia. Flying about over head was a Jim Crow giving his shrill "caw, caw!" His rqlUtation in Denmark is as infamous as that of his cousins in Georgia, for he takes great delight in destroying the nests of other birds and eating their eggs. Somehow he manages to exist here without his water. melons, and many years of flying in the salt air have given him a patch of grey feathers under each wing ;=tnd on his back; however, I'm sure that under his feathers he's the same rascal I've known in Georgia. 
I raked a fork of hay nearer the stack and a rabbit jumped up and scampered off towards the woods. Nearby the small boy of the family was "siccing" his bob-tailed terrier on a mole, which had just burrowed to its den under a rock. Across the land line from where we were working, a man was plowing two gray horses, and flying close behind him sea gulls were crowding each other to get the worms turned up by his plowshare. Take these fine horses out of the landscape, and place in their stead a rail' of long-eared mules, substitute doves for the sea gulls, and you would have the same picture you might see on a farm in Georgia. 
It is a matter for regret that we cannot carry this likeness further, for the whole of Denmark has the appearance of one vast garden. The general landscape of Georgia cannot compare with it, for here there are no ugly marks of soil erosion, no neglected, unpainted houses, and the countryside unfolds to the traveler a smiling panorama of fertile fields, white houses and red roofs. multitudes of well-fed cattle and horses and healthY people. There is an abundance of life everywhere. 
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 Denmark is a land of home-owners and less than ten per cent of its farmers are tenants. Before 1788 the "<l.st majority of the population were serfs, sold with the land and regarded as chattels. They were freed from serfdom in that year and since that time, particularly during the latter half of the nineteenth century, reform legislation has made it possible for the Danish farmer to own his l:md. Thi" system of land ownership has produced a people who spend much of their time beautifying their homes and improving their land. The Danish farmer sows cover crops and drains, or terraces, his land because he knows he \'fill reap the rewards in future years, and he does not hesitate to paint and repair his barns and dwellings because he knows that in old age he can lool~ to this farm for food and shelter. Contrasted to his state of security is the life of a Georgia tenant farmer, who shifts from one farm to another, DCYer knowing exactly where he will be the next year or \"here he will go in his old age. Education in Denmark hac, created a desire for modern and attractive farm homes and the assistance given by the state has madc it possible for almost every farmer to have a comfortable home. Life in the country is pleasant. 
Although Denmark has no natural water power, by huying electricity from Sweden and by also generating it hy stram, she has been able to put electric power in ('\er~.. house whose owner wishes it. The Danish farmer reads his newspaper and agricultural magazines and has a small library in which he takes great pride. I am reminded at this point of the small number of ('(lucated boys :md girls in America who go back to the farms where they were born and reared, probably because life on the farm is not comfortable and enjoyable enough to hold them there. 
With ih wealth of natural resources the South should be able to supply every home with electricity, and with the amount of money being spent by the government we could sponsor a lasting 11rogram which would make it 
63 
 
 possible for any man who is capable and so desires, to own and equip a home. Such a program would not only encourage competent young men to return to the farms, but it would also create a sense of IJridc and responsibility among the owners which \vauld express itself in the desire to preserve buildings and lanel. Denmark has realized this and today, in some parts where the country is sparsely settled and where there is a large amount of work to be done to reclaim the land, a young farmer is given land and loaned the money to build a home. This plan brings excellent results in land preservation and soil building, at the same time increasing landownership. Probably a similar prO.t~Tam would go far toward~ solving the farm problems in our own Southland. 
The Danish Fanner Plans 
It is mid-harvest season in Denmark. lVlost of the hay has lieen cut and stacked on large frame racks, and haystacks are ~;tanding so thickly in the fields that it seems impossible to drive a wagon between them. The grain harvest is commanoing a11 av,tilable laborers. 
On a short ride through the countryside a few days ago I saw wheat and oats being cut by five different methods. On a large farm 1:\'170 binders were at work, one drawn by three horses and the other by a tractor. Across the road from this farm a small holder ,vas cutting wheat with an old-fashioned wheat cradle while his son followed closely behind tying the grain into bundles. Three kilometers further on a man was at work with an ancient looking briar blade without the cradle to catch wheat. 'With each swing he cut a bundle of average size, which was not tied but raked into windrows, to be hauled later and stacked around huge poles near the barn. A method more primitive still was used by a man who swung a small scythe in his right hand while gathering the heads of grain with his left. This variety of methods is characteristic of Denmark where there is always something interesting to see. 
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 If you should stop and ask one of these busy farmers what he is doing, his reply would probably be that he is harvesting his "corn" crop. To a Danish farmer all small grain is corn. Before I had taken my first ride through rural Denmark I heard an agricultural worker lecture on the wealth of corn one would find in this country. Greatly impressed I rode for half a day looking for the corn and returned home somewhat puzzled, for I hadn't seen a single stalk. Corn as we know it in America is almost an unknown crop in Denmark. Wheat, oats, rye and barley are all called corn. Call it what you may, the country is teeming with busy workers trying to save this most precious harvest. 
Early one morning I determined to ride through the country before it had awakened from its short night's sleep. Five o'clock found me on my bicycle seventeen kilometers from Helsingor on the road to Hillerod. Even at that hour the fields ,vere alive with laborers, working as if they had been there for hours. At seven I stopped at a small shop for breakfast and over my coffee and sweet cake:; attempted a conversation with the proprietress, using in the effort every word of my meager Danish vocabulary. It was a cloudy morning and it seemed that it would rain any minute. I was amazed that these farmers, whom I had just seen, would have 80 much grain on the ground in such threatening weather. I pointed to the clouds, and asked the woman if she thought it would rain today. She assured me that the !lun would shine by eight o'clock and that the day would be very hot. I waited long enough to find that she knew the tricks of the weather, for her forecast came true. By eight-thirty the sun was shining intensely and not a trace of fog or cloud could be seen. Now I understand why the Danish farmer never delays his work because of threatening clOUds. If he should, he would be in a c:onstant state of indecision, for Denmark has all kinds of weather in one day. 
With no duties to perform by the watch, no particular 
65 
 
 place to be at a given time, I was riding leisurely along the country lanes stopping at any place that seemed interesting. At nine o'clock I decid rd to stop and learn at first hand about these people ly actually working with them. 
Near Esrom the opportunity presented itself for stand. ing near the road, and hitched to a turner, was a pair of iron gray horses. Leaning my bicycle against a tree, I took the plow and circled a five acre field before the farmer returned. He could see me from his yard but made on attempt to return hurriedly. Like all the Danes I've met, he was able to distinguish a foreigner immediately. As he approached I said "Goddag, huordan De?" He replied UTah. godt. Og De?" My vocabulary was being taxed to the limit. I assured him that his Hests (horses) were smukt (beautiful). He agreed. I struggled for words and in a few minutes we had made each other understand quite a few phrases. He was enjoying my visit and seemed glad of a chance to rest, and to laugh at my feeble Danish. I asked "ViI De uera saa uenlig at uisa men Deres Gaarde?" (Will you be so kind to show me your farm?) It worked like magic. He was de lighted. 
It so happened that this particular farmer was nearly a week ahead of his neighbors, because he had hauled his hay and grain crops to the barn and was now turning the stubble. He had plenty of time to squander on an inquisitive visitor from America, so we left the horses standing and started for the farthest field of his farm. In an indirect fashion I wanted to discover his plans for the coming winter and his sources of income for the present month. Crossing each separate lot of land I asked what he would plant here next year. For each question he had a ready answer. Where he had grain this year he would plant beets in 1938. Where he had beets he would follow with garden crops such as cucumbers, strawberries, cabbages and potatoes. ThuS I learned that he had already a complete plan for plan!- 
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 ing in the coming year. He was a willing talker and I remained quiet except to ask questions, and observe. His beet crop had just been plowed and was completely free from grass and weeds. The beet crop is one of Denmark's most valuable crops. When it is old enough to be cultivated, it is treated in much the same fashion as our cotton crop. As the hills are about eight inches apart and each row is cultivated with both hoe and plow, this crop consumes more time from the Danish farmer than any other crop he grows. 
This man was operating his farm on a two-year rotation plan. He would never follow grain with grain, but in the case of other crops, he would follow two years in succession and no longer. The most intere~;tilJg of his fields was one in which he was making an experiment of growing fruits, vegetables and berries on the same piece of ground. Here he had planted apple and pear trees alternately in ro,vs twenty feet apart. Between these he was growing straWberries, cucumbers, cabbages and table beets. I asked if he had been selling any of these vegetables and he told me that at present he was selling three vegetables, netting a fair sum each week. He had just begun selling apples and in the early fall would have a crop of pears for the market. His raspherries had brought him a small sum and had also supplied his table for the summer. We walked slowly all while we carried on our conversation, struggling for words and appropriate gestures. He picked, and gave to me, a few apples and berries that were late ripening. We had circled the farm and were now coming to the barn. 
Behind the barn twenty dairy cows of the average type were grazing in clover "pocket deep." The farmer told me that he was milking eighteen of them, with a yield of two and a half gallons a day from each of them. He had bought no feed for his cows this vear. He was selling 
~he milk to the local co-operative of ,~hich he was a mem- 
er and every morning the co-operative truck would come 
67 
 
 by and pick up his milk to carry it to market. Fearing that I ",auld seem too inquisitive, I asked no more questions. 
I realized by nov" this man's condition. His income was definitely planned and distributed over the year. His work was planned intelligently, and he was decidedly a man with a "live at home" program. In this comparatively quiet time of the year he had an income as regular as any salaried person. 
After \ve had taken a look at the dairy barn I began walking back towards the rlace where he had left the horses. With a "hello" he called me back. In our difficult converf,ation he had forgotten the second largest item of the farm. He led the way into a low barn painted white both inside and out. The entrance was not more than ten yards from the kitchen door but inside we saw twelve prize Landrace hogs almost ready for market. To prepare them for the market the farmer was feeding them meal imported frolI). America. Twelve hogs were his quota, and he would feed them only seven more days. The price he would receive then was the only bit of information concerning them which he was unable to give me. I added to the mental estimate I had formed of his income the estimated profit from twelve hogs, and I was satisfied that this farmer was secure financially. As he had bought only a small amount of feed for his hogs he had enabled himself to have a wide margin of profit. 
My host gave me permission to plow with the team of horses for the remainder of the morning. He went to the house and asked his wife to have an extra place at the table for lunch. For nearly two hours I followed a fine team of horses, turning ground on this farm of Herr Jensen's that had been in his family for three generations. I had not by chance selected a wealthy farmer to visit, nor one of the lowest class. This farmer was jUst a member of the ninety thousand "Gaarmaend" (moderate 
holders) and was typical of most of the farmers one wiJI 
68 
 
