Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Page 275

ORGANIZATIONS IN WAR-TIME DENMARK 263
taining practical results for the benefit of the country — without
stressing the right of authorship. Action, not talk, counts — and
action, not speeches has been the means of carrying the move-
ment still further. The L. A. B. is decentralized as to organiza-
tion and means of action. There is no dictating, no definite
action enforced from above on the local branches, which enjoy
almost complete autonomy. The practical initiative rests almost
entirely with them. The Main Office in Copenhagen and the
Central Committee cannot go further than suggesting to the
local branches new tasks and new methods. It is realised that
results might sometimes be obtained more quickly and effective-
ly, if it were possible to issue orders for simultaneous and iden-
tical action. But on the whole, it is felt that the present system
is mere in line with the general aim of the L. A. B.: the promo-
tion of initiative and voluntary collaboration all over the coun-
try. There is, however, a constant exchange of information be-
tween the branches, direct or through the Main Office in Copen-
hagen, in order that experience — favourable or unfavourable
— about new fields of action and new methods may spread
rapidly.
What have been the principal tasks and the means of action
during the period of three years of existence of the L. A. B.?
It may be said that the L. A. B. has principally devoted it-
self to small tasks that are not big enough to attract the atten-
tion of others and not remunerative enough to tempt profit-mak-
ing enterprises. Thanks to voluntary work, overhead expenses
have been kept very low and it has been possible to take up
tasks which, although productive from the point of view of the
community, do not seem “to pay” in a more limited sense.
Practical examples are numerous. The activity which has at-
tracted most attention and which in the public mind is particularly
bound up with the name of the L. A. B. is the Spildindsam-
ling, the organized collection of waste materials that were
previously considered worthless and — in any case — not worth
collecting. Although Denmark has, so far, not been as hard pres-
sed as many other countries, the scarcity of such feedstuffs and
raw materials as were previously obtained from overseas made
itself felt very soon after the occupation in 1940; since then, it
has become more and more pronounced. The Danish people, with
its high standard of living, has been accustomed not to look too
closely at what it throws away. It is therefore a fact that the