Combatting Unemployment in Denmark
By Keld Jørgensen
A continent of ideologies
Political ideologies had a field-day in Europe in the aftermath of the great economic depression at the beginning of the 1930’s with the social disaster of unemployment that followed. National Socialism was rising in Germany, while Communism appealed to many who were affected by unemployment and the resulting poverty. At the end of World War I the Treaty of Versailles dictated war reparations which resulted in enormous inflation in Germany, and the consequences were unemployment, economic disaster and apathy. Germany had not only been defeated but humiliated. The ideologies, however, promised better times, and Hitler restored a certain sense of pride to the people as the economy started to grow stronger.
When in 1936 I went travelling with a group of young Danish people through Germany and France we were welcomed in Germany by youths who made a considerable fanfare about our blond hair - an experience, which made us feel uncomfortable. Germany was clearly making progress, but something did not seem quite right. At the Bastille festival in France we found ourselves in the middle of a clash between communist and nationalist groups, only kept in check by a large police presence. In this way we had a sense of the conflicts rising in Europe.
This was the year when German expansion began: first came the occupation of the Rhineland, to be followed in the next years by the occupation of Austria and Sudetenland. Without fully understanding what might be the consequences, there was an increasing sense of uneasiness among Germany’s Nordic neighbours, also greatly affected by unemployment. I remember we were concerned when Jewish families fled into Denmark, but in general we did not feel that the situation in Germany concerned us.
No Cure for Danish Unemployment?
In Denmark throughout the 1930's unemployment was the problem that dominated everything. It was a great hindrance to the improvement of the social structure and a loss for society as a whole, in as much as it created an immense amount of human misery and meant a lessened contribution to the Danish economy. Social reforms were passed by the Social Democratic government in 1934, granting the unemployed some financial assistance, but it was far too little to support a family, so unemployment remained a real disaster for all those affected by it. Furthermore, society as a whole looked down on the unemployed, which often resulted in lack of self-confidence and faith in the future. The situation was frequently discussed in Folketinget, the Danish parliament, and all agreed that for the sake of the nation employment should be provided for everybody. But it seemed that no effective cure could be found.
However, events in which Folketinget had no part were starting to happen at a different level in society.
Private initiatives against unemployment
Valdemar Hvidt was a High Court advocate, married and with two small children. However, despite the fact that he was successful both in his career and in his family-life - at least seen from the outside - he felt that his life was falling apart, and he was giving up hope of ever becoming really happy. He and his wife were devoted to each other, but somehow their relationship seemed one big struggle, their attempt to communicate constantly missing the mark.
Oxford Group Meeting Sparks One Man
In 1935 the radio and press reported with enthusiasm some meetings being held in Copenhagen by a movement called the Oxford Group about renewal in people’s lives. Hvidt decided to go to a meeting, and this was to be the spark that set off many changes not only in his own life but also in the nemployment situation in Denmark. In five days the meetings drew more than 30,000 people with the message that a readiness to put right what was wrong and a willingness to listen to the will of God can change individuals and transform their environment.
Hvidt had long ago dismissed religion as irrelevant to his life, but the initiator of this movement, Dr. Frank Buchman, gave a simple and straightforward challenge that struck the heart and mind of Valdemar Hvidt as well as of thousands of other Danes: "Everybody wants to see the other fellow change. Every nation wants to see the other nation change. But everybody is waiting for the other one to begin. The best place to start is with yourself." Hvidt was still sceptical at the close of the meeting. Yet, as he saw in the crowd a couple who had recently asked him to arrange their divorce, he thought that if the message would have an impact on them he might give it another thought. The next day the same couple turned up at his office to call off the divorce.
This message was difficult to dismiss, and along with many other Danes Valdemar Hvidt decided to take up the challenge by putting it to a personal test. For a while he would take time every morning to be quiet and listen to his heart for inspiration. If it worked, it could be revolutionary, and if it did not - well, at least he would have given it a try.
As time went by, Hvidt noticed how this practice of listening set off small as well as great changes in and around the people who engaged in it. They started to take responsibility not only for their own lives, but also for the problems they noticed in their immediate surroundings. As unemployment was one of the most pressing problems most places, people started taking initiatives which could ease the situation.
A manufacturer was challenged by the concept of responsibility, but rejected it at first because he had full employment in his factory. However as he considered the matter further, he found that there were cleaning and repairing jobs to be done, and during the following months he was able to employ five more workers.
An initiative, "The Flying Corps of the Danish Heath Society", was started by a man from the Forest and Heath Department. It was a scheme by which unemployed men could get a job thinning newly planted trees. This enterprise re-established morale amongst unemployed people who once again found a sense of purpose in doing a useful and necessary job, and no longer had to endure the lack of regard from people who were fortunate enough to have work.
