The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1947-11-10

hIllSIG dilu ItuSoio, ia "iASh
they realize all the rest of the
world will be involved. ''If we
have another war;" you hear them
say, then there is no use for us
to attempt to rebuild and restore
now, for in the next war every
thing will be gone"
Sometimes this sentiment is re-
Elected in a grim kind of humor.
Throughout Copenhagen are air
raid shelters, which the Nazis
forced the Danes to build. They
consist principally of thin re-
inforced concrete pillbox type
dugout, partially sunk in the
ground, and covered by earth on
top. There are stairways leading
down, and large ventilators on
top, but they appear to be so
lightly built that stable bomb
might demolish one Immediately.
The only real protection they af-
ford would be against machine
gun fire.
The Danes are tearing them
down now, all over the city. I
remarked about it one day to a
Danish friend, whose grim reply
was, well, you see, we HOPE
there won't be another war"
One of Amreica's leading pho
tographic magazines recently pub
lished an editorial indicating the
possibility, in the near future, of
United States of Europe. On
the basis of conversations have
had over here. including Den
mark, l think this possibility is
very remote. Granted-as all Eu-
ropeanS do-that some sort of Eu-
'ropean federation would wipe out
many of the continents present
economic and political difficulties
9TH etWo are very closely allied),
there are "too many old tradi-
tons, too many petty jealousies,
too many languages and customs,
over too many long, long years"
There is also the question of CO.
lonial policy. With a United
States of Europe, they all agree,
it would be possible to develop
mass production, for markets
would be much larger with the
elimination of national borders,
customs duties, etc. But they are
not so sure that mass production
would be successful over here
anyhow.
A young Danish businessman
who has visited America several
times, and who now heads an inn
portant Danish textile factory in
Copenhagen, puts it this way:
I'm America" he said, you
produce the goods in tremendous
volume, which enables you to
make a low price. You then send
out your statesmen to sell the
merchandise AFTER it has been
produced. If you can't sell it in
New York, you can eventually
sell it in Boston, Philadelphia or
San Francisco, because the price
is attractive. In other words, by
means of low price, you stimu-
late demand. The customer takes
what you offer, because it is in
expensive.
But over here, it is quite an
other thing. We produce, only
what the customer asks for, and
in general, only on order. For
example, a large merchandise
to whom we sell our goods comes
in and orders a special design, in
a special color, with exact specifi-
cations as to the quality of the
materials to be woven into the
goods. We make sample and
submit it for approval, and then
we 60 ahead and produce only
when he is satisfied. This is, OBJ
viouSly a more costly method
than yours, but in Europe when
you sell merchandise, you sell
what the customer wants, not
what you think he should buy.
1.-THE result is" he concluded,
that in our mill we make more
money per loom on so looms than
an average American mill makes
on 1000"
Relationships between employ
err and employee in Denmark are
much the same as in America, and
from what I have seen so far, a
little unusual in Europe. There
is a kind of friendship, a feeling
of working together, with little
, class distinction 1t is not I'M
usual, for example, to see a viSi-
tor from Jutland step into a
Copenhagen hotel and walk over
, to shake hands and converse
with the porter. And it is quite
the custom in Danish factories for
: the boss and the employee to
greet each other by name, as the
"old man" walks down through
! the shop to see how things are
progressing.
! Yet there sa labor problem,
caused principally by shifting
from job to job, and by absentee