 see while riding through a rural district in this country. I realized that an important reason for the contentment which Danish farmer,; seem to enjoy is that most of them operate their farm:] on the same intelligent basis as this one does. 
At twelve o'clock we went to the house for lunch. (This visit and other similar ones into the homes of Danish farmers will be described in another article.) I left my friend after lunch and rode toward Esrom. Passing it and turning south I came into a road that goes through the King's Forest, and here I stopped to make notes on the things I had seen and heard during the 
day. 
My thoughts turned to the question ,vhich is often asked concerning the Daniph farmer: v;Vhat is it that gives him the fine degree of contentment that expresses itself in his manners, his speech, his way of living; and even in the beauty of his house, the trim appearance of his tree;..; and flowers, his courtyard and walks, all of which seem to have had :,wme special care and appreciation from the owner? The answer must lie far away from mere acquisition of profit or immediate cash. It involves the traditions, background and education of the Danish farmer, and surely the farmer's sense of financial security and the respol13ibilities of owning land are of no small importance to his well-being. 
On this aYerag(~ farm I had seen a perfectly organized program of c;.t,;h income, crop rotation, soil building and Roil presenation. It is possible for soil erosion to become a problem in Denmark. With its loose, gray soil and numerous hillside" thcn,:would soon arise an erosion problem if the farmers did not prevent this through the ~8e of root :1I1d hay CrO]1S. It is true that terracing even In the more hilly section:~ is not extensively practiced, but the nature of the crops makes terracing unnecessary. 
i With a livestock program which was affording a cash ncome, the farmer had coupled a successful soil building 
69 
 
 plan. In Denmark the compost pile is a measurement of wealth. With a livestock program it is possible to grow abundant cro ps without buying any commercial fertilizer. Many of the farmers have a large concrete pit into which is thrown anything that will decay and add to the amount of fertilizer. 
Instead of having to wait to harvest a single cash crop he had an income every week of the year. He used his hay and cover crops not only to build up his land, but turned them into dairy products which were paying a cash income each week. He had a system of bookkeeping which was so complete that he could refer to it and find out how much milk anyone of his cows had given any day during the year. Along with the majority of Danish farmers, he was planning for the future, a privilege enjoyed by those who own their land and are blessed with a feeling of security. 
Then we cannot say that the success of agriculture in Denmark is due to the fertility of its soil. A great deal of the land in Denmark originally did not have the high degree of fertility that the new grounds of Georgia possess. It has been carefully preserved and improved by years of crop rotation and soil improvement crops. Nor can we give much credit to Denmark's climate, for the spring and summer seasons are short and the winter unsettled. One conclusion we can safely make is that the Danish farmers are not afraid of work, and because they are educated for their work they are able to plan for the future and thus receive the most benefit from a day's labor. They are somewhat insured against complete crop failure because their work and money are invested in different crops that furnish an income throughout the year. In this way the hazards of a single cash crop system are avoided. 
I well realize that most of the methods of farming in Denmark and the crops grown here would be out of place in Georgia. However, the educational advantages 
70 
 
 which Denmark gi.ves her farmerf'\ and their children, and the general phIlosophy and planning on which Denmark bases her agricultural practices will have to be adopted by the southern states before agriculture there will see its better day. 
The Small Farm Owner Is Successful 
If the young rural worker wishes to buy a small farm in Denmark, the state provides two plans enabling him to do so, and he may take his choice. Every year a special state commission purchases large tracts of land from country estates, or takes over whole estates with the object of dividing them into numerous small holdings. The young farmer may acquire such a holding without paying cash, but he must each year pay five per cent of the value of the property, and he cannot sell the land without first having permission from the state. He is granted loans for erection of buildings and the purchase of cattle and chickens. 
Under the second plan, the state will grant him a loan of nine tenths of the value of the holding. With this loan he buys the farm and pays the state a yearly interest of four per cent. This property is immediately placed at his full disposal, and no repayments are made during the first five years. Under both these laws it is necessary for the farmer taking advantage of them to have a small amount of cash. It is estimated that since this legislation came into effect twenty thousand small land holders have been created. 
These small farmers have been of great help in intensifying agriculture, and in the past half century Denmark has grown from a country of extensive farming to one of intensive farming. The total number of farming units in Denmark is 205,000, and of this number 111,000 are small holders. These holders have been of tnrnendous help in reclaiming poor tracts of land which 
the state has bought for them at a low price. They have 
71 
 
 been an important factor in the success of the cooperatives, and the co-operatives have been of great assistance to them, because through intensified farming the co-operatives can be assured of the supply of products they have guaranteed to foreign markets, and through the co-operatives the small holder is assured of a maximum return from his land. His products are given the same attention as those of the larger holders, and the co-operative dairies and slaughterhouses are guarantees of a market for his products. The co-operatives impose certain specifications upon farm commodities, and if the small holder's products meet these specifications, he receives the same price as the larger holders. Before cooperative enterprises were established the products of the small holders were generally inferior to those of the larger holders, and they had to strive hard for a bare living. 
A few days ago a Chinese student, a young Danish man, and I visited a farm that could be called a typical small holding. The home and farm were built together in an L shape around the court yard. vVe entered the court yard, passed between the two wings of the building, which housed the cattle, feed and farm tools, and knocked at a double door, employing the ornamental brass knocker found on the front door of every Danish house. The farmer and his wife greeted us cordially as though they had been expecting us to call, and immediately set about laying the table for coffee. Over the fine homemade cakes and fragrant coffee we chatted with the family and learned much about their daily life and their plans for the future. They asked t1 S numerous questions about America and China. All the while the women of the family \yere busy with their needlework, the grandmother knitting on a pair of woolen socks, the mother crocheting table mats and the young daughter of fiftec~n maldng lace, her nimble fingers flying over an intricate frame with arrwzing ~l':sural1ce. She never seemed to r:.cE,-ke mistakes, although ~;he joined in 
72 
 
 the conversation and rarely looked at her work. The importance of needlework to Danish women cannot be exaggerated. Every home has colorful and well designed examples of handworl~, wme of thera quite old, attesting to the skill and industry of present and bygone generations of women. The old grandmother showed us two tapestries which had been framed and hung on the living room wall. She had worked them herself in needle point, and \vas very proud of them because the designs were drawn by her young grandson. One tapestry depicted a favorite horse belonging to the family, and the other a landscape of their house and garden. 
During our visit the lather revealed the history of his lire on this farm on which he had lived since his marriage in 1!.Jl 2. He told us how he had borrowed money from the sLate to purchase the farm from his father-in-law. In the beginning it seemed that he would be able to make enough money to repay his loan rapidly, but he said that during the recent depression he had realized au aYerage of only twenty-five crowns, or $5.50 per month, from his herd of l1lteen dairy cows and that he had lost money on his hogs. However, he remained hopeful that prosperity would come out from its traditional hiding place "around the corner," and judging from what we saw of his farm later it seems that times are better for him, for he is now making a fair profit over all expenses, including the payments on his home and several pieces of new machinery. 
Before lca\'ing the house to look at his farm, we were shown the dairy barn which was separated by a wall from his bedroom. It was the tasl-: of the fourteen year old son to clean the barn every morning and he seemed to be doing a good jot of it. Behind the barn there was a large concrete pit into which all the available compost is thrown e\'e~y day, and a layer of straw is thrown on top of it. To Impress us sLin further with his thrifty methods he .howed lis a 1,lJ'ge tank sunk in the ground into which all 
73 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
the liquid manure drained, as well as the water with. 
 
which the dairy was washed every morning. 
 
I 
 
We discussed the cost of electric lights for his home,l 
 
and discovered that the bill is paid every three months. 
I For this period, electric current for six rooms and an 
 
electric iron cost only fourteen crowns, or about $3.00. 
I In his barn he had a small threshing machine and a feed 
 
chopper which were also operated by electricity. These 
 
I were run on another meter and the cost for operating 
farm machinery is about half as much as current for 
 
I home use. He was threshing and grinding his grain for 
about two cents per bushel. This low cost of electricity 
 
I for farm machinery has encouraged the purchasing of 
machines for individual farms throughout Denmark, and 
 
I he told us that a group of his neighbors own machines 
for threshing and grinding co-operatively, thus keeping 
 
I the cost at a very low average. They even have a wind- 
mill for use when there is wind strong enough to run 
 
I it, but when there is not sufficient wind power they can 
turn the machinery with an electric motor. 
 
I This system of co-operation between the farmers for 
 
I the purpose of grinding their own feed and threshing 
their own grain seemed to be working in a thoroughly 
 
I satisfactory manner. I began thinking of a plan that 
might be worked out among Georgia farmers. With elec- 
 
I tricity becoming more accessible, farmers in Georgia 
communities could organize themselves to buy electric- 
 
ally run machinery to be used by all of them, each man bearing his share of the expense. Our friend could hardly 
 
I 
 
believe that such a small portion of southern farmers owned electric machinery, for in Denmark farmers con- 
 
I 
 
sider electric power one of the cheapest commodities they possess. He told us also that all farm buildings 
 
I 
 
in this country must be insured before a loan is granted a farmer. A farmer applying for a loan must present his 
 
I 
 
insurance papers with his application. 
 
I 
 
America can learn a great lesson from this small coun- 
 
74 
 
I 
 
I 
 
I 
 
 try in regard to the uses of electricity on farms. Entirely lacking in natural resources, Denmark is obliged to buy electric current from Sweden or create it with giant steam engines, and in spite of this handicap it is almost impossible to find a home even in remote sections of the country without electric lights. I have no statistics covering this subject, but from observation I dare to state that there is a greater percentage of Danish farmers who own electrical machinery than farmers in Georgia who have only electric lights. 
From the barn we went to a nearby field where fifteen head of dairy cattle were grazing. The weather is too cool for them to remain there the entire day without protection from the wind, so each cow was neatly blanketed and bore her name printed in bold letters on the back of her blanket. Our friend said that from this herd he was realizing a larger return than from any other of hig farm items, his milk being delivered daily to a local co-operative creamery. His hogs had been running about in a nearby lot while the piggery was being repaired, and numbered twenty-four. His allotment for the slaughterhouse was twenty-two, and the extra two would be killed for home use. These pigs would cost $13 to $15 to raise and he would receive about $30 per head for them at the market, giving him a profit of at least $15 per head, which is about sixty Danish crowns and a fair return for this phase of his farm income. He believes that he can grow them another year for considerably less because he has been able to do so in the past. 
This farm consisted of thirty acres, was divided into six portions and operated on a definite plan of crop rotation. This year he is growing oats and peas mixed with vetch for stable food, and also rye, oats, wheat, beets and clover. He will grow enough vegetables and fruit for family use in the same plot, planting vegetables in rows between the fruit trees. 
I concluded that although this man was not one of the most prosperous small holders, he was making ends meet 
75 
 
 and at the same time enjoying the satisfaction of knowing I that in a few more years his home would be paid for anQ he could call it his own. His family was living comfort- I ably and he could educate his three children. The youngest son, who is about thirteen, shows remarkable ability I in drawing and will probably be given extra training in this subject. I realized that if this man were able only to pay for his home and have just enough money to buy clothes and food, he would be doing more than is possible for many Georgia farmers to accomplish. 
From the sociological viewpoint this new class of small land holders cannot be overrated, for an entire class of country workers has been raised from a proletarian status to that of independent farmers who have a marked effect upon the entire nation and receive a large share of its benefits. Denmark has solved problems that the South has been struggling with since the War Between the States. General education and effective legislation have brought prosperity to the Danish farmer, but there is more to Denmark's success story than that. Independence, even at the cost of hard work and simple living, Is the ideal of the country bred youth, and the pursuit of this independence has been, perhaps, the real driving force behind the land division movement in Denmark. 
We Go to the Apple Show 
It was a perfect October morning, and with the exception of the beet crop, the harvest had been completed. In the small farming communities the Danes were holding their livestock shows and fruit exhibits. Young farmer boy~, dressed in their overalls and polished wooden shoes, were proudly parading their favorite calves before the judge's stand, competing for the prizes. The country churches ,vere being decorated with choice fruits and grain and the next Sunday they were to have Thanksgiving services. After the services, the fruits and grains would be distributed to the poor. 
76 
 