In 1936 Alfred Nielsen, proprietor of the largest sawmill combine in Jutland, had refused to grant his employees the wage-increase they had asked for, claiming that his firm's finances could not cover it. A year later, having taken time to listen for inspiration, Nielsen honestly told his men the true reason for his refusal, namely that his private pocket would have suffered. He went over the firm’s finances in their entirety with his employees, and together they agreed upon adequate provision for everyone. Later he and his men agreed that the new relationship this had created between them gave them the responsibility for making employment possible for some of the less fortunate of their fellow citizens, and a few more workers were employed. As the workers became more satisfied with their work they also made a better job of it, and Nielsen noted that despite increased wages and work-force the finances of the firm did not suffer.
Hvidt wrote an article about the effects of personal responsibility in the daily newspaper Politiken, featuring some of these examples, in order to encourage others to do the same. This article was published shortly before a programme for moral and spiritual re-armament was launched in Scandinavia by Frank Buchman in 1938 at a conference at Visby in Sweden. The programme was initiated on the background of the military re-armament that was going on all over the world.
One of those who took part in the Visby gathering was Alfred Nielsen. He later described how Frank Buchman talked with him and other Danes about what they thought was the biggest problem in their country. When Nielsen answered, "Unemployment", Buchman replied: "If you are ready to do anything that God may reveal to you, then you may be able to find an answer to the biggest problems in your country". When Nielsen returned home he gathered other businessmen and firms in the town of Silkeborg, notably the members of the Rotary Club, to discuss what could be done about unemployment, and to talk about his experiences in his own company. Many of them followed suit.
From Visby, Frank Buchman went to Copenhagen, where he met with several hundred people in the Phønix Hotel. In the tightly packed room he once again challenged people with a simple question: Denmark had 200,000 unemployed, but what were they themselves doing about it? Everyone was very quiet as they left that meeting, for they knew the question was directly relevant to the situation of the country and of their own attitudes to it.
Breaking up the boulder
Valdemar Hvidt too was at the meeting in Hotel Phønix. It was clear to him that there was much potential work in the country: for many things needed doing both in factories and in agriculture. But how could that need be turned into a demand so that people could be employed? As he listened for inspiration in one of his quiet times he suddenly got a thought that could help him: if you have a big boulder, impossible to carry, break it down into smaller pieces, then it can be carried away. It is the same with unemployment. When you try to solve it through the government alone, it is too big an issue, but it can be dealt with at the level of local communities.
If, somehow, the entire Danish people could begin to view unemployment not merely as the government’s problem, but as their own - if the individual started taking a sense of responsibility for the problem instead of pushing away that responsibility - then unemployment might be dealt with bit by bit. It was a matter of people moving from wishing to do something about unemployment towards actually doing something about it. Many employers might be able to take on an extra employee if they wanted to, as previous examples had shown. People could then earn their own keep and add to the productivity of the country, instead of slowly losing their sense of worth and incentive, which was the fate of many forced to live off public funds.
Of course, individual engagement should not relieve Folketinget from its responsibility, but private initiatives could supplement public efforts. That way unemployment might be eradicated piecemeal as individuals nationwide took responsibility for their own area.
A National Association for Combating Unemployment is founded
Hvidt spent time with a larger group of people from the meeting at the Phønix Hotel, who had taken up the challenge of moving from personal change to grapple with the social and national issues, amongst them Alfred Nielsen and a colonel, H.A.V. Hansen. They discussed how it might be possible to put Hvidt’s ideas into practice. The work-group decided to go out and encourage people to ask themselves whether they were doing all they could to improve the situation.
H.A.V. Hansen, who had been a farmer, went to a farmer he knew, and asked him what he would do with the unemployed in his area if he were responsible. The farmer believed the question misplaced, and retorted that it was not himself but the government, which was responsible for the unemployed. Hansen then asked: "How many unemployed do you have here?" The farmer answered that there were 14 in the parish, but the question started him thinking. "Of course, I could have my barn painted…". Then he decided to do just that, and he also gathered all his neighbours and told them of his intentions. By the end of the evening, they had amongst them found work for all 14 people.
On the Danish peninsula of Jutland, a man from the Labour Movement went to the painters' trade union in his town, where there were 25 unemployed painters. He challenged the union leaders as to why this situation was just accepted. As a result a campaign was launched to get homes repaired, inside as well as outside, and soon the 25 painters were offered work.
In yet another place a clergyman gathered his congregation after the Sunday service and raised the question of the local unemployment. Consequently, work was found for everyone in that area.
These private initiatives against unemployment spread all over the country like ripples on water. Some of them had their roots in a deep personal change of attitude caused by the challenge of responsibility, which had also affected Hvidt.
