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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/sovereignpeoplesOOIIoy 
 
A Sovereign People 
 
 A STUDY OF SWISS DEMOCRACY 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY DEMAREST LLOYD 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 JOHN A. HOBSON 
 
 
 New York 
 
 Doubleday, Page & Company 
 
 1907 
 
Copyright, 1907, by 
 
 William Bross Lloyd 
 
 Published September, 1907 
 
 All rights reserved, 
 
 including that of translation into foreign languages, 
 
 including the Scandinavian 
 
" 17 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In 1901 and 1902 Henry Demarest Lloyd paid two long visits 
 co to Switzerland in order to make a close study of the structure 
 *" and working of democracy as expressed in the social institutions 
 ^ of that country. The kernel of his investigation was the direct 
 cc government exercised by the people through the use of the 
 <c referendum and the initiative. He sought by an intimate re- 
 search into its recent history to understand how this democracy 
 , \ had set about to secure and enlarge the political and economic 
 £ liberties of the people, and in particular to protect the nation 
 s against the dangers which the concentration of wealth and power 
 ^< under capitalist industry have everywhere evoked. Visiting a 
 number of the centres of industry and politics, he talked with 
 ^ all sorts and conditions of men, statesmen, professors, business 
 4 men and workers, probing them closely upon the living issues 
 ^ of their time, the Nationalisation of the Railroads, the Alcohol 
 Monopoly, the Banking and Insurance Policy, etc., seeking to 
 leam how the popular will was stirred into legislative activity, 
 © how far the referendum gave a reliable and reasonable expres- 
 sion to this will, how far ignorance, passion, and prejudice 
 ^ narrow its efficacy, and what sorts of fruits were gathered from 
 democratic legislation. He did not, however, confine his atten- 
 tion to politics: the organised co-operation of the people for all 
 sorts of purposes, industrial, educational, recreative, came into 
 the scope of his investigation, and from personal inquiry and 
 published documents he gathered an immense quantity of in- 
 formation for future sifting and interpretation. 
 
 This work, unhappily, he did not live to finish, and his friends 
 
 
 
vi A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 entrusted to my care, for editorial purposes, a set of note-books 
 and a large quantity of literature which he had collected in 
 order to write his book, "A Sovereign People." It is right that 
 I should here explain what use I have made of the material, 
 and what personal responsibility I bear in the production of 
 this book which bears upon its title page the honoured name 
 of Henry Demarest Lloyd. 
 
 In most of the chapters it is inevitable that readers should 
 miss those distinctive qualities of vigorous vitality and lumi- 
 nous expression, that swift picturesque allusiveness, which 
 characterised everything he wrote. For only a small propor- 
 tion of his notes were left in a shape admitting direct transcrip- 
 tion for this book. For the most part they were the hasty 
 jottings of conversations recorded red-hot as he returned to 
 his hotel, or brief allusions to articles he had perused, or else 
 impressions of passing events that struck his imagination and 
 might serve to illustrate some thought that flitted across his 
 mind. 
 
 All this was raw material designed for future assimilation 
 when he came to the large task of imposing intellectual order 
 upon his subject-matter. Although in close and entire sym- 
 pathy with my friend's democratic standpoints, I could not 
 hope to build out of this material the noble and imposing edifice 
 which he would have raised. The structure I have been able 
 to erect is far humbler and less serviceable. Following the 
 general ground-plan, as I gathered it from his notes, I have 
 built into the chapters of this book a mass of the facts recorded 
 in his notes, amplified by references to the documents he had 
 collected. In doing this I have been compelled to fuse frag- 
 ments of material scattered through the note-books, supple- 
 menting them from other sources, in this way losing much of 
 the personal qualities which the individual notes conveyed. 
 Wherever it has seemed practicable, however, I have intro- 
 duced phrases and sentences taken verbatim from the note- 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 books, and in a few places large passages comprising several 
 pages each have admitted of transcription with scarcely the 
 alteration of a word. 
 
 Although it has been my endeavour to follow out as far as 
 possible the chief threads of interest indicated in the note-books, 
 the universality of his sympathy with all movements of social 
 betterment led him in his conversation or his reading to touch 
 many themes which he had not time or opportunity to elabo- 
 rate. At certain places indeed his plan of study radiated into 
 an intricacy of design which a whole lifetime would hardly 
 have sufficed to execute, as the vast collection of pamphlets 
 and official documents relating to the minutiae of cantonal and 
 municipal politics serves to illustrate. 
 
 Had he lived to carry through his work, he would doubtless 
 have exercised here that fine quality of judgment in selection 
 which he has exhibited in his other books. Many of these 
 minor points which, breaking in upon his main investigations, 
 find a record in the notes I have been compelled to ignore. 
 But, with one exception, I have tried to develop and express 
 what he regarded as the chief lessons which Swiss democracy 
 had to teach the world at large and his own countrymen in par- 
 ticular. This exception is the banking system in the cantons 
 and the larger cities. Mr. Lloyd's inquiries into this impor- 
 tant subject made it evident that he intended to devote some 
 space to Swiss finance when he came to write his book. But 
 he had not had time to go far enough into this intricately tech- 
 nical subject to indicate clearly the path of exposition he would 
 follow, and I deemed it safer and fairer to omit an attempt at 
 interpretation in which there would have been considerable 
 danger of misrepresenting his views. 
 
 Although the several chapters of this book have been sub- 
 mitted to experts in Swiss politics, it is more than likely that 
 errors of fact or of interpretation are contained in them. To those 
 who have read this account of the condition in which Mr. Lloyd's 
 
viii A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 notes were left and of the use I have made of them it will be 
 evident that the full responsibility of such errors must be im- 
 puted to the editor. 
 
 Mr. Lloyd was profoundly impressed by the importance' of 
 the political lessons which his own great new country could 
 learn from this little old country. More and more as he grew 
 older he had taken for his special work in life the endeavour 
 to enforce upon the intelligence of his countrymen the results 
 of the experience of other peoples in the free acts of political 
 and economic co-operation. To his close studies in the co- 
 operative movements of Great Britain and of Continental 
 Europe, he had added his fascinating picture of New Zealand, 
 a land without strikes, a land where the people appeared to 
 have gone further and faster than anywhere else in the attain- 
 ment of equality of economic opportunity, industrial peace, and 
 a peaceable constructive socialism. 
 
 But when he came to penetrate into the living tissue of Swiss 
 democracy and to see and understand from personal intercourse 
 the vital workings of their democratic system, the immense 
 importance of getting this knowledge home to the American 
 people began to dominate his mind. Here was a nation, in 
 essential structure a small-scale replica of his own, a federal 
 state, republican in form, democratic in its institutions, com- 
 posed in the main of the same Teutonic stock, living on the 
 same general level of civilisation, passing rapidly like America 
 from an agricultural into an industrial life, and confronted by 
 the same problems of political and economic adaptation. In 
 Switzerland he saw a people grappling boldly, confidently, and 
 in the main successfully, with the power of railroads, liquor 
 lords, financial magnates, and industrial corporations, socialising 
 some of these great economic functions, controlling others, and 
 using the government of city, canton, and confederation in har- 
 monious co-operation for this common work. He saw here 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 the two greatest issues which confronted his own nation, the 
 How Much of Federal Power? and the How Much of Socialism ? 
 being worked out peacefully by a series of tentative experi- 
 ments. Lastly, he saw these experiments being conducted, not 
 merely by an expert bureaucracy, as in Germany, or by party 
 managers as in Great Britain or the United States, but by the 
 body of the people stamping the direct impress of their con- 
 sidered judgment upon the individual acts by which this 
 democratic government was effected. 
 
 More and more he came to be filled with the sense that here 
 for the first time he had got into contact with real democracy, 
 expressed in institutions which protected the Swiss citizen against 
 most of those abuses which had corrupted or deflected the will 
 of the people in his own country. So he set himself to a minute 
 study of those instruments of popular government, in particular 
 the referendum and the initiative, and of the actual work which 
 had been thus accomplished in the building up of a sound civic 
 and national life. 
 
 The following passages taken straight from Mr. Lloyd's 
 Swiss Note-Book will best serve to indicate his sense of the 
 nature of the task which he had set himself, but did not live to 
 carry to completion: 
 
 " Switzerland is the only instance on a national scale where 
 the people have, by wholly democratic processes, by debate 
 and mandate, taken possession of the monopolies and changed 
 them from instruments of private profit-getting to public ser- 
 vants; the only spectacle of a united modern democracy 
 evolving itself into a great economic agency, not by the leader- 
 ship of enlightened innovators as in New Zealand, but by the 
 whole people. The Swiss people have done this in their cities 
 and cantons and in their nation — cantonal banks ; alcohol 
 monopolies; railroads; city burials as in Basle and Zurich. The 
 purchase of the English telegraphs was the act of the repre- 
 sentatives of the English people. The plan and the detail were 
 
x A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 never submitted to the direct consideration of the people, but 
 in the railroad nationalisation of Switzerland there were several 
 Direct Legislations. 
 
 "A similar exercise of popular sovereignty is the purchase of 
 local water works, etc., but even in these I know of no case 
 where the details of the plan have been worked out by the people 
 and settled by votes of the people at different stages as in Switzer- 
 land. Even if there should be cases of local works as thorough 
 as those of Switzerland, Switzerland is certainly the first case 
 in history of a democracy, ancient or modern, where this 
 has been done on the modern scale. The importance, there- 
 fore, of this story as a precedent, when the whole civilised world 
 is bubbling with excitement about problems presented by prop- 
 erty become monopoly and monopoly become international, 
 cannot be overestimated." 
 
 "The largest of all the individualisms is that which is diffused 
 among all the people. Its Parliament and altar can be found 
 in the general will and heart. It is to this new conscience the 
 appeal must be made for the general good. The individual 
 leader tends always to become a usurper and to be a good 
 leader no longer than he is led. It is the mission of democracy 
 to keep this court of the general good always in session to en- 
 force the general law. The people must be sovereigns because, 
 in the long run and on the average, their decisions will be the 
 most unselfish and the wisest. The appeal of the new con- 
 science to the individual to make the good of all superior to 
 the good of one or a few, to live up to the obvious truth that 
 one million people are more than one or one thousand, can 
 be successfully made only to all. It is only therefore by 
 democracy that righteousness can come." 
 
 " Switzerland in one way is far more difficult than the United 
 States. The United States has been knit together by the great 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 tide of westward emigration from the East. (Fiske estimates 
 about 15,000,000 descendants of 11,000 New Englanders.) 
 
 "In Switzerland there has been no such unification of canton 
 with canton. Canton is divided from canton by lines of race, 
 customs, etc., almost as sharp as mountain ranges." 
 
 "Swiss movement is but a scenic drama of which the first act 
 was played in the American Colonies in 1776, the second in 
 Paris in 1789, the third in Germany in the peaceful reconstruc- 
 tion and emancipation of land and men by Stein and Harden- 
 berg in 1815, the fourth in the revolution of 1848, throughout 
 Europe, including the Chartist movement, the fifth and greatest 
 act of which rehearsals are now in progress wherever men meet 
 to talk and think about the social business. 
 
 " Switzerland, that is, is not exceptional, but is entirely and 
 characteristically a part of the modern world, possessed with a 
 most modern spirit, exceptional only in this that it has been 
 able to develop this modem movement without the hindrances 
 that have retarded it elsewhere so much. In this it resembles 
 New Zealand. Both New Zealand and Switzerland are of our 
 time and race, religion, economy and politics and evolution. 
 Both have been able to move faster along the lines of this evo- 
 lution than we because free of ' interpositions ' (Wordsworth) 
 that have blocked our way. The greatest of these is the sud- 
 den wealth created by modern science, explorations, and inven- 
 tions, which has made the world for most part a great placer 
 and converted the peoples into crazy gold hunters. The com- 
 petition is in ' piles,' not morals. Switzerland is in a very impor- 
 tant way a more timely example for us than New Zealand. 
 While the New Zealand policy is more advanced, the Swiss is 
 more democratic. More has been done in New Zealand, but 
 in Switzerland more has been done by the people. She has 
 diversities of race almost more of a problem than ours. We 
 have a greater menagerie — variety in our 'happy family ' — 
 
xii A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 but we expect to see them all fuse into one new American type 
 in the process so rapidly going on. But in Switzerland the 
 different bloods have each their own set place. Germans and 
 French, and Italians and Romance are not mixed up, inter- 
 marrying. But lines of locality and lines of race divergence 
 coincide. Geneva was French a hundred years ago, and French 
 it still is. Beme has been German for six hundred years and 
 will be so hundreds of years hence. Ticino grows less Italian 
 than it was under Charlemagne. Race division and geo- 
 graphical division coincide, — a thing not seen in the United 
 States, even between blacks and white, though manifestly De 
 Tocqueville's prophesy, that the negroes tend to monopolise 
 for habitation and for working the southernmost States, moves 
 up slowly towards fulfilment. 
 
 "Switzerland also has its immigration problem both in French 
 Switzerland and in German. 
 
 "All these things that prove American backwardness as com- 
 pared with New Zealand and Switzerland is not due to 'new 
 country ' nor to lack of homogeneity, nor to immigration, but 
 to some other cause. We could unite immigrant and native, 
 European and American, North and South, Catholic and Protes- 
 tant, but for some obstacle other than the differences which 
 have not prevented their union in Switzerland in these most 
 advanced political and industrial uses of social force. What 
 is that obstacle? It is the great wealth scraped up on the 
 placers by the ablest grabbers. Unity and opportunity for all 
 have been a policy which every philosopher from Plato to 
 Mazzini has warned us could not endure where great inequality 
 existed, a teaching which the history of all the republics so far 
 except Switzerland has verified." 
 
 "My point is not to present the Swiss people as a perfect 
 democracy, or doing with pre-eminent success all the things 
 they undertake, i.e., the nationalisation of the railroads, fire 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 A Laboratory of Democracy i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 The Growth of Swiss Democracy 9 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 The Commune 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 The Landsgemeinde or State Commune 47 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 Popular Checks on the Representative System 57 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 Direct Democracy in the Federation 76 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 The Nationalisation of the Railroads 88 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 The Nationalisation of the Alcohol Trade 113 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 The State for the Workers 126 
 
 xv 
 
xvi A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 Industrial Peace 154 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 Municipal Ownership 161 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 The Co-operative Movement 174 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 Swiss Socialism 183 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 Effects of the Referendum and Initiative 208 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 The Fruits of Democracy 246 
 
A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A LABORATORY OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 Students of politics have generally agreed that Switzerland 
 contains a larger variety of instructive experiments in political 
 and economic democracy than any other living nation. No- 
 where else has the direct personal participation of the body of 
 citizens in acts of government been applied in so many differ- 
 ent ways, fortifying or in many instances superseding the in- 
 direct modes of popular control known as representative 
 institutions. 
 
 The sovereignty of the people, based upon the equal political 
 and civil rights of all adult male citizens, has nowhere been so 
 fully realised as in the expanding series of self-governing areas 
 in which a Swiss citizen exercises his rights and duties as a 
 member of a commune, a canton, and a federal state : nowhere 
 have the relations between these larger and smaller areas of 
 democracy grown up under conditions of such careful adjust- 
 ment and so much promise of stability. Finally, there is no 
 other state whose constitutions, federal, provincial, communal, 
 express such implicit confidence in the present will of the ma- 
 jority and admit such facility of fundamental changes to meet 
 new conditions. 
 
 Though there are one or two modern states where public 
 control of industry and other forms of " socialistic" legislation 
 and administration have been carried further than in Switzer- 
 
2 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 land, it would probably be found that nowhere has substantial 
 liberty and equality of opportunity, political, industrial, edu- 
 cational, and social, been more adequately secured than to the 
 citizens in the more advanced cantons of Switzerland. For 
 not only in political government do we find many able experi- 
 ments in the art of reconciling individual liberty with rule by 
 the majority, but outside of politics in the labour organisations, 
 co-operative societies, consumers' leagues, and an immense 
 variety of economic, philanthropic, educational, and recreative 
 unions, we have evidence of the free play of a democratic spirit 
 finding expression in social forms. 
 
 Before presenting the slight historical sketch which is essential 
 to understand these operations of the spirit of democracy, it is 
 right to call attention to a series of conditions, physical, moral, 
 and industrial, which explain why so small a section of the earth 
 contains so large a number and variety of experiments in the 
 arts of self-government, why, in a word, Switzerland must be 
 regarded as the best equipped political laboratory in the modern 
 world. 
 
 That a mountainous country favours hardihood and inde- 
 pendence of character, precludes wealth and luxury of living, 
 and makes the political and economical domination of an 
 oligarchy difficult to establish or maintain, is a commonplace 
 of history. Now the whole of present Switzerland is part of a 
 vast mountain comprising Savoy, the Tyrol, and other adjoining 
 regions. Though intersected by numerous valleys, the entire 
 country is lifted well above the normal level of the neighbouring 
 states. Only two per cent has an altitude of less than a thousand 
 feet, two thirds of the land is composed of hills and dales, the 
 other third an elevated plain of over thirteen hundred feet. The 
 Rhone, the Jura, and the Alps, with chains of lakes, furnish a 
 formidable set of barriers against intruders from France, Ger- 
 many, or Italy. No other country of high mountains is broken 
 by so numerous cultivable valleys with such a variety of situa- 
 
A LABORATORY OF DEMOCRACY 3 
 
 tions. This causes great differences of local climate, so that 
 neighbouring villages exhibit widely divergent types of agri- 
 culture and of industry. 
 
 "Within a short distance one may see at the same time all 
 the seasons of the year, stand between spring and summer, 
 collecting snow with the one hand and plucking flowers from 
 the soil with the other. In Valais the fig and grape ripen at 
 the foot of ice-clad mountains; while nearer their summits the 
 lichen grows at the limit of the snow line. There is a corre- 
 sponding variety as regards the duration of the seasons. In 
 Italian Switzerland winter lasts only three months; at Glarus, 
 four; in the Engadine, six; in the St. Gothard, eight; on the 
 Great St. Bernard, nine, and in the Theodule Pass, always." 1 
 
 The innumerable natural barriers separating towns or groups 
 of villages, which are all close neighbours so far as actual dis- 
 tance goes, have favoured the growth of small, strongly inte- 
 grated, economically and socially self-sufficing communities, 
 each with some distinctive character of its own based on the 
 peculiarity of its physical environment. 
 
 Differences of race, language, and religion have helped in no 
 ordinary degree to present the diversity of conditions in the 
 political growth of the nation. Though German is the dominat- 
 ing language, eighteen cantons being altogether German speak- 
 ing, French prevails in five cantons, Italian in one (Ticino), 
 while one third of the population of Graubiinden speak 
 Romansch. 
 
 The cleavage of religion, by no means following race and 
 language, shows Roman Catholicism predominant in twelve 
 cantons, in all save two of which it is virtually the sole religion. 
 
 A very wide diversity of size and of distribution of popula- 
 tion is visible in the various cantons. In area they vary from 
 Graubiinden with 2,765 square miles and Berne with 2,660 to 
 Geneva with only 109 and Zug with 92. In population Berne 
 
 1 Winchester, The Swiss Republic, p 22, 
 
A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 exceeds half a million, while Inner-Appenzell possesses only 
 12,88s. 1 
 
 1 
 
 Popu- 
 lation 
 
 Religion 
 
 Language 
 
 Cantons 
 
 Square 
 Miles 
 
 1905 
 
 Protes- 
 tant 
 
 Rom. 
 Cath. 
 
 A 5 
 
 a 
 
 ^3 
 
 u 
 
 a 
 
 1— 1 
 
 s 
 
 Aargau 
 
 Appenzell 
 A. Rh . . 1 
 I. Rh . . J 
 
 Bale 
 
 City .... 1 
 Rural .. J 
 
 Berne 
 
 Freiburg .... 
 
 St. Gall .... 
 
 Geneva 
 
 Glarus 
 
 Graubiinden 
 
 Lucerne 
 
 Neufchatel . . 
 
 Schaffhausen 
 
 Schwyz 
 
 Solothurm . . 
 
 Ticino 
 
 Thurgau .... 
 
 Unterwalden 
 ob. d. w. . 
 nid. d. w. . 
 
 Uri 
 
 Vaud 
 
 Valais 
 
 Zug 
 
 Zurich 
 
 542 
 162 
 
 177 
 
 2,660 
 644 
 780 
 109 
 267 
 
 2,7 6 5 
 580 
 312 
 116 
 35i 
 303 
 
 1,095 
 382 
 
 295 
 
 4i5 
 
 1,245 
 
 2,026 
 
 92 
 
 665 
 
 211,430 
 
 55,73o 
 13,733 
 
 124,017 
 
 71,000 
 
 616,432 
 
 131,3" 
 
 258,732 
 
 150,173 
 
 31,785 
 
 107,605 
 
 150,781 
 
 131,481 
 
 42,939 
 
 57,324 
 
 106,546 
 
 143,180 
 
 116,484 
 
 15,343 
 
 13,272 
 
 20,635 
 
 296,012 
 
 117,514 
 
 25,881 
 
 459,269 
 
 55% 
 9i% 
 
 78% 
 67% 
 86% 
 
 15% 
 40% 
 48% 
 76% 
 55% 
 5% 
 87% 
 87% 
 
 25% 
 
 70% 
 
 84% 
 87% 
 
 44% 
 
 94% 
 
 21% 
 30% 
 12% 
 84% 
 59% 
 49% 
 23% 
 45% 
 94% 
 n% 
 
 98% 
 74% 
 99% 
 28% 
 
 97% 
 99% 
 98% 
 8% 
 99% 
 93% 
 12% 
 
 99% 
 
 99% 
 99% 
 
 99% 
 96% 
 83% 
 31% 
 98% 
 n% 
 99% 
 46% 
 99% 
 20% 
 
 99% 
 99% 
 98% 
 
 99% 
 
 97% 
 96% 
 99% 
 9% 
 31% 
 99% 
 99% 
 
 15% 
 
 68% 
 84% 
 
 77% 
 
 81% 
 67% 
 
 14% 
 98% 
 
 38% 
 
 
 16,021 
 
 3,463,283 
 
 
 Nor is there less diversity of industrial condition, for while 
 Switzerland still remains for the most part an agricultural state 
 
A LABORATORY OF DEMOCRACY 5 
 
 with a thin scattered population, great modern industrial cities 
 are beginning to spring up, Zurich with a population of 150,700 
 (in 1900), Bale with 109,161, and Geneva with 90,321. The 
 wide-spread existence of water-power available for modern 
 manufacturing uses, and the development of rich mineral re- 
 sources in Southern Germany, have led to a considerable growth 
 of factory production. The textile and other manufactories of 
 Zurich, Glarus, Bale, Appenzell, St. Gall, Aargau, and Thurgau, 
 have introduced into these cantons the array of economic and 
 other social problems incident on modern organised industry, 
 involving complex considerations of the powers and duties of 
 government in the regulation of private business enterprise and 
 the preservation of the health and other interests of large labour- 
 ing populations exposed to the vicissitudes of modern world 
 commerce and to the domination of large capitalist companies. 
 
 The plasticity of Swiss democracy in adapting itself to these 
 new conditions is truly remarkable, as indeed is the whole 
 process of political integration which has been advancing during 
 the last few generations. That a group of little agricultural 
 states should have been able to grapple so successfully with 
 the economic and political entanglements of modern capitalism, 
 utilising for this purpose partly those implements of free self- 
 government which had come down to them from their past his- 
 tory, partly new modes of popular control accommodated to 
 their growing population and their more complex issues, stands 
 out as one of the great achievements in modern history. 
 
 To understand, so far as may be, the play of those social 
 forces, which by gradual processes through six centuries 
 have welded this diversity of races, languages, and religions 
 among a thousand little groups of men, each living in its own 
 valley, into a powerful little modern nation with a unity and 
 solidarity of government sufficient to place it in the forefront 
 of civilisation, and to protect it against all aggression of out- 
 siders without impairing the smaller and more ancient group- 
 
6 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 ings out of which the federal state has sprung; to study the 
 forms of government through which these social forces find 
 expression, and to perceive how, through these forms, the popu- 
 lar will handles those great problems of to-day which the com- 
 mon character of modern civilisation imposes alike on all 
 advanced nations, — this is one of the most profitable studies that 
 can engage a political reformer of to-day, especially in those 
 countries which by their institutions profess themselves to be 
 in form or in substance democracies. 
 
 For here we have within a trifling compass no fewer than 
 twenty-five sovereign states, each fully equipped with the 
 political apparatus of a democratic republic, each formed 
 by the slow and for the most part voluntary co-operation 
 of a number of still more minute republics, and combined 
 to make a federation in which the direct operation of the 
 popular will has fuller scope and freer play than in any other 
 modern community. 
 
 Opponents of democracy are continually raising two sets of 
 objections which they deem fatal. First, they say, you cannot 
 get the general will of the people really dominant in politics, 
 whatever forms of franchise or election you devise, and if you 
 could, the welfare, even the existence of the state would be con- 
 stantly imperilled. Secondly, they say, if a sound democracy 
 is possible, it can only be confined to so small a group of men 
 as to be unfitted to the needs of modern society which demand 
 large states. Hence, they proceed to argue, though a na- 
 tion may be furnished with a tolerably complete democracy 
 in its constitution, the complexity of a modern civilised govern- 
 ment converts it into a practical bureaucracy, controlled, as all 
 governments have ever been controlled, by an oligarchy of rich 
 men. 
 
 It is primarily because the Swiss Constitution claims to have 
 provided an escape from this paralysing imbroglio, and to have 
 attested experimentally the possibility of democracy, that it 
 
A LABORATORY OF DEMOCRACY 7 
 
 deserves the attention of other nations which are trying to be 
 democracies and failing. 
 
 The direct participation of a simple citizen in acts of govern- 
 ment, and the application of the federal principle, are the key- 
 notes to Swiss democracy. By means of the former it is claimed 
 that those monstrous excrescences of "party," known as bosses 
 and machine politicians, cannot thrive, while the latter prevents 
 the growth of those not less dangerous abuses that proceed 
 from the complex machinery of a highly centralised govern- 
 ment in a large state. Let the body of free citizens not merely 
 elect men who shall execute their will in making laws and in 
 other acts of government, but retain the right of directing what 
 laws shall or shall not be passed, what acts shall or shall not 
 be done by their representatives; these checks upon the abuse 
 of power by individual representatives or parties are, it is con- 
 tended, necessary and sufficient securities for the free play of 
 the general will. The linkage of smaller into larger govern- 
 mental units, and these larger units into others still larger, which 
 the federal principle enables, following a sound line of historical 
 evolution, imposes, it would seem, no limit upon the govern- 
 mental area of a well-constituted federal state; for each 
 smaller area will only consign to the central federal govern- 
 ment such powers as can be safely and economically adminis- 
 tered by it. 
 
 The origin, structure, and working of direct government and 
 of federation in Switzerland where these forces and methods 
 have been subjected to such long and various experiment- 
 ation are matters of intense significance for Americans who 
 perceive their own democratic institutions cracking under the 
 very strains for which these Swiss devices are designed to afford 
 relief. 
 
