THE NORTH SLESWIC QUESTION 333
hope of reunion with North Sleswic perhaps through a general settlement of outstanding scores demanded by voices mightier than hers. And if she quietly prepared herself for her part in the drama, who will blame her ?
But gradually the conviction grew upon a small group of Liberals that this unfriendly attitude was fraught with political peril. While not favoring Germans as Germans, they were mindful of the kinship between the two nations, and of Denmark's manifold indebtedness to her great neighbor ; they perceived the folly of this traditional ill-feeling; they realized the necessity of Germany's good-will for Denmark's future safety.
They spoke and they wrote. 1 The gospel they preached was not a popular one, and they were branded as unpatriotic. But they persevered. They denounced the building of fortifications and armor-clads. "What is the use," Horup asked year after year, " of throwing our poor millions into the jaws of an insati- able militarism ? We cannot hope to defend ourselves." He was cried down as a coward. But he persevered.
Increasing numbers saw that he was right. His negative "What's the use?" with its sober, forsaken sound, from the watchword of a faction became the slogan of a party. Now Horup is dead. But he lived just long enough to witness the triumph of the two causes for which he had fought so nobly a government for and by the people, and the realization by his country that its role as a military power was forever at an end. Today the "traitor" is recognized as the truest of patriots, and
- GEORG BRANDES, in an article entitled " Denmark and Germany," published in
Contemporary Rruiao, July, 1899, makes reference to this movement, in which he himself was one of the leading spirits. Miss SARAH E. SIMONS, in her article
" Social Assimilation " (AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, May, IOOI, p. 809), in
referring to conditions in Sleswic quotes Dr. Brandes as authority for the statement that " the Danes in Schleswig acquiesced readily in the unjust demands of Germany, and submitted gracefully to their fate. A group of politicians and writers was formed among them to take upon themselves the task of creating sentiment for Germany. What race-antipathy there was soon died out in consequence, and the work of adjust- ment and assimilation was successfully begun." This rests upon a misapprehen- sion of Dr. Brandes's remarks, which applied to Denmark, not to Sleswic, and is very misleading as to actual conditions. There has never been " acquiescence " in Sleswic, never an attempt by any group to " create sentiment for Germany."