 My choice for the day was an apple show in Copenhagen where four countries, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland were to exhibit the best of their apple crops. The trip was made with four students who were also studying agricultural conditions in Denmark. The gronp consisted of a boy from Poland, Denmark, Czechoslovakia and China, hence conversation was very difficult. 'Vhen I \vanted to converse with the Czech I had to speak Danish to the Dane, and he spoke German to the Pole who gave my statement to the Czech in French and in Czech. The poor fellow from China was left out entirely since, in addition to his native tongue, he spoke only a little German. 
The round trip wa.s sixty-five miles and we made it on bicycles. Our lunches, which \ve carried on the luggage rack, were bought yesterday at the market place for less than twenty cents per person, and consisted of buttermilk, Smorrebrod, Danish sweet cakes and honey. At the last minute my wife decided to go so I had to tie to my bicycle a tow rope which I used to pull her over the longest hills. This caused the Danes to stop, look and la.ugh because, in this country, the women can ride bicycles as well as any man. My wife hasn't developed "bicycle legs" yet so she has to be towed over the high places. 
At eight o'clock we were off, and what a day for traveling! The scenery along the coastal highway is entrancing. The way is lined with beautiful villa~ and on our left, never more than thirty feet away, is the deep, blue sound which divides Denmark from Sweden. Across the sound SV/eden's coast is lined with factory smoke stacks, showing her intensely developed industries. On our right is the land of the Danes, unmarked by these factories but spreading out in great level tracts of dairy farms. Danish dairies are clean and beautiful, and along the route we see large herds of dairy cattle, blanketed to protect them from the cool sea breezes. One can see by the well kept farms that the Danes love the soil. Their houses are well preserved, and many of them which have been 
77 
 
 standing for more than a hundred years are covered with thatched roofs, the old brick or stone walls being painted 1 snow white. Most of these homes and barns are under the same roof, spreading over a square lot of land and I built always with a single story. But for the highway, which has been built only recently, most of these farms I would come down to the water's edge and almost every farm could have a small but good bathing beach. 
A bicycle is the best way to travel in Denmark because from one of them you can see how well and intensively I the country is cultivated. Traveling slowly, stopping to see many unusual sights, we averaged only ten miles an hour and at twelve we stopped at a park near Copenhagen to eat our lunch. 
For fifteen cents we bought a ticket which admitted us to the entire exhibit, and at one o'clock we walked into the large building which housed the exhibit of apples from the Scandinavian countries. The first sight which greeted us was a large sign swinging across the _entire length of the main room. Translated, it read: IIAn apple a day will keep the doctor away." However, the greatest advertisement for the sale of fruits was the odor of mellow apples which swept over us as we entered. Indeed it gave us the desire to purchase a bu~hel of them and sit down to enjoy a fill. To our right a booth advertised, fresh apple cider and the temptation was too great. For twenty-five cents we bought all our party could drink. At the end of this large room, apple vinegar in clear glass jugs was packed in crates and stacked to a dizzy height. Each country had its own division and it was difficult to decide which was the best. They were showing apples of summer, fall and winter varieties and they were there by the tons. Already the prizes had been awarded. I noticed that many small exhibits had won ribbons. The large fruit companies were able to spend much money in decorations for their exhibits but only the quality of the apples had determined the judges' fair decisions. 
78 
 
 In a balcony overlooking this same room was an apple grading and packing machine which was almost human in its work. It was being demonstrated by a Swedish owner who gave every spectator an apple. The machine graded the apples into fifteen classes and wrapped them in the company's paper. To demonstrate the ease with which this machine worked, the man put a dozen eggs through and they all came out unbroken and neatly wrapped. We spent an hour in this one room and then had to rush through. 
In the side rooms we found spaces given to bee keepers and their products. They had cleverly named the product "Apple Blossom Honey." The bees had been brought in glass hives so that the public could see the construction of the cones. An expert salesman standing behind the counter assured us that he was selling first grade honey at half price, and he was kept busy wrapping small jars for his customers. In a room adjoining the "honey room" was an exhibit of disease controlling sprays and the machines best suited for their use. An apple farmer was there to assure us that his crop had been twenty per cent better because he used these products. The factory representative was busy taking orders to be delivered the next spring. 
In another room a Danish canning plant employed a woman to demonstrate canning equipment and the methods to be used in preserving apple products. Another demonstrator cooked apple pies, made apple jelly and sold her products as fast as she could prepare them. In the assembly room of the building the seats had been removed and a miniature orchard showing the correct methods of cultivating fruit trees was shown. The Danes exhibited hazelnuts, chestnuts, and pears. Indeed every product of the orchard and-grove was there for the public to see. 
During an eight day exhibit 250,000 people passed through the doors to see this show. We stopped for a 
79 
 
 while to watch the crowd as they pushed and shoved to get a better view. Guards were employed to see that small boys did not fall to the temptation of tasting the mellow fruit. 
For three hours we walked about the exhibit and then felt as if we had missed something because it was so large. The Danish farmer is wise in keeping his products and work before the public. The people are ever reminded that they have a wealth of food and farm products at their very door. Even the urban population is conscious of the importance of the Danish farming conditions. The urban population perfo:rms a real service in using home products and helping to promote better relations between their country and foreign markets. In the Scandinavian countries one sees the city and country population working hand in hand to produce a better farming world. 
The Danes Are Adaptable 
The greatest reason for Denmark's success in the world market has been her ability to meet the demands put upon her products by foreign markets. When she learned that Germany wanted a pig with more fat than bacon, she immediately began breeding one to fill the bill, and when she found that England wanted a pig with a long heavy back, from which first class bacon could be sliced, she immediately modified the pig to meet that demand. So now she Iraises both types of pigs. 
Because she has been so successful in getting her farmers to produce a staple product, Denmark is at present supplying the world market with a quarter of the butter, half the bacon, and a quarter of the eggs. This, from a country half as large as North Carolina! The Englishman, whose most glorious heritage is his breakfast of bacon and eggs, found that the Danes could satisfy his desires in regard to these products, and now he buys, every year, approximately 10,771,000 pounds of butter, 
80 
 
 3,513,000 pounds of eggs, and most of the bacon he consumes. 
To produce the highly desirable Danish bacon has not been an easy task. It became necessary to bring the pig pil"oduction under rigid control. Every "legitimate" pig must have its birth certificate, or be sent to another and cheaper market than England. After an estimate has been made of the number of pigs wanted for export in a year, a quota is given to every slaughterhouse. The farmer members of the slaughterhouses are then given a card for each pig they can deliver during the year. The slaughterhouses guarantee their quotas, and the responsibility falls upon the members to produce them. 
Pig cards are issued to a farmer on the basis of the size of his farm, and the amount of skim milk and buttermilk he produces. The importance of this is that pig production is thus made to follow milk production, with a heavy bias in favor of the small producer. I have been told by a friend that before the production of pigs was regulated, many men, armed only with pencil and pape,r financed by some other business, figured that if a man could make $20 on one pig in a year, he would have only to produce 1,000 pigs to make a profit of $20,000. The collapse of one after another of these mass producers has proved to Denmark that a dairy industry is almost essential to a pig program, and the most successful pig producer is considered now to be the man whose allotment is thirty, and who also owns a dairy herd. The high quality of Danish bacon is partly attributed to the extensive development of the dairy industry, the byproducts of which (buttermilk, skim milk and whey) are profitably utilized as feed for the pigs. 
Since a pig spends all his time eating or sleeping, experiments have proved that his diet is the most important factor determining the quality of his meat. To determine the best diets and also to seCUil"e the best breeds, many breeding centers have been established where these prob- 
81 
 
 lems can be dealt with. This work is carried on by specialists, and they continue to reveal new ways of pro~ ducing a better product. 
Together with another student, I visited a co-operative slaughterhouse and found the manager more than willing to show us th~ough the plant. After seeing it and hearing about the requirements that the members have to meet, I readily understood how Denmark has succeeded in getting such a big share of the world's trade in pig products. 
This factory grew out of a desire among a group of farmers to have a better means of ma.rketing their products. The building was formerly an old mill, but the members bought it and built additions to it. Now it is large enough to require the work of about thirtyfive men in its operation. 
We were first carried into the office to begin the inspection tou~. Then the system of allotments was explained to us. Then we were told that a board of in~ spectors is employed to see that uniformity is carried out in all factories. No factory is allowed to deviate from the standard, and the inspector has a right to examine the product, or the building, of any co-operative without giving notice. if it is found that the slaughterhouse is deviating from the standrurds set by the Society of Co-operatives then the factory or the individual members can be fined, and if the offenders do not mend their ways they lose the right to use the "Lurmark Brand." 
Since we were visiting the slaughterhouse on a day when deliveries were being made, our guide carried us to the yard where the pigs are unloaded, and then proceeded to show us every step that is taken between unloading the pigs and packing off the meat for foreign markets. 
When a pig is brought to the market it must be rested for several howrs before it is killed, for a pig killed in a state of excitement will not make good bacon. After 
82 
 
 it has rested, the pig is stunned into unconsciousness by an electric shock, hoisted by a hind leg upon a moving belt, and carried to the killing pit. From there it is carried to a hot water vat where the first stages of cleaning take place. Just beyond this is a machine made of two rollers covered with pliable finge,rs which scrape the skin clean of hair and bristles. Before the carcass -is opened it receives a singe, a shower-bath, and another scrubbing by hand. 
When the carcass is finally opened the inspector is on hand to approve or reject it, and to send it to a second butcher who carries it, still on the moving belt, to the cooling room where it remains for two or three days. After it has been in the cooling room, the head is taken off, the carcass split into two flitches which are trimmed. The sides from which the bacon is taken are now ready for the curing processes, and into them a solution of salt and saltpeter is pumped under pressure so as to reach the remote sections of the meat. 
After this process the sections are put into a vat and covered with brine until they have absorbed enough to be cured. Then they are drained, and after being smoked and sent through other curing methods, they are ready for the Englishman's breakfast table. 
After this visit to the bacon factory proper, we were carried to the house whe,re the by-products were being handled. Here we saw the birth of a "hot dog." From two boiling kettles lard was being drawn. Before cooling it looks dark and impure, but after cooling it takes on a color as white as snow. It was here that the manager informed us that he was making his first few shipments of bacon and lard to America. He told me that Denmark has a generation of people who will never recover from eating the lard bought from America during the World War and the few years preceding it! I assured him that he was not hurting my feelings at all, and we moved on to another small house. 
83 
 