 A full accurate account of the growth of the spirit and the 
 forms of Swiss democracy would of course be nothing short of a 
 complete history, constitutional, economic, intellectual, and 
 
8 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 religious, of that little mid-European nation, a project which 
 cannot here be entertained. It must suffice to present a brief 
 general sketch of certain leading landmarks in the history of 
 that process of free popular co-operation which has issued in 
 the modern Swiss Confederation. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE GROWTH OF SWISS DEMOCRACY 
 
 For the earliest sources of the democratic movement we must 
 look to the Germanic spirit and institutions brought into the 
 country we now know as Switzerland, by the two German 
 nations, the Burgundians and the Alamanni, who settled there 
 in the first half of the fifth century, A.D. The Alamanni, a 
 Pagan people, who were brought into close contact with Roman 
 civilisation, took forcible possession of Northern Helvetia, 
 reducing to slavery the scattered Helveto-Roman population 
 they found there; the Burgundians, a Christianised and milder 
 people, peacefully overspread Savoy and Southern Helvetia, 
 imposing on the earlier inhabitants a gentler form of subju- 
 gation. Although at first the two invading nations main- 
 tained a fierce hostility against one another, each striving to 
 encroach upon the territory of the other, they soon found 
 themselves incorporated in the new Empire which the Franks 
 were beginning to erect upon the ruins of the Roman Empire 
 of the West. 
 
 The general outline of these Germanic settlements is clear. 
 Dividing up the cultivable land they settled down by clans in 
 counties or Gaue, each under a chieftain or Graf. The name Gau 
 still survives in the names of two cantons, Thurgau and Aargau. 
 The Gau was divided into hundreds, which were presided over by 
 cent-grafen or Centenarii. What portions of the old German 
 military and political system were engrafted on the Swiss settle- 
 ment it is not easy to determine, but in the earliest times the 
 popular election of the grafen appears to have prevailed. Of 
 
 9 
 
io A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 democracy in any modern sense there was no trace, for the 
 population was divided everywhere among the Allamanni into 
 two great classes, freemen and slaves, while the former were 
 further distinguished as nobles, freeholders, and landless free- 
 men. There is, however, traceable in the earliest times an 
 institution destined to play a most important part in the evolu- 
 tion of Swiss local democracy, viz., the allmend or undivided 
 land surrounding the village settlement. The allmend con- 
 sisted of meadow and forest, later some arable land, lake, river, 
 or mountain. What exactly were the relations of the several 
 classes of freemen towards this allmend, and how far they 
 exercised their rights collectively or individually, are disputed 
 questions, but when we come to historic times we find the all- 
 mend everywhere in Switzerland as a communal property of 
 the village or local group, and certain rights of grazing, wood 
 cutting, etc., possessed by all or most free inhabitants. As the 
 allmend formed a boundary between one community and 
 another it was also known as a mark. 
 
 When the Feudal System was superimposed on this earlier 
 Germanic social structure, large districts passed as fief under 
 the protection, control, and exploitation of some powerful baron 
 or some monastic establishment. How far such overlordship 
 crushed freedom in local self-government, and interfered with 
 the communal property, depended chiefly upon two conditions : 
 first, the magnitude and distance of the overlord, secondly, the 
 ease or difficulty of access. When we find the kernel of the Swiss 
 Confederation in the Forest cantons, we readily understand why, 
 in an age when strong men were everywhere usurping popular 
 rights and extirpating popular institutions, these rights and 
 institutions survived in those cantons. The arts of political 
 and ecomonic tyranny could not be exercised in these mountain 
 and lake-girt fastnesses with the same persistency and thorough- 
 ness as in some fertile plain intersected by good military roads 
 and lying near some great governmental centre. 
 
THE GROWTH OF SWISS DEMOCRACY n 
 
 A great overlord, living far off with many rich and easily 
 accessible possessions, would not find it worth his while to give 
 much attention to the exploitation of such a people as the 
 dwellers in these forest cantons. 
 
 Uri, the nest-egg of the future federation, also enjoyed from 
 very early times the advantage of falling under the jurisdiction 
 of the Abbey of Zurich, a far milder sway than that commonly 
 exercised by the small local barons of the Empire. 
 
 There is some evidence that even in these early days the men 
 of Uri, as a collective body, had recognised liberties; every man, 
 bond or free, was a member of his Markgenossenschaft or Com- 
 munal Association; and the whole body of the people, collectively, 
 is found treating with the bailiff of the Abbey concerning tithes 
 and boundary laws, as early as the twelfth century. 
 
 From this monastic control it passed early in the thirteenth 
 century under the direct sway of the Empire, and in 1231 the 
 men of Uri received a charter confirming this direct dependence, 
 and bestowing upon the people a practical immunity from the 
 greed and oppression of local lords which laid the foundation 
 of their coming independence. 
 
 The neighbouring cantons of Schwyz and Unterwalden passed 
 from the control of local lords into the same conditions of privi- 
 lege under the Empire, retaining right through the feudal period 
 a substantial amount of local liberty, though Unterwalden was 
 less consolidated than the other two countries. 
 
 The first important date in the history of the unity of Switzer- 
 land is 1 29 1, when the three cantons Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, 
 entered what is known as the First Perpetual League. 
 
 This first step along the part of federalism was prompted by 
 the desire of the people of these three states to protect their 
 territories and their local liberties against the danger of encroach- 
 ment on the part of the Counts of Habsburg, who had by this 
 time acquired possession of almost the whole of the surround> 
 ing country. It is purely a league for two pacific purposes, 
 
12 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 mutual defence against external aggression, and the peaceful 
 settlement by arbitration of internal dissensions between the 
 three contracting parties. These purposes are embodied in 
 the two following clauses which constitute the heart of this his- 
 toric document: 
 
 "Therefore, know all men, that the people of the valley of 
 Uri, the democracy of the valley of Schwyz, and the community 
 of the mountaineers of the lower valley, seeing the malice of the 
 age, in order that they may better defend themselves and their 
 own, and better preserve them in proper condition, have 
 promised in good faith to assist each other with aid, with every 
 counsel and every favour, with person and goods, within the 
 valleys and without, with might and main, against one and all, 
 who may inflict on any one of them any violence, molestation, 
 or injury, or may plot any evil against their persons or goods." 
 
 "But if dissension shall arise between any of the confederates, 
 the most prudent among the confederates shall come forth to 
 settle the difficulty between the parties, as shall seem right to 
 them; and whichever party rejects their verdict shall be an 
 adversary to the other confederates." 
 
 This is not a revolutionary, not even a reforming document; 
 so far as it touches politics at any other point than these, it 
 confirms the existing order: it is simply directed to a mutual 
 guarantee of internal order and of defence against external 
 dangers. But it forms the nucleus of the federal democracy 
 of to-day. 
 
 Soon began the first bout in the long broken conflict with the 
 power of Austria when the confederates beat back their gigantic 
 foe in the famous victory of Morgarten. 
 
 During the brief breathing space that followed this victory 
 the confederates strengthened their position by drawing into 
 their league the little state of Luzerne, thus consolidating the 
 union of the land around the lake known as the Lake of the 
 Four Forest States, the Vierwaldstattersee (1332). At the 
 
THE GROWTH OF SWISS DEMOCRACY 13 
 
 same time a further step was taken in strengthening the con- 
 tract of the states ; for in the formal renewal of the original pact 
 it was added that none of the contracting parties should enter 
 into negotiations with or submit to any outside power without 
 the consent of the others. 
 
 The next addition to the Confederation was got by the acces- 
 sion of Zurich nineteen years later. Zurich had long been a 
 commercial centre of importance for trade between Germany 
 and Italy, and its silk manufactures had already brought it 
 considerable wealth, fame, and inhabitants. A free city of the 
 Empire, it had recently carried through a great popular uprising 
 against the close oligarchy that had long dominated the city. 
 The people demanded a share in the government, and under 
 an astute and energetic leader, Brun, they had overthrown the 
 old castle system and got the city council onto a popular basis. 
 But the deposed party naturally sought aid from the Austrian 
 potentates around, and Brun in the extremity of the new situa- 
 tion craved the alliance of the Forest States, concluding in 135 1 
 a perpetual league with Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. 
 Glarus and Zug also came in next year (1352), extending and 
 consolidating the line of the federal territory in the North. 
 
 Still more important was the accession in the following year 
 of Berne, the most ancient and important military post in the 
 country and a "free city" of the Empire, like Zurich. 
 
 Recent ambitions of the citizens of Berne to extend their 
 sway over the fertile valley of the Aar, and to weld into one 
 state the communities of that district, led them into conflict with 
 the aggrandising power of Austria. As early as 1323 they had 
 sought the alliance of the Forest Cantons, an alliance which took 
 effect in the assistance rendered to Beme in the victory of Laupen 
 in 1339, the first occasion on which the east and west of 
 Switzerland joined hands against the common foe. 
 
 In securing the co-operation of the free cities of Zurich and 
 Berne the confederates made dangerous departures from the 
 
i 4 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 true democratic principle of federation that deserve attention. 
 In the league with Zurich the right of making separate alliances 
 with other states was accorded to the contracting parties, a 
 stipulation which left open to Zurich the opportunity of a special 
 pact with Austria, if that could be arranged on advantageous 
 terms. In the league with Berne was embodied a provision 
 pledging the Forest States to guarantee the inviolability of 
 Bernese territory, though no corresponding obligation was 
 imposed upon Berne. 
 
 The entrance of Beme into the alliance in 1353 completes the 
 list of the eight cantons that formed the early Confederation. 
 
 This Confederation was destined to play an important part 
 in preserving the principles and practices of popular self-govern- 
 ment during an age when elsewhere throughout the Empire the 
 ancient liberties of the peoples were collapsing before the power 
 of the nobles and the military oligarchies. Not merely did it 
 safeguard the practical political independence of Northern 
 Switzerland against the Austrian power by a series of fierce con- 
 flicts in which the great victory of Sempach (1386) stands out 
 conspicuous, but it constituted a protected area within which 
 the internal forces of popular power were gathering and pre- 
 paring the forms of the modern Swiss democracy. While else- 
 where in Europe the liberties of the guilds and citizens in the 
 commercial towns, wrested with difficulty from kings or local 
 lords, were being undermined by the new monopoly of some 
 strong guild or other burgher oligarchy, in the Swiss towns the 
 tendency was towards increased power for the body of the citi- 
 zens, the merchants and artisans. While in every other country 
 the process of creating a landless proletariat by encouraging 
 large landowners to encroach upon the common rights of the 
 small peasants, and in other ways to force them into the status 
 of mere wage-earners, was proceeding apace; in Switzerland 
 the small properties and the allmend were preserved intact, 
 and the groups of free peasants remained the backbone of the 
 
THE GROWTH OF SWISS DEMOCRACY 15 
 
 nation, the main source alike of military strength and of political 
 independence. It is of supreme significance to note that, 
 whereas in other lands what practical liberty existed was chiefly 
 found in more favoured cities, in Switzerland it was the peasants 
 who kept alike the forms and the substance of democracy. While 
 in the cities Berne, Lucerne, Zug, and even Zurich, aristocratic 
 cliques were constantly endeavouring, with more or less success, 
 to control the city, the old confederating states of Uri, Schwyz, 
 Unterwalden, Glarus, were fully democratic republics, sovereign 
 peoples exercising directly their power through popular assem- 
 blies. 
 
 The holding together of these diverse states by a federation 
 containing no central authority of any kind, legislative-, execu- 
 tive, or judicial, and consisting in a number of separate alliances 
 between the federating members, is one of the most remarkable 
 achievements of history. Though several attempts were made 
 to give closer unity and more positive contracts to the federal 
 relation, nothing emerged that could be termed a federal con- 
 stitution. 
 
 The most important document of union in this early Con- 
 federacy was the Covenant of Sempach (Sempach's Brief), the 
 most significant provision of which referred to the effective 
 co-operation and humane conduct of war by the allies. It de- 
 serves attention that in an age when hardly any checks were 
 placed upon the barbarities of warfare, the armed democracy 
 of this Confederation should have formally set its seal upon what 
 has been termed "The first attempt, made by any people, to 
 restrain somewhat the fury of war; to regulate military discipline 
 and leadership by an intelligent humane law." * 
 
 It was only natural that a federation which had given such 
 strong proofs of its power should extend its area of influence. 
 This came about in two ways. The example of liberty and 
 
 1 Danklicker, ' Geschichte der Schweiz, ' Vol. I, p. 56 (quoted McCrackan, 
 p. 189). 
 
16 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 federalism is infectious; other little groupings of neighbouring 
 communities took place, some of which eventually sought ad- 
 mission to the larger federation. Special arrangements se- 
 cured for citizens of Appenzell, of Graubunden and of Valais, 
 the protection of the federation, before these states became 
 formal members. The other method of expansion, not less 
 natural, was less defensible. It was the path of conquest, to 
 which early in the fifteenth century the Confederation com- 
 mitted itself with considerable vigour. The territory, now 
 comprised in the canton of Ticino, the Val Leventina, was 
 wrested from the Duke of Milan in 1403, to be held as con- 
 quered land on no basis of equality with the federated states. 
 A still more important encroachment was the acquisition by 
 arms of Aargau on the Northwest frontier. The bulk of this 
 new territory was absorbed by Berne, smaller portions fell to 
 Zurich and Lucerne, the rest was held as federal property, a 
 certain source of future trouble for a league with no central 
 government. 
 
 As soon as federalism was converted from a distinctively con- 
 servative and pacific into an aggressive policy, seeking wider 
 territory and outside markets for its goods, a fissure began to 
 appear between the rural democracies and the urban oligarchies 
 with their growing wealth and commercial ambitions. In all 
 ages and circumstances such a quarrel is inherent in a policy 
 of imperialism, the conquest and subjugation of foreign lands 
 and peoples. For empire abroad is wedded to aristocracy at 
 home; it feeds the lust of power of a ruling class by offering 
 ambitious careers, trade privileges, tax-farming, and other 
 valuable perquisites; the very existence and the government of 
 subject lands corrupts the sense of liberty and equality at home. 
 The conquest of the Aargau in particular drove a wedge into 
 the Confederation, which widened until it brought civil war, 
 delaying for well-nigh a century the further evolution of the 
 federal state. This period of war within, varied by a brilliant 
 
THE GROWTH OF SWISS DEMOCRACY 17 
 
 career of military prowess in the later struggles with Burgundy 
 and the Empire, culminated in 1499 with the Peace of Bale. 
 
 Alone among the many leagues that had sought to stand 
 against the Empire the Swiss Confederation had survived, 
 attaining at the close of the fifteenth century a position of un- 
 exampled prestige, and even holding, through the fame of their 
 mountain-bred soldiers, a sort of balance of power among the 
 combatant nations of Europe. From this time forth, though 
 still formally subject to the Empire, the Confederation must be 
 regarded as a politically independent body. 
 
 Towards the close of the fifteenth century the Confederation 
 once more began to increase its membership, Freiburg and 
 Solothurm joining in 1481, after the so-called Covenant of 
 Stans; and Schaffhausen and Bale, who had on many occa- 
 sions fought as allies, became members of the Confederation 
 after the Peace of Bale, in 1501. 
 
 The further definite admission of Appenzell in 15 13 marks 
 a distinct epoch in the history of the Confederation, which had 
 now attained the number of thirteen states, a number to which 
 no future addition was made for 285 years. 
 
 The federal relation was still of a most primitive order, desti- 
 tute of all effective central constitution, though the beginnings 
 of a more formal federal government may be found in the 
 Diets (Tagsatzungen), held from time to time for some specific 
 purpose, to which the several cantons sent delegates. Such 
 delegations were not, however, efficacious legislative bodies, 
 their vote was only binding when they carried out explicit 
 instructions from their respective cantons, no majority vote 
 could bind the minority, and even where unanimity approved 
 a resolution no executive power could enforce it upon any 
 remiss canton. 
 
 This feebleness of the federal bond was further impaired 
 by the relations which the thirteen states held towards the rest 
 of what we now know as Switzerland. 
 
18 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 "Of the twenty-two cantons, now forming the Swiss Con- 
 federation,' ' writes Mr. McCrackan, 1 "at that time only thirteen 
 were full-fledged members, four were still allies, three were in 
 the inferior position of subject or conquered lands, and two, 
 Vaud and Geneva, had not yet entered into direct relations with 
 the Confederation at all." 
 
 It is no part of our purpose to trace the history of the havoc 
 wrought upon the unity of the Confederation by the coming of 
 the Reformation. The new teaching, which the citizens of 
 Zurich had received from Zwingli, spread rapidly among the 
 other states, and was welcomed or repelled according as liberal 
 ideas, or the play of local interests and circumstances, deter- 
 mined. 
 
 The Forest States furnished the stronghold of resistance to 
 the new doctrines, while Berne, Glarus and St. Gall threw them- 
 selves with enthusiasm into the reform. 
 
 In the main the older part of the federation, consisting en- 
 tirely of German speaking states, remained faithful to the 
 Catholic Church. Protestantism, at any rate that dominant 
 form of it associated with the name of Calvin, and issuing from 
 Geneva, got its chief hold upon the French speaking territories, 
 large portions of which were not until long after fully-fledged 
 members of the Confederation. 
 
 The immediate effect of the religious ferment was to break 
 the slender federal tie: Berne and Zurich, the centres of Protes- 
 tantism, formed a separate alliance, and soon after the five lead- 
 ing Catholic states, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, and 
 Zug, broke away, formed a league of their own, and entered into 
 relations with Austria. Although Switzerland contrived to 
 escape direct participation in the Continental struggle known 
 as the Thirty Years' War, thus establishing a precedent for the 
 position of neutrality which has remained a distinctive feature 
 of her polity, it was torn in pieces by internal strife and dissen- 
 
 1 The Rise of the Swiss Republic, p. 244. 
 
THE GROWTH OF SWISS DEMOCRACY 19 
 
 sion, which set back for well-nigh two centuries the develop- 
 ment of national solidarity. The division of the country into 
 Catholic and Protestant cantons was only one aspect of a spirit 
 of schism which manifested itself in every canton; the collapse 
 of federation was attended by a revival of aristocracy in the 
 cantonal governments. Throughout the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth centuries the decay of democracy was conspicuous, 
 especially in the cantons where population and commerce were 
 concentrated in some considerable city. A new burgher no- 
 bility arose in Berne, Freiburg, Lucerne, usurping all the im- 
 portant and lucrative offices of state, and the powerful guilds 
 of Bale, Zurich, and Schaffhausen failed to hold the fortress of 
 control against the reactionary movement. Even in the more 
 remote rural cantons the same demoralising forces manifested 
 themselves : a governing class, composed mainly of the families 
 which had risen to wealth and fame from great mercenary cap- 
 tains, ambassadors in foreign courts, and the bailiwicks of the 
 subject lands, everywhere imposed its yoke upon the people. 
 
 As everywhere throughout history, imperial exploitation was 
 made the basis of domestic tyranny. "The confederates as- 
 sumed the federal rights of the nobility which they have driven 
 out; their bailiffs ruled like sovereigns, held miniature courts 
 and exacted the same tribute, in the shape of taxes and personal 
 service, as the former feudal rulers. As far as the subject lands 
 were concerned, it was a mere exchange of masters, and some- 
 times a most disastrous one. The administration of these sub- 
 ject lands certainly forms one of the darkest pictures in Swiss 
 history. Every state in the Confederation became a land-own- 
 ing corporation. The aristocratic factions within the city 
 developed into an idle body, who lived upon the unearned 
 increment of land, or the pensions received from foreign 
 military service. It made no difference that the Swiss peasants 
 were generally allowed to remain in nominal possession of the 
 land they tilled — for mortgages, taxes, and personal services 
 
2 o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 swallowed up this apparent advantage and made their position 
 fully as miserable." 1 
 
 This sway of local aristocracy maintained itself through the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth century, crushing with ruthless 
 severity the popular uprising in the middle of the seventeenth 
 century known as the Peasants' War. Differences of religion, 
 race and industrial interest, prevented the union of these can- 
 tonal oligarchies into a powerful centralised aristocratic state, 
 and Switzerland, devoid as yet of effective nationality, drifted 
 into a new subjection to the neighbouring power which had dis- 
 placed the Empire. The formal renunciation of her allegiance 
 to the German Empire, secured in 1648 through the mediation 
 of France, was soon followed by the acceptance of what was 
 in effect the suzerainty of France. Under the protectorate of 
 Louis XIV. and his successors, Switzerland enjoyed a tolerable 
 tranquillity which, during the eighteenth century, was fruitful 
 in large measures of internal progress in agriculture, commerce, 
 and education. The nationalising forces, however, were in 
 complete abeyance; localism was paramount everywhere, not 
 even upon such matters as coinage and a common system of 
 weights and measures was co-operation possible between the 
 cantons. 
 
 The French Revolution roused once more the dormant spirit 
 alike of nationality and democracy. The invasion of Switzer- 
 land by the armies of the French Directory, in 1797, found the 
 ruling classes hopelessly at variance, but the majority of the 
 common people, alike in the cantons and the subject lands, 
 favourable to the new gospel of liberty and equality. Not 
 equally welcome, however, was the brand-new highly centralised 
 " Constitution of the Helvetic Republic," which Napoleon 
 sought to substitute for the old Confederation. Ignoring local 
 sentiment and historic traditions, the new Constitution made 
 a new division of the entire country into eighteen prefectures 
 
 » McCrackan, p. 283. 
 
THE GROWTH OF SWISS DEMOCRACY 21 
 
 with " scientific" frontiers, and provided a representative na- 
 tional government endowed with power to demand obligatory 
 military service and with other rights of "interference" with 
 local and individual liberty to which the people were wholly 
 unaccustomed. 
 
 A sharp struggle ensued between the Federalists and the 
 Centralists regarding the limits of state rights, and after vari- 
 ous remodellings, Napoleon again intervened in 1803 with his 
 Act of Mediation containing new draft constitutions for the 
 Confederation and for the several cantons. 
 
 This act is described as a cross between the historic law of 
 Switzerland and the philosophic law of the French Republic. 
 
 It concedes the general principle of the sovereignty of the 
 cantons. "The cantons shall exercise all the powers which 
 have not been expressly delegated to the federal authority." 
 On the other hand, it imposes the complete equalitarian basis 
 of democracy by maintaining "that there no longer exist in 
 Switzerland either subject lands, or privileges of place, birth, 
 persons, or families." 
 
 While this act and the cantonal constitutions established 
 under it were short lived, disappearing with the fall of Napoleon, 
 the liberation of the subject lands and their establishment as 
 independent cantons added five new states to the Confedera- 
 tion, viz., Aargau, St. Gall, Ticino, Thurgau, and Vaud. 
 Three more cantons were created by the Congress of Vienna 
 in 181 5, Geneva, Neufchatel and Valais, thus completing 
 the tale of the twenty-two states that comprise Switzerland as 
 she stands to-day. 
 
 The true beginning of the modern democratic Confederation 
 of Switzerland is to be found in the Federal Pact of August, 181 5, 
 in which the twenty-two cantons bound themselves to a Con- 
 stitution establishing a permanent Diet, and endowing the federal 
 authority with formal charge not merely of the integrity of 
 the country, but of its internal order. The cantons mutually 
 
22 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 guarantee the integrity of their constitutions and of their 
 respective territories ; each canton has one vote in the Diet. 
 
 "For important decisions (war, peace, or alliances) three 
 fourths of the votes are necessary. In all other matters that have 
 been declared to be within the province of the Diet by this 
 present Federal Agreement an absolute majority is sufficient." 
 (Art. 8.) 
 
 To the several cantons absolute freedom was left in the for- 
 mation of their governments, with one important proviso : 
 
 "The Confederation declares this principle to be inviolable; 
 that since the twenty-two cantons have been formally recog- 
 nised as such, there are no longer in Switzerland any subject 
 countries, and, in the same way, the enjoyment of political 
 rights can never in any canton be made the exclusive privilege 
 of any one class of citizens." (Art. 7.) 
 
 The weakness of this federal pact soon became manifest. 
 No means for enforcing its authority had been provided, and 
 the reactionary cantons treated the democratic safeguards 
 with open defiance, refusing to bring their constitutions into 
 conformity with its requirements. 
 
 This unsatisfactory condition of affairs continued until the 
 advent of another revolutionary wave from France. The Revo- 
 lution of 1830 stirred the burghers of a number of cantons to 
 demand a liberal revision of their Constitution, a demand which 
 was successfully enforced in most of the cantons during 1830 
 and 1 83 1. These local successes of the liberals led to a further 
 demand for a revision of the Federal Constitution, and thus 
 again grievous trouble arose. In March, 1832, the seven can- 
 tons, Lucerne, Zurich, Solothurm, St. Gall, Aargau, Thurgau, 
 entered an agreement for mutual defence of their revised con- 
 stitutions, known as the Siebner Konkordat. This was the 
 first step in separation, and was followed by a more important 
 movement on the part of seven conservative cantons who with- 
 drew from the Federal Diet, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, 
 
THE GROWTH OF SWISS DEMOCRACY 23 
 
 Zug, Freiburg, and Valais, forming a separate confederation, 
 the League of Sarnen. This revolt was temporarily crushed 
 by the use of federal force, but the political animosity, fed by 
 bitter religious controversies, continued to smoulder until in 1845, 
 a new league of seven conservative Catholic cantons, Lucerne, 
 Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Freibourg, and Valais, known 
 as the Sonderbund, entered upon a formal act of secession, ac- 
 companied by mutual pledges of armed defence, against federal 
 compulsion, even appealing to Austria for help. A short shaip 
 conflict occurred in which the secessionist forces were defeated 
 and the federal power triumphantly vindicated. 
 
 The struggle was on a miniature scale a replica of the Ameri- 
 can Civil War, a last attempt of the old conservative state rights 
 aristocrats to resist the reforming centralising tendencies of the 
 modern civilised nationality. Fortunately the war was short 
 and attended by small loss of life and destruction of property. 1 
 
 The necessity of strengthening the federal power was recog- 
 nised in the reconstruction of the Constitution in 1848. Tak- 
 ing the American Federal Constitution as their rough model the 
 Swiss now converted their loose Confederation into a federal 
 state, an organised nationality, controlled by two Houses, one 
 representing the body of Swiss citizens in their individual 
 capacity, the other representing the cantons, the agreement of 
 the two Houses being essential for legislation. 
 
 The area of federal government was considerably enlarged: 
 the post-office, coinage, weights and measures were placed under 
 its charge; the cantons surrendered the right to levy cantonal 
 customs at their frontiers; the entire control of foreign relations 
 was vested in the federal government, which likewise divided 
 
 1 The comparative humanity, which distinguished Swiss warfare from the 
 beginning, is exemplified in the order issued to the Union Army ending with 
 these words, "Take all the defenceless under your protection; do not allow 
 them to be insulted or mishandled. Destroy nothing unnecessarily; waste 
 nothing; in a word, conduct yourselves in such a manner as to win respect, 
 ai d to show yourselves worthy of the name you bear." 
 
24 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 with the cantonal government the national defence, education, 
 public works, and police. Not less important, the federal gov- 
 ernment guaranteed the elementary liberties of all citizens, rights 
 of settlement, freedom of speech, assembly, press, and religious 
 practices. 1 
 
 This new Constitution was adopted in September, 1848, by 
 fifteen and a half cantons against seven, and by a majority of 
 the voters. 
 
 What may be regarded as the final definitive form of the 
 Swiss Federal Constitution was not, however, reached until 
 1874, when a general revision of the document of 1848 was 
 adopted. Although this revision made no new theoretic re- 
 apportionment of power between federal and cantonal govern- 
 ment, by its fuller application of the principles of 1848, it gave 
 considerable additions to the actual functions of the federal 
 government. More important, however, was the embodiment 
 of a provision that all federal laws shall be submitted to the 
 vote of the people for their acceptance or rejection. 
 
 This " referendum" article reads as follows, Art. 89 : "Federal 
 laws shall be submitted for the acceptance or rejection of the 
 people if the demand is made by 30,000 active citizens or by 
 eight cantons. The same principle applies to federal decrees 
 which have a general application and which are not of an urgent 
 character." 
 
 The new Constitution was accepted by 340,199 votes against 
 198,013, and by thirteen and a half cantons (Zurich, Berne, 
 Glarus, Solothurm, Bale city, Bale rural, Schaffhausen, Appen- 
 zell (A. R.), St. Gall, Grisons, Aargau, Thurgau, Vaud, Neuf- 
 chatel, Geneva). It was rejected by eight cantons (Lucerne, 
 Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Freiburg, Appenzell, (I. R.), 
 Ticino, Valais.) 
 
