Scandinavian American. [volume], January 01, 1948, Page 10, Image 10

About Scandinavian American. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1945-1958

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10
Short Notes On Denmark
Denmark has a. population of
about 4 million people living on
an area of 16,500 square miles, an
area about twice the size of the
State of Massachusetts. It is com
monly believed by foreigners that
Denmark is primarily an agricul
tural country. the majority of the
population deriving its income
from the Danish soil. This. how
ever. is not quite correct. The fact
is that only onethird of the Danes
belong to the agricultural sector,
while another third is occupied in
a variety of industries, and the
last one third comprises all
0 t h e- r occupations —— business,
trade, transportation, administra
tions. etc.
The Danish soil isAcontrary to
what is commonly believed—~com
paratively poor and can in no way
compare with the black soil of
Southeastern Europe or the vast
grain producing areas of the West
ern hemisphere.
As this is a factor of utmost
importance to the whole Danish
economy and one of the most im—
portant causes of our troubles to
day, I might be allowed to make
myself a little clearer on this point.
The Danish farm system today
is a factory for animal food. In
normal years. we had a production
of 2 to 300.000 tons of bacon, about
200,000 tons of butter. and from
100 to 150,000 tons of eggs. to
mention only the three main prod
ucts. These figures are, as a mat—
ter of fact, very large when com-‘
pared with the area of the arable
land and the fertility of the soil
and the fact is that this production
was only made possible by means
of an import of nearly one million
tons of oilcake, 6 to 700,000 tons
of feedgrains and the same amount
of fertilizers.
In other words, Danish agricul
ture is in exactly the same posi
tion as Danish industry. Denmark
has hardly any raw materials
within her borders and both agri
culture and industry therefore
have to import the raw materials
needed for the production. Our
only raw material is labor and
what we do then is to add labor
to the imported raw materials, and
export a large part of the fin
ished products to pay for the im
port. The whole system necessi-
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tates an extensive foreign trade
and it is therefore quite natural
that we find Denmark one of the
countries of the world that has the
largest foreign trade in relation
to its population.
When a country with no raw
materials within its borders wishes
to maintain a high standard of liv
ing. the only way to do this is to
see that the goods exported are
leaving the country in the most
highly finished stage possible. and
contain the greatest possible
amount of skillful labor. Whereas
a country with large mineral re
sources. with rich soil and huge
reserves of raw material is able to
maintain a relatively high living
standard with a minimum of ef
fort and a great percentage of un
skilled labor and simple farming
methods. the same result in the
countries without raw materials
can only be attained by means of
continued coordination of science
and techniques and a very high
percentage of skilled labor. ‘
This is the underlying factor
that explains to a great extent the
social structure of Denmark. The
development of an elaborate edu
cational system has been‘neces
sary. Our schools and universities
are free to all to a very large ex--
tent. After the ordinary gram-l
mar school. nearly all continue
their education in business train
ing schools, technical schools or
agricultural schools. A great part
;of the young people attend not
only the high schools but also
schools comparable to the educa
tion received at American colleges.
‘IMany students continue their edu-
Ication at one of the two Danish
‘universities or the institutions for
‘engineers or for agricultural sci
lence. The development of the idea
of folk high schools is one of the
‘Danish institutions best known
{outside Denmark.
It might be natural to mention
the Danish cooperative movement
in this connection because this sys
tem has only been made possible
through the average high level of
education reached. by the farmers.
I would also like to mention the
Danish system of social security
since it might be said to have been
developed from the common un
derstanding of the essential im
portance of labor or of the whole
human element in the Danish eco
nomic structure. Our highly devei
oped system of insurance against
sickness. accidents, unemployment
and old age has grown out of this.
and our free hospitalization and
medical care. our health inspec
tion, vacation-with-pay s y s t e m.
school lunch program. maternity
assistance and so on. all prove the
importance of the human element
in the Danish economy quite apart
from the humanitarian aspects.
A main factor in the develop
ment of the Danish industrial ex
port is the cooperation that took
place during the reconversion
years between agriculture and in~
dustry. Scientists and engineers
took on the task of building the
most efficient machinery for the
cooperative dairies and slaughter
hnuses. and we found that this ma
ehinery itself was competitive in
foreign markets and could be ex
ported. D a n i s h slaughterhouse
and dairy machinery was sent to
many parts of the world and with
them went technicians to teach
other nations—mainly in countries
n\'erseas~h0w to use the Danish
methods.
Other industries grew out of this
collaboration with the agricultural
sector. I can mention for instance
the pharmaceutical industry that
produces drugs such as insulin and
many types of hormones from the
hy-products of the slaughterhous
es. Danish insulin is found every
where in Europe and has given a
new life to thousands of diabetic
patients. Or I might mention the
Danish breweries that mainly have
found a market for their beer in
overseas countries. and the yeast
factories that grew out. of the sci
entific endeavors of finding the
best type of yeast for the brewer-
Giant Generators for
Swedish Power Station
Stockholm. — (By airmail) — A
power plant, which will be Swe
den's biggest, is at present under
construction at the Harsprénget
waterfalls on the Lule River, north
of the Arctic Circle.. The station
will be equipped with three gene
rators with an effect of 105,000
kw. each. Designed by the Swedish
General E l e c t r i c Company
(ASEA). in Vfisteras, they will be
the biggest water turbine driven
generators ever-made in Europe
and only surpassed by the 108,-
kw. ones at the Grand Coulee Da'm
in the United States.