 He,re the blood was being dried and sacked, to be sold to the farmer members of the co-operative slaughterhouse. They could buy this more cheaply than an agent could sell it to them, and at the end of the year, if there was a profit, it was divided among the members. I was surprised to find that not an ounce of the pig is thrown away as useless. In this house they were cleaning bristles to be sold for upholstering, and pressing the bones and useless parts to remove the fat, after which the refuse would be made into fertilizer. The side trimmings were being made into attractive molds of sausage and the pig feet were being prepared for the markets of South Africa. Even the glands of the pigs are used by medical science to combat diseases. 
After the trip through the slaughterhouse we talked at length with the manager and learned what the "Lurmark Brand" means to Danish bacon. When the pig is inspected it is marked with this brand if accepted, and without it the meat cannot be sold within or without Denmark. If the carcass is under weight the brand is marked in blue, which denotes the fact that it can be sold at the home markets but not shipped. If a member of the coonerative produces one pig above his quota, this extra pig if'! 3JSO marked with a blue brand and the man cannot sell it unless to the slaughterhouse, and then at about half price. If one member fails to grow his quota and his neighbor grows more than his quota, the tickets issued agajn~t the members can be exchanged. 
All pigs must be killed at these accredited slaughterhouses. No farmer in Denmark is allowed to kill a pig at home-not even for home consumption! The farmer who sells to the co-operative slaughterhouse is trained to consIc'ler every factor in the production of superior bacon. It apnears that the success of the Danish bacon industry is a result of the willingness of individuals to work in accord with one another to produce a product which sells itself to the world by its own merits. This is the sort of spirit that we need to develop in Georgia. 
84 
 
