Saturday, "November 23, 1912.1 .
U5) 1219
Co-operation Gives the Farmers Tfirce Profits Instead of One.
THIS IS . WHY HANS HANSEN MAXES ' A GOOD LIVING ON THIRTEEN
-ACRES, AND WHY , DENMARK IS INDEED A . UTTL LAKD FULL OF
v IIAPPY PEOPLE.--MY VISIT, TO HANSEN . AND HIS NEIGHBORS.-
- ...... . ' By CLARENCE fOZr
TYHE first lest of co-oneration is its effect unon
'. : the Bopla -ivlio co-operate, and. Judged, by,
- - ' this test Danish' co-operation scores bril
liantly. - Denmark is .about . the mast- cheerful-;
'looking country I have ever seen. ""A little land
. IuU:oI Sappy people," I Jieard one , Dane proudly
. can it; -and he tos Tight. Snowing that is a
country aut&.exceedi
not 3iave been anTpriaed to .find -that the people
were nara pui w n xoaive, dui on tne coniiarytan
air jol iinryersal ; thrift -and prosperity ueecms to
cover the wlio
r heat little f arm Noises ai nriy aft painted .-or :
are eleaxvndustrious, healthy, alert; 1 eaw hardly
anybody jcaggBd aid . but few .expensively , dressedr '
animal showing ;its Tibs. Altho there .are numer
ous texceptions, J. hall Always think of;Demmark
as a place where, the people hold their heads up,
thecattle are. sleek. and .glossy, the horses, even
in thefields iiuickstep as if . sift -movements -were
1 a joy, and wbere every .pig curls its tail in well
fed satisfaction. : The:pex capita -wealth is greater
Lthan in any. other European country exceot Ensr-
lahd, I understand, with this important difference: .
, that -whereas 'in England, there is a class of enor
mously rich, and a multitudecof miserably poor,
Denmark is almost equally sree from millionaires
and jpaupers. 'Many ;of our 'poorhoiises are absolutely-empty
one Dane said to me. In short,
Denmark seems to approach more .nearly than any
; other .country-1 bave ever. Been to jny ideal of a
nation- a f place wbere nobody is rich ' enough to
be idle, andnobody poor enough: to beg. v
Hans. Hansen mid His Thirteen-Acre Farm.
, " . One of the first Danish small farmers I Tisited
-was Hans .Hansen, of Ditlevshoj near Ringsfced.'
Hans lived In America a wnile--ont An Minnesota; i
1 believe, waere the thrifty Danish population has
jgiven'the Northwest some of its best citizenship
-and he talks English fluently.' : After showing me
rover part of his farm, we went inside his neat .
.cottage home made more home-like to me by
(the Bight of an American newspaper on his center
stable andjhe smoked his funny-looking; 'short
IDutch pipe while we talked. - While out in our
American Northwest, he told me, he had a "quar
ter section,' that is to say, a 1 6 0-acre farm, but
he came ; back ; to ' Denmark about five years ago
and took?up the thirteen-acre Danish?' small hold
in e,"-thft 1 now fln. :
"And do you think thirteen acres enough?" I
asked. J.-. ;'y? ?: ; W::: '. .
"Yah;" he promptly replied. "I get along about
as . well with thirteen acres now as I did with a
hundred and sixty then. . Tbe truth is, I'm think
ing I could set along with a little less than thir
teen. -I wouldn't have to work so hard."
They Never Miss a Chance to Co-operate. .
fow. the reason Hans And hU nJp-hh nra nan
make a living; on twelve or, thirteen acres . apiece;
my readers have already guessed. ?It is co-operation.
JThey; send their milk to a co-operative creamery ;
.they sell their pigs to a co-operative bacon factory ; .
their Xeggs are collected .by the co-operative gg-
packing association; , they 4iave . water in ..their '
houses, pumped by a co-operative plant; they have
improved . their stock thru a co-operative breeding
club; .'their rainls threshed by a ; co-operative
'thresher; their beet seed are planted, with: a co
operative sower; and thoI forgot to. inquire tur-.
-theTr I nave no doubt , but that they, like a host
jot other Danish, farmers, buy Hheir jjeedsahd fer-.
utilizers thru .a co-operative purchase I society, and
iinsnre their stock in acp-bperaflve insurance
..company. In fact,;the very iact that they are on
Ithe'land at all is due to uo-QpeTatlon.' : They joined .
together, to "buy- the soil, they .live 1 on it as a.
- large .estate until a few years' ago, wnen It was
divided, up into these small ; holdings rand the
.Government plan -whereby money was 'l lent for
lonjr periods at low rates, may Itself be styled a
'form of co-oneration. ''j'jJ." .:. .
