Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-03-14
scandinavian Nations Striving
To Be Self disappearing by 80
First in a series OF tve articlesJ
By William H. Harrison

~ ~ WI ~~Hk
First in series of tue articlesJ
By William H. Harrison
This is a generalized-and
necessarily oversimplified-report
on what the Scandinavian nations
are doing in an effort to regain
economic health before the sched-
uled end of the Marshall Plan In
1923.
In effect, the report is q digest
of a mass of detailed information
made available to the writer as
one of IA American newspaper
men who have just returned to
the United States after spending
the better part of a month touring
Denmark. Sweden and Norway as
guests of the three governments
The tour-carried out with the
assistance of the Economic Co.
operation ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
as an instructive -the-spot dem
onstration Of how Scandinavia Is
making use of American aid to
get back on it's own feet and con-
tribute at. the same time to the
general well-being of Western
Europe. The report itself is made
up of facts and opinions gathered
from a wide variety of sources
including our ECA missions in the
three countries, high Danish
Swedish and Norwegian officials
Iindustrialists, agricultural leaders
and average citizens.
AS the first-time visitor soon
learns, the Scandinavian nations
have so much in common that 1t
seems a tragedy of sorts that they
are not one country instead of
three. Historically, they were
once together under the Danes,
and it was only as recently as 1905
that the Norwegians and Swedes
dissolved their union.
Understand Each Other.
i Despite some linguistic differ
ences. they all understand each
other when they speak or write.
Their traditions are essentially the
same: they are kith and kin as
peoples: socially they are alike in
their superbly civilized cultures:
politically. besides being kingdoms,
they have long been numbered
among the worlds most advanced
democracies, and they live at the
moment under Labor governments
of varying degrees Of strength.
Above all. predominantly agri-
cultural Denmark population
4000.000). highly industrialized
Sweden population 7,000.00O and
sea -faring Norway population
5000. 00O have economies compile
mentary enough to make a merger
or federation of the three coun-
| tries seem considerably less diff
cult than the current effort to
organize Luxembourg. Belgium
and the Netherlands into the
Benelux unity. In fact. this is so
self-evident that the Danes, the
Norwegians and the SWedes,
though tagging behind the Benelux
trio, are now stepping up their
official and unofficial endeavors to
work toward closer political inte-
grafton and establish a customs
union-a project likely to run into
difficulties and take a long tims
but oRe that is promising, ukTr-
t.ShelesS 49,.
Naturally. enough. however
Denmark, Sweden and Norway
are concentrating their main at
ftention at thix-ttfae on theM5ne =
fdIats economic problem Before
| them-specif1cally, the problem of
achieving fultsfecoveryaby 1923,
when the Marshall Plan, or Euro
pean Recovery Program. as ad-
ministered by the ECA, is sup
posed to expire.
The task differs for each coun-
try as far as methods and mea-
sures are concerned, but basically
it boils down to the same
thing-namely, organizing pro-
duction and export-import OPP
erations in such a way as to
eliminate the present need for
dollar aid in order to buy from the
United States and other Western
Hemisphere suppliers the steel. oil,
feedstuffs and other items that are
indispensable right now to the
Danish, Swedish and Norwegian
economies.
Economy Needs Lubricant.
To help eliminate the need in
the case of Sweden, the ECA so far
has allotted to the Swedes $22,-
900 900 in direct loans and $1S.-
800 900 in indirect conditional aid,
while the Organization OF Euro
pean Economic Cooperation has
recommended a total of $4,000, =
900 for the full fiscal year ending
next June. In relation to the as
| OlSCdIlSC ChUCllOCd w ulOS6 OtllCI
Marshall Plan countries, this sum
may seem almost negligible. But
it is of great Importance as a lu-
bricant in the Swedish economy.
! AS neutral. though adversely
affected by the blockade, the coun-
| try did not suffer the ravages of
invasion and occupation, but
through the postwar dislocation
of world trade and through policy
mlscalculations at home. Sweden
has run into a serious dollar prob
lem and it must have the ECA's
relatively modest help to regain a
sound balance and maintain its
living standards.
In the case of Denmark. the
ECA has allotted $100,000.000 in
the form of direct loans and
grants, while the OEEC has rec
commended a total of 100000
/ mn f1~ fLa Reoo1 vAor a~Iiro i,