The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1935-05-24
DANES UNDERMINE
THE PROFIT SYSTEM
BY CO-OPERATIVES|
Only 3 Per Cent of Farms
Are Operated By
Tenants
By WALLACE J. Campbell
Federated PreSs)

increasing blight of tenancy, farm
ers in Denmark have united to
throw off the yoke of absentee
landlordism by cooperative action.
In 1850 some AZ per cent of the
farms in Denmark were owned bv
persons who did not till the soil
Today only 3 per cent of the farms
are operated by tenants. In con-
trasts, In Iowa, some DO per cent
OF the farms are tenant ope rated
In 1900; 45 per cent in 1910; so
per cent in 1920; 81 per cent in
1880; and 1913 per cent in 1888.
In, the United States as whole.
tenancy increased from 25.6 per
cent in 1880 to S5.5 per cent in
1900 and 42.4 per cent in 1880.
All this time, the American
farmer thought and acted as in
dividual, the Danes got together
to do something for themselves.
Agitation for a system of folk
schools began as early as 1882. By
1864 cooperative schools for the
education of adults beyond school
age had been established. Today
70 per cent of the people of Den
mark are college bred in the sense
that they have supplemented their
grammar and high school training
by attending their folk schools in
the winter when it is impossible
for them to engage in agriculture.
More books and pamphlets are
published per unit of population
In Denmark than in any other
country in the world. The folk
schools have provided the educa-
tional basis for economic democ-
racy.
In 1886 Rev. Hans Christian
Some, a pastor in Thisted, Den
mark, was interrupted in the midst
of a sermon on Christian virtue by
a laboring man who said: "Virtue
is well enough in its way but il
does not feed one; a piece of bread
would be more in our line" This
influenced Some to visit England's
new cooperatives. He returned tC
set up the first successful consum-
ers' cooperative in Denmark. Six
teen years later the first success
full marketing cooperative was or
ganized. Today, 1924 consumers
cooperative societies in Denmark
handle between II and 20 per cent
of the retail trade. Cooperative
! marketing has had an even great.
er development: in 1884 the CO
operatives handled 25.1 per cent OIL
the egg export, 39.1 per cent Of
the meat and cattle export, AZ pei
cent of the butter export, and 81
per cent of the milk treated by the
diaries.
Consumers cooperative societie;
in Copenhagen operate ga shop,
with a membership of $4,000. Nins
model cooperative apartment hous-
es were recently erected in urbaI
sections of Denmark and more thar
10000 cooperative houses have
been built. Membership in con
sumers' cooperatives includes Al
per cent of Denmark's households
Cooperative retail business fol
1884 totalled $68,200,000, an in
crease of 1O.1 per cent over 1888
A cooperative wholesale society
was set up in 1896 to. coordinate
the buying of local ccoperatives
Discrimination and boycotts b!
private interests drove the whole
sale to foreign markets to secur,
raw materials and to manufacture
it's own commodities. 1t now man
ufactures in its own factories TO
cooperative trade a variety of pro
ducts ranging from soap, cholocat'
and margarine to shoes, bicycle
and ready-made clothes. The sal
volume of the wholesale rose t
$42, 100000 and its manufacture
product to $12,OO0,OOO in 1884.
The Danish bureau of statistic
reported that during 1884 cooper
alive prices averaged z per cen
lower than those for private profit
stores and that when divided o.
purchase is taking into accoun
the savings effected through co
operative purchasing was 14.4 pc
cent.
In the struggle to make tn
Danish farmer economically indie
pendent, cooperative marketing
has increased his income, cooper
tive purchasing increased the buy
ing power of that income, and co
operative finance has to a grea
extent freed him from exploitation
by outside capital.
Cooperative associations for lon
term credit were organized in Den
mark as early as 1850. More tina
300 cooperative associations are i
operation, and 159 cooperativ