 The Danes Are Thrifty 
The Danes are a thrifty people. This has been said so often of all north Europeans that I wondered if it were just something repeated often and taken for granted, like the belief in the South that all Yankees are "damyankees," or that black cats a're bad luck, that the Englishman is phlegmatic and the Frenchman voluble, that it'll surely be a clear tomorrow if the sunset is yellow. But indeed the Danes are thrifty, for I have seen with my own eyes, many examples attesting to the truth of this. 
Here in the town of Elsinore it is no uncommon sight to see a man coming home from a day's work in the shipyard bearing a few pieces of scrap lumber, salvaged from a boat. He will store it in some dry place, add to it from time to time and eventually have enough to build a hen house, or a tool house, or perhaps even a small holiday house for himself and his family. I have seen attractive summer cottages built of lumber salvaged from every conceivable kind of wrecked houses and boats. 
When a farmer cuts a tree for fuel or lumber, he plants two more in its place. He doesn't use the body of the tree and leave the limbs to decay. Every foot of wood that is large enough to burn is cut into fire lengths and carried home. Forests are so highly regarded, however, that wood is not generally used for fuel. The houses are heated by coal-burning stoves, or furnaces, and double windows are used to keep the cold out and the heat in. 
This summer I visited a friend in his summer home on the northern coast of the island of Zealand. A week before a severe windstorm had uprooted hundreds of pine trees near his home, but by the time we had arrived at the following week-end, men were busy sawing and stacking the wood, and small trees from near by nurseries had already been brought to the scene, to be planted in place of the old ones destroyed by the storm. 
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 On maps of Denmark every forest of considerable size is shown with its name. Many of them are in parks preserved by the state. Until about a century ago the devastation of Denmark's woods by fire and the felling of virgin timber for lumber had reduced the amount of woodland to a distressing scarcity. Public opinion was aroused to the dangers of deforestation, and a replanting program was begun. Since that time the wooded areas have more than doubled their original extent. Now there are fine stretches of beech, bkch and fir trees, standing in rows as they were planted, towering monuments to the efforts of a people to preserve its previous heritage of forests. 
Thrift seems to be an integral part of the Danish character, exprressing itself in its respect for any person who tries to make the best of what he has, or is. There is very little "front" in Danish life. The bank president and the member of Parliament ride their bicycles to work alongside the cooks, the office workers, the brick-layers and painters. Even the King rides about the streets of Copenhagen unattended and his comings and goings are quite unnoticed by his neighbors. The Danes seem to have little regard for expensive clothes and automobiles, or any of the trappings of prosperity, but they have an immense respect for any sort of personal achievement, even if that achievement is nothing more than a well kept flower garden. Perhaps thrift is even responsible to a great extent for the democracy of Denmark, for the people, being thrifty, are able to live comfortably and do not envy their neighbors who have more than they; nor do those who are rich make a display of their wealth to impress theirr neighbors. This develops a spirit of contentment and understanding among all the people. This understanding, aided by the common background of religion, folk customs and peasant ancestry, has enabled the Danes to deal intelligently with their problems and legislate affectively for the benefit of all the people. Denmark deserves its title, "The Kingdom of Reason." 
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 Not long ago I visited a co-operative slaughterhouse and during my inspection of the plant asked what became of the waste. The manager looked astonished and replied that there was no waste. The less valuable byproducts, such as bone and useless parts of the meat, are treated in modern destruction plants for the extraction of fat for technical use, and also for the manufacture of meat meal, bone meal and pressed meat. Some of these articles are mixed with fodder for the animals, and there is a great demand for such products because of their nutritive value. Dried blood is made from the fresh blood, and the manager told me that he always had a market for this product. These fertilizers are sold to the members of the slaughterhouse who have supplied the house with pigs, thus the cost to the farmer is considerably lower than if he bought from a fertilizer dealer. The profits from these products a:re also divided among the members at the end of the year. The Danish factories produce almost 1,000 tons of bristles annually. These were formerly a total waste, but now they are properly treated and used in upholstering calrs or furniture and for stuffing mattresses. Even the glands of the pigs are not wasted, for medical science uses them in treating diseases. 
Conservation is probably more widely practiced by the farmers than by any other group. Almost every dairy barn has its sunken tank into which the liquid manure and wash water drains. During the winter when the cows are kept in the barns for the night, a dairy hand gathers the manure every morning, throws it into a specially constructed pit, and covers it with a layer of straw. During the day anything that will decay, such as dead weeds, vines, flower stalks and fallen leaves, are thrown into the pit. Day after day this process is repeated until the end of winter, and by this time the farmer has enough compost to fertilize all his crops. On many farms the only fertilizer that is bought is for truck patches where special plants need certain plant foods. 
On many farms the cows are allowed to graze in the 
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 fields day and night, and in some instances the manure is gathered from the fields and put into the pit until the spring planting season. But generally it is not moved but allowed to fertilize the field where it has fallen. 
At a Folk High School I watched a wheelbarrow brigade fill in a boggy piece of land with dirt from a nearby hillside, and the supervisor informed me that he would grow a crop of oats there next year. "But," I said, "isn't that job requiring too much time and labor?" He re.,. plied, "The boys are here, and they have to do an hour's manual labor every day, so why not utilize it by doing some practical piece of work?" 
Sometimes farmers living close to city limits will haul the city garbage to their farms and use it to fill in some boggy piece of land which they hope to bring under cultivation in the near future. 
A railroad engineer was showing me around the engine shops. I remarked that the engines were much smaller than the ones we have in America. "Yes," he said, "but our coal bill is much smaller than yours, too." 
Oftentimes the entrances and corridors of apartment houses and buildings are equipped with automatic light switches. There's no waste of electricity if a careless person leaves the lights burning because the lights turn themselves off after four or five minutes. 
Perhaps you're having coffee in a Danish home and your companion across the table remarks, "Man spiser godt i Danmark." As your hostess brings another plate of cakes and a bowl of stewed, fresh apples piled high with whipped cream you feel like adding a lusty aye, aye! because your f.riend has taken the thought, if not the Danish, right out of your head. "We eat well in Denmark" is undoubtedly true. The Danes eat well and often, but even in the matter of food, so close to their heart, their sense of economy does not desert them. Danish housewives do remarkable things with articles of food that many house- 
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 wives in America would decline to' take advantage ofelderberries, for instance. They're made into a fragrant, wine-red soup, which is served steaming hot with little cubes of toasted, buttered bread floating about in it. Elderberries grow everywhere and are as free as air. Another economy dish made by the cook here at the Folk School is "beer soup," made of the crumbs of black rye bread. All sorts of fruits and berries are made into delicious dessert "soups." (One of the comforts of Danish life is that you are allowed to crumble your toasted biscuits into your soup.) 
Almost everything that grows on the land or in the sea is commandeered by the Danes for their tables. Every conceivable kind of fish, even the little white oreatures that hop around in the sand on the beaches and bite the sun bathers are gathered for the pot, though they're hardly as large as a thumb nail. Smoked eels must be a favorite because they're displayed in numerous shop windows and haggled over in the market place on Saturdays. Every sort of fowl, fish, animal and vegetable eventually emerges as Smorrebrod. Smorrebrod is any sort of meat, cheese, salad, or indeed anything edible, piled on buttered bread and eaten with knife and fork, the nearest approach to a sandwich one can find in Denmark. 
On our school campus there are several thickets of rose vines. When they bloomed this summer they looked like the Cherokee roses of Georgia. Now they are covered with small red apple-like berries. Last Sunday several women who live near the school were moving from one vine to another, picking the ,rose apples and dropping them into a basket. They were having a difficult time avoiding the thorns and I wondered why they should take the trouble to spend a Sunday afternoon in such an odd, painstaking manner. 
"What," I asked, "are you going to do with those small objects?" 
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 "vVhy," said one, "we're going to make marmalade of them." 
And that, I suppose, is the latest wrinkle in thrift. 
Grundtvig, the Savior of Denmark 
During the nineteenth century the small state of Denmark underwent a complete transformation. In 1800 it was a backward little kingdom just emerging from feudalism, and in the course of the succeeding sixty-five years suffered national bankruptcy, collapse of agriculture, and two crushing defeats in war. That it rose from a position flat on its back to become the co-operative commonwealth it is today, a pioneer in many fields of progress and a democracy whose rural civilization is unequalled by most countries, is due to many causes. Influences from other European countries, from the American and French Revol uUons, and from her own past, all had their effects on Denmark's progress, but it was the influence of individual personalities that counted most. Popular education, the work of the Folk Schools particularly, enabled the Danish people to meet changing conditions peacefully and intelligently, and it was the potent influence of individual personality that established general education in Denmark. 
Frederick Severin Grundtvig, Danish poet, preacher and patriot was born in 1783. He died in 1872, and in his eighty-nine years he accomplished, with the help of a few followers, a reform affecting. the church, the state and the people. He was famous in his day as a poet, and considered a great influence in the development of Scandinavian culture and religion. He was a student of Norse mythology and translator of Scandinavian sagas, but he achieved fame by revolting against the scholarship of his times. He conceived the idea of the Folk School, and in these his spirit lives on, enriching the lives of the farmers and the workeil"s in the towns by bringing them into contact with their country's culture and history. 
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 Grundtvig's fame is more a matter of the heart than the head, for all his knowledge. 
His father was a simple, country parson, born of a long line of clergy and scholairs, and his mother was descended from the old and noble family of Hvide. She knew all the old folk tales and songs of Denmark, and while her son was still a small child, she inspired him with a love of history. He came to know well the stories of the valiant Norsemen, of his country and its past glories. When he was nine years old he began his six yearg preparation for the Latin School. In later years he said he'd learned nothing at the Latin School, where the pupils were required to memorize long passages of useless material, and where instruction was tiresome and lifeless. 
At the time Grundtvig was graduated from the Divinity School of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark was in an unfortunate state of affairs. The bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, the loss of her fleet and the war with England which followed seemed to have stunned the entire country into apathy. There was no national spirit among the people. After the state's bankruptcy in 1813 until the year 1834, there was peace and prosperity, but even of this period Grundtvig wrote: 
"The state was heavily in debt, the value of property fell greatly and activities of all kinds slackened; all seemed to await the eairly coming of the Judgment Day. Even the bookworms stopped their boring in books and thieves hardly took the trouble to steal. It was the time when the cholera, like the black death in earlier days, devastated Europe. Although Denmark did not suffer much physically from the epidemic, it did profoundly affect the spirits of the people. As a matter of fact, thousands literally died of letha~gy." 
Grundtvig sorrowed over the state of his country and dreamed of plans to arouse a feeling of national pride among his countrymen. Believing that modern Denmark 
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 could be inspired by the heroic figures of Norse mythology, he turned to poetry and the stories of the Norse gods. He published essays on the Norse cults, and in 1808 his Norse Mythology was published and gained for him a reputation as a poet. He learned Icelandic so that he could translate Snorre's Norwegian chronicle. He translated Saxo's Danish chronicle from the Latin and the song of Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon. But after all his efforts he failed in his purpose, for he couldn't reach the people with his writings. Education was still reserved for the aristocracy and the clergy and the people as a whole could not read. Greatly disappointed, Grundtvig abandoned his belief in the "written word" and became a man of action. He transferred his faith to the "spoken word." 
Meanwhile, he had engaged in a spiritual controversy with theologians who claimed that only scholars could interpret the Bible. Grundtvig, who said that "a peasant's soul must necessarily be as dear to God as a professor's," emerged from the dispute with a clearer conviction that Christianity is canied on by the "living word." He began to think of education for the people transmitted in the same manner-by word of the mouth f.rom teacher to pupil. He wanted more than anything else freedom for the people and the clergy-freedom for all the clergy, high and low. To achieve this vast twofold purpose would require a reform of the church from within, and a reform of the country's educational system. Grundtvig began a lifelong fight for these two causes, and in the end he was successful. As a result of his work the following reforms were achieved in the Church. of Denmark: abolition of compulsory baptism; grant of authority to each parish; and freedom for the people to organize independent congregations within the church. In the year 1853, on Grundtvig's seventieth birthday, King Frederick VII appointed him a bishop and all the Scandinavian countries united to honor him. 
Grundtvig's success in his educational venture cannot 
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 be estimated. The work he began will go on as long as Denmark produces young men and women to be educated. Looking about him in 1830, he saw schools where the children of the upper classes could learn the classics, the three R's, and schools where they might be trained for the professions. Nowhere could he find a school for the people, where young farmers and workers of the middle classes might be better trained for their work and given a share of their country's culture. Scandinavian languages and history at this time were ignored even by the four universities of the North: Upsala, Copenhagen, Christiana and Lund. They had become poor imitations of the University of Paris and would have perished but for the fact that a university degree was necessary to young men who wished appointments to government positions. Grundtvig wrote of the conditions of that time: "People in our days shout themselves hoarse about freedom and culture, and that is certainly what we all need, but the proposals for attaining them have generally the same fundamental fault as Plato's Republic, where the guardians of freedom and culture themselves swallow them both up, so that the people for all their labor get only proud tyrants to obey, to support, and, if that can comfort them, to admire and deify." General education of the people would be the surest way to popular culture and freedom, and to bring this about would require a new type of school. 
Until the end of his life, Grundtvig worked constantly to bring the people to see this need for "schools of life." He developed his plans and gave them to the public by every means he could command. He lectured, flooded the country with a stream of pamphlets, and expounded his topic in his private correspondence and conversation. The schools he planned and dreamed of establishing would be lor adults and open to the people as a whole. History, the mother tongue and singing were to be the chief subjects of the curriculum, and all subjects should be taught in their relation to each other. His Folk School, 
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 as it came to be called, was designed for adults who had already had practical experience at some kind of work and were to return to their old positions with more patriotism, higher ideals, and with a keener interest in their country's resources, industries and folk life. There should be no examinatipns, no degrees, for the students would come to the Folk School merely for the sake of learning. The school should be practical but not vocational, and no classical subjects should be taught. Only living subjects with an interest for the common people should find places in the Folk School curriculum, for the school was intended primarily for the enrichment of the lives of the common people who had no use for Latin and other classical knowledge. 
Instruction in the Folk School should be for the most part in the form of lectures, given by the teacher directly to the pupils. The teachers should not lecture from copious notes and statistical charts, but should be so well acquainted with and interested in their subject that they could give their thoughts to the pupils in a way to arouse interest and appreciation. Trades and crafts were not to be taught, as special schools were required for these subjects. Grundtvig believed, however, that the school should be situated near a farm, or that the school should manage a farm of its own, and that a workshop should be conducted in connection with the school, so that the pupils might see for themselves how such work should be done properly, and by experts capable of setting the best examples. 
Grundtvig's ideas of educational reform extended to all grades of schools. He was interested in the primary and secondary schools, and he dreamed of establishing a great University of the North which would take the place of the four existing ones. But it was his strong conviction that youth is the important time of life, that the years between chilhood and manhood are the decisive years, showing whether or not the early influences of home and school will survive. And so Grundtvig con- 
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 centrated his efforts on establishing a general, liberal education for the youth of the country. He considered eighteen the proper age for entering the Folk School. 
