THE AMERICAN-SCAN DIN A VI AN REVIEW 
173 
Denmark 
€J Denmark crossed the threshold to the New Year with 70,000 unem¬ 
ployed, with 86 ships aggregating 241,000 dead weight tons and 
constituting about 40 percent of the merchant marine lying idle, and 
with depression in most of the trades and industries. The average 
decrease in the prices of commodities was 50 percent. Finished agri¬ 
cultural products, most of which are exported, fell so rapidly in price 
during the last few months that the average decrease for the whole 
year may be computed as 50 percent. The output of agricultural 
products has, however, been twice as great as last year, and it is hoped 
therefore that the producers may be able to hold their own until their 
expenses go down to a normal relation with their profits. CJUp to 
this time all unemployed in Denmark have received an allowance of 
between 30 and 40 kroner weekly. In order to relieve the public budget 
in some measure and to make arrangements more satisfactory to the 
recipients of this subsidy, the Rigsdag has recently passed without a 
dissenting vote a new unemployment law which provides for so-called 
relief work giving employment to those in need of it. The most signifi¬ 
cant feature of this law is that it fixes the wages for such employment 
at a little more than the subsidy hitherto given those out of work but 
a little less than the regular wages for corresponding work in free 
private business. In addition to the discussion of this law, the 
Rigsdag has given attention to the proposed new tax law, has deter¬ 
mined upon the loan in America, and has enlivened dull routine with 
a brisk little cabinet storm directed against the minister of foreign 
affairs, Harald Scavenius. The occasion was a meeting in Stockholm 
of representatives of Danish industries and the Danish foreign depart¬ 
ment with a commission of the Soviet government for the purpose of 
discussing a Danish-Russian trade agreement. This conference was 
suddenly broken off by the action of the foreign minister on the grounds 
that the political concessions demanded by Soviet Russia were too great 
in comparison with any advantages that Danish trade and industry 
might reap from the agreement offered. C| The affair was brought up 
in the Folkething by the Socialists, who proposed a vote of lack of 
confidence in the foreign minister, expecting that all the Radicals and 
at least six of the Conservatives would act with them, thus insuring 
a majority of the house. When it came to the point, however, the 
Socialists were left alone, the Left (the Liberals) standing with the 
minister, while the Conservatives and Radicals refrained from voting. 
Some of the Conservatives allowed it to be understood that this action 
was not to be construed as a positive expression of confidence in 
Scavenius, and it is possible that the affair may result in making his 
relation with this group still cooler than it was. C| The building trades 
and tobacco industry have suffered most from unemployment. 