 The cantonal division was upon religious lines, the minority 
 
 1 The last liberty was qualified by the expulsion of the Jesuits and their 
 affiliated societies from Switzerland. 
 
THE GROWTH OF SWISS DEMOCRACY 25 
 
 being entirely Catholic. About eighty-five per cent of the 
 qualified voters went to the poll. 
 
 One other constitutional change has to be recorded. Accord- 
 ing to the Constitution of 1848, the people had the right of 
 demanding by a vote of 50,000 the submission of the Federal 
 Constitution to a revision. It was supposed that the right of 
 initiative was applicable to the revision of particular articles 
 as well as to a general revision of the' Constitution. The federal 
 authorities, however, interpreted the article of 1848 so as to 
 exclude such partial revisions, and insisted that, when the re- 
 vision of any part of the Constitution was demanded by the 
 popular vote, the referendum should be placed before the people 
 in the general form, " Ought the Federal Constitution to be 
 revised?" 
 
 The struggle for a popular initiative for partial revision was 
 carried on for several years in the Federal Council and the 
 Federal Assembly, the chief contest being waged not over the 
 principle of the proposed reform, but over the method of ex- 
 pressing the initiative. The question was, whether the popular 
 initiative should embody in general terms the nature of the 
 proposed partial revision, or should express the desired reform 
 in the shape of a formal bill. 
 
 The issue was eventually decided in the more liberal sense by 
 a vote of the people and the cantons taken July 5, 1891. The 
 voting was 181,882 Ayes and 120,372 Noes. Only four cantons 
 showed a majority against the decree, viz., Aargau, Thurgau, 
 Vaud, and the two half cantons of Bale (rural) and Appenzell 
 (A. R.). 
 
 The decree became Article 121 of the Constitution, and en- 
 abled a popular initiative for partial amendment to shape itself 
 either in the form of general suggestions or of finished bills. If 
 the initiative takes the more general form the formulation of 
 the desired amendment rests with the Assembly; if the Assembly 
 agrees with the proposal it frames the complete amendment, 
 
26 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 which is then submitted to a referendum of the people and the 
 cantons for acceptance or rejection; if the Assembly disagrees 
 with the proposal, then the question whether after all there shall 
 be a partial amendment is once more submitted to the people, 
 an affirmative vote being thus taken as an instruction to the 
 Assembly to take the matter in hand. 
 
 When, however, the initiative takes shape in a complete bill, 
 and the Federal Assembly agrees, the bill is directly referred 
 to a referendum of the people and the cantons. If the Federal 
 Assembly disagrees with the bill, it can substitute a bill of its 
 own or a motion of rejection, and can submit this bill or motion 
 along with the people's bill in the referendum. 
 
 The adoption of this " formulated initiative," as it is called, 
 was represented by many as endowing the people with what 
 was virtually the power to introduce new laws into the legis- 
 lature, for the line of demarcation between such a proposal of 
 practical amendment and a new statute seemed difficult to 
 draw. But though several important amendments by means of 
 the " formulated initiative" have been attempted since 1891, 
 only one has been successful, a measure forbidding the slaughter 
 of animals by Jewish methods. 
 
 But while this right of initiating partial amendments of the 
 Federal Constitution has not given to the body of citizens all 
 that was hoped by some and feared by others, it makes an im- 
 portant advance in the popular power of direct government. 
 
 Since 1874 the actual functions of the federal government 
 have grown considerably, localism yielding in many directions 
 to federal needs. 
 
 The monopoly of gunpowder assumed by the federal govern- 
 ment as part of its military system has been followed by a 
 monopoly of the manufacture and a federal control over the 
 supply of alcohol; laws regulating the manufacture and sale of 
 matches, and the manufacture of gold and silver wares, have 
 brought these trades under federal control; gambling houses 
 
THE GROWTH OF SWISS DEMOCRACY 27 
 
 have been subjected to federal prohibition. A still more impor- 
 tant federal advance is the adoption of a network of factory 
 laws and regulations enforced by federal inspection and the 
 adoption of federal laws dealing with contracts and bankruptcy. 
 Patents, copyrights, and trade-marks are also brought under 
 federal control. The development of the postal and telegraph 
 system and of national roads has led up to the largest of all 
 the federal experiments, the acquisition and working by the 
 nation of the main railroad system of the country. 
 
 As a part of the national monetary system, the central govern- 
 ment inspects and controls banks of issue, regulates the cir- 
 culation of notes, the reserve fund method of redemption, and 
 circulation of reports. By a constitutional amendment of 1890, 
 it has assumed the power to establish invalid and accident in- 
 surance, though no practical proposal for the exercise of this 
 right has yet received the sanction of the people. Although 
 the education of the people still remains for the most part in the 
 hands of the cantons, the federal government expends consider- 
 able sums on the encouragement of learning. 
 
 While no power is vested in the federal government to impose 
 direct taxes on Swiss citizens, 1 the right to call upon the cantons 
 for contributions according to their respective ability to pay has 
 been formulated in a carefully constructed schedule, though 
 this federal tax has never yet been actually imposed. 
 
 The federal debt up to the period of the nationalisation of the 
 railroads was extremely light, amounting to no more than about 
 fifteen francs per caput. The purchase of the railroads, adding 
 975)658,650 francs ($195, 131,53c) 2 to the debt, has given im- 
 mensely increased importance to the system of national finance, 
 though the railroad account is in form kept separately. 
 
 The real significance of these extensions of the power of 
 federal government can only be understood when we consider 
 
 1 The Military Exemption Tax may be regarded as an exception. 
 
 2 Throughout this book the value of a franc is given as 20 cents. 
 
28 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 in detail the relations between cantonal and central govern- 
 ment. At present it is sufficient to note the general tendency. 
 
 This slight historic sketch has had for its aim to indicate the 
 slow, gradual, but persistent play of the federative force acting 
 upon a people whose physical environment and character bred 
 in them strong habits of local independence. Co-operating 
 with this federative force, tempering, directing, sometimes 
 stimulating it, we see the spirit of democracy, the instinct for 
 the sovereignty of the people flowing from the life of the village 
 commune, its original home, into the larger political area of the 
 canton, and hence slowly moulding the forms of the national 
 federation. Everywhere, in the commune, the canton, the Con- 
 federation, the persistent dominant desire of the people to retain 
 direct control over specific acts of government, and to refuse 
 plenary powers to elected representatives, gives special charac- 
 ter to Swiss democracy. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE COMMUNE 
 
 The distinctive feature in Swiss democracy which has attracted 
 , the attention of other nations that have committed themselves 
 v to government by the people is the attitude adopted by the 
 Swiss towards representative institutions. The complexity of 
 the machinery of legislation in modern states and the large 
 populations comprised in the area of government have seemed 
 to many statesmen and political thinkers to disable the people 
 more and more from the direct exercise of their judgment in 
 law making or other determinate acts of government, and to 
 oblige them to leave more and more to the discretion of men 
 whom from time to time they elect to act on their behalf. Even 
 in the smaller political areas, the parish, district, or county, the 
 general tendency in those Anglo-Saxon nations where democ- 
 racy has been most deeply rooted, has been towards a constant 
 diminution of the exercise of direct government by the body 
 of citizens and an increased delegation of governmental powers 
 to elected representatives and permanent officials. 
 
 That certain considerable dangers are associated with the 
 extension of representative institutions and the accompanying 
 bureaucracy is not to be denied. The liability of the popular 
 will to be thwarted in particular acts of policy is of course 
 essential to the process of representation, and the advocates of 
 this system regard the substitution of the judgment of well- 
 informed and discreet representatives for that of the relatively 
 ill-informed and thoughtless multitude as a chief advantage 
 of representative government. 
 
 But the evils of misrepresentation through party, class, or 
 
 29 
 
3 o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 individual prejudices, the domination of special economic 
 interests, the growth of the machine and its professional opera- 
 tions with the development of a spoils system and other forms 
 of "graft," are well-recognised defects of representative govern- 
 ment. Those who regard the extension and the increasing 
 complication of representative institutions as alike inevitable 
 and desirable, while lamenting these defects do not admit 
 them to be inherent in the representative system, but regard 
 them as imperfections due to the unintelligent working of that 
 system, which the education of a better popular intelligence 
 and a keener public spirit will gradually remove. 
 
 Now the modern trend of Swiss democracy is a direct chal- 
 lenge to this position, challenging alike the alleged inevitabil- 
 ity of the disappearance of direct popular government, and its 
 desirability. Subjected to the same tendency as other states 
 under the conditions of modern industry and modern govern- 
 mental needs to substitute centralised and representative for 
 local and direct government, it has refused to commit itself 
 to the domination of this tendency, everywhere insisting upon the 
 retention and even the extension of the forms and substance of 
 "pure democracy." Admitting representation for certain pur- 
 poses and within certain limits it has called a "halt," en- 
 deavouring to secure an effective equilibrium between the uses 
 of direct and representative government. 
 r Everywhere in the political life of the commune, the can- 
 ton, the federation, we trace the same persistent struggle to 
 ■ maintain an adequate voice in concrete acts of government 
 \ for the ordinary citizen and for the "general will" as expressed 
 - -through the vote of the majority. 
 
 Nowhere is there a denial of the representative system, 
 everywhere it has a certain play, but everywhere we find the 
 same insistence in retaining for the direct judgment of the 
 people the final determination of those acts which vitally con- 
 cern the welfare of the Commonwealth. 
 
THE COMMUNE 31 
 
 As we study the application of these checks upon represen- 
 tation we shall recognise that they are conceived in no merely 
 blind spirit of distrust and obstruction to the operation of the 
 representative forms, but that they are adopted with consider- 
 able skill as safeguards against the different sorts of misrepre- 
 sentation to which a people is liable under conditions of 
 modern government. 
 
 In general we shall recognise that the people retains the 
 largest powers of direct government in the control of their 
 communal life, that in the larger area of the canton represen- 
 tation takes a larger share, and that, of the powers committed 
 to the federal government, the representative councils and 
 the expert officials exercise a still larger part, though every- 
 where for the most important public judgments the direct and 
 specific consent of the people must be got. It will also be 
 recognised that the elasticity of constitutional forms in Switzer- 
 land is such as to preclude an inconvenient rigidity in this 
 system of checks upon the representative principle: where 
 more power is required for the effective working of the repre- 
 sentative or the bureaucratic forms of government, it can be 
 procured from the people with a facility which will appear 
 remarkable as contrasted with the difficulties that confront 
 reforms of a corresponding nature in the United States. 
 
 Since Swiss, as indeed every other democracy, is rooted in 
 the spirit and the customs of local groups of citizens whom 
 physical environment and economic necessity compel to live 
 in close proximity and to act in common, it is to the thousands 
 of little communes which to-day survive as living realities in 
 Switzerland that we shall turn for an explanation of the inten- 
 sity of that passion for an immediate personal participation in 
 "public life" which is the force that especially interests us here. 
 It is this passion for direct exercise of individual volition in 
 the affairs of the Commonwealth upon equal terms with one's 
 fellow citizens that underlies not only what is here called the 
 
32 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 direct government of the popular assembly in the commune 
 or the canton, the "constituent assembly" for revision of the 
 constitution, the exercise of the referendum or the initiative in 
 cantonal or federal government, but also the direct election of 
 a second chamber, in most of the cantons, the regulations for 
 proportionate representation in elections and the strict limita- 
 tions set upon the legislative and executive powers of the Presi- 
 dent, whether of a communal, cantonal, or federal assembly. 
 
 The physical conformation of the greater part of Switzer- 
 land, as we have seen, imposed upon the little scattered groups 
 of rural inhabitants a degree of economic and social self- 
 dependence far greater than is found in countries where means 
 of communication encourage wider intercourse. The dwellers 
 in each valley, cut off from all contact with their neighbours 
 during a large portion of the year, and thrown upon their own 
 resources for the supply of all the necessaries of life and for 
 dealing with the emergencies of a rigorous climate, were com- 
 pelled to discover and maintain habits and institutions of self- 
 sufficiency and co-operative action. Not only defence against 
 invaders from without and disorders within, but provision 
 against the ravages of nature and a careful economy of the 
 limited resources of the land at their disposal, were essential 
 to the maintenance of the life of such communities. The 
 separateness, seclusion, and self-sufficiency of these rural groups 
 served, as we saw, to preserve alive the units of communal 
 self-government during periods of history when the freedom of 
 the state had perished. 
 
 Before the Swiss Confederacy had attained any full organic 
 life, while the cantons were subjected to various forms of aris- 
 tocratic government, the actual control of their local affairs 
 (the most vital issues in the ordinary life of the mass of the 
 people) remained for the most part in the hands of the inhab- 
 itants of the communes. Though local lords, lay or spiritual, 
 and in the later middle ages conquering cantons and their 
 
THE COMMUNE 33 
 
 ruling oligarchies, would make forcible encroachments by fines, 
 rents, and other impositions upon the communes of subject 
 states, the normal practice of local self-government always 
 survived. 
 
 If we would understand the strength and the comparative 
 purity of Swiss democracy in its wider institutions of cantonal 
 and federal government, we must look to the vigour and per- 
 sistence of the communes which form the cells of the larger 
 social organism. 
 
 This local government of the commune or Gemeinde finds 
 its origin, of course, in the association of neighbouring farmers 
 known in all countries of Germanic settlement as the mark. 
 As in Germany itself, and in England, so in German Switzer- 
 land, the same forces of self-protection, economy of resources, 
 and material aid, built solid forces of self-government accom- 
 modated to the needs of the several groups. 
 
 Under primitive conditions rural government and politics 
 must always centre in the tenure and cultivation of the land, 
 as in the earlier towns they centre in the regulations of the 
 crafts. So in order to understand the peculiar strength of 
 local democracy in Switzerland, we must realise the greater 
 continuity and survival of certain features of rural economy 
 which in most advanced nations have passed out of existence. 
 
 The survival of large elements of communal property in 
 many parts of Switzerland administered by the body of the 
 members of the commune, or by large corporations within the 
 communes, for the common good, plays a most important part 
 in the maintenance of local democracy and the determination 
 of its forms. ^/Though the commune in a German-Swiss can- 
 ton closely resembles in general structure the New England 
 township, there exists in the latter no binding force so power- 
 ful as that conferred upon the former by the administration 
 of the communal property. 
 
 This communal property or allmend seems originally to 
 
34 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 have consisted chiefly in the pasture and woodlands, which 
 always remain undivided in primitive settlements, and which 
 furnish free timber and feeding for cows and pigs belonging 
 to the peasants. Gradually, as methods of cultivation im- 
 proved, pieces of land were marked off for plantations, gardens, 
 meadows, vineyards, still, however, remaining in common 
 ownership. Even lands allotted for building purposes were 
 kept in the allmend, though the usure of all such lands passed 
 into individual hands. 
 
 Originally all share in the communal property seems to have 
 been confined to local landowners, the body of peasants, though 
 later on the right was found attached to the owners of certain 
 houses whether they were farmers or not. Still later a third 
 type of participant is found resting on a purely personal or 
 inherited qualification, chiefly in the town communes and in 
 certain mountain communes. 
 
 In fact, however, a great variety of different qualifications 
 for participation in communal property prevailed in different 
 parts of the country, and the regulations for the use of such 
 property varied greatly. For our purpose it is sufficient to 
 observe that in the course of time this group of original com- 
 munal owners became identified with the wider body of burghers, 
 which included householders who were not by ancient usage 
 entitled to full communal rights. The expansion of the nar- 
 rower into the wider community seems to have begun in the 
 sixteenth and not to have reached its completion until the nine- 
 teenth century, admitting the body of settled householders 
 into full communal rights. The movement originated in the 
 adoption of cantonal laws which threw the charge of the poor 
 and vagrants upon the several communes. This charge, 
 imposed upon local householders or burghers, was defrayed 
 by certain provisions of lands out of the communal property, 
 the administration of these lands passing over to the burghers. 
 Thus, partly by reason of the encroachments on the com- 
 
THE COMMUNE 35 
 
 munal property due to the growing expenses of providing for 
 the poor, partly by a general extension of the power of house- 
 holders, the bulk of the communal rights had passed to the 
 burgher population. 
 
 But the evolution of the commune did not stop here. Even 
 under the old order, it had been permissible for the commune 
 to admit outsiders to acquire settlement with communal rights 
 on payment of a sum of money. This practice, rare in older 
 times, became a more or less settled policy among the burgher 
 Gemeinde, though the new burghers were commonly precluded 
 from a share in the communal property. 
 
 But with the more mobile conditions of modern life the new 
 settlers both in towns and villages became a larger proportion 
 of the population, and during the last three generations they 
 have acquired not only a certain status in the commune but 
 control over parts of the communal property allotted to meet 
 the general requirements of local government. As the func- 
 tions of local government have multiplied, so a larger practical 
 share in public affairs has passed into the hands of the body 
 of residents, including not only the original owners and the 
 burghers but the inhabitants as a whole. At the same time 
 it is far from being the case that the original property of 
 the commune has passed under the free and full control of 
 the local democracy. Even the earlier encroachments of the 
 burghers were often successfully resisted by the little town or 
 village aristocracies which had acquired exclusive rights in the 
 communal property, and when during the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century the new "political" communes, comprising all 
 the inhabitants, endeavoured to assert the wider public rights, 
 they were in many instances defeated by the close corporations 
 of the burghers. 
 
 In the canton of Berne, for example, the latter were able 
 to retain almost intact their ancient rights of property. In the 
 greater part of the plain villages the burghers formed them- 
 
36 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 selves into close private corporations, and sometimes, as in 
 canton Berne, have sold and divided among their members 
 the communal property. Further detraction from the com- 
 mon lands took place in early times when the meadows, gar- 
 dens, vineyards, and other enclosures were allowed to pass into 
 the private ownership of the occupants to whom their use alone 
 had been allotted. 
 
 But though the economic side of local democracy is very 
 incomplete, large shares of the public lands remaining in the 
 hands of private corporations, while the burgher commu- 
 nities often form an inner ring, reserving to themselves large 
 funds of public wealth and the administration of the same, it 
 remains none the less true that the existence of local properties, 
 held in common by large sections or the entire body politic, 
 and employed in large measure for public purposes, has been 
 a powerful bond of attachment between the Swiss citizen and 
 his birthplace, and has furnished a continuous and a valuable 
 education in the art of democratic local government. For of 
 the 2706 communes * almost all possess some land, some forest 
 and some water rights, which, whether it is allmend and con- 
 trolled by the economic corporation, or is communal in the 
 fuller sense, appreciably contributes to the maintenance of 
 the community. 
 
 Where the allmend is held by and for the whole burgher 
 population, or even where, remaining in the hands of a narrower 
 section representing the original landowners, it is allocated to 
 public purposes, it furnishes a genuine support to local auton- 
 omy. This in two ways. The common lands, forest, meadow 
 and cultivated fields, are apportioned in equal quantities to 
 commoners who possess an inalienable right to their share in 
 the free use of these lands, as well as in other incidental priv- 
 ileges. Except where towns or special industrial values have 
 grown in their neighbourhood, these communal rights may 
 
 1 1352 German, 945 French, 291 Italian, and 118 in the Grisons. 
 
THE COMMUNE 37 
 
 seldom furnish a considerable income, still less a sufficient sup- 
 port, but for a large section of Swiss citizens they form an 
 appreciable and highly valued addition to their livelihood. 
 Not less important, perhaps, the allmend meets the chief ex- 
 penses of public services, maintaining or helping to main- 
 tain the police, the roads, the school, the church, and thus 
 reducing to a minimum the need of local taxation. Last, not 
 least, the allmend secures to every burgher a decent mainte- 
 nance in old age as a right, not as a charity. 
 
 So far as the value to individuals and members of a share 
 in the communal property is concerned, it differs very widely. 
 In some places it is worth several hundred francs per annum, 
 in others it has shrunk to nothing. 1 
 
 But though communal property still plays a not unimportant 
 part in the economic life of Switzerland, that part is constantly 
 diminishing. The growing demands upon the burgher prop- 
 erty for poor relief has in many districts greatly reduced the 
 share of the individual members, while considerations of 
 modern agricultural economy are tending to convert communal 
 into individual property. A large number of burghers are 
 non-residents and are careless about the administration of the 
 allmend; the growth of capitalistic enterprise has reduced 
 the relative importance of the land; and the increased mobil- 
 ity both of the business and the labouring classes has broken 
 down the social solidarity of the commune. Many hold that 
 as a distinctively economic structure the commune has done 
 its work, and that the allmend as a basis of support for in- 
 dividual burghers must disappear; it is, they contend, a hin- 
 drance to good cultivation, a discouragement to thrift and 
 industry, and a stimulus to early and improvident marriages. 
 On the other hand, the conservative attachment to ancient 
 
 1 An official return for canton Berne in 1893 showed that of 448 burgher 
 corporations, 34 distributed nothing; 216 less than 50 francs; 152 from 50 to 
 100 francs; 41 from 100 to 200 francs; and 5 over 200 francs. 
 
38 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 usages is re-enforced in the eyes of many by the belief that, 
 so long as the communal property remains intact, it tends to 
 modify the rigour of the factory system which draws its labour 
 in such industrial cantons as Glarus, St. Gall, Appenzell, and 
 Aargau, not from a mere floating proletariat, but from a popu- 
 lation which still retains a certain definite stake in their native 
 soil and a corresponding measure of economic independence. 
 While, as we have pointed out, a certain process of erosion has 
 been taking place, it cannot be said that a policy of disintegra- 
 tion of the communal property has any present prospect of 
 adoption. The prevalent sentiment of the Swiss people 
 supports the declaration embodied in the Constitution 
 of the Helvetic Republic of 1799, forbidding the partition 
 of communal lands on the ground that "these lands are 
 the inheritance of your fathers, the fruit of many years of 
 toil and care, and belong not to you alone, but also to your 
 descendants." 
 
 On the whole the tendency is to reduce the hereditary and 
 other personal claims of burgher families upon the communal 
 property, and to apply to its use a fuller modern interpretation 
 of public welfare. Where a primitive commune has devel- 
 oped into a large modern industrial city, common considera- 
 tions of equity and public interest demand that the communal 
 property shall be preserved and applied to the large general 
 purposes of a developed municipality. Hence it has come to 
 pass that in such municipalities as Berne, Zurich, and Bale 
 we find a rich array of public services founded and financed 
 in large measure from the original allmend, though the direct 
 administration of the property largely remains in the hands 
 of a private or semi-public corporation. The new education, 
 not so much in formal socialism, which is perhaps weaker in 
 Switzerland than in other European countries, but in social- 
 istic sentiments and ideas, is evoking in the great centres of 
 culture and industry a conscious policy for the full municipal- 
 
THE COMMUNE 39 
 
 isation of all these corporate properties as the proper economic 
 support for the improved civic life. 
 
 A more detailed consideration of the recent social develop- 
 ments of the leading Swiss municipalities will show how im- 
 portant a part is played by the survival of communal property. 
 Our present purpose, however, is to trace the structure and 
 the strength of political institutions of democracy in Switzer- 
 land, and this excursion into the subject of communal property 
 is primarily designed to explain the toughness of the fibre of 
 local institutions. The positive or relative decline of the eco- 
 nomic self-sufficiency of the village commune and of the com- 
 munal property might have gone further towards weakening 
 the commune as a democratic unit, had not its definitely polit- 
 ical functions assumed greater importance in modern times. 
 
 Since the formation of the Confederation the self-governing 
 democratic commune has obtained an increased political 
 significance which has in some degree compensated its eco- 
 nomic decline. It is recognised alike by the Confederation 
 and by the canton as the true unit of government in a wider 
 sense than in any other civilised country of modern times. 
 Not merely are its funds larger and more numerous, but its 
 method of government marks it out as a peculiarly serviceable 
 instrument in the education of Swiss citizens for the exercise 
 of their civic functions in the wider areas of state and federal 
 government. 
 
 The powers of the commune in what may be termed social 
 policy and public health are very large. Public baths, play- 
 grounds, promenades, public kitchens, libraries, museums, 
 theatres, public rooms; poor law, insurance, unemployed 
 relief, and in general all provision for the weak, sick or needy, 
 commercial and industrial institutes and a variety of other 
 economic unions, fall within the competence of the commune, 
 though naturally only the larger and richer communes fully 
 develop these resources. A large part of the administration 
 
4 o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE ^ 
 
 of the school system is vested in the commune, though here a 
 special school commune is usually formed, which does its 
 work partly by co-operation with neighbouring communes to 
 form a district, partly under the control and with the subven- 
 tion of the canton. 
 
 The commune is also a police centre responsible for the 
 protection of life, property, and public order, and possesses a 
 considerable variety of taxing and borrowing powers which, 
 though nominally subject to cantonal control, leave a far 
 larger amount of financial liberty to a Swiss commune than is 
 usual in other countries. The growing tendency to supple- 
 ment communal finances by central subventions for schools, 
 public buildings, water ways, and other purposes, is however 
 reducing the financial self-sufficiency of the commune in many 
 cantons. 
 
 Besides these self-regarding duties the commune has to 
 co-operate in various police affairs, in higher and technical edu- 
 cation, in taxation, and in other departments of civil govern- 
 ment with the state officials. Finally, the commune is the unit 
 of government for naturalisation and for election purposes 
 within the canton. When in addition to all these functions 
 we take account of the administration of the communal prop- 
 erty and the church, where, as in the smaller communes, the 
 people are of a single faith so that the Kirchen-Gemeinde is 
 identical with the Einwohner-Gemeinde, we shall recognise 
 that the Swiss commune remains a powerful political struc- 
 ture. Autonomous in the strict sense it is not, for the consti- 
 tution of the canton limits its rights and powers, and can 
 modify or annul them; but in practice the commune possesses 
 a large measure of independence in matters vitally affecting 
 the lives of its inhabitants, and affords great scope for experi- 
 ments in constructive democracy. 
 
 For the entire government of the commune rests in most 
 cantons upon a basis of pure and direct democracy, the legisla- 
 
THE COMMUNE 41 
 
 tive, executive, and financial powers being derived from the 
 direct vote of the full assembly of citizens. It is the New 
 England township, the English parish meeting, but endowed 
 with a far larger measure of practical self-government. 
 
 The following account of the structure of communal govern- 
 ment is from the pen of Dr. Kistler, State Secretary of Berne: 1 
 
 "We find the popular commune as an independent structure 
 in all the Swiss cantons with the exception of Appenzell, where 
 the public functions devolve upon the district government. 
 Even the functions which the commune has to fulfil are generally 
 the same all over and differ only in their quantitative relations. 
 Moreover, we have already pointed out the fact that, in many 
 places where particular functions require fulfilment within the 
 commune, companies are created which exhibit an independent 
 organisation of their own and so come also to be described as 
 communes. As a communal function which most usually 
 claims such a separate organisation we find the school system, 
 chiefly by reason of the fact that the school system frequently 
 fails to coincide in its territorial area with the communal limits. 
 There are school communes which embrace the area of several 
 popular communes, and in other instances we meet with sev- 
 eral school communes within the same popular commune. 
 Separate school communes are found in Zurich, Berne, Glarus, 
 rural Bale, Appenzell I. Rh, St. Gall, Thurgau. We meet 
 also with the same feature in the poor law system; here, how- 
 ever, chiefly because the charge of the poor has everywhere 
 been an outgrowth of the burgher commune. But here, too, 
 the area of the poor law commune does not necessarily coin- 
 cide with that of the popular commune. Poor law communes 
 are recognised in Nidwalden and Glarus. Other branches of 
 government also betray a disposition to develop similar com- 
 munal structures of their own, as for instance the services of 
 street making, waterworks, and lighting, protection against 
 
 1 Handworterbuch der Schweizerischen V olkswirthschaft, II Band, ss. 233-6. 
 
42 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 floods. Such functions are undertaken in Zurich by the so- 
 called civil communes, in Thurgau by the so-called local com- 
 munes, the former of which have more of a personal character 
 resembling the burgher communes, while the latter have a 
 purely territorial character. In the case of the Bernese home- 
 unions (Schwellen-Genossenschaften), in spite of the similarity 
 of their objects the communal character is less marked. In 
 none of these forms is a territorial coincidence with the communal 
 area essential. Corporations for the exercise of political 
 rights constitute the so-called political communes (St. Gall) 
 or election communes (Glarus). Finally, in Berne, where a 
 church commune embraces several popular communes, the 
 exercise of certain governmental departments can be organ- 
 ised on the church basis. The communal character of all 
 these structures consists in a more or less independent organ- 
 isation. They possess their own assemblies and officials. 
 
