to the obligation of employers to pay compensation for working accidents. The Act only applied to larger industrial establishments, but subsequent Acts have considerably extended the scope of this Act, and the one now in force, promulgated on June 28th, 1920, which applies to practically all employers, places the obligation to insure with the employer. The insurance is to be effected with an insurance company approved by the Ministry for Home Affairs, which may be either an ordinary private insurance company or a mutual company established especially for the purpose.

Daily allowances and invalidity compensation are paid in case of accident and, in the event of the death of the injured person, burial assistance and compensation to the surviving members of the family. Compensation for invalidity is given in the form of a capital sum, fixed according to the percentage of invalidity and the wages of the injured person (the maximum compensation being 24,000 kroner). In the event of death a capital sum of five times the annual wage (maximum 12,000 kroner), and burial assistance to the amount of 200 kroner, are paid to the widow and children of the deceased.

The settlement of the question of liability for compensation and the amount of the compensation is made by a Government institution, the Labour Insurance Council, whose decisions are final. Where there are special circumstances the Council may decide that the full amount of the compensation is not to be paid out in full at once, but at certain periods, while in other cases the amount may be utilized for the purchase of an annuity.

Unemployed Insurance. At an early date a number of trades unions took up the question of assistance to the unemployed, partly by means of insurance through special unemployment funds, but the realization that a general solution of the question could not be carried through by the workers themselves led, in 1907, to the passing of an Act providing for public support of approved unemployment funds. The principle was the same as with the Sick Benefit Clubs, i. e. the establishment and membership of such funds was quite voluntary. As a matter of fact, however, the development of the funds has been subject to the interest of the trades unions, they having made it compulsory

for their members to become members of the unemployment fund established for their particular trade. Thus the funds have secured a number of »good risks« which otherwise, if left to themselves, would have remained outside the scheme. The funds are subject to Government supervision, but otherwise they are independent and are managed in conjunction with the trades unions, a fact which makes for lower costs of administration. At the end of the financial year of 1924-25 there were 67 funds, of which 66 were limited to certain trades, though covering the whole country, while one was of a merely local character. The membership was 265,000.

According to the Act of March 4th, 1924, the Government gives a grant corresponding to 35 per cent. of the contributions of the members, and the municipalities a grant corresponding to 30 per cent. of the contributions of those members who live in the municipal area. In the ordinary course the public subsidies thus amount to about 40 per cent. of the income of the funds. In the financial year of 1924-25 the Government subsidy was about 6 million kroner and the municipal grants about 5 millions.

Whilst under ordinary conditions before the war and the first years of the war the funds were in a position to meet their obligations on the intended insurance basis, unemployment had grown to such dimensions in the years 1917-21 that this was no longer possible, and the Government had therefore to grant very considerable sums towards the relief of unemployment. From January 1st, 1922, a special unemployment fund has been in existence, and this comes into function in the event of extraordinary unemployment by the granting of relief, financing of emergency work, and courses of training for the unemployed. The Government immediately granted a sum of 7 million kroner and, up to the end of 1922-23, a further 10 millions. In the ordinary course the unemployment fund receives a Government grant equivalent to ten per cent. of the total contributions of the ordinary members, plus one-third of the total amount disbursed by the fund. Employers pay 5 kroner per annum for every man employed, and the municipalities pay one-third of the amount paid out in extraordinary unemployment relief. The inspection of the unemployment funds is exercised by a special Government institution collaborating with various committees on which both employers and workers are represented.

The extraordinary unemployment relief is paid out essentially through the relief funds (see pp. 124).

Closely connected with the unemployment insurance is the public Labour Exchange, established by the municipalities and directed by Boards, on which the various parties are equally represented. The Government refunds up to one-third of the expenses of the municipalities towards these Labour Exchanges.

SANITATION, HOUSING, ETC.

For the purpose of maintaining ordinary hygienic standards there is a Sanitary Authority, consisting of a central organ: the National Board of Health, and a number of medical officers, each of whom has his district and exercises ordinary hygienic supervision. There are local organizations in the form of municipal boards of health, which are to be found in every town and a number of rural districts.

The public hospital service is highly developed in Denmark, both as far as the Government, and, especially, as far as the municipal hospitals are concerned. There are altogether in the ordinary public hospitals 14,000 beds, and there are also special sanatoria for consumptives with accommodation for about 2,000 patients, lunatic asylums with accommodation for 5,000, and homes for the mentally deficient, etc.

Until the outbreak of the war the supply of dwelling houses had principally been effected through private building enterprise, although from the end of the 'nineties there had been some cooperative building, especially in the surroundings of the capital. Owing to the rise in prices during the war, and the future risk in the building business, a large number of private builders withdrew. Thus there was a great scarcity of dwelling houses, especially in the towns and, in order to remedy this, great sacrifices were made by the State and the municipalities in order to get houses built. Under these circumstances the building activities of the municipalities themselves and of the co-operative societies came very much to the fore.

In 1916 regulations were introduced by law, governing the increase of house rent. This legislation has now in all essentials ceased to operate in the provincial towns, but remains in force in Copenhagen until the spring of 1931. From 1914 to the end of 1924 rents increased on an average by 58 per cent. in Copenhagen and by 83 per cent. in the provincial towns.

TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION

In Denmark, temperance legislation is mainly limited to regulations regarding the number of places where alcoholic beverages may be consumed and as to trading in spirits. There is no prohibition, but alcohol is very heavily taxed. The voluntary temperance movement has attained considerable proportions, and there is a very large number of societies all over the country whose members (to a number of about 160,000) pledge themselves not to drink spirituous liquors. The per capita consumption of pure alcohol, which in the years immediately prior to the war was 64 litres of 100 per cent., is now just under 3 litres. The heavy taxation and the improvement in the sobriety of the population have, in combination, produced this favourable change.

MUSEUMS AND SCIENTIFIC

INSTITUTIONS*)

MUSEUMS

Among the principal museums may be mentioned the National Gallery, which besides a unique collection of Danish copper etchings, contains a comprehensive and representative collection of Danish paintings which characteristically reflect both Danish scenery and the specific national character of the Danish people, and also a comprehensive collection of Danish sculptures. Furthermore, the Gallery possesses a number of modern works of Norwegian and Swedish artists, and a collection of older foreign art consisting, in addition to some sculptures, of about 600 paintings, among others works of Titian, Mantegna, el Greco, and especially the masters of the Flemish and Dutch schools of the 17th. Century. By Rubens there are, among others, the large, magnificent picture of the Judgment of Solomon and the portrait of Abbot Matthaeus Yrselius, perhaps the best existing portrait by the artist. There are several excellent works of Jordaens, among others the picture known as >>The Antwerp Ferry-Boat«. The various Dutch schools are all very amply represented. A feature of special interest is the large collection of paintings by Rembrandt and his pupils.

In the copper-etching collection, which consists of about 100,000 prints, there are, besides many other excellent works, some beautiful engravings by Dürer, which are supposed to have been presented to the Danish King Christian II by the artist himself.

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotheke. This gallery was founded in 1882 by Mr. & Mrs. Carl Jacobsen. It contains, on the whole, only original and eminent works of art representative of various countries and periods. The gallery consists of an ancient and a

*) A full account of the principal Danish collections and scientific institutions will be found in Denmark 1924, p. 129.