306 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
tion to say that every Sleswic family has kindred across the frontier. Common memories of common defeats have served to tighten this bond. To most Danes the wound is as yet an open and a painful one, and there is naturally a strong desire on their part to alleviate the burdens and keep up the spirits of their expatriated countrymen. As will readily be understood, the Danish government, as such, can do little or nothing toward that end. But private initiative, with hands unshackled, has rendered generous moral and material assistance.
This aid has taken manifold forms, determined by the exi- gencies of the situation. Frequent excursions to various parts of the kingdom are arranged on a large scale, in which thousands of Sleswicians take part ; or open-air meetings, with speakers of national or Scandinavian reputation, are held just north of the frontier to make them the easier of access. Libraries containing the best of Scandinavian literature are distributed throughout Sleswic from the central offices at Copenhagen ; and numerous scholarships are annually awarded to Sleswic young men and women in Danish secondary schools, or their tuitions paid by associations formed for this and like purposes in scores of towns in Denmark.
Another important agent is the ably conducted press. Under conditions difficult to appreciate in a country like America which enjoys an almost unlimited freedom of speech, a small band of intrepid journalists ply their laborious trade in this specially guarded corner of police-ridden Prussia, where the activities of the press are circumscribed by a multitude of cen- sorial restrictions strongly suggestive of Russian conditions and enforced by a staff of eager magistrates. But trifling vexations and patent partialities only enhance their zeal. Pursued right and left paying out his subscriptions in fines and court costs for hazarding a modest doubt as to the superhuman impartiality of some local interpreter of the law, or for expressing an opin- ion of some public act of a self-important official at variance with that gentleman's own estimation of its dignity; being at the same time daily defamed by his German competitors whose valued prerogative seems to imply a liberty of libel against any