 "As organs of the popular commune, we have to take into 
 consideration the popular Assembly, the Communal Council, 
 the Communal Resident or Gemeinde Amman, and finally the 
 various special courts and officials. 
 
 "The popular Assembly consists of the body of qualified 
 voters in the commune. The basis of qualification everywhere 
 lies in the political franchise, though in certain cantons the 
 qualification depends also on a certain length of residence in 
 Gemeinde. Article 43 of the Federal Constitution lays down, 
 however, the regulation that the requisite length of residence 
 shall not exceed three months. The Communal Assembly 
 does its business in most places at fixed meetings, the summon- 
 ing, conduct, and modus operandi of which He outside our 
 present consideration. In certain larger places the Assembly 
 with public discussion has given way to a simple voting upon 
 the proposals of the communal government and the elections 
 by means of a ballot. The proper functions of the Assembly 
 consist in passing of regulations, with the exception of special 
 
THE COMMUNE 43 
 
 matters reserved by government, the election of the proper 
 governmental body of the commune (the Communal Council), 
 and of the appointed officials and special functionaries, in due 
 accordance with the communal regulations in actual force, 
 the acceptance of the budget and communal accounts, the 
 determination of the taxes, and also the assent to all expend- 
 iture exceeding a certain fixed amount. In some cantons the 
 Assembly is invested also with further functions; for instance, 
 in Schwyz the assignment of the burgher- right, in Solothurm 
 the election of public employees whose salary exceeds 500 francs, 
 in Ticino even the election of clergymen and doctors. In 
 other cantons, on the other hand, the competency of the Assem- 
 bly is more restricted, as in Nidwalden, where the Assembly 
 has only to do with the appointments, while the entire govern- 
 ment lies in the hands of the officials. This restriction is 
 especially operative when a portion of the functions (as in 
 the larger communes of Berne), or the entire burden of 
 government, with the exception of appointments (as in the 
 larger communes of Valais and Neufchatel), has been handed 
 over to a communal committee. In the election of this com- 
 mittee minority representation is prescribed by cantonal legis- 
 lation in Neufchatel; in Berne the method of election, majority, 
 minority, or proportional representation, is left for the commune 
 to determine by resolution. 
 
 " Finally, the organisation in those cantons, Bale City and 
 Geneva, where the commune and the canton almost coincide, 
 by reason of its abnormal character, does not come within our 
 present survey. The rights of the individual qualified 
 burgher at the Communal Assembly consist in the right of 
 free expression of opinion and of moving resolutions upon 
 public matters concerning government. The resolution, how- 
 ever, is usually adopted that in the treatment of questions 
 which have not been indicated in the summons of the Assembly, 
 only matters of urgency should be determined. Naturally 
 
44 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 these rights can only be exercised when the commune acts 
 through open meeting. When the Assembly is conducted 
 through the ballot, their place is usually taken, as in Neufchatel 
 and some communes of Berne, by the right of the initiative. 
 The duty of the burgher to take part in the transactions, elec- 
 tions, and resolutions is for the most part regarded only as a 
 moral one. Some cantons, however, impose a fine upon those 
 who do not participate, while in others a right is conceded to 
 the commune to summon under penalty. 
 
 "The Communal Council (Einwohner Gemeinde Rat) con- 
 sists of a number of elected persons upon whom devolves the 
 administration of the agreed accounts and communal resolu- 
 tions by means of the executive organs, as well as the general 
 conduct of the government. The number of members of the 
 Communal Council is usually limited by law and fixed by 
 communal regulation. In some cantons the number is regu- 
 lated in proportion to population, and is therefore very differ- 
 ent, varying from two, chairman and secretary (in certain 
 communes of Graubunden) to thirty (in certain communes 
 of Ticino.) But speaking generally, in most communes the 
 number of members will vary between five and nine. Members 
 are chosen by the Assembly for a fixed length of service. An 
 exception, however, occurs in the case of Thurgau, where the 
 chairmen of the local communes are likewise members of the 
 municipal commune. Elections are usually determined by 
 an absolute majority vote. Proportional representation, 
 optional or facultative, is only found in Freiburg, Solothurm, 
 Ticino, and Zug. The functions of the Council consist in the 
 administration of the communal powers above described, to 
 which is added the appointment of the subordinate officials 
 and commissions. In cantons Vaud and Obwalden the control 
 of church property is excluded. The business of the Council 
 is disposed of either by the board as such (the communal 
 system) or through individual members of the same, to whom 
 
THE COMMUNE 45 
 
 special branches of the communal government are allotted 
 (the directional system). In the larger municipal communes 
 these members or some of them are permanent officials. 
 
 "The Communal President (Amman, Maire, Syndic), besides 
 being chairman of the Council, has in most cantons a certain 
 independent position and function, and indeed must be con- 
 sidered on the one side as communal officer, while on the 
 other he is accredited with certain duties of the state govern- 
 ment, as, for instance, police court work and occasional pros- 
 ecutions. 
 
 "The secretarial work of the Council falls to the Communal 
 Secretary, whose secretarial duties comprise both the inde- 
 pendent functions of the president and as a rule also the secre- 
 taryship of the commune: 
 
 "Besides the proper departments of government there exist 
 almost everywhere special commissions, to which more or less 
 independent powers are attached, and which, in fact, are 
 appointed by the special communes (poor law communes, 
 school communes) or by the popular commune, or finally by 
 the Communal Council. To such belong the school com- 
 mission, to which is committed either the complete school 
 administration or merely the inspection. In some cases they 
 have also to choose teachers; as regards the common school, 
 however, this choice rests with the Communal Assembly or 
 the Communal Committee (Berne). Freiburg alone retains 
 for the State Council the right of selection of teachers. We 
 have further to take into account the poor law boards, 
 most of which occupy a position of greater independence, 
 owing to the fact that they have grown up out of the burgher 
 government and have only to do with the burgher poor. 
 
 "The Boards of Guardians (orphan officers) come into the 
 same category, where guardianship is not a matter for the 
 burgher commune, or has been taken over by the popular 
 Communal Council. In individual cantons, by reason of the 
 
46 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 assumption of other governmental functions such as taxation, 
 water police, sanitation, and police, special commissions have 
 come into existence, most of which, however, are subject to 
 the Communal Council and are accountable to the same. 
 Permanent individual officials may take the place of boards of 
 commissioners (the police commissioner at Glarus)." 
 
 This account of the structure of communal government is 
 interesting as illustrative of the variety and complexity of 
 minor experiments in democratic government carried on by 
 local organisations which at the same time all conform to a 
 general type. 
 
 Everywhere the full assembly of male inhabitants determines 
 by free vote important issues of local government, passing 
 laws, voting taxes, endorsing expenditure, and imposing acts 
 of policy upon its elected executive. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE LANDSGEMEINDE OR STATE COMMUNE 
 
 The chief problem of democracy, the question of the direct 
 or indirect exercise of popular power over the legislative, 
 executive, and judicial functions of government, is nowhere 
 studied to greater advantage than in the cantons of Switzer- 
 land. The democracy of the commune, the Gemeinde, though 
 real and important in the power it exercises, is limited by the 
 legislative supremacy of the canton. JThe Swiss canton, how- 
 ever, is in the real sense a sovereign state whose citizens possess 
 all rights of self-government that have not been explicitly 
 assigned to the federal government. Each of these states 
 secures for the body of its free citizens unrestricted powers 
 over the revision of its Constitution, the passing of laws, their 
 administration, and the control of state finances; nowhere do 
 the forms of this government contain any checks based on 
 heredity, race, caste, property, upon the full expression of 
 the will of the people. The extent, however, to which the 
 people in the various cantons have in practice delegated their 
 powers of legislation and administration to representative bodies 
 and to more or less permanent officials differs very widely in 
 the different states. 
 
 /Six states, Uri, Glarus, and the double cantons of Unter- 
 walden and Appenzell, have retained the primitive form of a 
 pure democracy in which the sovereign power of the people 
 is directly exercised in all the critical acts of government by 
 the full assemblage of citizens, forming the largest and most 
 conspicuous examples of what Rousseau and certain other polit- 
 
 47 
 
48 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 ical philosophers regard as the only real democracy, the voice of 
 the people expressly endorsing every act of government. This 
 extension of the communal idea to the larger commune of the 
 state (hence the name Landsgemeinde or State Commune) does 
 not come down from remote antiquity, but dates from the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when co-operative action 
 between neighbouring communes became so frequent and so 
 continuous as to require corporate expression in an organ of 
 government. It was not unnatural that small populations, 
 covering no considerable area of land and accustomed to deter- 
 mine all their local affairs by general meetings, should extend 
 this method to the wider sphere of the canton, at any rate in 
 those parts of Switzerland where natural conditions made it 
 feasible to do so. Hence we find that in the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries most of the German cantons adopted this 
 form of government, which was found in eleven states in the 
 League of Thirteen, after the Reformation. Most of these 
 governments continued up to the nineteenth century, Schwyz 
 and Zug until 1848, but the tendency during later generations 
 has been to substitute for the cantonal commune a qualified 
 form of representative government. Mass meeting as an 
 habitual mode of government is found ill-accommodated to 
 the needs of a large and scattered population as well as to the 
 complexity of public functions in a civilised state, and the 
 general view of the Landsgemeinde appears to be that it is 
 a belated survival of an old primitive order, retaining its life 
 in a few small and conservative states and destined, as a matter 
 of course, to disappear before the superior claims of the rep- 
 resentative system, as soon as the growth of population exhibits 
 its unwieldiness. There are, however, at present no signs of 
 decay even in the two states Glarus and Appenzell A. Rh., 
 where population and town life have attained considerable 
 proportions, and the Landsgemeinde assuredly deserves study as 
 aliving instance of fulldirect self-government in a sovereign state. 
 
LANDSGEMEINDE OR STATE COMMUNE 49 
 
 Those who best understand the spirit of Swiss democracy 
 are least disposed to set a purely antiquarian or romantic 
 interest upon these popular gatherings with their ancient cer- 
 emonials. If we bear clearly in mind the conditions of num- 
 bers and of area which are essential to the proper functioning 
 of such an organ of government, we shall recognise this ex- 
 panded commune as a really important experiment for the 
 determination of the special and constitutional limits within 
 which direct popular government is possible. The significance 
 of such experiments will be apparent to all those who reject 
 the crude and false simplicity of the theory that the evolution 
 of political institutions is entirely in the direction of increasing 
 complexity of representative forms. 
 
 It is impossible to witness one of these solemn gatherings 
 of the sovereign people of a Swiss canton without feeling how 
 much more, in sentiment and thought, self-government means 
 for such men than for those who, in our sovereign states, are 
 gathered by mechanical devices to vote a party ticket bestowing 
 powers of legislation, which they do not understand, upon 
 persons whom they have never seen. 
 
 Professor Freeman, who was the first to rediscover this 
 unique ceremony for modern English readers, gives the follow- 
 ing picture of the gathering at Uri: 
 
 "It is one of the opening days of May, it is the morning of 
 Sunday; for men there deem that the better the day the better 
 the deed; they deem that the Creator cannot be more truly 
 honoured than in using, in his sphere and in his presence, the 
 highest of the gifts which he has bestowed on man. From 
 the market place of Altdorf, the little capital of the canton, the 
 procession makes its way to the place of meeting at Bozlingen. 
 First marches the little army of the canton, an army whose 
 weapons can never be used except to drive back an invader 
 from their lands. Over their heads floats the banner, the bull's 
 head of Uri, the ensign which led men to victory in the fields 
 
50 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 of Sempach and Morgarten. And before them all, on the 
 shoulders of men clad in a garb of ages past, are borne the 
 famous horns whose blast struck such dread into the fearless 
 heart of Charles of Burgundy. Then, with their lictors before 
 them, come the magistrates of the Commonwealth on horse- 
 back, the chief magistrate, the Landamman, with his sword by 
 his side. The people follow the chiefs whom they have chosen 
 to the place of meeting, a circle in a green meadow, with a 
 pine forest rising over their head, and a mighty spur of the 
 mountain- range facing them on the other side of the valley. 
 The multitude of freemen take their seats around the chief 
 ruler of the Commonwealth, whose term of office comes that 
 day to an end. The Assembly opens; a short space is first 
 given to prayer, silent prayer, offered up by each man in the 
 temple of God's own rearing. Then comes the business of 
 the day. Thus year by year, on some bright morning of the 
 springtide, the sovereign people, not intrusting its rights to a 
 few of its own number, but discharging them itself in the majesty 
 of its corporate person, meets in the open market place or in 
 the green meadow at the mountain's foot, to frame the laws to 
 which it yields obedience as its own work, to choose rulers 
 whom it can afford to greet with reverence as drawing their 
 commission from itself. You may there gaze and feel what 
 none can feel but those who have seen with their own eyes, 
 what none can feel in its fulness more than once in a lifetime, 
 the thrill of looking for the first time face to face on freedom 
 in its purest and most ancient form." * 
 
 With somewhat less ceremonial the other cantonal communes 
 conduct this annual work of government. Every qualified 
 citizen, that is to say every male resident over the age of twenty 
 (in the case of Nidwald eighteen) is entitled to be present 
 and receives in due course a printed agenda of the business 
 which will come before the Landsgemeinde. In Glarus and 
 
 1 The Growth of the English Constitution, Ch. I. 
 
LANDSGEMEINDE OR STATE COMMUNE 51 
 
 the two Appenzells a fine for non-appearance is imposed. The 
 regular business consists first of the election of the chief officials 
 of the canton, the Landamman, or president, his substitute, 
 the treasurer and the commandant of the militia, also the 
 appointment of the federal deputies. 
 
 The drafts of all cantonal laws prepared by the Council 
 (Rath or Landsrath), or the motions brought forward on the 
 initiative of individual citizens, are voted upon by show of 
 hands, and the acceptance or rejection of the same by a major- 
 ity of the votes has absolute validity. In Uri and Glarus there 
 is unrestricted freedom of discussion of all laws and motions, 
 and in these states the Constitution invests the Landsgemeinde 
 with the power of introducing amendments or modifications 
 of the laws proposed. In the other cantons some restraints 
 are imposed upon discussion, and the meeting must accept or 
 reject the proposals in their entirety. The total or partial 
 revision of the Constitution, the abolition of any existing law, 
 the admission of new citizens, the authorisation of the state 
 taxes and of all public expenditure exceeding a certain sum, 
 are also general functions of the Landsgemeinde. The whole 
 proceedings are marked by a spirit of solemnity and traditional 
 good order, while a religious sanction is imparted by the open- 
 ing prayer and the administration of the oath of allegiance to 
 the Constitution. This oath is thus administered to the as- 
 sembled citizens of Glarus gathered together with their women 
 folk and their children, who for their instruction are set in the 
 front seats of the meeting: 
 
 "We promise and swear truly and faithfully to keep the 
 constitutional laws of the federation and the canton, to guard 
 and protect the honour, unity, and strength of our Fatherland, 
 its independence, and the freedom and rights of its citizens, 
 and so may God help us." To this oath, pronounced by the 
 State Secretary, the Assembly gives its assent by repeating the 
 words "This we swear." 
 
52 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 Security against waste of time and disorder is furnished by 
 care in the preparation of the business. This is undertaken 
 by the Council elected by vote of the local assemblies and 
 entrusted with the general enforcement of the Constitution and 
 of the laws and decrees of the Landsgemeinde, with the receipt 
 of official reports, and the consideration of all laws and motions 
 which are to be brought before the forthcoming Landsgemeinde. 
 This Council is entitled to consider all proposals, to reject all 
 frivolous or improperly formulated motions, and all sudden 
 matters except in case of grave emergency : it also has the right 
 upon the initiative of a body of citizens to summon an extraor- 
 dinary assembly. 
 
 All legislation brought before the Landsgemeinde has thus 
 been initiated or shaped by the Council. Formerly any person 
 was at liberty to present a bill to the meeting, but this right 
 has been cancelled and all bills are considered and reported 
 upon by the Council, which must publish them in the pro- 
 gramme submitted to citizens before the annual Assembly. 
 
 In Glarus the order of procedure for business introduced by 
 individual initiation is this: In January of each year the 
 Official Gazette publishes a notice requiring that all proposi- 
 tions to be submitted to the Landsgemeinde shall be sent in 
 within fourteen days after a given date. The propositions 
 must be in writing, accompanied by a statement of the objects 
 to which they are directed and the reasons. These proposi- 
 tions are duly considered by the Landsrath and, if approved 
 by ten votes, they are incorporated with a commendatory 
 clause in the programme (Landsgemeinde Memorial) issued 
 four weeks before the meeting of the Assembly. Motions not 
 approved in the Council must also be inserted in the programme, 
 but they are put in a special department, popularly known as 
 the Bei Wagen or Special Coach. • 
 
 The Assembly may by its vote endorse one of these as 
 rejected proposals: in that case it must be placed in the 
 
LANDSGEMEINDE OR STATE COMMUNE 53 
 
 favoured list in next year's programme. The Council thus 
 exercises in effect a limited veto. 
 
 In Appenzell (In Rh.) and in Upper Unterwalden all motions 
 must be sent in first to the Grand Council, but if the latter 
 refuse to present a motion it is competent for any citizen to 
 bring it before the Assembly. The same rule with a further 
 modification applies to Appenzell (Aus Rh.). 
 
 The general condition is that all measures must first be sub- 
 mitted to the Council, but that the adverse judgment of the 
 Council does not prevent its supporters from obtaining the 
 legislative sanction of the Assembly. 
 
 This Landsrath, by an expansion or reduction of its members 
 and sometimes by an addition of other elected persons, forms 
 other councils or committees, to which are entrusted judicial, 
 police, and other executive functions. There is also a smaller 
 body, called the Commission of State, directly elected by the 
 Landsgemeinde and entrusted with minor administrative 
 business. 
 
 With the growing complexity of public life the powers and 
 duties of these councils of course become graver. Important 
 administrative acts have been done upon their sole authority, 
 and attempts have been made to restrict the practical com- 
 petence of the Landsgemeinde by giving the Council the abso- 
 lute determination of the agenda for public assembly, thus 
 withdrawing from the body of citizens the right of initiative 
 which they had hitherto possessed. This invasion of popular 
 rights has, however, been repelled, and though the power of full 
 free discussion is of necessity curtailed, all the determinant acts of 
 government are retained in the hands of the sovereign people. 
 
 It is of course possible that in course of time the councils, 
 constituting the representative factor, may further encroach 
 upon the power of direct government through the popular 
 Assembly. But hitherto the popular power has been jealously 
 guarded. 
 
54 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 The following account of the democracy of Appenzell (In 
 Rh.) illustrates the attitude of the people in a rural canton: 
 
 "It has long been a constitutional rule of the State that no 
 measure can be presented at the Landsgemeinde unless it has 
 been passed upon by the Great Council. An inference from 
 this might be that the Landsgemeinde merely goes through the 
 form of accepting and rejecting what the Great Council has 
 accepted and rejected beforehand. And in matters of slight 
 importance this is usually the practice. But that it is not the 
 practice in matters of more than slight importance is shown 
 by the following incident: In the year 1891 it had been the 
 prerogative of the Grand Council to choose the cantonal mem- 
 ber of the Standerat or Senate. In the Landsgemeinde of 
 that year a citizen brought forward a measure (previously 
 passed upon adversely by the Grand Council) to annul this 
 prerogative, and place the election of Senator in the hands of 
 the Landsgemeinde. The vote was taken and the measure 
 passed." * 
 
 But while encroachments of the Councils upon the direct 
 government of the Landsgemeinde are rejected, the latter in 
 common with the other cantonal governments have suffered 
 some diminution of power by the growth of the functions of 
 federal government. 
 
 Though there is no likelihood of other cantons, some of 
 which have tried and abandoned the Landsgemeinde, reverting 
 to this form of pure democracy, it is equally improbable that 
 these six states will quickly change a Constitution which seems 
 well accommodated to their temper and their needs. 
 
 For the successful use of this form of government certain 
 conditions are clearly requisite. We have already named two, 
 small population and compact territory. The abandonment 
 of the Landsgemeinde by Schwyz in 1848 was plainly attrib- 
 
 1 Pure Democracy and Pastoral Life in Inner Rhodes, T. Irving Richman 
 (quoted Deploige, p. 23). 
 
LANDSGEMEINDE OR STATE COMMUNE 55 
 
 utable to the extension of the size and population of this canton, 
 imposing grave difficulties on the practice of the popular As- 
 sembly, and arousing in the outlying districts jealousy of the 
 pretensions of the central district. Though the cantonal 
 Landsgemeinde has disappeared, it has been replaced, by not 
 ordinary representative institutions, but by six district assem- 
 blies (Bezirksgemeinde) which are practically Landsgemeinde, 
 wielding all the powers formerly vested in the single cantonal 
 Assembly. From this example it already appears that size 
 is the determinant condition for the maintenance of pure democ- 
 racy exercised by means of the popular Assembly. The state 
 must not be so large as to prevent all citizens from having easy 
 access to the place of assembly; nor must the number of citizens 
 be so large as to render it impossible for all those present to 
 hear the proceedings of the Assembly. These are the physical 
 conditions for the effective unity of a legislative Assembly 
 operating by means of the living voice. The number of qual- 
 ified citizens in 1898 for the several Landsgemeinde are given 
 as follows: Appenzell A. Rh. 12,500, Glarus 8,000, Uri 4500, 
 Obwalden 3900, Nidwalden 3100, Appenzell I. Rh. 3000. 
 
 It seems evident that the two first named have come near 
 to the limit of effective unity, and that in the case of Appenzell 
 A. Rh., at any rate, the Landsgemeinde must weaken with 
 any considerable growth of population. For the validity of 
 such a government depends upon the active participation of 
 the general body of citizens. At present it is estimated that 
 some three-quarters of the qualified citizens obey the sum- 
 mons * to attend the Assembly. But let the gathering once 
 grow so large that most of those attending are strangers to one 
 another, while the advocates of measures have been unable 
 to canvas or educate the opinions of any large section of the 
 people: let the human voice fail to gather into unity of under- 
 standing and of sentiment the concourse of citizens, it is evident 
 1 The highest recorded figure is eighty-six per cent. 
 
56 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 that the soul of the Landsgemeinde must perish in its body, 
 and the business of government pass into the hands of the 
 officials or of some managing clique of citizens. 
 
 It is, however, right to recognise in these Swiss Landsgemeinde 
 cantons other conditions of success hardly less essential than 
 limitation of numbers and area. They are all mountain states 
 with populations mainly devoted to pastoral and other rural 
 pursuits, unlikely to develop into large centres of manufacture 
 and commerce. Conditions of life are simple and conservative, 
 no wide social or economic class distinctions exist, there are 
 no divisions of race or religion. There are, therefore, no great 
 demands upon the resources of government, no elaborate 
 machinery of administration is required, nor need a multitude 
 of new laws be devised to meet the rapid changes of a modern 
 up-to-date population. Where every determinant act of gov- 
 ernment is performed upon a single day by the direct vote of 
 the whole people assembled in person, paucity and simplicity 
 of legislation are indispensable. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 POPULAR CHECKS ON THE REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM 
 
 I. The Cantons 
 
 Not only in the government of the thousands of local communes 
 and of the six State Communes, but throughout the cantonal 
 and federal system of Switzerland, a direct expression of the 
 will of the people stamps every constitutional or important 
 legal change. The sharp contrast sometimes drawn between 
 the communal cantons and those with representative legis- 
 latures is deceptive. The real distinction is only of degree, 
 not of kind. 
 
 The representative principle, as we saw, was not absent from 
 the communal cantons, each of which had its elected Council 
 or Councils, endowed with considerable executive and certain 
 regulative duties which imply minor legislative powers. So in 
 the case of the cantons which are described as representative 
 in their legislative institutions, the legislative powers wielded 
 by the representative bodies are everywhere checked by con- 
 stitutional restraints intended to secure to the direct judgment 
 of the people the final right of determination in all vital acts of 
 government. These restraints vary in rigour, but they are 
 always real, and are everywhere imposed in the interest of 
 direct popular government. 
 
 Nowhere, at no time, have the Swiss accorded to their elected 
 representatives the position and the power commonly pos- 
 sessed by parliamentary assemblies in Europe or in America. 
 
 Their political history has not furnished the need or the 
 
 57 
 
58 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 practice required for a full development of the representative 
 system. The territorial subdivision of their little country did 
 not impose the necessity of regular representation: cantonal 
 government was comparatively slight, and no aristocracy 
 fastened so strong and so abiding a yoke upon the people as 
 to arrogate an exclusive right of legislating upon their behalf. 
 . The body of citizens continued to enjoy such a degree of equality 
 and of economic independence as to make them unwilling to 
 entrust the determination of important public issues to any 
 gathering of elected persons. In other instances, when a city 
 such as Berne or Zurich acquired considerable tracts of half- 
 subject territory, the beginnings of representative institutions 
 began to appear in the middle ages, but were checked by the 
 temporary emergence of an oligarchy in these cities which 
 maintained control until the epoch of the revolution. 
 / Genuinely representative government thus never got a firm 
 footing in the cantons. Federal government was, until the 
 nineteenth century, neither of a form nor a substance to admit 
 of true representation. The Confederation was a league of 
 independent states varying in personnel and number, to which 
 delegates were sent from the several cantons with purely con- 
 sultative powers. Not until the constitution of the Helvetic 
 League was there any central government large enough in its 
 powers to require the exercise of genuine representation on the 
 part of the cantons. 
 
 > In a word, until modern times, the working politics of Switzer- 
 land were such that there was no necessity to invent represent- 
 ative institutions such as arose in other countries where 
 co-operate activities were developed in most various forms and 
 over larger areas of territory and of population. 
 
 When, therefore, modern conditions, such as the increase of 
 population, the growing intricacy of commerce, the needs of 
 more complex social legislation within the canton and the 
 Confederation compelled a larger and more systematic recourse 
 
CHECKS ON REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM 59 
 
 to representative government, it was only natural that the old 
 safeguards should be retained, partly in virtue of a democratic 
 theory, but more largely as a conservative instinct wrapped up 
 in the concept of a personal right. 
 