As ;nearly as .1 can gather ' (and I have made "
careful .efforts to verify the statement), the' wayf
these Ditlevshoj small holders bought their farms r
was as follows:"? : '" a
(1) Each. man had on his ownaccount one-fifth;
of the purchase price. 'V"' v; v ? -n-W
Three-fifths of the price he borrowed from
a; co-operative credit society on these' terms,: He -pays
'Interest the. first five years at' i per-cent;
after .that he pays "4 per centa year, 4 per cent
of this amount, counting as interest and the.re
mainlng three-fourths of oneper cent as sinking,
fund, or amortI?ation, to pay off the principal.
ti
Wliafs TJieNews?
5)T1i remaining 'Dne-fiftii each linrehMPr
borxoircd txosa. lie State (on jteconi, mortgage),
;payins Interest at the rate of 3 per cejit.
Oovenimaat Helps HVorthy Men tlvy fimari Farms,
..j This jfystemu It ill be see is somewnat akin to
the Irian Xand Purchase Act-of -19B3, I havelal
Teady described whereby the British Government
advanced to. Irish iarmets- ( under r. .suitable re
strictions, of course,) the full purchase pTlce of
the Jsnd .Huey hoght, repayment id be tnadp In
6S Jnatalments of 3 per cent, .2 per-cent
joeans interest, and per cent sinking limd. "But
the Government, of course, lost money by this
.Plan; It tiould dt borrow at 2 per cent; and I
suspect jQiat the Banian Government is also jnak
ing isom sacrifices iln . advancing money to land
l)uyeraatper Bent. At any rate, "Mr. Christen
en, tke obliging editor of the local paper who
went out wfflL jus to Ditlevshol, told me that 5 to
-5 per cent is the normai rate of interest in
Denmark.: . The Danish Treasury," he told me,
-lends 200,000 kroner (about $54,000) a year to
- associations wishing to buy great estates for divis
ion among small holders, no association being
auowea to get more than- 50,000 kroner
This law, of ;course, is independent of and sup
plementary to the general- law for advancing
- money to Individual small holders, under which
the Btate lends over $l,000,00b or more, annually,
.directly :to men .of character wishing to buy land.
A brief summary of this law may be given in the
exact -words of Dr. Maurice :F. Eagan, the United
States Minister to Denmark, --whose lectures on
Danish agriculture excited ; sd much interest in
, the South last spring: .
"An agrkiulturalaaborfir In Denmark, Tvao
has -jvorked on a larm for five jrears, who is
- poor, and who aas a cnaracter jso.. good f&at
two reputable anfimbers f iiis community will
certify to it, may -obtain :from one of these .
banks a loan of about $1,582 in our money.
He obtains this solely on his character and
ability, and noi by any, material security he
can offer. " With this money he may purchase
a farm of from three and a .half to twelve
acres. This farm means live and dead stock
on the land and the necessary implements for
the working of it. The amount loaned by the "
; bank covers probably nine-tenths of the value
of the farm
it should be added that the rate charged by
the Government is only 3 per cent with 1 per cent
additional for sinking fund. "During the first five
years no instalment has to be paid upon the loan;
thereafter interest and repayment of two-fifths of
the loan must "be paid at the rate of 4 per cent
per annum ; when this part of the loan has been
paid back, the remainder has likewise to be paid
off at the rate of 4 per cent perannum." -
Getting Three Profits Where the American Farmer
' . , ? Gets One. ' " ' . ) ... '
So much for the way co-operation and the Gov
ernment help Danish small farmers like Han3
Hansen Vuy , their land. Let us "now inquire a
little further as to how he and "his neighbors live,
and how, he can. make a living 6n thirteen acres,
" and -could get along with a little less." Perhaps
. our farmers In the South, Who 'would want? ten
times as much land may learn a.few. lessons from
Hans. The secret of his prosperity is .that; he is
not content -merely to make one profit on his
work that of growing the .crops?? On the con
trary, we may ; say he makes three profits:
. . One profit from?gro wing the crop. ?"
A; second 'profit -from converting .his crops ; into
milk, butter, pork, and eggs. . ' - . : - "
?; A ? third profit from marketing these to the
consumgr...' . . '?'; ' ,-??v ...
In other words, Hans get agricultural,- tnanu
.facturing'and, commercial profits: (1) profits as a
'farmer for growing his -crops; (2) profits as a
manufacturer (in a sense) thru his dairying and
- stock-raising activities, and (3) profits as a mer
chant, by reason jof sharing the co-operative asso
ciation .dividends ; obtained in marketing his pro
ducts." Wo people ever got rich merely by -selling
raw material-a fact we Southern folk are prone
to forget.. The trouble about Alabama's iron and
. coal is that other sections are making the big
profits to be found only by converting them into
. finished products, and I heard the other day "about
a man in Salisbury, Md., who had made a million
dollars converting North -Carolina lumber "into
; ; :; ' (Continued on page 26.) , , v?
