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National Geographic : 1950 Dec
Contents
Mid-Century Holland Builds Her Future through a so-called Counterpart Fund into which Dutch firms and the normal importers pay in Dutch guilders for what they need. The Counterpart Fund, operated by the Netherlands Bank under the joint direction of the Economic Cooperation Administration and the Netherlands Government, thus builds up a pool of hundreds of millions of guilders which are used for recovery and reconstruction. Marshall dollars serve a twofold purpose: the prompt purchase of essential dollar goods, and the rehabilitation of the nation. The projects financed by the fund offer irrefutable proof to offset the continuous at tacks upon the Marshall Plan by Europe's Communist organs. All Marshall Plan prod ucts (and likewise the U. S. trucks carry ing them) bear the United States shield, with stars and stripes, and the words: For Euro pean Recovery. Supplied by the United States of America. Holland's trade fairs also publicize in a big and heartening way what America's Mar shall Help is accomplishing. Holland's contribution to her own recovery is immense and in some ways remarkable. Consider one little-known fact. This small country, contrary to our thought of it, is highly industrialized. Thirty percent of the people live in large cities; the Utrecht Fair is a magnet for the businessmen of 70 countries. Yet since the war there have been very few strikes. Why? Have management and labor suddenly sprouted wings? The answer, a revelation to me when I first heard it, lies in the war itself. Lessons of War Useful in Peace Close cooperation was a thing both sides learned in that time of daily danger. It was literally a matter of life and death that they should work together, for they considered that they were carrying on a continuous rear-guard action-through sabotage, slowing up, "mis takes"-against the enemy within their gates. And when the war was over, both sides said, "If we could work together in war, we can do it in peace." Parents receive what is called a Children Allowance for all children up to 16 years of age and to 20 years for those still in school. "You need about 15 children, assuming you're an average earner, to double your wages," said a statistician to me. "And this supplement applies to everybody in industry, without exception." "To the president of the Philips concern?" I asked. "To him, too. He certainly is in industry!" This concern, called in Dutch N. V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken, maker of numerous modern things besides its basic incandescent lights, is one of the world's giants, with some 80,000 employees in many countries, includ ing America. More than a fourth of them work in Eindhoven, the concern's home city (page 749). The huge plant there was re peatedly bombed by the Allies during the war when it was operating under German control. The care of old people is a remarkable part of Holland's social program, made still more remarkable by the fact that longevity is seri ously increasing the problem of national over crowding. Everywhere in the cities are beauti ful developments where old people may live in their own houses, almost or entirely free of rent, looking out upon a central patio or park which the tenants themselves keep up. Tegelen's Passion Play Draws Thousands The traveler's Holland, in the unknown portions of the country as well as in the well known, tourist-trodden parts, is, so to speak, in the hands of a firmly knit organization called for short ANVV and for long Algemene Nederlandse Vereniging voor Vreemdelingen verkeer. It is the Netherlands National Tour ist Office to you and me. One finds its repre sentatives in every part of Holland. Activities of this organization are as numer ous as its offices. One of them is to publicize a village Passion play of real excellence, pro duced every five years (1950, 1955, etc.) by the village of Tegelen, on the right bank of the River Maas in Limburg Province. About 30 performances are given in the quinquennial years in an open-air theater seating 6,000. Performances rival the more famous ones of Oberammergau. The worthy sights of Holland, traditionally seen by swinging clockwise around the circle of its towns and Provinces, starting with Rot terdam, are far more varied and interesting than even ambitious folders can reveal. Rotterdam is a city of starkest tragedy, as the whole world knows, for it was the scene of Hitler's savage "warning" to those who opposed him. The story of its present resur gence is a classic. The city is coming back, despite an ironical situation; for Rotterdam lacks and must have, for her abundant life, normal trade with that country, Germany, which almost destroyed her. Despite this lack, the port of Rotterdam, home of the Holland-America Line, is again one of the stimulating sights of Europe. "How is this recovery possible after such a fearful beating?" I asked myself over and over as I rode the port's complex water ways for hours in a launch (page 774). 771
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