White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1933-01-05


Hudson bay, which was mighty fac
tor in the progress Of all the Baltic
lands, and most especially of Copen-
hagen.
Copenhagen means merchants Ha-
ven." For centuries it fattened upon
the toll of passing ships by levying
tax known as Sound dues-a tariff so
profitable that it was called "Den-
marks gold mine." Naturally, such
| payment became irksome to maritime
powers, and in 1857 the practice was
| abolished. Opening the Kiel canal
brought further loss to Copenhagen's
shipping, but the city found way
out in it's Free Port.
The Free Port.
| It requires considerable explaining,
even in this least formal of all Euro
pean capitals, to procure permission to
] pass the sentries, who guard every en-
| trance, even the railroad tracks, into
| the Free Port.
Once inside, the visitor stands
amazed at the compact conglomeration
Of docks, derricks, grain elevators,
| gaunt cranes, ships, enormous ware
houses, and putting little engines Sour
rying about amid incredible mounds
| Of goods.
Here is an array of American har-
vesters, piles of plows harrows, farm
| tools, odorous resin timber, mountains
of coal, wheat, and corn, soybeans
from Manchuria, sunfower-seed cake
from Russia, cotton-seed meal from
our South, and heaps of auto parts
Of familiar American make. These
are assembled within the Free Port.
give basins here, sir; 1913 acres Of
| land, 80 acres of water; three miles
| of piers, 40 electric cranes, seven
steam cranes, seven coal elevators"
reels off your guide, which is the po-
lite Free Port euphemism for the
Waterman who guards against SNUG
| Cling.
"Those elevators and pneumatic
tubes can unload 1000 or 1900 tons
in an eight-hour day, from that side,
while that ship on the other side is
| discharging a 100 tons Of wheat an
hour"
| There are 40 warehouses here, a
grain silo that dominates them all,
floating crane that can toy with so
| tons.
| The Free Port is complete COM
munity. 1t has it's own power plant,
I banking branches, police, postal, and
telegraph stations, restaurants, tele-
phone booths, display rooms, and trad
ing sheds The rest rooms that look
like clubhouses are waiting rooms for
workmen awaiting jobs.
Trans and liners are disgorging
goods and grains and machinery from
England the Americas, even from Aus
tralia, while others loading cargoes
consigned to all the great Baltic ports.
Trains Of laden freight cars, pygmy
size to the American eye halt for in
spection at the iron gates; then steam
away on direct hauls to Central Eu-
rope, even to Sweden, by way of the
short ferry crossing to Malmo.
Citadel and Park.
Emerging from the bustling, modern
Free Port, one comes upon the state
ly, mellow Citadel, remnant of the for
| tiications King Frederick III built in
the sixties of 1900.
Around it is the mosaic Of lagoons
| and gardens that compose Copen-
hagen's beautiful park sloping toward
| the famous Langelinie (LoDg Line)
| that bends gracefully from the Free
| Port to the city's own harbor to the
south.
Seward lies the Sound with ocean
liners and pleasure yachts, ferries and
| freight boats, and in the distance the
shores of Sweden. The Dane should
be cosmopolitan; he can scarcely take
a walk or, scan the view from his wide
apartment window without seeing the
| flags of many nations and the shores
| of another land Landwise long line
of omobiles-American, French,
| German, and an occasional Italian car
| among them-punctuated by hordes of
| BICYCLES. glide over the level road with
scarcely perceptible rises where 1t
| crosses the viaducts that knit the
| patches Of land
| If one stops in downtown Copen-
hagen hotel he will surely be awak-
| ened Sundays by the outpouring of ma
| tive and noisy citizens seeking the
! outdoors and the sun. Week days the
Dane goes to work quietly, sedately
| pedaling bicycle, which, after ALL is
not a boisterous vehicle; but Sundays
one will be awakened by the shouts Of
boys and girls cycling to the country,
hiking to picnics. or going in groups
to railway stations for the cheap ex
cursions on that day. The city sees
to it that even the poor children get
| an outing.