 The chief of these safeguards of democracy, the referendum, 
 is sometimes traced back by historians to origins in the political 
 history of the Grisons and Valais, or to customs prevailing in 
 Berne and Zurich during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
 Others lay stress upon the influence of the great Swiss philoso- 
 pher Rousseau, whose Social Contract must have deeply im- 
 pressed itself upon the minds of his countrymen during the 
 period when their old institutions were thrown by Napoleon 
 into the melting-pot to reissue in new rational moulds. But 
 though ancient precedent and philosophic reflection may have 
 exerted some conscious influence, the adoption of the referen- 
 dum and other accompanying checks on the newly applied 
 representative system must be attributed in the main to the 
 self -protecting instinct of Swiss local democracy, improvising a 
 tolerably obvious set of checks upon what Whitman terms 
 "the never ending audacity of elected persons." 
 /The history of the introduction of the referendum into the 
 Constitution of the cantons and the federation clearly indicates 
 that it was devised as a weapon of the people against certain 
 abuses inherent in the representative system. It may be pos- 
 sible to establish in the future a democracy which enables the 
 will of the people to work freely and fully through representa- 
 tive institutions, but past history shows no example of such an 
 achievement. In every country where it has been tried, an 
 aristocracy or an oligarchy resting on birth, social prestige or 
 economic power, has obtained such control of the machinery 
 of representation as enables them to impose their class interests 
 upon the policy of government. 
 
 The Swiss cantons in the early nineteenth century proved no 
 exception to this rule. The Act of Mediation which drew up 
 
60 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 the Constitution of 1803 laid down the primary principle "that 
 there no longer exists in Switzerland either subject lands, or 
 privileges of place, birth, persons or families." 
 
 The Federal Agreement of August, 18 15, to which the twenty- 
 two cantons gave their solemn assent, repeated the principle in 
 its 7th Article, "The Confederation declares this principle to 
 be inviolable: that since the twenty-two cantons have been 
 generally recognised as such, there are no longer in Switzerland 
 any subject countries, and, in the same way, the enjoyment of 
 political rights can never in any canton be made the exclusive 
 privilege of any one class of citizens. " 
 
 In point of fact the single legislative chambers in which 
 representative government took shape at the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century, in most of the cantons, soon fell into the 
 hands of a ruling clique in the principal towns, and, being 
 endowed with practically absolute power became powerful 
 instruments of oligarchic sway. Even when the liberal move- 
 ment of 1830, sweeping over the country, restored the forms of 
 popular government by extending the franchise and abolishing 
 the system of indirect election, the people continued to look 
 with jealous eyes upon the elected assemblies and were un- 
 willing to leave in their hands the determination of vital 
 affairs. 
 
 The new constitutions, set up after 1830, contained all the 
 main essentials of representative democracy, a single chamber 
 with no presidential veto, universal suffrage, equal electoral 
 areas by population and a popular veto for constitutional 
 changes. Full legislative power was vested in the Great Council 
 thus elected, and the Small Council forming the executive was 
 entirely nominated by the members of the Great Council. 
 
 To those who believe that the search for Democracy is the 
 search for a balance or harmony between representative and 
 direct forms of popular government these cantonal consti- 
 tutions of 1830 are most instructive. Their makers threw 
 
CHECKS ON REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM 61 
 
 themselves whole-heartedly into the logic of democratic repre- 
 sentation. Since the people were to govern through their del- 
 egates the latter must enjoy all the powers and prerogatives of 
 the former. The great Council was, therefore, endowed with 
 complete legislative powers as regards all matters not expressly 
 reserved by the Federal Constitution. It was also the sole 
 source of executive and judical power, appointing the members 
 of the government and electing the judges. No adequate 
 safeguards against hasty legislation existed. A bill moved 
 quickly through the Council, even in those cantons, where three 
 separate readings were required, and passed into law without 
 any external discussion or sanction. Administrative orders 
 were even exempt from these slight restrictions or delays, so 
 that the Great Council could, whenever it chose, govern by 
 executive authority. 
 
 It was inevitable that powers so wide and absolute should 
 be abused. The people, having stripped themselves of every 
 shred of sovereignty, and having handed it over to the Grand 
 Council, discovered that the latter developed, in its majority, 
 a will which was not the will of the people, but which acted 
 more or less independently and often in antagonism to it. 
 Interests re-established themselves in the seat of authority; 
 ill-considered laws got into the statute book, and elected per- 
 sons without the fear of the people before them neglected or 
 abused their trust. 
 
 The defenders of representation insisted that the only de- 
 sirable remedy or check was "shorter parliaments," and they 
 proposed to limit the duration of each Assembly to one or two 
 years, and in some instances to put in the hands of the people 
 the right of dissolution as well as the election of the executive. 
 
 But the democrats refused to be put off with reforms which 
 in their judgment were not even half measures. They insisted 
 that "the people must have the right of initiating, discussing, 
 and sanctioning, their own laws," and that in order to achieve 
 
62 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 this end the rights of referendum and initiative must be 
 secured. 
 
 The controversy leading to the adoption of the referendum 
 took shape first in St. Gall, in the form of a demand made by 
 the democrats that the sovereignty of the people should be 
 stamped upon all laws and that it should be the fount of origin 
 for new laws. The agitation for the initiative was thus coeval 
 with that for the referendum, and the " thinkers" of the move- 
 ment, at any rate, saw and urged their linkage in the framework 
 of democracy. 
 
 But since it is more important to stop what you do not like 
 than to secure what you do like, the logic of events gave priority 
 to the referendum, which is in effect a power of veto upon the 
 laws submitted under it. 
 
 Referendum in the form of a veto * was first established in 
 the Constitution adopted by St. Gall in 1831, and the following 
 Articles are of importance as a formal expression of the reasons 
 and sentiments which operated in its adoption. 
 
 Art. 2. The people of the canton are sovereign. Sover- 
 eignty, which is the sun of all the political powers, resides in 
 the whole body of the citizens. 
 
 Art. 3. It results from this that the people themselves exer- 
 cise the legislative powers, and every law is submitted to their 
 sanction. This sanction is the right of the people to refuse to 
 recognise any law submitted to them, and to prevent its execu- 
 tion in virtue of their sovereign power. 
 
 Art. 135. The approval of laws reserved to the people by 
 Art. 3 of the Constitution applies, namely: 
 
 1 " The essential difference between the veto and the referendum consists in 
 the fact that in the latter the fate of a law is determined by the majority of the 
 votes actually cast, while in the veto a law is rejected only in case a majority 
 of all the registered voters have voted in the negative. In other words, the 
 men who do not vote at the referendum are neglected, while in the veto they 
 are treated as if they had voted affirm atively." 
 
 Lowell Governments and Parties, Vol. II, p. 249. 
 
CHECKS ON REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM 63 
 
 (a) To all branches of legislation, civil and criminal, and to 
 the treaties which refer to these subjects. 
 
 (b) To all fiscal laws of general import. 
 
 (c) To the laws relating to the administration of the com- 
 munes. 
 
 (d) To all laws on military matters. 
 
 Art. 136. The laws mentioned above come into force forty- 
 five days after their publication, if the people have not refused 
 to sanction them before the expiration of this time. 
 
 Art. 137. As soon as fifty citizens of a political commune 
 demand it, a communal assembly must be held to decide whether 
 the law submitted to them shall be opposed or not. 
 
 Art. 138. If the majority of the communal assembly resolve 
 to raise no opposition, the law is considered to be approved by 
 the commune. In the contrary case, the Amman of the com- 
 mune shall communicate the result at once to the Amman of 
 the district, and he in his turn shall advise the Small Council 
 by sending them a copy of the report of the meeting. 
 
 Art. 139. This document shall indicate the number of active 
 citizens in the commune who have respectively voted for or 
 against the proposed law. Non-voters are classed as voting in 
 the affirmative. 
 
 Art. 141. If the number of those who have rejected a law 
 exceed (half?) the total number of citizens (sic) by one, the 
 law falls through. 1 
 
 In other words, the St. Gall amendment adopted by the 
 people gave to the majority of the registered voters the power 
 to veto laws passed by the Grand Council. Unless so vetoed, 
 laws passed into effect without express endorsement by the 
 popular vote. 
 
 The example of St. Gall was followed next year by Rural 
 Bale (where the veto, however, required a vote of two thirds 
 of the registered voters), in 1839 by the Valais, and in 1841 by 
 
 1 Quoted Deploige, p. 72. 
 
64 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 Lucerne. But this veto stood on no firm democratic footing, 
 and though several other cantons toyed with it, it soon gave 
 way before the superior democratic claims of the referendum, 
 by means of which the people expressed their assent or dissent 
 by a majority, not of registered voters but of actual voters. 
 
 Valais was the first to adopt the referendum in its most strin- 
 gent form, a constitutional amendment of 1846 requiring all 
 laws to be submitted for acceptance or rejection to the popular 
 vote. This general referendum was, however, found too 
 legicidal, and it gave way in 1852 to a strictly limited referendum 
 on finance. In 1845, Vaud, and in 1846 Berne, established a 
 referendum at the option of the Great Council. But these 
 were timid experiments which shortly yielded to a bolder policy. 
 
 Between 1850 and 1870 most of the German cantons adopted 
 the referendum, either in its obligatory form requiring all laws 
 (with certain named exceptions) to be submitted to the popular 
 vote, or in what is termed the optional form by which a vote 
 can be demanded on the petition of a certain number of citizens. 
 
 More slowly the French and Italian cantons fell into line, 
 until by 1880 all, with the single exception of Freiburg, possessed 
 some form of referendum for ordinary laws. 
 
 In 1874 the Confederation itself established an optional 
 referendum. 
 
 The actual position of the referendum with date of adoption 
 as an instrument in Swiss government is summarised by 
 Deploige in the following convenient table : 
 
 Confederation Optional 1874 
 
 Zurich Obligatory 1869 
 
 Berne Obligatory 1869 
 
 Lucerne Optional 1869 
 
 Schwyz Obligatory (general) 1848 and 1876 
 
 Optional (treaties) 
 
 Zug Optional 1877 
 
 Freiburg None 
 
 Soleure Obligatory 1869 (optional, 1856) 
 
CHECKS ON REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM 65 
 
 Bale, City Optional 1875 
 
 Bale, Rural Obligatory 1863 
 
 Schaffhausen Obligatory 1895 (optional, 1876) 
 
 St. Gall Optional 1861 and 1875 (but 
 
 Federal Ref. before) 
 
 Grisons Obligatory 1852 
 
 Aargau Obligatory 1870 
 
 Thurgau Obligatory 1869 
 
 Ticino Optional 1883 and 1892 
 
 Vaud Optional (general) 1885 
 
 Obligatory (finance) 1861 
 
 Valais Obligatory 1852 
 
 Neufchatel Optional 1879 (obligatory 
 
 finance, 1858) 
 Geneva Optional 1879 
 
 If the will of the people is to be really paramount as the 
 determinant factor in specific acts of government, it is evident 
 that this object is not fully attained by any sort of referendum 
 merely enabling the people to express their judgment upon 
 measures which have originated in the Assembly. Such a 
 referendum enables them to veto legislative or certain executive 
 proposals from which they dissent; it confers upon them no 
 power of giving effect to their positive desires and judgments. 
 If the people is really to rule, it must be able to propose as well 
 as to express assent and dissent. The power of initiating 
 legislative and constitutional changes is inherent in the logic 
 of democracy. 
 
 That the "sovereignty of the people" implies the right to 
 propose and carry out changes in the Constitution of their 
 state is tolerably obvious. Every cantonal Constitution admits 
 this right; in every canton save Geneva, a specified number of 
 citizens can demand at any time that the question of a con- 
 stitutional reform shall be referred to popular vote. This 
 constitutional initiative is qualified in the case of Geneva by 
 the proviso that the question of revision shall be brought before 
 
66 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 the people periodically every fifteen years ; in the case of Schaff- 
 hausen no specific but only a general revision of the Constitu- 
 tion can be proposed by means of the initiative. 
 
 But the democratic wave which swept over the country 
 after i860 carried popular control beyond the constitutional 
 initiative. It must be possible for the people, when they 
 desire positive legislation, to compel the Assembly to discuss 
 concrete proposals and to submit them to the popular vote. 
 Otherwise the referendum only operates as a veto, not as a 
 creative force in legislation. The right of petition, by which 
 in most countries with parliamentary institutions specific 
 measures commanding some popular support are urged upon 
 legislative assemblies, was not satisfactory to Swiss democrats. 
 The "people" must be endowed with a power of initiating laws 
 concurrently with the Assembly. 
 
 Though the initiative is in fact complementary to the refer- 
 endum, its introduction into the cantonal constitutions was 
 due to a separate democratic impulse. It was first adopted by 
 Vaud in 1845, followed by Aargau in 1852, before either of 
 these cantons had a referendum for ordinary laws. At that 
 time it was regarded, not as an instrument of direct popular 
 legislation, but as a form of mandatory petition, designed to 
 keep the Assembly in closer touch with the popular will by 
 compelling it to take up questions that had aroused popular 
 desire. 
 
 The legislative initiative has now been adopted by every 
 canton with three exceptions, Lucerne, Valais, and Freiburg. 
 It means that any citizen who desires to propose a law, and who 
 can secure the assent of a sufficient number of his fellow citizens 
 to the draft he has prepared, can compel the Assembly to con- 
 sider the proposal, to report upon* it, and finally to submit ft 
 to a referendum. 
 
 The effect of the initiative is to endow the people with a full 
 power of legislation independently of the Assembly. Every 
 
CHECKS ON REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM 67 
 
 law proposed and passed by the Assembly may or must require 
 the express sanction of the people before it becomes operative, 
 but a law proposed and passed by the people requires no cor- 
 responding sanction of the Assembly. When the people chooses, 
 the Assembly is converted from a truly legislative into a merely 
 deliberative and advisory body, dependent for its power on 
 purely "moral" influence. The people using the initiative 
 and the referendum may legislate above the heads of the 
 Assembly. 
 
 "The people exercise the law-making power with the assist- 
 ance of the state legislature," is the terse description of the 
 position, as laid down in the Zurich Constitution. 
 
 The introduction of the initiative into the Federal Consti- 
 tution was later and is far less complete. Though an initiative 
 for ordinary legislation was proposed in the Constitution drawn 
 up by the Federal Assembly in 1872, that provision was not 
 embodied in the Constitution actually adopted in 1874. Thus 
 the initiative was confined to constitutional revision, and when 
 an attempt was made, in 1880, to introduce a particular amend- 
 ment endowing the federation with a monopoly of the issue of 
 bank notes, the Federal Assembly decided that the application 
 of the constitutional initiative could only apply to revision of 
 the Constitution as a whole, no specific proposal being valid. 
 
 After long debate an article was adopted in 1891, allowing 
 particular amendments of the Constitution to be proposed by 
 the initiative and to be put to a referendum. How far this 
 amendment does in fact allow the proposal of federal laws by 
 initiative depends upon the delicate question of the delimita- 
 tion of laws and particular constitutional amendments, and 
 cannot be here discussed. 
 
 II 
 
 Having given this brief general account of the nature and 
 historic origin of the referendum and the initiative, the two 
 
68 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 chief co-operative instruments of direct popular government, 
 it is desirable to indicate with more precision the actual amount 
 of control over the representative element thus conveyed, and 
 the methods of its exercise. 
 
 We will deal first with the governments of the cantons, dis- 
 cussing popular control, first over constitutional, then over 
 legislative, action. 
 
 Constitutional Changes 
 
 The general principle which governs changes in cantonal 
 constitutions is laid down by Article 6 of the Federal Consti- 
 tution of 1 8 74. 
 
 ''The Cantons are obliged to obtain the guaranty of their 
 constitutions from the Confederation. This guaranty is given 
 on condition that these Constitutions have previously been 
 accepted by the people, and that they may be revised when an 
 absolute majority of the citizens demand it." 
 
 This article asserts in general terms the popular initiative 
 and referendum as the method of constitutional revision. 
 
 Every cantonal Constitution contains a provision for the 
 exercise of this popular right and prescribes the number 
 of signatures necessary to give validity to a demand for 
 revision. 
 
 The numbers van- widely in the various cantons. In Glarus 
 and Appenzell (In R.) one person can initiate revision, in 
 Zurich one person supported by one third of the Council; in 
 St. Gall the number is 10,000 (about one fifth of the entire body 
 of citizens); in Berne, 15,000 (about one eighth). 
 
 The popular initiative is applicable either to a total or a 
 partial revision of the Constitution. In the case, however, of a 
 general revision, the people cannot in any canton initiate the 
 form of the revision, they can only instruct the government to 
 prepare a draft. The order of procedure for general revision 
 is this: When the requisite number of electors has demanded 
 
CHECKS ON REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM 69 
 
 revision, the government puts to the people by referendum the 
 question, "Do you desire a general revision?" 
 
 In the case of an affirmative vote, the duty devolves either 
 upon the Great Council, or upon a specially summoned Con- 
 stituent Assembly, to prepare a draft of the constitutional 
 revision. 
 
 In certain cantons, Aargau, Rural Bale, Freiburg, Geneva, 
 Lucerne, Schwyz, and Solothurm, revision is always under- 
 taken by a Constituent Assembly ; in the case of others, Bale City, 
 Berne, St. Gall, Neufchatel, Schaffhausen, Ticino, Thurgau, 
 Vaud, and Valais, the people decides in the preliminary voting 
 whether the Grand Council or a Constituent Assembly shall 
 revise. In the Grisons a vote is taken on the question whether 
 the existing Grand Council shall be dissolved and another 
 elected to make the revision. 
 
 An absolute majority of the electors actually voting deter- 
 mines whether the revision shall take place, save in Lucerne 
 where the majority must be a majority of the registered voters. 
 
 When the Grand Council or the Constitutional Assembly 
 has prepared the draft of a revised Constitution, it is submitted 
 to a referendum, and comes into force when a majority of the 
 electors has accepted it. The majority here also is of the 
 actual voters, except in the case of Zug, where it is of registered 
 voters. 
 
 There are thus two referendums necessary to secure a revision, 
 one to determine that a revision shall take place, another to 
 accept the proposed revision. Nowhere is it left to the people 
 to draft the form of the general revision. 
 
 The case of partial or particular amendments of the Con- 
 stitution is somewhat different. 
 
 The statutory number of citizens favouring an amendment 
 may proceed in either of two ways, "a general motion" (ein- 
 fache Anregung) or by a bill drafted by themselves (ausgear- 
 beiteter Entwurf). 
 
70 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 If a proposed amendment is put into the shape of "a general 
 motion," it may be brought before the people at once, in certain 
 cantons, the Grand Council reporting favourably or adversely 
 upon it. If the people accepts, the Council must carry out the 
 revision. 
 
 In certain cantons, viz., Zurich, Berne, Aargau, Lucerne, 
 Bale City, and Solothurm, the Council, if it agrees with the 
 proposal, may draft the article without more ado; if it does not 
 agree, it must submit the question to the people, and, in the 
 event of the acceptance of the motion, must draft the revision. 
 
 In three cantons, Schwyz, Ticino, and SchafThausen, it is 
 obligatory on the Council to draft a revision in the sense of the 
 motion submitted to it, and to present this revision to be voted 
 upon in a referendum. 
 
 In some cantons, including Zurich and Berne, it is open to 
 the initiators of a constitutional amendment to proceed by bill. 
 In this case the Council must submit the bill as it stands to the 
 people for acceptance or rejection, though in a few cantons, 
 viz., Zurich, Schaffhausen, Grisons, Ticino, and Solothurm, it 
 is open to the government to present a counter proposal which 
 is also voted on. Partial revisions are usually undertaken by 
 the Grand Council, though in a few cantons the people deter- 
 mine whether a partial as well as a total revision shall be sub- 
 mitted to a Constituent Assembly. 
 
 A partial amendment of the Constitution, initiated by the 
 people, can thus become operative after acceptance by a single 
 popular voting. 
 
 Both in the case of a general and a partial amendment of the 
 Constitution the Grand Council may initiate and propose such 
 amendments. They may do so upon their own authority in 
 Zurich, Zug, Valais, Thurgau, Grisons, Solothurm, and Ap- 
 penzell (In Rh.); in certain other cantons, Berne, Schwyz, 
 Glarus, Schaffhausen, Appenzell (outer Rh.), St. Gall, and 
 Aargau, they may undertake partial but not general revisions 
 
CHECKS ON REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM 71 
 
 without consent of the people; elsewhere, Freiburg, Obwald, 
 Nidwald, Bale (Rural), Neufchatel, and Ticino, the Grand 
 Council must obtain the consent of the people before under- 
 taking either general or partial revision. In every case the 
 final ratification of the amendment rests with the people. 
 
 While a general revision is voted en bloc at the referendum, a 
 partial revision is sometimes submitted in various compart- 
 ments, according to the articles of the Constitution affected, or 
 according to some grouping of the proposed amendments. 
 
 The popular rights are thus seen to comprise full power on 
 the part of a majority of the voters in a canton, to accept or 
 reject any changes in their Constitution, and on the part of any 
 substantial body of citizens to compel the submission of any 
 amendment to the vote of the people. 
 
 A bare majority of the actual voters can at any time alter the 
 constitution of their canton within such limits as are laid down 
 in the Federal Constitution. 
 
 The popular right of legislation is, as we have seen, secured 
 in almost all the cantons by the use of the initiative and the 
 referendum. 
 
 In every canton, save three, a substantial body of electors 
 (varying in size from 1000 in Zug, Bale City and Schaffhausen, 
 to 6000 in Vaud) can, by signing their names to a demand for a 
 legislative change, compel the government to submit the ques- 
 tion to a referendum and to carry out the will of the people 
 thus expressed. This legislative initiative may take the shape 
 (1) of proposing a new law (except in Rural Bale), (2) of re- 
 pealing or amending an existing law (excepting Schaffhausen), 
 or (3) of proposing a decree or resolution (except in Schwyz, 
 Aargau, and Schaffhausen). 
 
 The promoters of the initiative may express their legislative 
 demand in general terms, or they may formulate it in a bill. 
 
 If the initiative takes the former shape, it is a general instruc- 
 tion to the Grand Council either to draft a bill and submit it to 
 
72 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 the people (Schaffhausen and Thurgau), or first to submit to 
 the people the question whether the Grand Council shall con- 
 sider and draft a bill afterwards to be submitted to the people. 
 In most cantons, however, the modus operandi is this: The 
 Grand Council considers the initiated proposal, and, if it ap- 
 proves, drafts a law and submits it to the people; if it disap- 
 proves, it submits the original demand to the people, and if the 
 people accepts, then the Council drafts the law. 
 
 Thus the disapproval of the Grand Council involves two 
 referendums instead of one, before the initiated motion becomes 
 law. 
 
 The more advanced democratic instrument is the proposal 
 by bill, known as the "formulated initiative." Here the bill 
 drafted by a body of citizens must be presented as it stands to a 
 referendum. The Council, when it disapproves the bill, can 
 present at the same time a counter proposal or a recommenda- 
 tion that the bill be rejected. The use of the "formulated 
 initiative" has gained considerable way in the cantonal gov- 
 ernments. The cantons that give formal recognition to it are 
 Zurich, Solothurm, St. Gall, Geneva, Berne, Schaffhausen, the 
 Grisons, Bale City, and Ticino; but the constitutions of the other 
 cantons do not exclude it, and the advanced democrats every- 
 where favour the recognition of this simplest and completest 
 form of direct government. 
 
 So far as the initiative is actually used, it forms the strongest 
 invasion upon the practice of representative government. For 
 even in the case of the general initiative the business 
 of the Council is cut down to that of a drafting com- 
 mittee, while the "formulated initiative" converts it into 
 a mere instrument of formal registration, except so far 
 as the recommendation of the Council carries moral weight 
 with the electorate. 
 
 Measures which originate in the popular initiative proceed 
 as a matter of course to the referendum for acceptance or 
 
CHECKS ON REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM 73 
 
 rejection. But the Council retains a concomitant power of 
 proposing legislation, and in point of fact most bills originate 
 in the Council: the popular initiative in the cantons has never 
 yet been largely used. In all the cantons except one most 
 ordinary legislative proposals of importance must receive the 
 direct sanction of the people through a referendum, and the 
 referendum thus ranks as the potent instrument of popular con- 
 trol over the representative system. 
 
 In some cantons the referendum is obligatory, in others 
 optional. To the former class belong Zurich, Berne, Schwyz, 
 Solothurm, SchafThausen, the Grisons, Aargau, Thurgau, 
 Valais, and Rural Bale. In most cases, this implies that all 
 laws, certain treaties, certain administrative decrees, must 
 receive the endorsement of a popular vote before they are valid. 
 In all these instances, finance is expressly reserved for the 
 people in the sense that every estimate of expenditure exceed- 
 ing a certain sum must be approved by the people. Where, 
 however, the entire state budget has been submitted to the 
 people, as formerly in Berne and Aargau, the public embar- 
 rassment caused by an adverse vote proved so great that the 
 practice was abandoned. 
 
 It is important to recognise what are the acts of government 
 commonly or universally withheld from the referendum. They 
 may be considered to fall under two heads: first, those acts 
 which, by reason either of urgency or intricacy of special detail, 
 are assigned by the cantonal constitutions to the Grand Council: 
 secondly, others which custom or common consent has usually 
 secured to them. Urgent decrees relating to public safety, 
 certain treaties, appointments of minor officials, expenditure or 
 borrowing of small sums, are commonly within the formal 
 competence of the Grand Council. 
 
 Where the optional referendum exists, viz., in Lucerne, Zug, 
 St. Gall, Vaud, Neufchatel, Geneva, and Bale City, the popular 
 power is not in substance less than where the compulsory 
 
74 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 system operates. For the option to compel the submission of 
 an issue to the people is vested in a popular initiative. 
 
 In Zug, 500 citizens can secure a referendum, 1000 in Bale 
 City, 2500 in Geneva, 3000 in Neufchatel, 4000 in St. Gall, 
 5000 in Lucerne and Ticino, 6000 in Vaud. It is evident that 
 wherever a majority of the people is actively opposed to a 
 measure they are able to secure its rejection, though a practical 
 check of some importance is furnished by the provision that 
 the demand for a referendum must be presented within a space 
 of time varying from thirty days to six weeks after the official 
 publication of the law, decree, resolution, or treaty in 
 question. 
 
 In certain cases the Grand Council, or a quorum of its mem- 
 bers, has also an option to compel the submission of a measure 
 to the referendum, but this privilege is seldom used. 
 
 Whether the referendum is compulsory or optional, the 
 voting usually takes place on a Sunday in the spring or autumn 
 or both. In most cantons there are at least two votings in the 
 year, and since the rule prevails in Berne and elsewhere, that 
 the Great Council may summon an extraordinary voting, the 
 citizens in these cantons may be called upon to vote three times 
 or even more. 
 
 The referendum, whether taken by itself or with the initia- 
 tive, must be considered as establishing the actual sovereignty 
 of the people in concrete and individual acts of government. 
 With the exception of such powers as the popular-created 
 Constitution expressly reserves for the Grand Council, the 
 people sets its seal upon all important legislative and adminis- 
 trative acts. In form the referendum implies rather the sup- 
 pression rather than a control of the representative system, 
 reducing the Council to a merely drafting or advising board. 
 In reality, however, the Councils manage to retain a consider- 
 able measure both of legislative and administrative power. 
 The people cannot, of course, follow in detail the intricacies of 
 
CHECKS ON REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM 75 
 
 modern government, even within the tolerably narrow con- 
 fines of a rural canton ; not only many matters of detail must be 
 left to the representatives and permanent officials, but many 
 important acts of policy which appeal to no strong interest or 
 feeling rest with them. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN THE FEDERATION 
 
 Before tracing the direct powers exercised by the people in 
 the federal government of Switzerland, it is desirable to in- 
 dicate the extent of the legislative and executive competency 
 of the Confederation. The legislative powers assigned by the 
 Constitution of 1874 are very large. They include: (1) The 
 organisation and administration of the army. (2) Superin- 
 tendence of dyke and forest police. (3) Legislative Control of 
 hunting and fishing. (4) Construction and management of 
 railroads. (5) Customs. (6) Sanitary and protective legisla- 
 tion in factories and other industries. (7) Control of emi- 
 gration and insurance. (8) Legal restrictions on issue and 
 redemption of bank notes. (9) The civil law and procedure. 
 (10) Criminal law and procedure. (11) Electoral legislation. 1 
 
 Mr. Lowell comparing Swiss with American federal govern- 
 ment, writes thus : 2 
 
 "The legislative authority of the national government is 
 much more extensive in Switzerland than in this country, for 
 in addition to the powers conferred on Congress it includes 
 such subjects as the regulation of religious bodies and the ex- 
 clusion of monastic orders, the manufacture and sale of alco- 
 holic liquors, the prevention of epidemics and epizootics, the 
 game laws, the construction and operation of all railroads, the 
 regulation of labour in factories, the compulsory insurance of 
 workmen, the collection of debts and the whole range of com- 
 
 1 Cf. Deploige, 112. 
 
 2 Governments and Parties, Vol. II, 187. 
 
 76 
 
DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN FEDERATION 77 
 
 mercial law. Besides all this, the central legislature is given 
 power to interfere in other matters which are not directly 
 subject to its control. The streams and forests and the most 
 important roads and bridges, for example, are placed under its 
 supervision; and the cantonal laws on the press, and on the 
 right to acquire a settlement and vote on communal affairs, 
 must be submitted to it for approval." 
 
