DENMARK AND THE DANES 



161 



Denmark is not an industrial country 

 in the sense that it is a country of manu- 

 facture. The scientific treatment of one 

 of the worst soils for agricultural pur- 

 poses in Europe, joined with the equally 

 scientific system of cooperation, enabled 

 it to monopolize the export of butter, 

 bacon, and eggs into England and Ger- 

 many. Before the war the Danes sup- 

 plied the breakfast table of the British, 

 and the export of milk and cream, and 

 even of beef and hogs, into Germany 

 taxed their capacity. 



DANISH BUTTER HAS A WORLD-WIDE 

 REPUTATION 



Danish butter has the deserved reputa- 

 tion of being the best in the world. It is 

 standardized, and the government itself 

 would be held responsible for any falling 

 off in the guaranteed quality of this 

 product. It is not inexpensive, most of 

 it is exported, and it seems rather para- 

 doxical that in this country of butter the 

 majority of the people eat a very high- 

 grade margarine. 



Every Danish tgg is dated ; but al- 

 though the Danish fowls are prolific and 

 the eggs are carefully looked after, yet 

 the Danish egg does not enjoy the de- 

 servedly great reputation of the butter 

 and the bacon. 



In spite of the old-age pension, of the 

 grants to widows, of the unemployment 

 insurance, of the upkeeping of admirable 

 hospitals for the poor, the industrial 

 classes in Copenhagen indulge frequently 

 in strikes. 



Of late the American- Scandinavian 

 Line has been put at a great disadvantage 

 because of the recurrence of these strikes. 

 One result of them was much deplored 

 in Denmark. During the shortage of 

 butter in the United States, cargoes to 

 supply this shortage were sent to America ; 

 but the strikers delayed their transit, and 

 the butter, when it arrived here, was not 

 equal in quality to the standard prescribed 

 in Denmark. Complaints were made from 

 this side, and a committee of the great 

 Danish butter exporters in Denmark came 

 over here to make their explanations and 

 to show our people what Danish butter 

 at its best really is. 



Employers of labor in Denmark are 

 not without fixed responsibility. For ex- 

 ample, when I was Minister Plenipoten- 



tiary at Copenhagen I followed a rule 

 obligatory on everybody except diplo- 

 matists : I kept a bed in a hospital for 

 my people, contributed to their insurance, 

 and altogether followed the laws which 

 prevent an employer from dropping a 

 servant penniless whenever the caprice 

 seizes him. In the country an employer 

 must give his servants a notice of six 

 months; in the city, a month is sufficient. 



I recall the fact that one of my foot- 

 men, having been sent to a hospital for 

 two weeks, complained that "they gave 

 him everything except wine, and that he 

 was expected to pay for !" 



One of the best-known captains of in- 

 dustry in Denmark is Admiral de Riche- 

 lieu. He was instrumental in encourag- 

 ing the introduction of the Diesel motor, 

 and some of the earliest and most effec- 

 tive experiments in the application of the 

 Diesel motor to navigation were made in 

 Denmark by the East Asiatic Company, 

 of which he is a director. 



PATRIARCHAL TRADITIONS MAINTAINED 

 IN COUNTRY HOMES 



The cultivated Dane has very esthetic 

 tastes, and it seems a pity that the life of 

 the country houses of the Danish aris- 

 tocracy should disappear when their lands 

 are divided. A typical Danish castle is 

 that of the Count and Countess Raben- 

 Levitzau. In country houses like theirs 

 the old Danish traditions — rather patri- 

 archal — are still kept up. 



At Christmas, for example, when the 

 Christmas tree is lighted on the sacred 

 eve, the master and mistress of the house 

 join hands with the servants and sing the 

 old Danish hymns around the blazing 

 pine or fir. 



Nobody that has not lived in Denmark 

 and known the charm of its family life 

 can appreciate what the term hyggelig 

 means. It is something even better than 

 the German word gemuthlich or the Eng- 

 lish word "cozy." 



At present, owing to the proximity of 

 a struggling Germany, to the unrest in 

 Russia, to the financial difficulties in Eng- 

 land, and its own necessity for readjust- 

 ment, Denmark is not as prosperous as 

 usual. 



At the same time, it has great resili- 

 ency. Wealth is rather equally distrib- 

 uted ; the great fortunes gained during 