. ?; v?The War 4n Europe. - ? -
AS WE go to press, the Bulgarian army is so
aear Constantinople that the thunder of. the
vuutwu au o ucaiu w max ciiy. i.ne iaie
of the '.Turkish canlt&i will HVpIv h ova 'Koati Aci'
mmmm0 M W VTAA W
-Cided before these lines are read. The war iia
peen one series of victories f or the -Balkan allies,
and has revealed Iiow hopelessly weak the oncer
mighty Ottoman Empire had . become from the
long years of oppression, stagnation and coxrnp-'
tloiL The Turkish soldiers atill fight as Jtwavejy
as in the days when they were dreaded by all
. Europe, but they are poorly equipped, poorly fed,
and badly led. The whole structure of govern
ment was evidently almost, ready to collause. and"
.there was nothimr excent ih wn mm nt th in
dividual soldiers to put against the fierce on
slaught, of the Bulgars and their allies. -? ;??
J ust now, the great question In "Europe la ; as"
tory. The Balkans-States, .Insist iatrtheyilli
ill V llltS 1L. ill 111 T.I I H TRPT T n AT ft A OTOfi Wfm AM o iA
fllvlnori ititn twn owrvti rl . nK a : :
u vjxuo way niuxuiv uiem io ao so. JNeariy an
the Powers have had designs of ..their own ,i An?
Turkish territory, hut ft la nnt nvoiv tiot
' -- - V 4VI hUAVIJ m.i . mm.,. BjJ 1.1
jealousy of each other or their lonsrinf? for ano-r
cial advantage will be strong enough to; pre-?
veni a PeaceaDie SOlUtlOB of th varlnno nrn'hlAina
, involved. -rvv -.. : : , . : :. . ::
To the thonsianlfl rt lr11a1 ati .a .a A
, va w wwnil fcAlfcJ M.M, MM.M. M MM. I KM W I I II llll HI I III
w w w wj .. .i41v Tf - AV111 'All lir-.ll 111 IIHI' I IIIIIIWUT1 flU
iymg of cholera and starvation, and none of the
Powers wpuld likely be willing to take a stand :
A.m. A. - 1 41 fl . . . . r
. vuui, nuuiu uwjf jlub uuL&mg ot peace.
IltnOT ItPITK nf fntrocrt :?'v
, HE election of a President is of so much ?
election are likely to be overlooked. Yet
some of theBe results deserve jmecial montlnn
Wot AvnmnlA fnur Rtataa A i4nnn Trmnnn !-. :
san ana oreeron. votp.n in favni nt nmman oremn.
v ' " V1UUU B UU1
.Arizona voted the recall of Msfis intn tho
. m a " w- 7 , VMW ' iM w Mt vU
Constitution. West Virginia adopted State-wide
in uu iiji i niii . iiiHiirw u Jan 1 i Ta a n rn a i 44 m -j h....
referendum. Alabama made a start toward get-
uius rm 01 me iee system, by the adoption-of a
constitutional .amendment, permitting Jefferson
Aouniy to pay its officers salaries Instead of fees.:
9 -.. . . . .:
it is not an exciting item of news the World's
"Work gives us about Story ounty, Iowa, schools?
out it is interestlnfir. and it. rapthk tn no imfont
urv - ' m w , . A ui 1VA LUAl
11. ,j ... . . '
iuey naTe atiacKea tne problem of rural school
consolidation from a new angle in that county.
The plan is to have the schoolhouses erouned in
blocks of three, in one of which the primary
0.u.u w buu6ui., m auiuBi- tuo imermeaiate, j
in the third the advanced. The children walk to
xneir nearest scnoolhouse, as before, and a wagon
takss those who belong at one of the others on to t
ineir place,, and returns them in the evening. The
ujuHiimtuj vi classes in arn unnn la thno avM.
ed, and the expenses of "consolidation" reduced
to a minimum. A good idea for some of our own .
COtintia -or AiatrlMa "r -
J .
The fight against tbe Home ' UmIa hill w tko
British Conservatives seems to have Regenerated -'Into
a wniinemftSH tn
- b w uuiuiug . W UtJittF, -,
ine passage 01 the bill. " i.oaAut- nf -tiA -
. " . Lm .
...u, .uwoci Ayvris, was iixer-
ally disgraceful.
, Both France and EngUnd,' It Is reported; will
esUblisn world-ircling systems of -wlrelp t-i- i
vaMUUt tuu puungxneir widely scattered
WHCWIUIIH 1 Ql.fl riniPF tAllih irltV 4 V. . XI
- vu wuu lira iiuuiner
'." . . , -'.-?-
Thfi Prima MlnJofA. r -
alejas, was shot and killed by an anarchist last"
Week. Honor Pflnalalaa rn. J - .
' . -""T " V-"4" u.cu ns.au uu
usually able and progressive statesman.
?'-';??." ;- r;. ' . V . ?;'??:
Cuba seems to be making progress? Thn Inst?
eiecuon passed off almost as quietly as an elec- '
tlon in this country. General Menocal was elected
President. . i
President-elect Wilson nnnoiinAa W
uvuo LUUV uo win
call an extra session of Congress for April 15. to
revise the tariff. j
; Ex-Gor. Jos. M. Terrell, of Georgia, is dead. ?