The diameter of the stator will
be about 32 feet and the total
weight 900 tons. The water tur
bines, which also will be of record
capacity. will drive the generators
at a speed of 167 revolutions per
minute. Since the generators are
far too big to be transported by
rail from the works in central
Syeden to the power plant, the
largest components, the rotor
rings. will be assembled on the
spot. The Harsprénget power
plant is expected to start operat
ing in 1950. The station will be
capable of delivering 6,250,000 kwh
a day at maximum production.
ies. Also the Danish factories for
refrigeration machinery grew out
of the close cqnnection with agri
culture. Many pther examples
migh’t be given.
Another sector of Danish indus-‘
try is based on the only mineral3
resources foimd‘ in mountainless‘
Denmark. namely clay and chalk.
Danish china is well-known in nu
merous foreign countries. and Dan
ish artists have found a working
field in the many bigger and smal
ler earthenware factories whose
products are being exported on an
ever increasing scale. Most im
pdrtant financially, however. is the
cement industry, where the fact
that the raw materials for cement
production are located close to the
ocean. has favored a considerable
export.
Here something similar happen
ed as in the food industry. The
development of the cement and
clay industries in Denmark boost
ed the enterprises which manufac
ture machinery for these indus
tries with the result that Danish
methods and Danish machinery
have been widely used in the con
struction of cement factories all
over the world.
Besides these groups of indus
tries that have directly grown out
of Danish agriculture or are based
on our raw materials, we have a
third group of industries which
have as their competitive basis the
skilled workers. It is evident that
the products from these industries
must be finished goods with the
smallest possible supplement of
imported raw materials and a
high percentage of labor. In this
category we have small factories
for radio equipment. electrical and
scientific instruments, small mo
tors and dynamos, vacuum-clean
ers. silverware. motor-bicycles, etc.
Although the greater part of the
Danish population earns its liveli
hood by agriculture and industry.
it would be wrong. even in a short
survey as this. not to remind you
of the fact that Denmark com
pared to its size has a very long
coastline and many excellent har
bors. Therefore. the fisheries nat
urally are rather an important
factor in our economy. Due. to our
geographical position close to
densely populated industrial na--
tions most of our fish can be ex
ported fre-sh. but some canning is
also done.
The Danes have always been a
sea-going nation and the Danish
shipbuilding industry dates far
back in history. Today most ships
under Danish flag are. built in
Denmark and many of them are
occupied in foreign waters earning
foreign currency amounting to
considerable sums in the balance
of payments. Furthermore a con
siderable tonnage is built for for
eign countries. especially of the
Diesel motonhip type which orig
inated in Denmark.
Norwegian Export Show; Progress r
OSLO. —— An encouraging re
port on the success of Norway’s
present export drive was recently
presented by Arne Meidell. Chair
man of the Norwegian Export
Council at the group‘s yearly meet
ing in Oslo. Both in volume and
value, Norway’s exports have risen
spectacularly since liberation, and
according to Chairman Meidell,
there is every reason to expect
still further increases. Exports for
the first half of 1947 which are
estimated at 860,000,000 kr. ($172.-
000,000) are expected to top the 2
billion kroner mark by years end
($400,000,000). Net exports for the
base-year 1938 were 780,000,000
Kr. ($156,000,000). while in terms
of volume present exports are now
83% of 1939.
Chairman Meidell paid tribute
to both Norwegian capital and la
bor noting that “In view of the
disturbed working conditions in a
number of countries abroad, we
can be grateful that we have en
joyed such quiet and stable condi
tions in Norway.“ He warned.
however. against the possible ear
ly end of the seller's market and
urged exporters to render good
service. fight against restrictions.
and develop and maintain their
markets.
Disapproval was voiced regard
ing any export duty on such goods
as fish, canned goods. and tim
ber products. He also pleaded for
more timber for the wood-proces
sing industries and called for in
creased aid to existing export en
terprises.
Fresh and salted fish exports for
the first half of 1947 were listed
at 125% of the 1938 rate. while
canned fish exports were 160%
for the same period. Total value
of fish exports for the first six
months was set at 214,000,000 Kr.
($42,800,000) including 58,000,000
Kr. ($11,600,000) in canned fish.
Chemical fertilizer exports for the
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first half of 1947 were 104% of
the 1938 rate. The value of all
chemicals exported during the pe
riod was 70,000,000 Kr. ($14,000,-
000) with fertilizer exports set at
52,000,000 Kr. Total volume was
237,000 tons. Paper and cardboard
exports are 133% of pre-war, in
contrast to pulp and cellulose
which were a mere 35%. Total
value of timber products exports
for the period was set at 220,000,-
000 Kr. or 252,000 tons. Oils and
fats were 75% of 1938, or 120,000,-
000 Kr. for the half-year period:
hides, furs and leather were 84%
with a value of 20,000,000 Kr. and
e l e c t r o - metallurgical exports
reached 79% of 1938 with 75,000,—
000 Kr. for the same period.
The Norwegian Export Council,
established in November 1945, is
receiving over 500 inquiries month
ly and plans a broad program of
on-the-spot market research to de
termine the needs and tastes of
foreign importers.
Swedish Firm Building
University City and
Hospitals in Iran ‘
STOCKHOLM—(By airmail)—
Swedish engineers are at present
building a large university city In
Teheran. capital of Iran, as well as
fifty dispensary hospitals and
four highway and railway bridges
in different parts of the country.
The Swedish firm engaged in
this work has been operating in
Iran since 1933. As early as 1939 it
received a contract valued at over
$10 million for the building of the
university city. which will include
new quarters for the faculty of
Teheran University. laboratories.
etc. However. the project had to
be postponed because of the war.
Recently work was resumed.