Scandinavian American. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1945-1958, 1948-01-01

| tnaC we flnd 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 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
country with large mineral re-
sources, with rich soil and huge
reserves of raw material is able to
maintain relatively high living
standard with a minimum of eff
fort and a great percentage of I'M
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
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-
ton received at American colleges.
Many students continue their edu-
cation at one of the two Danish
universities or the institutions for
engineers or for agricultural sci
ence. The development of the idea
of folk high schools is one of the
Danish institutions best known
outside Denmark.
1t might be natural to mention
the Danish cooperative movement
in this connection because this syS-
tenn has only been made possible
through the average high level of
education reached by the farmers.
1 would also like to mention the
Danish system of social security
since it might be said to have been
developed from the common I'M
Outstanding of the essential i'm
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 disqualification and
medical care, our health inspec-
ton, vacationwith-pay sys 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
houses, and we found that this ma
chinery itself was competitive in
foreign markets and could be eX-
ported D an 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
overseas to use the Danish
methods.
Other industries grew out of this
collaboration with the agricultural
sector. l can mention for instance
the pharmaceutical industry that
produces drugs such as insulin and
many types of hormones from the
by-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 l might mention the