 As regards administration the federal laws are usually car- 
 ried out by cantonal authorities. "Except for foreign affairs, 
 the custom house, the postal and telegraph services, the alcohol 
 monopoly, the polytechnic school, and the arsenals, the federal 
 government has scarcely any direct executive functions, but 
 acts in the way of inspection and supervision." 
 
 Federal power of interference with local administration is, 
 however, very great. The Confederation, for instance, is em- 
 powered to compel the cantons to furnish free, compulsory, and 
 non-sectarian education, to protect the franchises of the indi- 
 vidual citizen against the infringements of local authorities. 
 Still more important, the federal government can intervene 
 of its own accord in case of internal disorder, even where not 
 invited to do so by the cantonal authority. 
 
 What is the relation of the people to this Federal Constitu- 
 tion, and what are the legislative and executive powers of the 
 federal government? 
 
 Turning first to the methods of amending the Constitution, 
 we find that the people possesses co-equal powers with the houses 
 of the national legislature in initiating either a general or a 
 particular revision. This was not the case before 1891. Pre- 
 vious to that date the right of initiating particular amendments 
 was confined to joint action of the two houses, though for 
 general revision the initiative could be set in motion by fifty 
 thousand voters, or by a single house without the consent of 
 the other. 
 
 A constitutional amendment in 1891 conferred upon the 
 
78 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 people the same power of initiating a particular revision 
 as they had previously possessed in the case of general 
 revisions. 
 
 This amendment, forming Article 121 in the Federal Con- 
 stitution, reads as follows: 
 
 "A partial revision may take place by means of the popular 
 initiative, or through the forms prescribed for ordinary federal 
 legislation. The popular initiative consists in a demand by 
 fifty thousand Swiss voters for the addition of a new article to 
 the Constitution, or the repeal or modification of certain con- 
 stitutional articles already in force. 
 
 " When the popular initiative is used for the purpose of 
 amending or inserting various articles in the Federal Con- 
 stitution, each modification or addition must form the subject 
 of a separate initiative demand. 
 
 " When a demand is couched in general terms, and the 
 Federal Assembly approves it in substance, it is the duty of 
 that body to draw up a partial revision in the sense of the 
 petitioners and to refer it to the cantons for acceptance or 
 rejection. 
 
 " If the Federal Assembly does not approve the proposal, 
 then the question, whether there shall be a partial revision or 
 not must be submitted to the vote of the people; and if a 
 majority of Swiss citizens taking part in the vote express 
 themselves in the affirmative, the revision shall be undertaken 
 by the Federal Assembly, in conformity with the popular 
 decision. 
 
 " When a demand is presented in the form of a bill com- 
 plete in all its details, and the Federal Assembly approve it, 
 the bill shall be referred to the people and the cantons for 
 acceptance or rejection. 
 
 "In case the Federal Assembly does not agree, that body 
 may draft a bill of its own, or move that the people reject 
 the demand; and it may submit its own bill or proposal for 
 
DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN FEDERATION 79 
 
 rejection to the vote of the people at the same time as the bill 
 emanating from the popular initiative." 
 
 It will be observed that in every event an amendment, whether 
 general or particular, must obtain the sanction both of a major- 
 ity of the voters taking part in the referendum and of a major- 
 ity of the cantons. 
 
 Here is the combination of state rights and democracy which 
 is characteristic of modern federalism. No provision exists, 
 however, for a quorum of states in setting the initiative in 
 operation, or in determining by referendum whether a revision 
 shall take place in cases where the Federal Assembly disap- 
 proves a general demand. 
 
 An absolute majority of voters and states can thus effect any 
 alteration in the Federal Constitution, general or partial, which 
 seems good to them. The Federal Assembly cannot prevent 
 a body of 50,000 citizens from submitting to the vote of the 
 people any constitutional change they favour. Two impedi- 
 ments alone it can present. When it disapproves a general 
 (unformulated) demand, it can force two votings to take place 
 before effect is given to such demand : first, a referendum to the 
 people to decide whether a revision is desired, second, a refer- 
 endum to the people and the cantons to sanction the actual form 
 of the revision. 
 
 The only large formal defect in the direct popular govern- 
 ment of Switzerland consists in the absence of a popular ini- 
 tiative for the introduction of federal laws; while fifty thousand 
 voters may initiate any constitutional change, they cannot intro- 
 duce a law. It is probably true that this defect is more formal 
 than real, and that, if a sufficiently urgent occasion arose, the 
 distinction between a partial amendment of the Constitution and 
 an ordinary law cannot be so clearly marked as to preclude the 
 latter from being introduced in the guise of the former. 
 
 Still it remains a matter of constitutional and practical im- 
 portance that no initiative for federal legislation is directly 
 
So A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 vested in the people. All ordinary legislation is initiated in 
 one of the two directly elected Houses of Assembly (the National 
 Council and the State Council), or in the Federal Council, or 
 in the cantonal governments. But all ordinary federal laws 
 and decrees are subjected to an optional referendum. 
 
 The formal demand by thirty thousand citizens, or eight can- 
 tons, received within three months after the law or decree has 
 passed the Chambers, secures its submission to a referendum, 
 the result of which is determined by a majority of actual 
 voters without regard to the approval of the cantons. 
 
 The cantonal unit, which is recognised in constitutional 
 amendments, is thus disregarded as a factor in federal legisla- 
 tion. The ground for this denial is, of course, the fact that the 
 cantons by the act of endowing the federal government with 
 powers of legislation under the Constitution have intentionally 
 deprived themselves of any right of veto upon laws passed 
 conformably with this Constitution. The fact remains that 
 laws can be and have been passed * by a referendum in which 
 the majority of voters, validating the law, was opposed by a 
 majority of the cantons. 
 
 While the popular right to secure upon demand a referendum 
 applies to all federal laws, it does not apply to all decrees. 
 "Federal decrees," says the Constitution, "which are of general 
 application, and which are not specially urgent, are likewise 
 submitted upon demand." 
 
 It is evident that a loophole here exists for evasion of a popular 
 vote. What is a Law, and what a Decree ? There is no defini- 
 tion of these terms either in the Federal Constitution or in the 
 law of 1874, regulating the procedure of the referendum. The 
 determination of this important question has been conferred 
 by a law of 1874 upon the Federal Assembly, which is empow- 
 ered to settle in each case whether a proposal is a law or a 
 
 1 e.g., The law on marriage, December, 1874. The bankruptcy law, Novem- 
 ber, 1889. 
 
DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN FEDERATION 81 
 
 decree, and in the latter event whether it is normal in its applica- 
 tion or urgent. 
 
 Here is a palpable abridgment of the sovereignty of the people. 
 The Federal Assembly by a majority vote can decide that a 
 particular proposal is a decree which shall not be put before 
 the people but which shall forthwith come into operation. 
 
 Though no clear determination of matters to be withheld 
 from the referendum has been reached, certain subjects have 
 by custom been withheld since 1874. Of these the two most 
 important are, treaties with foreign states and federal finance 
 (including budgets, estimates, and appropriations for war ma- 
 terial). Other matters habitually withheld are (1) resolutions 
 applicable to special cases, such as decisions in administrative 
 disputes; (2) resolutions voting subsidies for such urgent public 
 works as protection of rivers and construction of roads. 
 
 The institution of the referendum for ordinary legislation 
 involves a certain machinery not merely of voting but of edu- 
 cation. All ordinary laws and decrees, therefore, which have 
 been passed by the Assembly are forwarded to the Federal 
 Council, which publishes them and sends copies to the cantonal 
 governments for circulation among the communes. Thus the 
 people have brought directly to their notice the bills and decrees 
 which are amenable to a referendum. The method of de- 
 manding and applying the federal referendum is as follows: 
 
 As we have seen, this demand may be preferred by thirty 
 thousand voters or by eight cantons. The latter method is so 
 difficult as to be virtually inoperative. The party or interest 
 opposed to a law and desiring to defeat it on a referendum 
 must within ninety days secure the personal signatures of thirty 
 thousand active citizens. This of course implies organisation 
 and canvas, and every signature must be attested by the com- 
 munal authorities of the place where the demand is signed, 
 as a guarantee of validity. When the petition is sent in, it is 
 submitted to examination by the Federal Council, which is 
 
82 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 empowered to cancel the votes where there is any informality 
 in the declaration or the attestation. If the required number 
 of valid signatures is obtained, the Federal Council organises 
 the popular voting, fixes and announces the day, informs the 
 cantonal Councils and secures the prompt circulation of the 
 law or decree to be voted upon. 
 
 The bare text of the law is placed in the hands of every voter 
 with no report of the debates or other explanatory matter. 
 
 The voting takes place simultaneously throughout the whole 
 country, and every male citizen over twenty years of age and 
 qualified according to his cantonal law is entitled to vote. The 
 voting paper simply contains the question, " Do you accept the 
 Federal Law relating to (here the general title of the law). 
 ' Yes'or'No.'" The voter has simplyto write his" Yes"or "No." 
 
 In order to save time and trouble it is usual for several votes 
 to be taken at the same time and upon the same voting paper. 
 
 The following is a copy of a federal referendum taken in 1896, 
 containing as its second item the important law on Railroad Ac- 
 counts designed to lead up to the nationalisation of the railroad 
 system : 
 
 Votation Federate _, 
 
 Bulletin de Vote 
 
 pour LA 
 
 Votation Populaire du 4 Octobre, 1896 
 
 Reponse 
 Acceptez-vous la loi concernant la garantie des de"fauts dans 
 le commerce des bestiaux ? Oui ou non 
 
 Riponse 
 Acceptez-vous la loi fe'de'rale sur la comptabilite' des chemins 
 
 de fer ? Oui ou non 
 
 111 Reponse 
 
 Acceptez-vous la loi fe'de'rale sur les peines disciplinaires dans 
 
 l'arme'e suisse ? Oui ou non 
 
 Remarque. — On doit re*pondre se*parement a chaque question. 
 
DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN FEDERATION &3 
 
 After the voting each electoral district or commune draws up 
 its report containing four columns, in which are recorded (i) the 
 number of registered voters, (2) the number of actual voters, 
 (3) the number of those voting "Yes," (4) the number of those 
 voting "No." These reports are sent to be examined and 
 corrected by the cantonal government, which forwards them 
 within ten days to the Federal Council, which calculates the 
 general result of the vote. If a majority of the voters has 
 approved the law or order, the Federal Council forthwith puts 
 it into force, inserting it in the official statute book of the Con- 
 federation. The results of the voting are in all cases published 
 in the Feuille Federale, and the Federal Council reports them 
 to the Chambers at the next session. 
 
 The popular control by means of initiative and referendum 
 is distinctly less in legislative than in constitutional amendment. 
 
 While a popular initiative exists for all constitutional amend- 
 ments, there is no popular initiative for legislation. 
 
 Whereas in constitutional amendments the referendum is 
 obligatory, in legislation it is optional, and that option can be 
 denied on the arbitrary action of the Assembly to certain orders 
 of enactment. 
 
 On the other hand, a legislative referendum depends for its 
 results upon a majority of the voters, whereas a constitutional 
 referendum depends upon a majority of the voters and of the 
 cantons. 
 
 This sketch of the constitutional powers of the sovereign 
 people, exercised either in the popular assemblies of the Ge- 
 meinde, and the Landsgemeinde, or in the wider areas of gov- 
 ernment through the use of the referendum and the initiative, 
 enables us to form a judgment upon the formal structure of 
 Swiss democracy. We see a people making use of representa- 
 tive institutions for two general purposes: first, to relieve the 
 sovereign people of the labour of those more complex and 
 
84 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 detailed governmental functions which involve special knowl- 
 edge and continuous attention, particularly in the realm of 
 administration; secondly, to assist the sovereign will to inform 
 and express itself by suggesting, formulating, and discussing 
 legislative and administrative changes to be determined by the 
 people. To these more general functions of the representative 
 system should be added the power of safeguarding the welfare 
 of the state by measures of emergency when time and oppor- 
 tunity are not available for consulting the people. 
 
 The general determination, alike of the course of policy and 
 of specific acts of government, is retained by the people, to be 
 exercised by popular vote, either in open assembly or through 
 the ballot. It is not a representative system with popular 
 checks, but a system of direct popular government with a repre- 
 sentative machinery. 
 
 The tendency of recent decades, as we have seen, has favoured 
 an increased rather than a diminished assertion of the popular 
 control alike in the cantons and in the Confederation. 
 
 As the necessities or expediencies of modern government have 
 placed more practical power in the hands of the Confederation, 
 the instinct of self-preservation in Swiss democracy has ex- 
 pressed itself in the formal assertion of increased popular con- 
 trol. But it is by no means certain that the real power of 
 government can be considered to be passing more and more 
 into the hands of the people, and that the part played by elected 
 representatives and more or less permanent officials is dimin- 
 ished. 
 
 In the structure of federal government we can discern two 
 areas of indetermination in which a struggle may or must 
 continue to be waged between the representative principle 
 expressed in the councils and the direct popular control. 
 
 The first is the right of the Assembly, to which allusion has 
 been made, to withdraw from popular reference any measure 
 which it may choose to define as a decree of an urgent or a partial 
 
DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN FEDERATION 85 
 
 character, though it may possess all the substance and effect of 
 an ordinary law. The other is the use of the " formulated 
 initiative," by the people to force the Council to submit to a 
 referendum what is in fact a new law, though in form a con- 
 stitutional amendment. 
 
 Although the referendum and the initiative are the principal 
 means by which in the federal and most of the cantonal govern- 
 ments the popular control is exercised, if we would understand 
 the power of Swiss democracy we must take note of other 
 popular rights, and still more important, the absence of checks 
 operative in the United States and other popularly governed 
 nations. 
 
 Although the power to "turn down," by means of a referen- 
 dum, obnoxious measures of the assemblies, affords a general 
 protection against abuse of the legislative councils, short terms 
 of office are the rule. The National Council is elected for 
 three years, and though the determination of the period in the 
 case of members of the State Council, is left to the several can- 
 tons, the length of office varies between one and four years, 
 with a growing tendency to settle down at three, chiefly on 
 account of convenience of election. 
 
 In a good many of the cantons another check on the repre- 
 sentative Assembly is furnished, in the shape of a popular right 
 to force a dissolution. Six of the German cantons empower 
 the people to demand by means of a petition a referendum on 
 the question, "Shall the Great Council be dissolved or not?" 
 This right, however, has been seldom used since the shortening 
 of the duration of office and the growing use of the referendum. 
 
 Another mode of forcing a dissolution, alike of the federal and 
 of the Cantonal Council, exists in the power of the people to 
 demand a general revision of the Constitution. If carried, the 
 proposal involves a dissolution of the Grand Council. 
 
 The danger attaching to a Senate which, by excessive pres- 
 sure of state rights, or by the representation of special economic 
 
86 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 or social interests, may become "an enemy of the people," is 
 not very great in Switzerland. No such formal powers are 
 entrusted to this second Chamber as in the United Sates. No 
 special functions, either in foreign or domestic policy, attach to 
 it, and it wields no veto which cannot be overridden by a ref- 
 erendum. Its actual power and reputation are diminishing, 
 not growing, and young Swiss statesmen commonly prefer to 
 enter politics through the National Assembly instead of through 
 the State Council as formerly. 
 
 Though the mode of election of State Councillors is left to 
 the cantons, the habit of direct election of these Senators is 
 growing. Ten cantons and six half cantons, one more than 
 half the total number, have adopted this method. 
 
 Again, neither the president of the Swiss Confederation nor 
 the president of any Cantonal Council possesses any real power 
 to determine legislation. The federal president is simply the 
 chairman of the Federal Council or executive, elected for a 
 single year. He is the titular head of the state, and has charge 
 of one of the seven departments of government. As a member 
 of the executive he has equal powers with his fellow members 
 in initiating legislation, but as president he has no vote and no 
 veto of any kind. Both constitutionally, and in reality, he is 
 the weakest head of any state. 
 
 Finally, although the Swiss Constitution contains a judicial 
 High Court, entitled the Federal Tribunal, which may at first 
 sight seem to correspond to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, it possesses in reality no political power analogous to 
 that wielded by the Supreme Court in the interpretation of the 
 Constitution. Even regarded as a court of judgment for crim- 
 inal and civil cases the Swiss Tribunal is far inferior to the 
 American. Not merely are its members elected by the Federal 
 Assembly for a period of six years only, but the Assembly has 
 severely circumscribed its jurisdiction, removing from its pur- 
 view a large list of subjects relating to the administration of 
 
DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN FEDERATION 87 
 
 federal laws, especially those dealing with commerce, educa- 
 tion, and finance. Since the bulk of the administration of 
 federal laws is conducted through local courts and officers, with 
 federal supervision, the Federal Tribunal does not serve the 
 purpose of a court of final appeal. 
 
 Far more important for our consideration here is the fact that 
 the Federal Tribunal, being bound by the Constitution to ad- 
 minister every act passed by the Federal Assembly or the 
 popular vote, is precluded from declaring any Act to be uncon- 
 stitutional. The competency of the Assembly and the people 
 to pass and enforce laws is absolute. No law or decree, duly 
 passed by a referendum, can be set aside by the Federal Tribunal 
 on the ground that it transgresses or conflicts with the Federal 
 Constitution, or upon any other ground. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE NATIONALISATION OF THE RAILROADS 
 
 The largest single achievement of federal democracy in Switzer- 
 land is the acquisition of the railroad system of the country for 
 public ownership and operation. Four out of the five great 
 railroads of Switzerland have within the last eight years been 
 acquired by the federal government, and the fifth, the St. 
 Gothard, is destined shortly to undergo the same fate. Though 
 a number of small local lines still remain in private hands their 
 practical control must necessarily pass into the hands of the 
 state which owns the main roads to which they are subsidiary. 
 
 This act of policy has a double significance, first as exhibit- 
 ing the growing tendency towards centralisation, secondly as the 
 greatest of the experiments in state socialism undertaken by the 
 Swiss democracy. 
 
 The rival contentions of those who hold on the one hand that 
 the referendum, the initiative, and the unchecked power of the 
 populace to determine concrete acts of policy must place the 
 safety and the well-being of the nation at the mercy of reckless 
 agitators and visionary politicians, on the other hand, that the 
 inherent conservatism of the mass-mind will lead to the rejec- 
 tion or injurious postponement of all important progressive 
 measures, cannot be submitted to any better practical test than 
 is furnished by the history of the nationalisation of the Swiss 
 railroads. 
 
 Nowhere is the importance of a well-developed, cheap, and 
 efficient railroad system greater than in Switzerland, which is, 
 by nature, broken into numerous separate cultivated districts, 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 89 
 
 divided by mountains and lakes and often inaccessible by ordi- 
 nary roads. In every civilised country to-day the railroads are 
 the effective highways, and it becomes more and more essential 
 to the convenience and safety of the inhabitants that full public 
 control should be exercised over these highways and that private 
 gangs of highwaymen should not hold up travellers and freight 
 by arbitrary imposts. 
 
 The reasons why the Swiss people have within the last decade 
 nationalised their railroads are two : first, because all the wastes, 
 inconveniences, and dangers of private enterprise in this branch 
 of transport have been brought home to the minds of the Swiss 
 people with peculiar distinctness; secondly, because they have 
 possessed the necessary political machinery to make the national 
 welfare prevail over vested interests, and the necessary intelli- 
 gence to work this machinery. 
 
 The history of this incident in modern Swiss politics illus- 
 trates, indeed illuminates, the structure and working of popular 
 government better than any in our time. 
 
 In Switzerland, as indeed in England and elsewhere, when 
 steam locomotion was first recognised as technically and econom- 
 ically feasible, serious consideration was given to the question 
 whether railroads should not be constructed and worked by the 
 state. In 1849, when as yet only a single little railway * had 
 been built, a petition in favour of a national railroad system 
 was presented to the Federal Assembly, and a majority of the 
 Assembly voted to instruct the Federal Council to prepare and 
 submit a scheme for a general system of railroads. Swiss and 
 foreign experts were consulted by the Council: some of these 
 favoured state construction, among them the English engineers 
 Stephenson and Swinburne, who drafted a plan of railways 
 extending from Lake Constance to Lake Geneva, with branches; 
 others favoured construction by private companies with state 
 subsidies. 
 
 1 A private company's line from Zurich to Baden opened in 1847. 
 
9 o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 But though the Federal Council adopted the proposal of state 
 railways, to be constructed partly by the Confederation, partly 
 by the cantons, a proposal accepted by a commission of the 
 National Council, the latter body itself decided against the 
 participation of the federal government. The Railroad Law 
 of 1852 thus excluded all co-operation of the federal govern- 
 ment, leaving to the several cantons the right of granting fran- 
 chises to private companies. The only active power reserved 
 by the Confederation was that of compelling uniformity in the 
 construction of all railroads and of forbidding tariff rates that 
 discriminated against adjoining lines. 
 
 Franchises granted by the cantons, however, were subject 
 to approval by the Confederation, the latter stipulating for a 
 right of purchase at the end of the period during which the 
 franchise was operative. 
 
 The cantons then took the matter up, granting a large number 
 of concessions to private companies. Most of the capital was 
 found abroad and in the early years French capital was pre- 
 dominant. A great many of the cantons also subsidised, and in 
 some instances constructed and worked railways of their own. 
 Berne, Neufchatel, Vaud, Zurich, Freiburg, and Graubiinden 
 have at various times engaged the public finances heavily in 
 railroad enterprises, Berne in particular becoming the possessor 
 of a large system of minor roads. Of course this cantonal rail- 
 way policy was in the main confined to small roads within the 
 limits of a single canton, though the subvention of several can- 
 tons towards the St. Gothard railway must not be forgotten. 
 
 That great confusion and countless conflicts should arise from 
 this condition of affairs was inevitable: cantons and railroad 
 companies were constantly at loggerheads, so that the Con- 
 federation was forced to step in; loud complaints were raised 
 about irregularities of tariffs; many companies whose lines had 
 become necessary modes of transport found themselves in 
 financial difficulties and demanded state support. 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 91 
 
 The growing burden of these complaints became a slow but 
 constant education for the people in the necessity of a unified 
 and publicly owned railroad system. The first man of weight 
 to throw himself into the advocacy of this cause was Stampfli, 
 the first member of the Radical party to gain entrance to the 
 Federal Council, and thrice president of the Confederation. 
 
 His brochure, "The Purchase of the Swiss Railroads," may be 
 said to have brought the issue into the field of practical politics 
 at the beginning of the sixties, fifty years before the policy was 
 consummated. It is worth remarking that Stampfli put the 
 issue before the people primarily as a business proposition; a 
 calculation of economy and public profit to be obtained by con- 
 verting company shares into public debentures. Several other 
 schemes for a fusion of the numerous companies with a view 
 to eventual nationalisation were put forward from various 
 quarters, but met at that time with little popular support. 
 
 For the popular reluctance there were two chief reasons. The 
 first was the one which induced the Federal Assembly at the 
 outset of the railroad enterprise to refuse all federal co-opera- 
 tion, viz., the jealousy of the cantons and the people of any 
 proposal to increase greatly the power of the federal government. 
 The second was that the terms of purchase fixed in the charters 
 of the railroads were generally considered far too favourable 
 to the companies. 
 
 The lack of uniformity and the related conflicts of railroad 
 policy grew so troublesome that in 1872 the Confederation was 
 driven to pass a law which greatly augmented the control of the 
 federal government, conferring upon it that power to grant 
 franchises which had hitherto been left to the cantons, and re- 
 vising in its favour the terms of purchase contained in the 
 several concessions. 
 
 During the seventies no further steps were taken. But in 
 1883 came the expiration of the period for which certain con- 
 cessions had been granted, and the Federal Council was forced 
 
9 2 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 to take into consideration the question whether or not it should 
 advise the purchase of these roads. 
 
 In its message (March, 1883) to the Assembly, it expressed 
 an adverse judgment, based upon the opinion that "at present 
 the purchase of the railroads could not be undertaken without 
 exposing the Confederation to great financial risks, while it was 
 altogether superfluous to consider other reasons for or against 
 the taking over of the railroads by the Confederation." 
 
 While a minority of the National Council favoured the pur- 
 chase of the "Central" Railroad System, which was financially 
 the most prosperous, and whose charter gave terms of purchase 
 less unfair to the state, the objection of the Federal Council to 
 the purchase proposed was upheld by the State Council, and 
 by a small majority in the National Council. But though this 
 refusal to buy in 1883 meant the postponement of this method 
 of state acquisition until 1898, the idea of nationalisation was 
 already firmly fixed in the minds of democratic statesmen, and 
 other means of preparing and realising the policy were devised. 
 
 Two methods of advance occurred to the nationalises. The 
 first was known as "the system of penetration" by which it was 
 proposed that the government should, by the purchase of stocks, 
 become a shareholder in the chief companies, with the view of 
 gaining eventually such voting control as enabled it to im- 
 pose a policy of purchase by agreement upon terms more 
 favourable to the state than those contained in the charters. 
 
 In pursuance of this project negotiations were entered upon, 
 in 1886, to purchase from the Northeastern a large block of 
 shares on behalf of the Confederation. But the opposition, 
 actuated partly by political, partly by local considerations, was 
 so strong that, though terms of purchase had been virtually 
 fixed, the Federal Council made a pretext to withdraw before 
 the matter came up to the Assembly. 
 
 Not disheartened by this failure the Federal Council turned 
 its attention next to the Jura-Simplon Company, just formed, 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 93 
 
 in 1889, by a fusion of two other companies. Two purchases 
 of shares in this company, approved by the Assembly, placed 
 the Confederation in the position of a holder of 77,080 preferred 
 shares in this great railroad system, and a voting power even 
 larger than the proportion of its holding would imply. 
 
 Emboldened by this success the advocates of the penetration 
 policy planned, at the beginning of 1891, the purchase of half 
 of the aggregate shares of the Central Railroad, offered to them 
 by a combination of banks. When a price had been provision- 
 ally agreed upon, the managers of the Central Railroad enlarged 
 the scope of the business by offering to dispose of the entire 
 railroad system upon the same terms. The Federal Council 
 then put before the Assembly the alternatives of a purchase of 
 half or of the whole property. After much discussion the 
 Assembly declared in favour of the purchase of the whole. 
 
 Then for the first time the people took a hand. The oppo- 
 nents of purchase put in operation the referendum. They 
 included not merely the conservatives, who were hostile to 
 expansion of state enterprise, and the state- rights democrats, 
 who disliked a centralising policy, but large numbers of voters 
 who were favourable to expropriation but objected to pay so 
 high a price. The little social-democratic party, for example, 
 issued a manifesto against purchase, based entirely upon the 
 extravagant terms of the deal. 
 
