significant warning-to those at present responsible for the national policy. If, by any weak truckling for the sake of office, the protective policy of the nation is deserted (and to stand by in silence while it is attacked is desertion), so that the political faith of the people is shaken, and an encouraging opportunity offered for the enemies of American industry again to triumph, it will be a crime against the nation. In this instance it is not, as in 1892, the enemies of protection who are bringing on the war, but it is the vacillating, short-sighted, opinionated friends of protection who, by their very lack of broad national policy, have invited the enemies to open the attack.

There is nothing in the character of investments or nature of business to-day to justify even the early symptoms of an industrial depression, but if the administration and those entrusted by the nation with the industrial policy of the country shall so far trifle with their trust as to permit a political onslaught upon any American industry, and so encourage an undermining of the foundations of protection, we can have an industrial depression in less than a year.

Shall we, in the first decade of the twentieth century, repeat the political blunder of the last decade of the nineteenth century, or shall we heed the warning that the census facts give us, and guard the protective policy of the nation against dangerous attack, as the indispensable shield of our national prosperity and progress in the immediate future? Or, shall we from small political motives let the fox into the enclosures and invite another period of confusion and disaster?

ANOMALIES OF DANISH POLITICS

HAROLD C. PETERSON

Much has of late been printed in English and American papers about the political situation in Denmark, which, owing to the West Indian imbroglio, has been, and undoubtedly for some time to come will continue to be, a subject of general interest. Much of this material has been in the nature of picked-up in thestreet gossip; the hastily inhaled "views" of special correspondents, whose knowledge of affairs in Denmark is of the scantiest description. It might, therefore, be pertinent at this time to have the situation in this small but self-assertive kingdom outlined.

Undoubtedly readers of the many conflicting dispatches from Copenhagen have asked themselves the puzzling question: "Why is the landsthing opposed to the transfer of the Danish West Indies and the folkething for it?" The reasons for this apparent political anomaly to those familiar with politics in Denmark are plain enough.

The folkething, being elected by popular suffrage, is radical, whilst the landsthing, aristocratic in composition, is naturally conservative. The constitution of Denmark provides for a parliamentary body known as the rigsdag. The rigsdag consists of two divisions, the folkething (lower house) and the landsthing (upper house). Anyone 25 years old, and not a felon, is entitled to vote for the folkething, which is composed of men elected for two years and representing each 16,000 inhabitants.

The landsthing, no doubt with a view of making it an effective barrier against the flood tides of radicalism, is differently constructed. Its members are

mostly of the landed aristocracy, business men of vast wealth and bureaucrats drawn from the large official class. It is composed of 66 members, 12 of whom are nominated by the king. The rest are "elected" for a term of seven years by the "people," the "people" being those who enjoy the income of a professional man in good standing, those who are professional men, and finally those who pay a certain amount of taxes, so that the mass of "citizens" have even less control over the landsthing than the American voter has over the United States senate.

This explains why the landsthing is ultra conservative and the folkething radical, and in it may be found the real reason for the present squabble about the ratification of the West Indian treaty. It is simply a case of ward methods being introduced in national politics. There are two parties in Denmark, which again separate, as in Germany, into smaller groups, the left (radical) and the right (conservative).

The left are recruited from the ranks of the farmers, the mechanics and the intellectual class, that is, teachers, writers, lawyers, etc. The right is supported by the middle class, the bourgeoisie,-but their chief strength comes from the landed nobility. There is a large aristocracy of this kind in Denmark, which, like the English, dates back to the Viking period, and which, unlike the French and the German nobility, is not depleted in material wealth.

They form a very exclusive set, which clusters around the king as a faithful bodyguard, and would fain keep his hand from the people's pulse. They have been very successful in this. For over 30 years they kept the government in their hands, even when their party was in a hopeless minority. It was only last year that they lost their power, which since then they have desperately endeavored to regain. In this they have

the powerful, if invisible, support of the court, and they are trying to make the West Indian affair the step by which this aim is to be accomplished.

The situation is anomalous in that it was just this very party which, while in power, instituted negotiations for the sale of the West Indies, employing in the attempt private individuals like Grön and Christmas. They failed, and it was left to a radical ministry successfully to negotiate the transfer. Now the right are raising a row over the scandal, which was their own offspring and the only heritage they left their successors in power!

They have the magic of gold at their disposal, by which means they are now conducting a systematic journalistic campaign against the liberals. In Copenhagen, as in Paris, there is a large mushroom press, subsisting entirely on boodle, and which exists to day, and to-morrow is no more. They have also shrewdly worked up a popular sentiment in their favor by their rant about the "immorality of selling people like cattle."

This sentiment, to be sure, is eminently worthy, but during their long stay in power the right were not known as being in the habit of asking the people's advice on any matter vitally interesting to the public. The truth of the matter is, the rights are systematically misrepresenting the feeling of the West Indians, because it is their cue.

When, in the fall of 1901, the National Tidende, controlled by conservative capitalists, sent its editor, Franz von Jessen, over there, a great hue and cry was raised by the "no sale" people about the anxious interest they took in the welfare of the West Indies. It was all a bluff. The journalist went to St. Thomas with one instruction: "Confirm the rumor that the West Indian folks are against the sale." Herr von Jes

sen failed to find such a sentiment, but he wrote home that he did, and, what is more, later lectured in Copenhagen about the terrible fear of the West Indians of the United States.

One of those who long most ardently for a return of the rights to government control is Crown Prince Frederic. He is personally a very amiable gentleman of literary propensities. Some time ago he wrote an essay for the Berlingske Tidende under a nom de guerre. The opposition paper, the Politiken, at once published a scathing criticism of the essay and the anonymous author, in which, as is the custom in the polemical journalism in Copenhagen, the unlucky prince was not handled with silk gloves. Now the owner of the Politiken (Hörup, who has just died) was a member of the council, composed of the king, crown prince and the cabinet, and one may imagine the embarrassment of that statesman when the heir apparent, with a chuckle, complimented him on his severe critic!

The West Indian question may properly be styled the Sinbad of present Danish politics. Even in the ranks of the radicals there is some discussion as to the advisability of the transfer, and it is known that the cabinet is also divided on the subject, the prime minister and four of his confrères, constituting a majority, being opposed to it. Nevertheless, they are sworn to carry it through, for the sale was one of the planks upon which the left got to power.

The position of the present cabinet, on the whole, is both peculiar and perilous. In most constitutional monarchies the minority is a reflex of the people's will, but in Denmark the cabinets during the reign of Christian IX. have been dominated by the individuality of the king. When, in the summer of 1901, Christian IX. at last (after ten years' indecision) consented to an opposition cabinet, he did so only with some important