Grundtvig's first attempt to put his ideas into practice was his effort to remodel an old academy at Soroe. King Christian VIU, who was friendly to Grundtvig, in 1847 gave instructions to have Soroe changed into the kind of school Grundtvig proposed. But the King died a few months later and Grundtvig brought the matter up in Parliament. The Minister of Education at the time was a confirmed classicist, as were most of the members of Parliament, and he told Grundtvig frankly that he had no use for a school which was to deal only with things Danish. Grundtvig then gave up all hope of enlisting state aid for his plans. It was just as well that he had failed, because the schools eventually were established one by one as the result of private initiative, and though they would receive state financial help later, were free for all time from political interference. They were all modeled on the general plan of Grundtvig's proposals, but came gradually to take on characteristics of their founders and to develop in different directions, so that today no two of them are exactly alike. In many cases the people of a neighborhood have had a direct share in the founding and actual building of a school, and thus the Folk Schools have become really the schools of the people. 
The first Folk School was established in 1844 in North Schleswig by a few men who had a strong sense of national pride and were determined to preserve Danish customs and speech here on the threshold of Germany. At first the school concentrated so strongly on this one purpose that it could hardly be called a Folk School in the broader sense. After the war with Germany in 1864 Schleswig was ceded to Germany and the school was removed to Askov, just above the border, and since has grown to be the most important of all the Folk Schools. 
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 It was Grundtvig, a scholar and aristocrat, who conceived the idea of the Folk School. It \vas Rristian Rold, a man of the people, and possessing the patience and tenacity of the peasant and a full knowledge of the people and their ways, who put the idea into practice. He became the pioneer of the Folk School movement. 
Rold was the son of a shoemaker, and wholeheartedly democratic. He had been educated to teach, but his methods of teaching were so different fro]Il those in general use at the time that he could not find a steady position. He forbade the children in his classes to memorize, and held their attention by telling them stories from Danish history. When he refused to have his pupils memorize Balle's Book of Catechisms he was refused a government position. At a loss to know \vhat to do, he decided to accompany a missionary to Smyrna and act as his assistant. Rold remained in Smyrna two years, and in Tnrkey three more years, making his living as a bookbinder. 'When he had saved enough money, he started home. He went by sea from Smyrna to Italy. At Trieste he bought a cart, loaded it with all his belonging, and set out for Denmark, pushing his cart. He walked the entire distance, a thousand miles, and arrived home in less than two months. 
After the war with Germany, in which he had fought as a VOlunteer, RoId secured a position as tutor for the children of Pastor Kirkedal of RysIinge. He obtained the pastor's permission to make an experiment, and added a few slightly older peasant boys from the neighborhood to his class. The results must have pleased him, for the next year he resigned his position and set about opening a small school of his own. He bought a little property in Ryslinge with his savings, but he had no money with which to build a schoolhouse. He coni'mlted Grundtvig, who suggested that they appeal to persons known to be interested in education. Grundtvig himself headed the list with a subscription of a hundred crowns, and in a short time they had raised twelve 
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 hundred crowns. Kold was a skilled workman, and with the help of neighboring peasants who gave their services without pay, he built the schoolhouse and a dwelling for himself and about twenty students. The school opened in November, 1851, with fifteen pupils. 
Kold's school was a modest beginning, but its influence was powerful and established the idea of the Folk School among the Danish country people. The system of management and the methods of instruction used by Kold were adopted by the schools founded later. He believed that the first duty of the school is the development of the personality, rather than the mere imparting of knowledge. To help the student to find himself, to know himself and his country, to love his fellowman-this was the chief purpose of the Folk School. The student himself is the important consideration, and the knowledge he is able to acquire is secondary. 
At present every third man or woman in rural Denmark attends a Folk High School. The Folk Schools have played an important part in the social development of Denmark and have become a cultural force. Their worth to a country whose economic and political leaders are mostly farmers is incalculable. 
Agricultural Education Among the Danes 
I have visited Denmark's largest agricultural educational center, the Royal Agricultural College in Copenhagen, and what I saw there convinced me that it can compare favorably with most of our colleges in teaching the theory of agriculture. In its practical teaching it is probably superior to many of our own because of its intimate contact with practical farming. 
It is from this one college that Denmark draws most of her advisers and teachers whose responsibilities are very similar to those of our country agents and vocational teachers. The Danish state sponsors well planned programs of land conservation, livestock breeding, dairy- 
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 ing and reforestation, and from this central university she draws trained leaders for these undertakings. The students of this college, and those of the Agricultural Folk High Schools, necessarily follow the road from the plow to the school, for the one entrance requirement is that students must have had at least two years of actual farm training. 
Although the Royal Agricultural College is located in the largest city of northern Europe, the students have abundant opportunity to put their theories into practice in surrounding communities. One of the greatest livestock programs of the world furnishes laboratories for the veterinarians. Hundreds of creameries and dairies supply practical training for those who wish to become dairy or creamery experts. The forestry students are trained in the nation's vast reforestation projects. Adjoining the college are laboratories equipped with modern dairy and farm machinery. The headquarters of the co-operative societies are always open to students who are interested in this field. 
The visitor to this college receives the impression that the faculty is determined to school their students in the practical as well as in the theoretical, thus graduating men who have not only the required training for leadership but firsthand knowledge of farming as welL 
But it is not at this Royal College that most of Denmark's young farmers receive their training, for most of them cannot afford it. One-third of Denmark's country boys and girls attend the Folk High Schools. These schools do not teach agriculture, but they were founded, with the help of the farmers, for the purpose of giving a general, cultural education, with a view to the needs of farm life. Founded on the ideals of Grundtvig, Denmark's famed educator of the nineteenth century, they stress the development of personality and the importance of helping the student to understand himself and his country. History, Danish literature, folklore, civics, Den- 
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 mark's resources and industries, singing and folk dancing are the subjects taught, although courses and methods vary from school to school. These schools are all privately owned, generally by the headmaster himself. They are simple, inexpensive to attend, and require no examinations! 
Midway between the Royal Agricultural College and the Folk High Schools, and a blend of the two, are the Agricultural Folk High Schools. These also are privately owned schools fashioned after the Folk High Schools, though in some cases they are partly supported by the state. (The state aid to these schools, and to the Folk High Schools is mostly in the form of tuition for students unable to pay their own way.) These schools offer five and nine months courses, the short term being for those boys who expect to return to farms, and the longer one for those who wish to go on to the Royal College for further training. 
These schools are operated in connection with complete experimental farms. The students are often carried on excursions to co-operatives, slaughterhouses, well managed farms and other places of interest. In most of these schools very little time is spent in teaching theory or the economic structure of agriculture, the emphasis being on the actual performance of practical methods. 
The Agricultural High School3 are co-educational, and they have courses in home economics and gymnastics for women. At these schools one is impressed by the simplicity of the buildings, which in some cases were built by the students themselves with the help of the faculty. They do not resemble American colleges, and look more like large well kept farms than anything else. Indeed many of them are large farms where demonstrations, field trips and experiments play the major part. 
Of no small importance is the apprenticeship system which is functioning at present in this country. This consists of projects sponsored by private citizens who 
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 convert their farms and homes into miniature colleges for twenty-two or thirty boys whose ages range from seventeen to nineteen years. During the winter months these students spend most of their time studying and attending lectures. In the spring and summer the boys are divided into two groups and take turns working in the fields and attending lectures. This system of mixing study with work is kept up until the harvest season, when all take part in the work. This apprenticeship plan is of great benefit to young farmers who cannot afford even the small expense of attending the Agricultural High Schools. 
The local co-operative societies sponsor a similar plan. They approve large farms where two or three young sons of small farmers can live and work as apprentices. These boys receive a small compensation and are always under the careful supervision of their employer-teacher, who has been selected for his success in his field. These young apprentices are not given separate living quarters, but are accepted as members of the family and treated as such. 
It seems to me that Denmark's success in agricultural education is due to two causes: the maximum amount of good is realized from a minimum amount of investment; and some kind of training is within reach of every country boy and girl. 
In the Agricultural High School the farm is not only a laboratory. It is also a means of supporting the institution. Life there is simple and the students are not given a short dose of superficial luxury which might destroy their desire to return to the farm and a simpler standard of living. Terms are short, so that the students are not kept from their work more than five or nine months of the year. 
In our southern states we have thousands of boys and girls in farming communities who never intend to enter college, where they would have to spend nine months 
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 for four years to receive a diploma, and where living expenses are comparatively high. Except for rudimentary training in elementary and secondary schools, they are beyond the educational pale. Perhaps some day the need for schools offering short and intensive practical and cultural courses will make itself felt so strongly that such schools will be established as the result of widespread interest. The Danish Folk School was the result of just such a need, and was founded by private initiative. It has spread to all the Scandinavian countries, where at present it is the most popular form of adult education. 
American agricultural colleges have been busy training young men for public jobs, and as soon as that field becomes crowded it will be necessary to adapt courses to a wider range, to reach the boys who can spend two or three years in school before returning to the farm. 
Denmark Is Fascinating 
Denmark is one of the most fascinating countries in the world! The good qualities of the Danes are evident in the very appearance of the countryside. They have built the most perfect democracy and the most ideal civilization that has yet been devised. You will be interested to know that I have received a few letters from close friends calling my hand on exaggerating about Denmark but it can hardly be done. 
My Danish is still improving but not as rapidly as it did at first. I can get most of the thoughts of a lecture but the Danes speak so rapidly that I constantly lose out, and am not able to recover before the lecture is over. I get better every time I attend a class. I have made up my mind to learn this language if it takes another year to do it. It is very easy for me to carry on an ordinary conversation, but I must improve my ability to get a lecture in a more thorough fashion. 
This has been our busiest month yet. I have to do 
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 my part of the manual labor here at the school, while attending all the Danish and Engliih lectures I can, and do my traveling when time allows. Mr. Manniche is a great believer in having the students do a certain amount of manual labor every day. He has had trouble with almost every American who has been here, so we have determined to do even more than is necessary in orde,r to insure our good standing. My wife works two hours daily in the kitchen for this ilt required of all the girls. 
Due to the cold weather most of my traveling is now being done by train. We still have snow on the ground that fell the twelfth of November. The ponds have been freezing every night and the ice is now thick enough to skate on. 
We have planned to remain here until the end of April. My wife is studying German, doing some typing for Mr. Manniche and helping different women here at the school in their kitchen so she can learn to prepare Danish dishes. 
Weare making so many friends and seeing so many things that Elsinore now seems very much like home. We have a friend who is the engineer on a train running from here to Copenhagen and ten or twelve farm family friends; on this part of the island, the owner of a bookshop down town, the pastor of the St. Marie church, and several professors in various schools near here. We have had tea with all of them, and we never get enough visiting in these homes and of seeing what they are like. Every visit brings out something new and interesting. 
The gardener here at the school has a new job supervising the work on a large farm near Hans Christian Andersen's home town. The gardener has invited us to live with him for a week, or ten days, so we can see the country over there. We will probably stop there on our return from Askov the first of April or last of March. 
The Huberts from Fisk University are living in Copen- 
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 hagen so that he can be close to the libraries and the professors at the Agricultural College. He has received very good co-operation from the faculty and the library staff. Professor Larsen is constantly giving him an hour or two to discuss the problems of land distribution. He was born in South Georgia and has an excellent background and education. He will live in Copenhagen until next March or April when he will probably come here so he will be closer to farming communities. It's very encouraging to see a negro from Georgia with his ability. His wife has a dancing class in Copenhagen and she is teaching the Danes how to do the IBig Apple! 
Here at Elsinore we have two Polish students, two Czechs, two Chinese and two English students who are studying the same things that I am. All of them, except the English students, have scholarships for three years. I think this is unnecessary because Denmark is so small, and things are so easy to learn, that I wouldn't know what to do with myself for three years. One year here, and one year divided between Finland, Norway, Sweden and England wouldn't be so bad, but three years in Denmark are far too long. I notice that these students constantly delay making some trip, or doing some job, merely because they have so long in which to do it. I like our plan better than any I have yet seen. It keeps one busy, if he does the job, and yet it gives enough time to do things rather thoroughly. 
Do you remember the children's books on American farm and city life that you gave me to distribute among my friends here? I bought more of them at one of the five and ten cent stores and have given them to different persons. Now the professor in Copenhagen, who received one of them for his little boy, has taken a great interest in them and wants to introduce them, or something similar, into the public schools for beginners in English. All the Danish schools begin teaching English very early and he thinks this is the best thing he has seen for this purpose. Could you send me eight or ten 
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 different kinds so that he can have them to show to some of the others who might be interested? Several of the elementary teachers have been delighted with them as materials for teaching English. 
I have been thinking a lot about how we can use to advantage in Georgia the many useful lessons we have \earned here. I think often of the vision, patience and courage of Grundtvig and what he has meant to the Danes. I constantly compare their previous situation with ours in Georgia; the two are identical in so many respects. 
Grundtvig was disappointed when he failed to rally his people with his first works. It was because they were not able to read and understand, so I am afraid that our programs in the South are not having the good effects that they should because of the same trouble. We need culture and self-respect among our people more than any other one thing. 
Weare trying to pour farm reform down their throats but many of them are not capable of understanding the real meaning of it all. I am convinced that we must put more stress on education and take these other government sponsored programs along with it, or all of them will come to a meaningless end. 
Thirty-five of the distressed Georgia farmers that were under my supervision when I was an agent for the Farm Security Administration could not sign their names, and I am wondering what will happen to them when they are taken from under such supervision. They have little ability to plan ahead, and for this reason their efforts will be wasted unless a great change takes place. Do you think we can bring this about? 
Denmark, a Land of Small Farms 
From the middle of the 19th century until the present date Denmark has been determined in her efforts to reduce the number of her tenants, and today she can 
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 boast that every farmer is the owner of his home. Through all trial and error methods Denmark has had one great aim in mind-that of dividing the country into small farms and leaving it in the hands of the farmers. Sixty-six per cent of the farms in Denmark now average but 33 acres apiece! 
From what I have seen and heard regarding agriculture in Denmark, I have drawn the conclusion that the country is what it is today because of the wide distribution of land ownership and other factors which can be traced to this cause for their origin. Cooperation, better housing conditions, superior breeds of livestock, preservation of the soil, a widespread program of education and the very beauty of her countryside have all been affected, if not made possible, by the great number of Denmark's farmers who own their land. The people's pride and love for the soil have been raised to a new level by the almost miraculous success which their efforts at parceling out the land have attained. I have visited many small holders and found their condition to be the fulfillment of the desires of an agricultural reformer. Indeed, the reforms that Denmark has accomplished deserve all the attention she is receiving from the rest of the world. 
In the Year Book published by the Agricultural Council, we find that the farms averaging more than 247 acres number only 2,100; those between 30 and 200 acres number 90,000; and those of less than 30 acres, 111,000. These figures tell a very important story, for farms only large enough to supply the family with food and enough cash to purchase clothes and pay for the homes play the largest part in Danish agriculture. Because of this the national income is distributed not to a small number of large holders, but to a vast majority of the farmers who require only the work of their families to manage their farms. These small farms are operated in the same way as the larger ones, and if there is less efficiency .because of the small amount of capital invested, I have 
105 
 