 The demand for a referendum was signed by 91,698 citizens, 
 and when the final vote was taken the project was rejected by 
 a vote of 289,406 against 130,729, out of 653,792 registered 
 voters. 
 
 This finished the policy of penetration and threw the state- 
 railroad advocates back upon other methods. Although a pro- 
 ject of compulsory purchase upon a fair valuation which should 
 disregard existing franchises was mooted in some quarters, it 
 met with little favour and never had any chance of adoption in 
 a nation so little addicted to revolutionary methods. 
 
94 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 It was necessary for the movement to "go slow" in order that 
 some scheme of purchase consistent at once with the financial 
 economy of the state and the recognition of the charter rights 
 of the companies could be contrived. 
 
 At no time was there any danger of the referendum being 
 utilised to rush through any reckless policy. For the nationali- 
 sation movement did not originate in a popular agitation or 
 even in a great party organisation. As we have already indi- 
 cated the real initiative for the early proposals came from the 
 statesmen of the Federal Council. 
 
 The movers in the nationalisation movement agreed that the 
 loose financial methods of the railroads, enabling them to put 
 excessive values on their properties, constituted the chief 
 obstacle to a sound "deal." And early in 1892, Curti, of the 
 National Council, and Cornaz, of the State Council, carried 
 through the Assembly a motion to the effect "that the Federal 
 Council is requested to institute a general investigation into 
 the railroad question (reform and purchase), and to present 
 at the earliest opportunity a report and a proposal for dealing 
 with the matter in any way which commends itself to them." 
 
 Purchase in accordance with the terms of the concessions, 
 equitably interpreted, was henceforth the accepted mode of 
 procedure. 
 
 The general terms of the acts granting concessions to the 
 companies stipulated that in case of purchase by the federal 
 government the price paid was to be twenty-five times the aver- 
 age net earnings of the railway during the ten years preceding 
 public notification of intention to purchase, with the additional 
 proviso that the purchase money should in no case be less than 
 the amount of paid-up capital invested in the company. 
 
 Now these provisions regarding terms of purchase were 
 rendered nugatory by the methods of bookkeeping adopted 
 by the railroads which gave no clear consistent account either 
 of net profits or of "invested capital." After various prelimi- 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 95 
 
 nary investigations the Federal Council presented to the Assembly, 
 at the end of 1895, a Railroad Account Bill, the purpose of which 
 was formally described as being "at one and the same time to 
 require of the companies separate statements for each of their 
 lines; to determine, in some manner binding on the companies, 
 the amounts respectively of their net earnings and of their 
 invested capital — two determining features in the event of 
 purchase; and to compel railroad companies, without waiting 
 for the expiration of the period fixed in the franchises, to justify 
 their statements of annual net earnings and of invested capital." 
 The same law conferred upon the federal courts the ultimate 
 right of determining cases of disagreement as to terms of pur- 
 chase which, according to former franchises, had been relegated 
 to special courts of arbitration. 
 
 The law of 1896 was not, as its enemies represented it, a 
 scheme for enabling the state to evade the pecuniary obliga- 
 tions previously sanctioned as the terms of the purchase. What 
 it secured was a distinct definition of what were to be considered 
 the "first costs," following the decision of the courts and the 
 ruling of the administration since 1883. Under the law of 1896, 
 only the expenses properly belonging to the actual railroad 
 could be included under first costs. No expenditure which did 
 not correspond to a tangible asset was included, no watered 
 stock or costs of "fondation." Proper provision must be made 
 for writing off the value of obsolete or wornout capital, and a 
 sufficient depreciation fund must be maintained as a current 
 expense. In a word, what the law did was to enforce a scien- 
 tific system of bookkeeping which was in reality as much to the 
 advantage of the shareholders as of the state. 
 
 The discussions upon this law may be regarded as bringing 
 the policy of nationalisation of the railroads, for the first time, 
 on to the open stage of immediate politics. Not only was it 
 fiercely fought in the Assembly by the interests which deemed 
 themselves assailed, and by certain legal precisians who con- 
 
96 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 tended that the state ought not to modify to its own advantage 
 terms of agreement which it had formally endorsed, but a wide- 
 spread canvass of voters and an educational propaganda was set 
 on foot throughout the country. About 1893 a popular organi- 
 sation was established for the nationalisation of the railroads 
 in which Schar, a radical schoolmaster at Bale, was a moving 
 spirit. A number of private conferences were held in different 
 cities, in which the relation of the railway to the state, the financial 
 condition of the roads and the conditions of purchase, were 
 thoroughly discussed by the leaders of the movement. These 
 men, returning to their different localities, organised local edu- 
 cation by means of the newspapers, public meetings and private 
 conversation. 
 
 The labour was immense, for detailed examination of the 
 separate finances of each railroad was essential to the issue, 
 which was one of the terms of purchase and of profitable work- 
 ing. 
 
 The Socialist party of Switzerland, working independently 
 of the official leaders in the Assembly, had, by 1896, so far 
 ripened the issue in the country as to secure the requisite sig- 
 nature to a petition for a referendum on the question of nationali- 
 sation by immediate expropriation. 
 
 This movement, however, was stopped by the appearance of 
 a message of the Federal Council, March, 1897, advocating 
 the purchase of the railways on the basis furnished by the new 
 law of railroad accounts. 
 
 This important document contains the bill which forms the 
 legal basis of the acquisition of the chief railroads by the state. 
 
 After a careful historical introduction it sets forth the politi- 
 cal and economic case for the nationalisation of the five 
 principal railroad systems, the Jura-Simplon, Central, North- 
 eastern, Union-Swiss, and the St. Gothard. The cost of pur- 
 chase was estimated at a sum of Fr. 964,384,769 ($192,876,954), 
 a sum which raised on loan at three or even three and three- 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 97 
 
 quarters per cent would, after due allowance for a sinking fund, 
 leave a substantial net profit to the state. 
 
 These five railways comprised a length of 2578 k. m. of lines, 
 more than four fifths of the entire railways in the country. On 
 the terms of the concession the purchase of four of the roads 
 would take place in 1903, the completion of the St. Gothard 
 purchase being postponed to 1909. 
 
 The funds for the public purchase were to be obtained by the 
 sale of securities or annuities, to be cancelled at the end of sixty 
 years in accordance with a carefully constructed sinking fund. 
 
 An elaborate scheme for the administration of the railroads was 
 laid down. A special federal office was created, the detached 
 administration being entrusted to a Council of fifty-five appointed 
 for a term of three years, twenty-five by the federal govern- 
 ment, twenty-five by the cantons, and five by the local boards 
 of directors, who, situated at Bale, Lausanne, Zurich, Lucerne, 
 and Berne, took charge of the local management of the roads. 
 
 The legislative and constructive policy, together with the 
 general financial control of the railroads, was delegated to the 
 Federal Assembly, the Federal Council being responsible for 
 examining the annual budget and for submitting to the Assembly 
 reports on the condition of the railroads and proposals for 
 enlargements and improvements. 
 
 In the final draft of the law it was provided that all schemes 
 for the further acquisition of existing roads or for construction 
 of new roads must be submitted to the referendum. 
 
 Careful conditions were laid down for the financial inde- 
 pendence of the railroads. The net earnings were to be allo- 
 cated in the first instance to the payment of interest and the 
 reduction of the railroad debt. Any surplus was to be set to the 
 credit of the railroad account and to be utilised for a reduction 
 of transportation rates. 
 
 In considering the fate of this measure it is of prime impor- 
 tance to recognise that it proposed to secure for the state what 
 
9 8 
 
 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 was prima facie a very advantageous bargain. The estimates 
 of purchase made by the Federal Council in its message were 
 as follows : 
 
 Jura-Simplon 
 
 North Eastern 
 
 Central 
 
 Union Swiss 
 
 Gothard 
 
 Wohlen Bremgarden 
 
 (Small branch of Central) 
 
 Total 
 
 Francs 
 
 Dollars l 
 
 288,154,203 
 
 $57,638,840 
 
 244,434,347 
 
 48,886,869 
 
 177,357,946 
 
 35,471,589 
 
 81,858,654 
 
 16,371,73! 
 
 172,371,182 
 
 34,474,236 
 
 208,446 
 
 41,689 
 
 Fr. 964,384,778 
 
 $ 192,876,965 
 
 The following table, based on quotations of the Swiss Money 
 Market, before the promulgation of the Message of 1897, pre- 
 sents a comparison which shows that the valuation of the Federal 
 Council was in most instances far below the then market price 
 of the stock : 
 
 Purchase 
 
 Valuation 
 
 Francs 
 
 Par Value 
 Francs 
 
 Market 
 Value 
 Francs 
 
 Jura-Simplon 
 Preferred Stock 
 Ordinary 
 
 North Eastern 
 Ordinary 
 
 Central 
 Ordinary 
 
 Union Swiss 
 Preferred Stock 
 Ordinary 
 
 Gothard 
 
 500 
 120 
 
 33& 
 543 
 
 500 
 
 315 
 620 
 
 500 
 200 
 
 500 
 
 500 
 
 500 
 500 
 
 500 
 
 555 
 190 
 
 665 
 
 705 
 
 475 
 82 
 
 Fractions of dollars have been omitted. 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 99 
 
 During the period of discussion by the Assembly and in the 
 interval before the matter was submitted to the referendum, a 
 fierce debate was waged between the advocates and the oppo- 
 nents of this measure. Those interested in the private systems 
 represented the proposal as a sheer act of robbery, while the 
 Federal Council sustained its case by adducing elaborate reports 
 of experts. 
 
 It was not, however, a party issue, for, though originating in 
 radical quarters, the proposal secured the adhesion not only of 
 powerful Conservative Catholic Members, like Zemp, but of a 
 large number of Conservatives throughout the country, especially 
 of those who feared and disliked the control of the railroads by 
 foreign and predominantly Jewish capitalists. An active 
 pamphleteering campaign was undertaken on both sides, and 
 the process of educating the electorate by public meetings was 
 carried further than ever before. The opposition was the more 
 active in printed propaganda, the railroad people using their 
 power freely for the circulation of pamphlets, etc. There is, 
 however, no evidence that the railroads adopted any form of 
 political corruption either with the legislature or the electorate, 
 or even that they brought intimidation to bear upon those of 
 their employees who took sides with the nationalisation party. 
 
 The discussion was in the main of a severely practical form, 
 turning upon the terms of purchase, the possibilities of rate 
 reductions and improvements of service under the new regime 
 and the making of new roads. The question of remuneration 
 and other conditions of employment of railroad workers and 
 officials also formed an appreciable factor in the discussions. 
 But the whole question was made to hinge upon finance, the 
 railroads contending that if a fair price was paid to them 
 the state could not conduct the railroad business so as to fulfil 
 the pledges of extension of lines, improvement of services, and 
 lowering of rates, which were their chief baits to the electorate. 
 The business leader of the opposition, the railroad magnate, 
 
ioo A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 Guyer-Zeller, also promised the people that if they would leave 
 the roads in his hands he would build the subsidiary roads which 
 the Confederation would not have the money to build. 
 
 As for the argument about control of foreign capitalists, he 
 pointed out that the new railroad bonds to be issued by the 
 state in order to secure the purchase money would also pass 
 into foreign hands, and it was more dangerous for foreigners to 
 control the public funds than the stocks of private companies. 
 But it soon became evident that the mind of the people, as of the 
 Assembly, was made up in favour of nationalisation. "That 
 apple was ripe." In the National Council the bill was adopted 
 by a vote of 98 to 29, and in the State Council by the smaller 
 but still substantial majority of 25 to 17. 
 
 The supporters comprised the entire body of the Radicals, 
 and the Socialists, a section of the Liberal centre and a few 
 members of the Catholic and Conservative right; the opponents 
 consisted of the main body of the Catholics and Federalists and 
 the larger part of the Liberal centre. 
 
 This division fairly represented the state of public opinion 
 which was soon to be expressed in the referendum, accepting 
 the Nationalisation Law. 
 
 As M. Zemp was able to carry a certain number of Catholic 
 Conservatives with him in support of the measure, so the strong 
 opposition of one important Radical, M. Numa Droz, ex-presi- 
 dent of the Confederation, detached some radicals. 
 
 But the Radical party as an organisation was pretty unani- 
 mous in support of the measure, while the Socialist caucus, 
 though objecting to the extreme centralisation of the adminis- 
 trative policy, pledged itself in favour of the measure. 
 
 The opposition of the Catholic Swiss Federalists and the 
 Liberal Conservatives was overborne at the polls, and the refer- 
 endum gave the imposing vote of 386,634 "Ayes" as against 
 182,718 "Noes." 
 
 But no sooner had the sovereign people committed itself 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 101 
 
 to this scheme of nationalisation than the scheme itself began 
 to shift shape. The railroad companies began a series of suits 
 in the Federal Courts in order to obtain judicial decisions upon 
 their rights under their franchises. The Central Railroad and 
 the Northeastern were most active in this litigation, and the 
 judgments of the court went sometimes for them, sometimes 
 against, on the main issue of the mode of estimating the cost of 
 purchase. It soon became manifest that an almost endless 
 series of processes could be entered, the issue of which was 
 quite incalculable; the shareholders had no security as to the 
 value of their shares, while the government could make no 
 effective plan for dealing with a financial situation which it was 
 impossible to forecast. 
 
 The government, moreover, found themselves further em- 
 barrassed by the question of the debentures of the railroads, 
 having no assurance as to whether they could simply assume 
 the obligations from the companies or whether they must find 
 the cash to pay off the debenture-holders. 
 
 These considerations, together with the disturbance to busi- 
 ness, caused by the protracted method of acquisition, induced 
 the government to seek to substitute purchase by agreement 
 for compulsory purchase under the terms of the concessions. 
 
 Their first negotiations were with the Central Railroad, and 
 in December, 1900, they came finally to an agreement of pur- 
 chase on the basis that the government should pay for each 
 share and debenture a four per cent certificate, carrying an interest 
 of thirty francs, government reserving the right at any time to 
 pay off the holder on six months' notice. The government 
 was also to take over all outstanding obligations of the company 
 and to continue in their employ all former officials of the com- 
 pany with the exception of the directors. On these terms the 
 Central became a national railway. 
 
 A little gentle compulsion was applied to the Northeastern 
 in order to induce it to consent to a similar "voluntary nego- 
 
102 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 tiation." The Railroad law, having in mind the case of the 
 Northeastern with a number of subsidiary lines which were 
 less profitable than the main lines, contained a provision ena- 
 bling the government to confine its purchase by concessions to 
 the main lines, leaving the others under the company, unless 
 the latter could be bought upon reasonable terms. In the cases 
 brought before the Federal Court it was evident that no agree- 
 ment could be reached as to the separate valuation of these 
 subsidiary lines and, if the government refused to buy them, 
 the Northeastern system would be broken into two, the one 
 part passing to the government, the other, a number of now 
 disjointed fragments, remaining with the company. Such an 
 eventuality suited neither the interests of the shareholders nor 
 the convenience of the public, and at the end of 1900 terms of 
 purchase were arranged on a valuation basis of 253,000,000 
 francs ($50,600,000), the Northeastern 500-franc shares being 
 paid by federal certificates at par bearing three and one-half 
 per cent interest. 
 
 As far back as 1896 an agreement had been made between 
 the federal government and the Union Swiss Railroad, by which 
 all the lines controlled by the latter should be treated as a single 
 property in case of purchase. This purchase was now nego- 
 tiated upon a basis of capitalising the net profit, and after vari- 
 ous deductions the price was brought down to a sum of 
 40,000,000 francs ($8,000,000), of which 18 millions were paid 
 in cash and 22 millions in three-per-cent certificates at ninety- 
 nine. This purchase was consummated early in 1902, though 
 the state administration did not take place until the begin- 
 ning of 1903. There remained the Jura-Simplon and the St. 
 Gothard. The former was purchased in May, 1903, for the 
 sum of 104,000,000 francs ($20,800,000), a considerable ad- 
 vance upon the sum 81,500,000 francs ($16,300,000), at which 
 it had been valued in 1896. The St. Gothard still remains to 
 be acquired. 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 103 
 
 On no point connected with the Swiss nationalisation scheme 
 has graver misapprehension existed than with reference to the 
 enhancement of the terms of purchase. Hostile critics often 
 represent the people as having been deliberately duped by being 
 told that they could get the railways for a certain sum, where as 
 afterwards thirty to thirty-five per cent was added to this price. 
 
 In the debates upon the nationalisation of French railways 
 at the beginning of 1904, we find M. Rouvier making great 
 capital out of the charge that whereas it had been estimated 
 that the prices of the Swiss railways would be 220 millions 
 ($44,000,000), they had been obliged to pay 301 millions 
 ($60,200,000), an additional charge of 81 millions or thirty-five 
 per cent. 
 
 In fact the charge is baseless. In the first place, the total 
 expense estimated as the cost of the railroads amounted to 790 
 millions ($158,000,000), and the actual excess, the 81 millions 
 ($20,200,000), amounts only to about ten per cent, a very 
 ordinary increase of price upon the estimate in any large and 
 delicate negotiation. 
 
 The explanation of the actual increase of price is simple 
 enough. The article bought had risen in value between the 
 time when the estimate was made and the time when the sale 
 actually took place. The valuations made in 1897 were natu- 
 rally based upon the operation of the roads during the last ten 
 years, the statistics of which were available, viz., 1 886-1 895. 
 But it happened that 1896 was a year of great commercial 
 activity which exhibited itself in a more profitable working of 
 the roads and a corresponding rise in capital values. 
 
 This was the chief reason why more was paid than had been 
 estimated. There was, however, the further reason that the 
 state wished to enter in possession of the roads at an earlier 
 date than that on which the concessions of four of the roads 
 fell in, viz., 1903. Some of the additional price must be 
 accredited as compensation for the earlier ejectment. 
 
io 4 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 The Federal Council, in fine, reckoned that since 1895 
 the companies had become more valuable properties and 
 therefore agreed to pay an enhanced price. There was nothing 
 mysterious about this and nothing detrimental to the public 
 interest. 
 
 While some of the enemies of nationalisation fastened their 
 attention on the charge that the state had paid an excessive 
 price for the railroads, others pointed to the fall-off in receipts, 
 which immediately followed the acquisition of the Grand Cen- 
 tral and Northeastern, as proof of the incompetency of state 
 management. 
 
 The working of the first year, 1901, during which the state 
 had possession of the two roads, showed a considerable drop 
 in the net receipts of each. This fact was bruited far and wide 
 as an argument for private railroads, and was utilised with 
 great effrontery in France when the nationalisation issue was 
 in the front of practical politics. Unfortunately for the anti- 
 nationalisers there is no substance in the argument. For in 
 the first place, though the nation owned these roads in 1901, 
 their administration remained with the companies until 1902. 
 Secondly, the year 1901 was one of deep depression, as attested 
 by the condition of the other Swiss railroads, the St. Gothard 
 and the Jura Simplon, whose diminution of receipts was quite 
 as large, though they still remained under private ownership. 
 
 Our sketch of the history of railroad nationalisation in 
 Switzerland brings out quite clearly certain characteristics of 
 Swiss democracy. In the first place it is evident that their 
 working politics are eminently practical. Theory and senti- 
 ment plays some part in Switzerland as in other countries. 
 There were those who held from early days the general prin- 
 ciple which the National Commission of 1852 printed in italics 
 in their report, "The railroads of Switzerland ought to be 
 federal work." Both in the Assembly and among the edu- 
 cated people of the country there were some who favoured or 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 105 
 
 disfavoured state railways because they held some general views 
 on the limits of public and private enterprise. 
 
 A much larger number were moved by sentiments regarding 
 federal unity and cantonal rights. Party traditions and race 
 feelings also played some part in the episode. But in reflect- 
 ing upon the vote of the people given against purchase in 1891, 
 and by a still stronger majority for purchase in 1897, we 
 recognise that the dominating motives were business ones. 
 Like other folk the Swiss as a body dislike bureaucracy and 
 have no general desire to increase state functions and to 
 multiply officials; accustomed to do many different sorts of 
 things by public co-operation, they exhibit, other things equal, 
 a decided preference for cantonal action which is more sus- 
 ceptible of direct popular control. But several decades of 
 experience of private enterprise in railroads, working not in 
 unison but either in indifference to one another or in conflict, 
 and actuated not by direct regard for the convenience of the 
 traveller and the shipper, but by considerations of private 
 profits for foreign shareholders, formed a slow but certain 
 education in nationalisation. The nature of their country 
 precluded effective competition, throwing most districts to the 
 mercy of a single autocratic company; much of the proper 
 work of railroad enterprise lay in the development of country 
 through which lines could not be made with any prospect of 
 early profits, lines which therefore no private company could 
 be expected to make unless possessed of large capital and 
 willingness to wait results. The regulation and systematisa- 
 tion of rates through loose federal legislation was proved to be 
 impracticable. Friction with railroad employees, due to bad 
 conditions of labour, and culminating in a great strike attended 
 by grave public inconvenience, which occurred in the very height 
 of the controversy, brought home another evil of the private 
 highroad system and rallied a strong "labour" support for 
 the nationalisation movement. 
 
io6 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 It is often said, and truly, that the people rejected the be- 
 ginnings of nationalisation in 1891 because they were asked to 
 pay too dear, and accepted six years later because they thought 
 they were getting a good bargain. This, however, does not 
 signify, as is sometimes argued, that the people approved a 
 policy of forced appropriation on terms of practical confiscation. 
 Their position was one of wise opportunism. The pure theory 
 of state ownership meant little or nothing to them. The prac- 
 tical issue was this: "Can we secure our railroads on terms 
 which are not extravagant and which will enable us to give 
 cheap and efficient service and good terms of employment, and 
 to promote further development of transport with a view not to 
 the immediate net profits of each new enterprise but to the gen- 
 eral welfare of the country?" 
 
 The opponents of nationalisation lost no time in asserting 
 that the policy had proved to be a blunder. One of their 
 representatives, M. Repond, thus summarises his reading of 
 the situation in 1901: 
 
 "All the apprehensions of opponents of the purchase of the 
 railroads have been justified by the event. The railroads have 
 cost more than the message said they would, there has not been 
 the progressive increase in receipts on which the purchase was 
 estimated; there is now a backward movement and the pros- 
 pect of deficit. The men are demanding and getting terms 
 which the government cannot refuse, and exist as a de- 
 mocracy asking popular favours which the companies would 
 have been able to refuse because they would have been justified 
 in putting their self-interest against the self-interest of the men." 
 
 But this criticism is not supported by a fair consideration of 
 the actual history of the railroads since they passed under 
 federal management. The last four years have shown a very 
 substantial advance in the amount of business done in the 
 transport both of persons and of freight and in the money receipts 
 for the same. The statistics here subjoined 1 indicate a very 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 
 
 107 
 
 
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108 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 great increase of business during the years 1 903-1 905, in which 
 the state has enjoyed full control over the four chief roads. 
 The full economy of the nationalisation will not, of course, be 
 capable of realisation until after the St. Gothard has been taken 
 over and the entire group of main roads can be worked as a 
 single system. 
 
 "But," say the hostile critics of nationalisation, "if the receipts 
 are rising, the expenditure is rising even faster; the experiment 
 is a failure because it does not exhibit any appreciable surplus, 
 any net profit for the government. " This criticism appears to 
 be endorsed by the statistics of expenditure; the net surplus 
 is a trifling sum and is less than it was during the earlier years 
 of the experiment. 
 
 But to apply to a public enterprise the same narrow business 
 tests as are applicable to a private company involves a com- 
 plete misunderstanding of the issue. A private business is 
 intended to make net profit for the shareholders, and its success 
 is naturally tested by its success in doing this. A public busi- 
 ness, however, is not intended primarily to earn profits but to 
 serve the public in every way it can. Now there is no particular 
 presumption that a public railroad is serving the public by 
 charging such high rates for the service it renders, or by paying 
 such low wages to its employees, as will enable it to show a large 
 surplus in its balance sheet. 
 
 The first duty of a public railroad is obviously to give to the 
 travelling or carrying public as cheap, safe, and effective a ser- 
 vice as it can. Its second duty is to serve as a model employer, 
 securing to its employees such wages, hours, and other conditions 
 of employment as contribute to a healthy and progressive stand- 
 ard of living. A private business may make net profits by 
 charging high rates and by sweating its employees; an enlight- 
 ened government will recognise the folly of inflicting these in- 
 juries upon the public. Moreover, there are other differences 
 in the public and the private business point of view which affect 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS 109 
 
 materially the balance-sheet. A state railroad may and does 
 develop and maintain roads which do not, and perhaps cannot, 
 pay their way, because they are a public convenience, subsidising 
 this portion of the system out of the paying portion, or even 
 meeting the deficit by public taxation. 
 
 All these influences have been operative to some extent in the 
 national management of the Swiss railroads. There have 
 been considerable reductions effected in fares and in freight 
 rates, and improved facilities have been afforded by an increase 
 in the number of trains, and increased speed and other con- 
 veniences of transport. 
 
 "Thanks to these reductions," writes Professor E. Milhaud. 1 
 "the passenger traffic in 1904 showed a considerable develop- 
 ment. The number of passengers increased about six millions, 
 that is to say twelve per cent, an increase so considerable that in 
 spite of the very sensible reduction in price of tickets the receipts 
 were largely increased, growing from 43,909,319 francs in 1903 
 to 45,427,823 francs in 1904. The administration did not 
 hope that this progress would continue in 1905, and in its 
 budget estimated an increase of only 1,150,000 francs, that 
 is to say, of two and a half per cent. However, the com- 
 munication just made to the press informs us that the receipts 
 are 48,100,000 francs an increase of 2,700,000 francs that is, 
 five and nine tenths per cent upon 1904. There have been 
 4,586,000 passengers more than in 1901. In two years the 
 number of passengers has increased from 48 millions to 59 
 millions." 
 
 At first some dissatisfaction was felt among railway employees 
 at the slowness of the government to fulfil their promises of 
 improved wages and conditions of employment. The unfore- 
 seen expenditure, connected with the taking over of the roads 
 at a time when depressed trade was keeping down the railroad 
 receipts, not only in Switzerland, but in most European coun- 
 
 1 Le Courrier Europeen, November 2, 1906. 
 
no A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 tries, obliged the government to go slow. But the new scale 
 of wages, supplementary payments, and pensions, introduced 
 in 1903, has gone a good way to improve the pecuniary con- 
 ditions of employment, while the new labour law, reducing the 
 hours of labour from twelve to eleven, securing fifty-two days' 
 rest in the year, eight days continuous holiday, and a further 
 increase after some years' service, certainly places the railway 
 employees in a "most favoured trades' position, as regards hours 
 and holidays." 
 
 Finally, the invalidity of the demand that the working of the 
 national railroads shall show a profit is evidenced by the very 
 conditions laid down in the Nationalisation Law, which defi- 
 nitely precluded the placing of any profit from the railroads in 
 the national treasury and required that any surplus must be 
 devoted to the improvement of the services. 
 
 The fears lest the undertaking of what seemed to many con- 
 servatives a hazardous speculation for a government should 
 embarrass the general finances of the nation were allayed by 
 the provision requiring that the railway budget should be kept 
 quite separate from the ordinary federal budget. 
 
 The state railroads were to become a financially self-support- 
 ing system, not a source of profit for the public exchequer. 
 
 Each year bears stronger testimony to the success of the ex- 
 periment. Not only do the state railroads pay their way with 
 a cheaper and more efficient freight and passenger service, and 
 higher wages with shorter hours for the workers, but adequate 
 provision is made for a sinking fund, furnished from the current 
 profits, which will, in the course of fifty-six years, wipe out the 
 thousand million fund raised to buy out the companies, and will 
 leave the nation in full free possession of its system of highroads. 
 
