294 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
southern portion, were German in speech and sentiment, while the remaining two-fifths, or about 160,000, occupying the northern half, were of Danish language and nationality. It is these latter whose stubborn refusal to become Germans has given rise to what is known as "the North Sleswic, or Dano-German, question." If the existence of such a question has hitherto escaped the notice of a great majority of the American people, the reasons are not far to seek. In the first place, there is an obvious lack of direct connection between the interests uppermost in the average American mind, and conditions and events in far-off, politically insignificant Denmark. Whatever surplus capital the United States have had to invest in international philanthropies has thus far found ready takers nearer home. Secondly, at the time when Denmark succumbed to the joint attack of Prussia and Austria, things of momentous significance were happening in this country, eclipsing in their colossal proportions any con- temporaneous event in other parts of the world. The stronger for her trial, America forgave and forgot ; Denmark, mutilated and forgotten, was left by the wayside bleeding. And, thirdly, a controversy the origin of which lies back of the memory of most living men must possess elements of an exceptional quality to keep its existence fresh in the consciousness of a later genera- tion. A mere handful of Dutch farmers holding out for years against the concentrated forces of a world-empire, in addition to the other odds, have had to battle against a waning interest among those at the outset having their cause at heart. The soldier who made a world resound with his battlecry must take heed to fall in the first round, lest he outlive his own renown. Daily bulletins from the field of war announcing a stereotyped half-dozen killed and a score put hors de combat are liable to prove dull reading in the long run, unless occasionally relieved by performances on a more generous scale. How, then, can a struggle of forty long years' standing ; a ceaseless, monotonous strife, where nothing happens from day to day to stir the enthusiasm of the onlooker; a combat between silent armies, with no victors to cheer, no vanquished to bemoan, no renegades to jeer; a bloodless battle royal of rival sentiments how