Valdemar Hvidt then had the thought to tell the Prime Minister about how employment was being created locally through private initiatives by individuals who had taken up responsibility themselves. If the leaders were informed about what was going on they could take it into consideration. Together with Alfred Nielsen and H.A.V. Hansen, he went to see the Prime Minister, Thorvald Stauning and told him about these local developments. The staunch man was moved to tears: being used to people always coming to him for help he was greatly encouraged by these individuals who came to tell him that they themselves had taken initiatives. "I thought social reforms would also make people more responsible, but it does not happen by itself.", he told them. "This change inattitudes you demonstrate is needed, too. If you can get a group of national leaders to carry this through together, it could then be done on a larger scale. I will give you my fullest support."
This in its turn was a tremendous encouragement to the work-group. They approached national leaders of industry, agriculture, the trade union movement, and women’s organisations, and found a broad response. In the spring of 1939 there was a meeting with leaders from these organisations. As a result, Landsforeningen til Arbejdsløshedens Bekæmpelse, LAB, (the National Association for Combating Unemployment), was founded on the 1st of August, 1939, with the aim of mobilising voluntary initiative and responsibility for dealing with unemployment.
A national committee of leaders from different works of life took on the task. They included the president of the Association of Danish Farmers, the vice-presidents of the Small-Holders Organisation and of the Employers' Federation, the president of the Danish Union of Unskilled Workers, the presidents of Rotary and of two national women’s organisations, managing directors of the biggest bank and of several major industries, as well as Valdemar Hvidt, H.A.V. Hansen, Alfred Nielsen, and some of the other initiators. Hvidt was made the chairman.
The committee worked to focus the public’s attention on the importance of private initiatives, and to be a dynamo for such initiatives to get started. Amongst other things it formed an investigation centre to search out new lines in industry which might increase employment, and opened an office based on a group of engineers who could give advice to the unemployed on technical matters or on possible new enterprises. In co-operation with the Trade Unions and the Employers' Association, the committee also created an educational scheme for unskilled labourers.
Most of LAB’s work, however, was based in the local communities where work-schemes were organised by people who caught on to the idea.
LAB was founded against a background of ominous clouds looming over Europe.
In 1940 unemployment became a concern of the entire Danish people. More than one third of all organised workers were without employment, and Germany was at war and could use all idle hands: in consequence people went to Germany in search of work. One main objective, which the whole population agreed upon (with few exceptions), was that nazification must be avoided, and everyone knew that serious unemployment meant a risk of Nazi contamination.
In January 1940 Prime Minister Stauning wrote a personal note to the initiators of LAB to encourage them to go on with their work of creating a healthy society. Everyone knew that unemployment was a grave danger to the country, but LAB was the association which could take the lead in turning this knowledge into positive action.
Hvidt retained his enthusiasm for the idea that if work was not there, it could always be found where individuals took initiatives and co-operated, and he was good at communicating this. The concept caught on countrywide. Denmark’s foremost cartoonist created a poster showing all kinds of people in all kinds of places doing all kinds of work and repairs. About 50 local committees, throughout the country were seeking possibilities of work, and succeeded in creating them.
A house wife in one town took a look at the rubbish: the rags, the iron, the glass and the food. This could all be used. The thought caught the imagination of others. Only a few weeks after the occupation of Denmark on April 9th, 1940, collection of waste was organised by LAB. Around the country several hundred people were employed, and about 30,000 pigs were fed with the kitchen waste that they collected. Through this, LAB became well-known. Not only did it create jobs, but everyone profited from it. At a time when everything was scarce because of the war, the idea of putting rubbish to use in different ways became very popular.
Collection of waste wood and tree stumps in the forests also gave work to many. This initiative was started by Alfred Nielsen. In a forest buying wood for his sawmills, he saw the tree stumps and waste wood and thought that here was a possibility creating work for many people. He got men started on removing the wood; hundreds of workers were employed, and the stumps were cleared. Eventually he managed to persuade Danish Railways to buy the wood and make use of it to stoke railway-engines.
In the autumn of 1943 people in LAB also turned their minds to the risk of substantial post-war unemployment, which might make the recovery of the country difficult. They were convinced this could best be handled through farmers taking on extra men to do repairs, building silos, draining fields, doing road work, etc.., so they launched a major campaign to create work possibilities. 100,000 farms were visited, and jobs were offered to some 30,000 people. LAB continued its work until the 1960s, when unemployment had ceased to be a problem.
Valdemar Hvidt viewed the concept of individual responsibility as crucial. To him it was an ingredient that was necessary, not only for the creation of employment, but for democracy itself. At the end of 1939 he wrote that: "Democracy depends on the maintenance of the initiative by individuals. Therefore a solution of the disaster of unemployment will be decisive for the political future of Democracy; and the future of Democracy depends on the degree to which private initiative can be developed in open co-operation with public initiative."
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