 not been able to detect it. Statistics covering a period of years show that a greater profit per capital invested was realized from the moderate holders than was realized from the larger or smaller groups. This statement is true provided the family operates the farm, which is generally the case. 
This success has not been acquired by methods as simple as a visitor to this country might think. More than a hundred years ago Denmark realized that ignorance was the greatest enemy to her future, and from this understanding arose a statewide system of education to prepare her people for the opportunities they would eventually receive. Since 1814 the public schools have been busy training the people in practical ways of making a living, so the population has grown into the present conditions, and was not plunged into a program for which it was not p,repared. It would be folly to say that every man in Georgia is capable of farming in such a way as to pay for his land, even in a lifetime, because the most uneducated is wholly unprepared, and he cannot be made ready for a reform program until he has learned something of a higher type of farming. It will be necessary to educate him before he can become the best type of landowner. 
The endeavors to distribute the land in Denmark began with an act in the year 1899 which established the "small holder." The percentage of tenants at this date compares very closely with the present condition of American farms today. By 1905 the number of lease holders fell to 10.1 per cent and the free holders rose to 89.9 per cent. This is remarkable proof of what can be accomplished when the public becomes aware of the great need for such reform. The act of 1899 was intended to create farm ownership, and to support its aim made it possible for the state to grant to farmers loans amounting to nine-tenths of the value of their property. The one-tenth was always supplied by the borrower. Since that date the laws have been amended to enforce parceling out 
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 on a larger scale. In an act of 1919, dealing with the establishment of independent farms by dividing large ones into smaller ones, money was loaned to the farmers to purchase these farms and the title remained in the state, making the farmer a kind of tenant to the state. Although this plan has not proved successful in some instances, 20,000 small holders were created. 
The interest of the public expressed itself in the organization of many credit associations which have helped in carrying on the land division program. This is an example of the ability of the Danish farmers to form organizations to solve their own problems, and is in contrast with our present condition in America. Our government has caused Americans to begin thinking about better farming, but if the public interest grows and finally succeeds in bringing about a reform, it must be kept alive by the organization of communities. It seems impossible to expect the government to do more than point the way and to furnish ideals which will find expression through local interest in the farming communities. With the help of our large number of agricultural agents, teachers and other leaders who are in daily contact with the rural population, it seems quite possible to unite our people in an effective effort to make a better farm life in Georgia. 
Great Are The Danish Co-operatives 
To say that every Danish farmer is financially in good condition, or that through co-operation he is able to sell and buy everything at his own price, would be misrepresenting the facts. He probably is not and has never been as prosperous as he would like to be. He has had good years and bad years just as farmers in any country, but through his ability to work with his neighbors for the common good, he has succeeded in building a system which standardizeiS his products and stabilizes his market. 
Necessity arising from misfortune has played a big 
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 part in Denmark's development. Defeat by Germany in 1864 caused her to turn attention to domestic problems and acted as a strong impetus to education and economic reforms. The Folk High Schools for adults, often called Denmark's contribution to education, were founded during these years of national distress preceding and following the war. The crash of the grain market in the "80's" forced .Denmark to turn to dairy crops. And again, the necessity for exportation forced her to develop good products and to market them in the best possible manner. This, in turn, required organization of the farmers into intelligent bodies of men capable of working together for the economic salvation of agriculture. Thus we can trace the highly developed farm-andexport industry of Denmark to its beginnings in depression and desperate need. Without disparaging the character and ideals of the early leaders in the movement, we can say that the Danes were forced into co-operation. 
Though the first co-operative societies were founded in England, Denmark has applied their principles more thoroughly to community and farm life than any other country. The average Danish farmer is a member of from eight to twelve co-operative societies, each organized for particular purposes. He sends his milk to a co-operative creamery, through which he exports his butter in collaboration with the other members. The creamery makes no profit, for every member is given his share of the proceeds according to the amount and quality of the milk he has furnished. 
In the same way Danish farmers cure their bacon for exportation to England, and export their eggs through the Egg Export Society. The farmer will also belong to co-operative buying societies for foodstuffs, fertilizers, building materials, and general household articles. He can borrow money from a co-operative land-mortgage bank, or from his local co-operative village bank. He may buy his insurance from co-operative insurance societies. It is impossible for anyone except an expert on the subject 
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 to give a complete outline of the many ways in which co-operation has been applied in Denmark. 
The co-operative system has made it possible to adapt production quickly to a changing market. It enables the small farmer to gain recognition for his products, whereas in the old system the big farmer could buy more machinery and land and overcome the competition of small farmers by mass production. It takes most of the marketing work from the farmer's hands. A member of the dairy co-operative milks his cows and sets the cans of milk on a stand near the road. His part in actually marketing the product ends there, for the circuit rider from the cooperative picks it up, carries it to the creamery, and brings the cans back to the farmer that afternoon full of skim milk or buttermilk. The farmer receives his payment check every week. The bacon and egg cooperatives are almost as simple. 
It is interesting for a Georgia farmer to study this system, because the same conditions which prevail in the South today fostered the growth of co-operatives here in Denmark. Ungraded products, inferior qualities and irregular supplies forced the Danish farmer to co-operate in order to keep his market. 
The egg co-operative societies furnish an interesting example. Previously all the egg producers were in direct conflict among themselves and were reducing themselves to poverty because of unfair competition. Producers often held eggs from a period when prices were low until prices were higher. After the wholesaler had purchased them, he had no way of tracing the bad ones to the producer. Thus the quality of his whole lot was lowered. A foreign buyer would not depend on a market so uncertain. Now, since the egg co-operative societies are established, a Danish egg sold in England can be traced by its marks to the co-operative society which exported it, from there to the farmer who sold it to the society, and from the farmer's files to the very hen that laid it. All 
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 Danish eggs are stamped with the date of laying, the number of the society, and the number of the farmermember, and they are packed according to size and color. If a bad egg is bought by a housewife, it is brought to the attention of the farmer who sold it to the co-operative. 
Probably the world's best bacon is that sold to Germany and England by Denmark, and its high quality is due to the standards set by the bacon co-operatives. 
Purchasing co-operative societies were established as the need arose. Because of the high standard set for the quality of meats and dairy products, experiment stations found that certain feeds must be purchased from abroad to produce these goods. The Danish farmer buys his imported feeds from his local purchasing society and saves a considerable sum. 
With the success of the marketing and purchasing co-operatives, the whole community life of the country underwent a marked change. Where neighbors had been engaging in cut-throat competition, they were now working together for the common good. 
When one reads of the conditions in this country at the time the co-operatives were first adopted, he finds that they correspond remarkably with the conditions of agriculture in Georgia and other southern states today. The state of the land, the standard of living among the rural population and the methods of marketing closely resemble Georgia's at the present time. The South, however, does not need definite rules for production and marketing, because every district has its own needs and its own particular products, which it must handle in its own way. But if the small farmer is to compete fairly with the mass producer, whether in selling in his own home town, in another state, or for export, there are certain principles which must be regarded. No district can develop a market for its products until the people in that district know something about the problems of marketing and how to deal with them. 
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 Why does the Atlanta retailer handle so many articles of food that have been shipped in from other states? Why does the Georgia butcher find that he can make more profit from western beef than from beef grown on Georgia ranches? And why do Georgia merchants import butter for home use when so many of our county creameries have closed their doors for lack of markets? Clearly it is not because of any hostile feeling towards Georgia farmers, but because wholesale merchants must buy products which are of a specific grade, and packed accordingly. Not only the wholesalers, but the retailers and the customers also prefer products which they know to be of a good and unvarying quality. The farmers who have no way of marketing their goods efficiently must get what they can for them. 
Produce shipped from one state to another is generally packed according to grade and carefully inspected. An Atlanta groceryman can go into a wholesale house and order a bushel of home-grown potatoes and not be sure that he will get the correct weight. Neither does he know whether the good ones are on top and the inferior ones on the bottom, nor would it be possible for him to put them in a specific grade. Yet he can buy in the same house a bushel of potatoes grown in another state and be quite sure of getting the right amount and the particular grade he desires. 
The average curb market in Georgia is one of pathetic speculation and competition. There one finds numbers of producers bidding against each other for the housewives' week-end trade. Many men who have brought a bushel of fruit to the market and haven't been able to dispose of it by the end of the day will sell it for almost nothing rather than carry it back home and incur a total loss. And after all, a little is better than nothing. This helpless army of producers will number in the thousands, and there seems to be no hope for them until they have been trained to unite their efforts to help one another. 
It is foolish to think that this change can be made in 
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 a short time, for first the groundwork must be laid. This preparation will consist of educating the people to the feasibility of such a program. I have asked many workers in the co-operative movement how the Danish farmers succeeded in bringing about such a radical change in their fortunes in so short a time. Unanimously they have replied that it was mainly because the Folk High Schools and the agricultural schools have been at work among the rural population long enough to produce in it an open mind and a wIllingness to follow practical leaders who were working in its interest. 
The Structure of the Co-operative Society The following quotation, including the table showing the differences between a co-operative society and a company, is from an article by Robert Starmose in the Clearing House. Mr. Starmose is a teacher of English in the Danish Co-operative College at Middefahrt, Denmark. This school is a special kind of Folk High School, established in 1931 by the big co-operative societies of Denmark. Its purpose is not only to train employees of these societies, but to provide a background of sympathetic understanding of the co-operative movement. "The co-operative principles are radically different f,rom the acquisitive principles prevailing in the present economic system, and the following comparison between a co-operative society and an ordinary company will show the most important differences: 
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 The principles of mutual., The principles of acquisi- 
 
