298 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
the beginning that here was the ground upon which the decisive battle must be fought. Hence, when the Prussian masters had made up their minds to keep the spoils, regardless of treaties, and make Sleswic an organic part of their state, their every effort was bent toward suppressing the Danish mother-tongue of the inhabitants. That these voluntarily should become Germans there was no prospect. Consequently they must be forced, first to learn, then to speak, and finally it was hoped think in German. This accomplished, it was held to be a question of only a comparatively short time when they would learn to think as Germans.
The first step toward this goal had been the exclusion of Danish from the churches, schools, and courts in districts of a mixed population, and the substitution of German, which a large percentage of the people did not understand. This was followed, in 1871, by a decree making instruction in German, to the extent of six hours weekly, compulsory in the schools of the purely Danish districts. In 1878 the year of the annulment of Art. V this number was further increased to fourteen hours. At the same time all private Danish secondary schools were closed throughout the province, and an administrative order was pro- mulgated making it obligatory upon all Prussian citizens to have their children taught in Prussian schools. Danish parents wish- ing to give their children a fuller knowledge of their mother- tongue were compelled either to keep private tutors, whose German qualifications must first be passed upon by the authori- ties, or, at the end of the public-school age, send them to Den- mark for a complementary education.
Finally, in 1888, the time allotted to Danish in the schools was reduced to four hours' weekly religion. All other instruc- tion was henceforth to be in German. The employment of tutors, still formally permissible, was made practically impos- sible through a multitude of ingenious obstacles devised by the local officials.
This is the condition obtaining at present in the schools of North Sleswic. Not only has Danish absolutely ceased to be taught as such, but, with the exception of these four hours of cate-
