Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Page 273

ORGANIZATIONS IN WAR-TIME DENMARK 261
The D. K. S. has also taken an active part in the efforts
which are at present being made for the development of a system
of civic centres (Fritidsklubber) in Copenhagen and the larger
provincial towns. While there are many youth organizations
m Denmark, there is a decided lack of premises where those
who do not belong to political or other organizations and parti-
cipate regularly in specific activities may meet and feel at home.
In the present situation, when young people of both sexes
are exposed to many temptations, it is particularly important
to help those whose moral background is often very weak, to
find a positive outlet for their energies in healthy work and
play. Up to the present, only a small beginning has been made,
but there is every reason to believe that a network of clubs
will soon exist all over the country. Members of the D. K. S.
have been called upon not only to give some time to the starting
and organization of such clubs, but also to continue — and this
means a much greater sacrifice — to help in running the clubs.
Without the constant assistance of disinterested and able men
and women the clubs are probably doomed to failure.
The L. A. B. (The National Association for the Prevention of
Unemployment) is not a war-product. It was formally organized
in August 1939 but the preparatory work had lasted for some
time.
Unemployment became a permanent problem of the first
magnitude in Denmark, as in many other countries, after 1920.
Before the first World War, unemployment figures (annual
average) in per cent. of organized workers had oscillated between
5 and 10; during the post-war years 15—20 % were the usual
figures, and in the early ‘thirties they reached, for a year or
two, more than 30 %.
Of course one expected the Government to do something,
both through unemployment insurance, various forms of public
aid, and also (as in Sweden) through public works. But although
unemployment directly affected a considerable part of the popu-
lation and gave rise to social and moral evils for thousands of
individuals and families, it seemed that the people as a whole
took the whole thing all too quietly. In the fight against other
social evils the collaboration of the Public had generally been
enlisted in some way or other, while in this particular field the
responsibility of private citizens was hardly realised at all.
The initiators of the L. A. B. saw that the inner cohesion