ity embodied in the Co-op- tion embodied in the capi- 
 
erative Society: 
 
talist company: 
 
Capital 
Capital is provided by the members and a maximum rate of interest is fixed by the rules of the society. 
Net Income 
The net proceeds are distributed to membe,rs accord. ing to each member's sales or purchases through the society. 
Membership 
Membership is open to everybody (usually a very small entrance fee, preventing no one from joining). 
 
Capital 
Capital is provided by the shareholders, who have the right of getting the profit, ordinarily without any maximum. 
Profit 
The profit is distributed to shareholders according to the amount of capital held by the individual shareholder. 
Membership 
Membership is conditioned by ability to take out at least one share. 
 
Control 
 
Control 
 
Each member has one vote only, regardless of his turnover with or his capital holding in the society. The individual votes. 
 
Each shareholder votes according to the number of shares he holds. Capital votes." 
 
The Nature of the Danish Folk High Schools 
The Folk High School, or adult high school, as it is sometimes called, cannot be compared with the American high school because it is quite a different thing. It is not part of the public school system and it is not a preparation for the university, although many students attend the university after a year or two at the folk school. Its purpose is to give to students of eighteen or over a gen- 
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 eraI cultural knowledge of ordinary school subjects, of their country, its history, resources and folk lore, and to help them to adjust themselves to the community. In other words, it tries to teach students how to live. For this reason, Grundtvig, who founded it, called it the "school for life." 
After having lived for several months in various folk schools here, I am still amazed at the attitude of the Danish students who seem to come to these schools with no thought, whatever, but that of learning for learning's sake. Considering that the folk schools have no courses in which students may specialize (except the schools of special types), that they offer no degrees which would help the graduate to a better position, and that they have no ball teams or expensive stadiums, it is remarkable that over six thousand young men and women attend them yearly. Some receive financial help from the state, but the vast majority pay their own way. 
All Danish children must attend the public schools from the age of seven to fourteen, and because of smallness of the country, attendance can be strictly enforced. In their seven years in the public schools Danish children study not only the usual grammar school subjects, but three or four years of English or German as well. Such a crowded program leaves but little time for creative work. Because of this, the Folk High School has been of invaluable service in giving students practice in thinking for themselves. Generally they are allowed to choose their own subjects. History and literature, subjects not intensively taught in the public schools, are stressed in the folk schools. 
It was the intention of the founders of the folk schools to make them schools for the entire youth of the country. In this they have not been entirely successful, because the schools have drawn almost all their support from the farming population. Of the students attending folk schools today, fifty per cent are children of farmers, fourteen per 
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 cent of small holders, five per cent of industrial workers, twelve per cent of artisans, and twenty-one per cent represent unclassified groups. Only in recent years have special folk schools for workers been established. They teach their students the claims and the responsibilities of labor. Many of the ordinary folk schools, too, have altered their programs to meet the needs of students from the industrial classes. Whether the folk schools of the future will be meeting grounds for the children of agriculture and labor and draw them closer together by mutual understanding and sympathy, or whether they will be agencies for keeping the two groups apart, none can tell. It is evident, however, that the schools are trying to help both classes of students. 
Whatever the difficulties facing the folk schools, the good effects they have had on Danish life cannot be overstated. It is generally conceded that their work among the farmers has made Denmark's agricultural population the best informed in the world. Danish farm~ ers are students of politics and economics. They hold seats in parliament. They found and support co-operative societies which deal with every phase of buying and selling. They operate the vast export industry on which the economic structure of the country depends. 
Not only in these matters pertaining to public life have the folk schools aided the farmers, for perhaps a greater benefit has been the improvement of home life. Folk school training has taught the farm youth how to work efficiently, and how to spend his spare time pleasantly. It has taught him to appreciate his country's history, its art and its songs. And what is probably most important of all, it has given him the desire to go on reading and learning for the rest of his life. 
Here at Askov, the oldest and largest of the folk ./ schools, our day begins with breakfast at a quarter to eight. After breakfast the students, still sitting at the tables, sing a morning song from the Church of Denma,rk's 
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 hymnal. Often the lectures are begun with a song chosen by the teacher from its relation to his subject. Danish students have a remarkable knowledge of their country's music, of the national songs, the hymns of the church and the folk ballads. 
This recalls to my thoughts one of the Christmas season parties at the International School at Elsinore. A baritone singer from the Royal Opera in Copenhagen had come up to sing for us. The lecture hall was filled with students and guests sitting at long tables. The room was decorated with holly and fir, and lighted with candles. The singer entertained us with many songs, mostly of Danish composition, and then the coffee was brought in and the big hall buzzed with talk and laughter as we ate our cakes and nuts. After coffee, Mr. Ma!1niche called for songs from the students. Students from many countries-from Norway, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Sweden, Newfoundland and China-went up to the platform alone, or in small groups, and sang the songs of their countries. They were not at all daunted by the presence of an opera singer in the audience. 
Classes begin here at quarter after eight, when the day is just growing' light, and continue until long after dark in the short winter days. Meals are served often, for the Danes believe in eating lightly but often. Frokost, a sort of breakfast lunch, comes at ten, dinner at two and supper at seven. When there is a special program in the "Feast Hall," coffee and cakes are served at night. 
It is customary in Danish homes to have coffee or tea at nine o'clock at night, and many of the students find that they can't do without this fifth meal to which they are accustomed. So they keep spirit lamps in their rooms and prepare their own brew and eat cookies before they go to bed. One of the girls asked me if we do this in America, and when I replied that we generally have only three meals a day she exclaimed, "Oh, how wonderful! Then there's not so much work to do." But I assured her that 
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 many Americans would probably prefer eating a little at a time and doing it often. 
Teaching here and in other folk schools is generally in the form of lectures, for it is part of the folk school.--tradition that knowledge must be imparted to the pupil directly by word of mouth rather than from textbooks and charts. The lectures are not formal, and the students are allowed to ask questions whenever they wish. Conversation classes, too, are held, with a teacher leading a small group of pupils in discussion, and in these classes there is free interchange of questions and answers. Conversation instruction has been found particularly effective in the teaching of history and languages. 
At least one period of the day is devoted to a lecture ~ which assembles the entire student body, about three hundred and fifty students, and most of the faculty. No one is required to attend but apparently everyone does. The public is invited, too, and often the village shopkeepers, the doctor, the banker, the blacksmith, farmers living in the village or near it, and often their wives and children gather with the students to hear the lecture. In the old days when the first folk schools were founded these lectures for the whole countryside were generally on subjects of practical farming. Now, since for many years Danish farmers have been educated in the use of proper methods and have become thoroughly familiar with them by study and application, the subjects of the village lectures have taken an academic turn and treat such topics as the history of art, Scandinavian culture and history, politics and current events. 
A description of the high school's methods of teaching would not be complete without mention of the excursions. During the summer at Elsinore the school often chartered "buses" and carried the students to typical villages. We learned that Denmark is not composed entirely of farms and Copenhagen. We went to the homes of the villagers for coffee; we saw the village storks looking down on us 
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 from their high perch on the church towers; and we visited the co-operative stores. We made trips to farms of all types, to bacon factories and creameries. Once we went to a coal mine in southern Sweden and descended a hundred meters into the ground, where we groped about in the passages and talked to the miners. We visited Kullen, a magnificent high point of the Swedish coast jutting out into the Kattegat. This was late in the fall and the ground was covered with ice and snow. We saw deer standing in the fields and running through the forests. Other excursions took us to Copenhagen, where we visited the museums, art galleries and the Royal Theatre. There's little chance for a student in a Danish folk school to remain ignorant of hi~ country. 
This reminds me of the many young men and women in my own state of Georgia who perhaps will never in their lives have the opportunity to travel more than sixty miles from their homes, even to visit their capital city, or to see a first-rate painting or play. There's no way of telling whether they'd be any happier, or any better educated for having seen such things, but it is a certainty that the democratic ideal does not allow withholding from a part of the population a knowledge of its country and some acquaintance with its culture. 
 
The folk schools are simple and democratic. I have 
 
seen the principal of a school locked out of the dining 
 
hall because he was late for dinner. Buildings are com- 
 
 
 
fortable but simple. Operating costs are low. Although 
 
Folk High Schools are boarding schools, the cost of at- 
 
tending them ranges from only ten to twenty-five dollars 
 
a month. 
 
Ordinary school subjects, such as history, mathematics, 
 
chemistry, literature and languages are taught, and there 
 
are also classes in gymnastics, folk dancing and singing. 
 
Many of the schools offer instruction in handcrafts. Here 
 
at Askov the girls may study weaving and needlework. 
 
Most of the schools have a wood-work shop for men 
 
students. 
 
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 The majority of the schools hold two courses annually, a five months winter course for men and a three months summer course for women. This school, however, holds a six months winter course for women and men and a three months course for women in the summer. 
---- The schools are privately owned by a corporation or by 
the principal. In either case, the principal has a free hand in the management of the school. Folk schools in Denmark have never had any political connections, although some of them receive financial aid from the state. 
A visitor at the folk schools is impressed by the harmony existing among students of widely varying types and circumstances. At the International School in Elsinore there were many young men who were using their unemployment payments to pay their expenses. A few of them would be labeled "toughs" by their more fortunate brothers. There was also a fifty-five year old Scotchman, the kind of Scotchman who knows just where and how his ancestors have lived for sixteen generations. He was wealthy and a product of the English public schools and universities, but he handled a pick and shovel alongside these boys during the manual labor period and chatted with them in the common room. Students of all ages, from many countries and many kinds of homes, mingle there in friendliness and good nature. During the six months I lived there I have never heard an unpleasant word exchanged between two students, or between a student and his teacher. 
I do not know whether it would ever be possible to transplant the folk school, product of Danish democracy, to the southern states. But there is no doubt that schools resembling the Folk High School are needed. They would make training in practical and cultural subjects possible for many young men and women: for those who would like to have more schooling than the public school system gives them, but who cannot afford to attend private colleges or universities; for those who do not wish to spend 
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 four years in college, even if they could afford it; for those who didnot complete their public school education, who become interested in attending school again when they're too old to go back to the public high school; and for those who wish to attend a short course just to study some particular subject. Many of the students in Folk High Schools are men and women who have been established in positions for many years, and who have become interested in some subject which they go to the school to study, perhaps only for a few months. 
Although Denmark is but a third as large as Georgia, there are sixty ordinary folk schools, and many more which specialize in gymnastics, co-operations, agriculture and other subjects. The country is literally "peppered" with folk schools. It makes one wonder at the unselfishness and courage of the men who founded them, for there's no material profit to be made from them. Although teachers in folk schools are generally men and women of university training who would fulfill the standards required of teachers in American colleges, they receive salaries that would be considered trifling in America. But the life is pleasant, and the folk school teacher has the satisfaction of dealing with students who are eager to learn and who repay his efforts with hard work and gratitude. 
With schools dotting her landscape in every direction, there's no wonder that Denmark's rural civilization is probably the best ever attained in any country. In the wide agricultural reaches of the South we have need of more schools. We have the students, would-be students. When southerners feel the need strongly enough we shall have the schools. 
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