 Though it is too early to pronounce a final judgment on the 
 Swiss experiment, seeing that the public management of the 
 largest of the four roads, the Simplon, only began in May, 1903, 
 while the most important link still remains to be acquired in 
 
NATIONALISATION OF RAILROADS in 
 
 1909, when the St. Gothard passes to the state, the prospect 
 appears distinctly favourable. 
 
 While it will obviously take some years before the full econo- 
 mic conveniences of the unification of the system are reaped, 
 there is a general agreement, even among those who object to 
 what they consider the ''pauperising" of the employees, that the 
 management is both honest and intelligent. Nowhere is any de- 
 sire manifested to go back to the old system of competing roads. 
 
 While the nationalisation of the Swiss railroads, regarded as 
 a crucial instance of democratic constructive policy, exhibits 
 the people as moving slowly along a carefully explored path of 
 business enterprise and actuated principally by concrete con- 
 siderations of material gains, it would not be right to interpret 
 their conduct as governed entirely by such ad hoc opportunism. 
 Regarded as a step in the evolution of Swiss democracy, it re- 
 quires a wider interpretation. Every thoughtful Swiss would 
 agree that railroad nationalisation was an inevitable, a natural 
 fruit of the spirit of a democracy which insisted upon the popular 
 management of those affairs which are of prime importance to 
 the safety and well-being of the Commonwealth. It was not 
 really the calculation of lower rates, better management, and 
 improved facilities of transport that explains why the Swiss have 
 undertaken the management of their highroads, though this 
 calculation may figure as the direct efficient cause. The public 
 ownership and working of the effective highroads of a nation 
 are in point of fact an essential of the economic and the political 
 liberty of every modern nation. In the long run, no people can 
 afford to leave in the control of private profit-seeking com- 
 panies that mobility which plays an ever larger part in the 
 freedom of civilised men. To allow a private association of 
 business men to determine whether, when, how, and upon 
 what pecuniary and other conditions, persons, goods, and news 
 shall be conveyed from one place to another, is seen to involve 
 a real infringement upon the liberties of the individual. 
 
ii2 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 Now, in a country where the citizens remain "subjects," it 
 is possible that this denial of effective personal liberty may con- 
 tinue long. But where the people is sovereign, they are bound 
 to assert their sovereignty in the overthrow of such a tyranny. 
 The railroad industry is one in which the maintenance of full, 
 free, continuous, and effective competition is impossible, and, 
 in so far as it is practised, it involves grave waste, injury, and 
 insecurity to the travelling and shipping public. 
 
 Hence, whether on the ground of tyrannous monopoly or of 
 injurious competition, the resumption by the public of the public 
 highways is an inevitable incident in the development of demo- 
 cratic policy. 
 
 Though certain Swiss statesmen fully realised the wider 
 bearing of the movement, it wrought in the main subconsciously. 
 But in our interpretation of Swiss democracy, we must take due 
 account of subconscious as well as of conscious motives. It is 
 therefore right to recognise, behind and co-operating with the 
 business opportunism which figures so prominently in the policy 
 of nationalisation, the drive of deeper democratic forces. The 
 achievement, indeed, has already altered the mental attitude 
 of the ordinary citizen in regarding the process. Few even 
 among those who committed themselves ten years ago with 
 reluctance and distrust to this new large programme of state 
 work would now go back on it, even though the business pros- 
 pect was more dubious than appears to be the case. "No!" 
 they would say, "this is state business, and if the government 
 has not yet discovered how to do its business properly it must 
 learn, and we must put up with its mistakes while it is doing 
 so." 
 
 Such is the just attitude of a people, not plunging into large 
 public experiments, as the result of sudden revolutionary agita- 
 tion, but inured to the practice of self-government and assuming 
 willingly, but not eagerly, new public functions imposed upon 
 them by the changing conditions of modern life. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE NATIONALISATION OF THE ALCOHOL TRADE 
 
 A test issue of democracy is the public treatment of the drink 
 traffic. During the last generation Switzerland has grappled 
 with this issue more resolutely than any other state. She has 
 learned the lesson which other nations are now beginning seri- 
 ously to ponder, that unless the state controls the liquor trade, 
 the liquor trade will control the state. For the economics of 
 the drink trade place it in a unique position. Engaged in 
 supplying one of the most exigent and wide-spread tastes of 
 the masses of the people, it has come under the conditions of 
 la grande Industrie, with peculiar advantages for the establish- 
 ment of a monopoly and the earning of abnormally high profits. 
 For while the more economical production and distribution of 
 alcoholic liquors, especially of beer and spirits, involves a great 
 outlay of capital and a large organisation of business, the 
 restrictions put almost everywhere upon the retail sale of 
 liquors enables prices to consumers to be maintained at a 
 higher level than free competition would assign. Hence the 
 tendency in most countries for the brewing and distilling trades 
 to pass into the hands of a few great companies restricting 
 competition and imposing prices on the retail trade, and through 
 the retail trade upon consumers, which yield enormous profits 
 on their business capital. Everywhere these profits serve, not 
 merely to sustain a group of plutocrats, but to influence and, 
 where necessary, to corrupt legislation and the administration 
 of laws concerned with the regulation of the trade and the 
 maintenance of public order. Drunkenness and the various 
 
 "3 
 
ii 4 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 vices fed by the abuse of alcohol are everywhere treated more 
 or less as protegees of the liquor trade, whose economic and 
 political influence is always cast against the rigorous enforce- 
 ment of laws directed against them. 
 
 Switzerland was no exception to this rule: the drink habit 
 held great and growing sway among various classes of the pop- 
 ulation, and in particular the increased sale of spirits had 
 become a grave menace to public health and order. A powerful 
 interest had grown up, consisting of distilleries which were 
 getting an ever stronger hold upon the purses of the workmen 
 in the industrial towns. The special drink problem, however, 
 in Switzerland has not been so much any growth in drunken- 
 ness as in the wider spread of the use of alcohol, especially of 
 cheap spirits, among all classes of the working population. 
 Formerly, when agriculture was the main occupation of the 
 country and there was little trade, milk and cafe* au lait were 
 the almost universal drinks. But when in recent years larger 
 and larger numbers had gone into town industries, while cattle 
 was kept more and more for the export trade in cheese and 
 other dairy produce, milk became relatively scarce, and the 
 entire standard of food changed, leading to a great increase 
 in the consumption of spirits. 
 
 This habit spread the more quickly because, though every 
 canton has full control over retail licenses, two thirds of them 
 exhibited no disposition to restrict the number of taverns, and 
 the right to sell liquor was usually granted to any one who 
 submitted to certain formalities and paid a low customary 
 fee. Though such licenses were nominally granted for a year, 
 the habit of renewal became absolute, except when definite 
 charges of contravention of the law were proved against the 
 saloon-keeper. 
 
 A preliminary note underlying the Swiss treatment of the 
 drink question is the clear distinction made between spirits 
 and the milder forms of alcoholic liquors. They have begun 
 
NATIONALISATION OF ALCOHOL TRADE 115 
 
 with the hypothesis that the use of alcoholic drink in some form 
 cannot or ought not be stamped out by law, and that the policy 
 of government should be directed to discriminating against 
 the more noxious kinds. 
 
 In order to control in the public interest the trade in spirits 
 the Swiss people have decided that the state must own it. 
 
 The idea of the public monopoly of spirituous liquors had 
 been simmering for some time in the minds of radical reformers 
 and philanthropists. A definite proposal to this end was set 
 before the International Congress of Hygiene and Demo- 
 graphy held at Geneva in 1882, while the reform held a place 
 in the Workman's Programme which Federal Councillor Schenk 
 in the same year placed before the Congress of Swiss Com- 
 munal Unions. 
 
 Official opinion, however, at that time was by no means ripe 
 for a definite acceptance of this method of attacking the ques- 
 tion. The draft proposal of the Federal Council, opening the 
 issue in 1884, was unwilling to commit the Council to favour- 
 ing such a scheme. It put forward three alternatives, " either 
 free competition among all the spirit manufacturers with tax- 
 ation in proportion to their respective outputs, or the granting 
 of concessions to a limited number of manufacturers, or finally 
 a federal monopoly, excluding all competition, thus securing 
 the possibility of placing a limitation upon domestic consump- 
 tion." "We regard this question, at present, as an open one." 
 
 The situation was not an easy one for the federal govern- 
 ment. It had not a free hand. The Constitution of 1848 
 assigned to the cantons the right to levy import duties at their 
 borders as well as the general regulation of their liquor traffic, 
 and although the revision of 1874 had put an end to these 
 cantonal duties after the year 1890, any immediate measure 
 of reform must take them into account. 
 
 The Federal Message of 1884 was not an extreme temperance 
 pronouncement. Its main object was to devise means of check- 
 
n6 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 ing the growth of the consumption of spirits, which, being 
 cheaper than wine, beer, or cider, had made great encroach- 
 ments in the standard of consumption both of the peasants and 
 the town labourers. These spirits were partly imported from 
 abroad, partly they were of home manufacture from materials 
 (potatoes, grain, etc.) largely imported. No effective handling 
 of the situation by co-operation of the cantons was feasible: 
 if the issue was to be dealt with effectively, both import duties 
 and excise must be vested in the federal government together 
 with the equally important control over the sale of this liquor 
 within the federal limits. 
 
 The substance of the proposal was a raising of the import 
 duty upon brandy, attended by a corresponding rise of excise 
 upon Swiss spirits, and accompanied by a lowering of duties 
 upon the relatively innocuous wines, beers, and cider, imported 
 or domestic. The message concluded with the proposal of a 
 new article to be embodied in the Constitution, giving the Con- 
 federation the right to legislate upon the distilling industry and 
 upon the sale of its product, both foreign and domestic, and 
 abolishing the rights at present exercised over these matters 
 by the cantons. 
 
 The taxes to be levied by the Confederation upon imported 
 and domestic spirits were, however, not to be retained by the 
 federal revenue, but to be divided among the cantons in pro- 
 portion to their population. 
 
 Thus a proposal to increase the federal power was baited 
 with a provision securing positive financial gains to the cantons, 
 which were to receive their share of the intended rise of taxes 
 upon alcohol, while effecting considerable saving in the ex- 
 penses of adminstering the cantonal octroi. 
 
 This federal amendment of the Constitution was accepted 
 by the people in 1885. Then ensued a great struggle of views 
 and interests, industrial, financial, and moral. The definite 
 proposal of a federal monopoly was formulated by M. Milliet, 
 
NATIONALISATION OF ALCOHOL TRADE 117 
 
 at that time employed in the bureau of statistics, and a com- 
 mission of the Federal Council, appointed to report upon the 
 whole matter, pronounced in favour of his scheme. The 
 Council approved a law based upon this report. Then 50,000 
 voters demanded a referendum on the law, which was, however, 
 approved by a very large majority, 267,122 voting for it, 138,496 
 against, on a poll of 62^%. Milliet as author of the law was 
 made head of the alcohol bureau. 
 
 Regarded both from the distinctively political standpoint 
 and as a social experiment this federal monopoly is extremely 
 interesting. 
 
 Its main provisions are these: The law assigns to the fed- 
 eral government the sole right to manufacture distilled liquor 
 and to distribute it in bulk. The government need not, how- 
 ever, undertake the manufacture itself, but may contract for 
 the supply from foreign or domestic distilleries, with the proviso 
 that not less than one fourth of the supply is of domestic pro- 
 duction. "Distillation from certain native fruits and roots is 
 exempted from the operation of the law and is free to any 
 one." 
 
 In the actual administration of this law the government 
 licenses a number of distilleries for domestic production, im- 
 porting the rest of the spirit directly from abroad. These 
 home tenders are distributed among about seventy distilleries, 
 the amounts allotted to each varying from about 150 to 1000 
 hectolitres. In the apportionment of tenders, distilleries 
 worked on a co-operative basis are supposed to have a prefer- 
 ence. No other distilleries are permitted to exist. 
 
 One of the necessary implications of the state monopoly was 
 the closing of a large number of small distilleries. It was made 
 a condition of continuation in the trade that a distillery should 
 have a producing capacity of not less than 150 hectolitres a 
 year : those below this limit were closed, their owners receiving 
 compensation. About 1200 establishments were closed at a 
 
n8 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 cost of 3,655,095 francs ($731,019). This sum seems ridicu- 
 lously small for such a purpose, to those who are accustomed 
 to the scale of ransom usually extorted from other states by 
 "vested interests" called upon to make sacrifices to the 
 public welfare. But the Swiss sovereign, as we have seen in 
 the treatment of the railroads, is not a sentimentalist. His 
 judgment was to the effect that the owners of the distilleries 
 who put their money into the business took all reasonable risks 
 in doing so, and that among these risks was the probability 
 of new public restrictions on the drink traffic. 
 
 The amount of compensation was measured on this basis. 
 The sum paid to a distiller was calculated to amount to the 
 depreciation his buildings, machinery, and other plant suffered 
 by its being no longer available for distilling. For good-will 
 or future profits he received nothing. 
 
 The distilleries whose continuance was needed for domestic 
 production were not taken over by the Government. They 
 were left in the possession of their owners, but were placed 
 under the closest system of supervision regarding the amount 
 of their output, the materials they employ and their methods 
 of accounts. The government, for instance, fixes the price 
 which the distilleries shall pay for potatoes at 4-50 francs per 
 100 kilos. If the distiller can buy them for less, that is his 
 profit; if he has to pay more the government reimburses him 
 one half of the excess. The distilleries are supposed to make 
 no profit on the process of distillation. The government pays 
 them cost price only for what they produce; the only profit 
 allowed them is in their by-products in residuary liquors and 
 stuffs for the feed of cattle. Government even takes cognizance 
 of the ill treatment of employees, although this is not, strictly 
 speaking, required by law. In one case, where a distiller 
 had cut wages down too far, the department said to him, "If 
 you do not treat your men better, when we give out our licenses 
 or authorisations next year you will not be among the number." 
 
NATIONALISATION OF ALCOHOL TRADE 119 
 
 The process of rectification of the liquor is in the hands of 
 government. The wholesale distribution is done by the gov- 
 ernment through three public depots, all sales of 150 litres or 
 more being conducted by their agents. The retail trade is 
 left in the hands of private sellers, and is subject as before to 
 cantonal regulation. The foreign spirit is bought by the gov- 
 ernment directly from dealers: the director, M. Milliet, lets 
 the merchants in Hamburg or elsewhere know how much he 
 wants and they tender. The article being one of ascertainable 
 value and open to daily quotations, the government are able 
 to make their bargains without difficulty. 
 
 Where spirit is required for use in the technical arts it is sold 
 at cost price (inclusive of duty where imported), and is not 
 subject to the addition (Monopolzuschlag) by which govern- 
 ment makes its profit out of the sales for drinking. 
 
 The price at which the rectified spirit is sold by government 
 is fixed by law within a maximum and minimum limit. At 
 the beginning the price was kept low in order to prevent the 
 dealers who had amassed large stocks in anticipation of restric- 
 tive legislation from securing the huge profits at which they 
 had aimed. But in 1888 it fixed a higher price, which remained 
 firm until 1900, when an alteration in the law required another 
 change of price. The price, though it had been kept high 
 enough to yield a large profit for distribution amongst the 
 cantons, is in itself low. The chief reason for this is the neces- 
 sity for gradually weaning the people from the spirit habit. 
 What the government does is to sell good spirits at a moderate 
 price, at the same time encouraging the preferential use of 
 wine and beer by a very low tariff on the latter drinks. 
 
 In conversation with M. Milliet I probed him closely as to 
 the success of his state monopoly. "It depends upon what 
 is meant by success,' ' was his reply. "So far as the sale of 
 spirits is concerned it has been distinctly successful; we have 
 put down the numerous small distilleries which sold bad, cheap 
 
120 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 spirits among the peasants; the quality of the spirits sold is 
 better, for the retailer seldom adulterates except with water; 
 and the total quantity sold has declined by forty per cent since 
 the establishment of the monopoly. 
 
 "But from the standpoint of the more rigorous temperance 
 folk it is a failure. For the declining use of spirits has been 
 more than compensated by a growth in the consumption of 
 wine, beer, and cider, so that in actual alcohol the amount 
 per head of the population is larger than before." 
 
 M. Milliet was not enthusiastic about the result, but as a 
 practical politician and reformer he considers that the policy 
 adopted was a sound one. The public opinion against spirits 
 was not strong enough for drastic methods; it was necessary 
 to fortify moral sentiment by appeals to the business interests 
 of an intensely practical people. Wine, beer, and cider are 
 important Swiss industries, and the remission of taxation 
 secured for these liquors at the passing of the law was probably 
 essential to obtain its acceptance. Moreover, cantonal gov- 
 ernment means more to the ordinary Swiss than federal gov- 
 ernment, and the regulation which divides the profits of the 
 federal spirit monopoly among the cantons in proportion to 
 their population helps much to conciliate the body of 
 citizens. 
 
 Each year a sum between five and seven million francs is 
 divided among the cantons, with the express provision that 
 one tenth of it shall be devoted to " combating alcoholism." 
 This provision sounds very interesting, seeming to present the 
 possibility of a vigorous educational policy against the use of 
 alcohol. But an investigation into the interpretation set by 
 the cantons upon "combating alcoholism" shows that the 
 great bulk of the money is expended upon charitable works 
 which are at best indirectly related to the drink question. The 
 following table of expenditure by canton Zurich for 1905 may 
 serve as an illustration: 
 
NATIONALISATION OF ALCOHOL TRADE 121 
 
 1. For drink hospitals, or the conveyance of 
 
 patients to them Fr. 10,460.00 $ 2,092.00 
 
 2. For forced-labour homes or houses of cor- 
 
 rection, or for conveyance to same 4,336.60 867.20 
 
 3. For insane asylums, or care of insane 8,802.00 1,760.40 
 
 4. For care of sick in general 1,414.00 282.20 
 
 5. For care of weak-minded or unprotected 
 
 children or juvenile criminals 10,908.00 2,180.60 
 
 6. For feeding, etc., of school-children and 
 
 for holiday-camps 15,367.00 3,073.40 
 
 7. For epileptic, deaf and dumb and blind 
 
 hospitals, or for conveyance to same 8,702.40 1,740.40 
 
 8. For improvement of people's food in general 6,772.00 1,354.40 
 
 9. For care of poor wayfarers 9,000.00 1,800.00 
 
 10. For assistance to released prisoners or un- 
 employed 3,319.00 663,80 
 
 Total Fr. 79,081.00 $ 15,816.20 
 
 On the most liberal computation it cannot be allowed that 
 more than about one quarter of this money is expended on 
 "combating alcohol," though no doubt a defence can be made 
 for regarding some of the other objects to which money is de- 
 voted as results of alcohol. Lucerne and Berne appear to be 
 the only other cantons devoting any considerable share of the 
 spirit money to charities directly related to abuse of drink, 
 nor does it anywhere appear that public lectures or other 
 educational propaganda against alcohol is provided by the 
 cantons thus pledged to "lalutte contre alcoholisme." When 
 we come to more backward cantons like Schwyz, Vaud, and 
 Ticino, it is quite evident that the sum is regarded as available 
 for any public charitable use, and that virtually no regard is 
 paid to the stipulation that required it to be applied in "com- 
 bating alcoholism." In these circumstances it is no wonder 
 that a demand is rising that the federal government shall 
 be empowered to exercise some supervision over the employ- 
 ment of this tithe. 
 
 The fuller efficacy of the federal monopoly requires the active 
 
122 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 co-operation of the cantonal or municipal governments in the 
 control of the retail sale of liquor. 
 
 But though a few of the cantons have made recent progress, 
 both in the restriction of numbers of saloons and in "high 
 license, " it cannot be said that the local governments have 
 gone very far. How difficult it is to deal with the local drink 
 habits may be illustrated from the reform licensing law of 
 Urban Bale in 1887, according to which retail trade was clas- 
 sified as follows: (1) the sale of wine and beer, (2) the sale of 
 spirits, (3) the sale of wine and beer by employers to workmen. 
 
 This "factory license" has now, I believe, disappeared, but for 
 a number of years it remained upon the statute book. Like the 
 federal law the cantonal law favours beer and wine at the expense 
 of spirits, imposing higher scales of license duty upon the latter. 
 
 The strictest and most elaborated licensing law is in the 
 canton of Zurich, where all forms of lodging-houses or places 
 of entertainment are graded and licensed, whether alcoholic 
 drinks are sold or not, and where careful detailed regulations 
 are imposed upon the hours of labour and other conditions of 
 employees, designed for the protection of labour and the secur- 
 ity of public order. Here the licenses for the sale of liquor 
 are closely graded, rising in the case of premises for the sale 
 of wine and beer from 16s. to £& ($4.00 to 40.00); for wine, 
 beer, and spirits from 14s. od. to £12 ($3.50 to 60.00); for 
 spirits alone from 8s. to £16 ($2.00 to 80.00). Here the policy 
 of the federal government in the distribution of profits is 
 imitated, for though all the proceeds of the duties go in the 
 first instance to the canton, a quarter of them is returned to 
 the parishes on a basis of population. 
 
 The town of Bale alone has imitated the federal govern- 
 ment in the establishment of a municipal monopoly of the retail 
 trade. The town, virtually forming a semi-canton, and thus 
 endowed with plenary legislative powers, passed a law in 1888 
 empowering the canton to take over the retail trade in spirits 
 
NATIONALISATION OF ALCOHOL TRADE 123 
 
 for quantities of less than forty litre. The canton is the direct 
 purchaser from the federal government and sells the spirits 
 to a limited number of retailers whose premises are licensed 
 and kept under close police supervision, the government re- 
 serving the right to cancel the license at any time at will and 
 without compensation. The number of the licenses was 
 twenty-five, and they are scattered at intervals over the canton. 
 The profits of the retailer are strictly limited, because the price 
 at which they buy, and that at which they sell, is determined 
 by the canton, and the official price list must be openly exposed 
 to the view of the customers. The effect of this monopoly 
 has been to improve the quality of the spirits sold, by placing 
 effective checks upon adulteration, and to reduce the aggregate 
 consumption both in relation to population and absolutely. 
 
 As in the federal experiment the diminution of sale of spirits 
 is attended by a rise in the sale of wine and beer. 
 
 If a similar policy of local regulation were generally adopted 
 the federal law would by this time have proved an even more 
 efficacious instrument for the work to which it was directed. 
 
 Meanwhile M. Milliet is entitled to congratulate himself 
 upon the checking of the perilous dram-drinking. In talking 
 with him one felt strongly the difference between a Swiss legis- 
 lator and official, compelled always to look closely to the actual 
 views and feelings of the people, and the bureaucrat of other 
 continental states. The hands of a reforming official in such 
 a state as Switzerland are less free. The state must not raise 
 the price of spirits too high or the people will resent it, and 
 care must be taken to supply cheap spirits for industrial uses, 
 even at the risk of some of this spirit being revivified for drink. 
 Liqueurs distilled from native fruits, berries, and roots must 
 be exempted from this law. Such sort of consideration had 
 to be exercised in order to get the people to accept a law so 
 revolutionary in its tendency as the Alcohol Monopoly Law. 
 
 But M. Milliet insisted that there were great advantages 
 
i2 4 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 derived from the referendum for the administration of such a 
 law. "The knowledge which the referendum provided, 
 that I had behind me the great majority of the people, gave 
 me the moral support and confidence without which I could not 
 have successfully administered so delicate a policy. It also 
 showed me exactly where the opposition lay and what interests 
 I must manage to conciliate." In tackling the drink habit 
 M. Milliet knows that it is idle to get through by "force ma- 
 jeure" a legislative policy in advance of public sentiment. 
 The people cannot be weaned at once from drink, but by a 
 judicious preference of less injurious drinks, like light wines 
 and beers, and by restrictions upon spirits, they can be educated 
 out of the more injurious tastes. Already dram-drinking has 
 become not respectable in Switzerland. The decline in wine 
 and beer may follow, though far more slowly, having deeper 
 roots both social and industrial in the national standard of 
 living. Meanwhile, though there is not less drinking, there 
 is less drunkenness, and other vices and diseases closely asso- 
 ciated with spirit-drinking are diminished. 
 
 The enemies of the alcohol monopoly, the small abstinence 
 party, and a few theoretic opponents of state control, sometimes 
 assert that the statistics of reduced consumption of spirits are 
 deceptive, in that they ignore secret stills, smuggling on the 
 German frontier, and the revivification of spirits sold for indus- 
 trial uses. M. Milliet, however, while admitting that some 
 illicit distilling may go on, denies that it has any magnitude; 
 revivication has been greatly reduced by recent improvements 
 in modes of methylating, while smuggling cannot be carried 
 on profitably from neighbouring states where higher duties 
 exist than in Switzerland. Of course, a good deal of success 
 of the anti-drink campaign depends on the co-operation of 
 the cantons. Here, too, the same compromise must be worked 
 between morality and business; the cantonal governments are 
 generally ready to raise their license duties, and have in most 
 
NATIONALISATION OF ALCOHOL TRADE 125 
 
 cases raised them considerably alike for spirits, wine, and beer. 
 But considerations of cantonal finance forbid them to go too 
 far or too fast in repression of the drink traffic. There are 
 also the local interests either of the brewers or wine-growers, 
 or in some cantons of potato-growers, to weigh. No "high 
 hand" of a benevolently despotic government is possible where 
 every enactment may, or in many cases must, be submitted to 
 a vote of the people. 
 
 To reformers who see in the drink trade a monster iniquity 
 and desire to " crush it," the experience of Swiss democracy 
 may appear somewhat disheartening. There is very little 
 "heroism" and much calculating compromise in their method. 
 But a clear recognition and enforcement of the fact that pro- 
 gress cannot go faster than popular feeling and intelligence per- 
 mit are a mighty impetus to popular education, and each step 
 thus won by the direct consent and co-operation of the people 
 is worth much more than advanced legislation imposed upon 
 a reluctant or an indifferent people, and therefore ill- adminis- 
 tered. Although no proposals of prohibition for spirits in 
 general have any present prospects of success in Switzerland, 
 a special campaign directed against absinthe, which of late 
 years has made an insidious advance in Neufchatel, Vaud, and 
 other cantons bordering on France, is making notable progress. 
 Recently the citizens of canton Vaud accepted by a consider- 
 able majority a law for the prohibition of the sale of absinthe, 
 and a similar law drafted for the Federal Assembly has a good 
 chance of acceptance. Here is a new victory for morals and 
 good order, though it is a significant commentary upon Swiss 
 politics that the wine-growing industry in Vaud bore an im- 
 portant part in organizing the attack on absinthe, a rival 
 drink. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 
 
 The supreme test of democratic institutions in the future will 
 be their aptness for the task of displacing the tyranny of private 
 industrial monopoly and the anarchy of industrial warfare by 
 an industrial commonwealth which shall own and administer 
 by public employees all the industries producing goods and 
 services the sufficient and secure supply of which is necessary 
 to the health and fundamental well-being of all the citizens. 
 Exactly how much municipal and state socialism the applica- 
 tion of this principle involves it is not essential to discuss; to all 
 clear-sighted students of recent politics it seems evident that 
 the energies of twentieth-century democracy will be mainly 
 absorbed in this reconstructive work, unless some malign 
 destiny should compel the nations of advanced civilisation to 
 spend their strength, as Mr. Charles Pearson suggests, in ward- 
 ing off the huge incursions of new barbarian races pouring from 
 Asia or from Africa, armed with scientific weapons of precision 
 and threatening the existence of Western democracy. 
 
 Preparatory to the fuller constructive work which belongs to 
 this century, and towards which, as we have seen, Switzerland 
 has made already a promising beginning, stands that work of 
 social amelioration which plays so conspicuous a part in the 
 politics of the last two decades. Partly due to the improved 
 means of ventilating grievances and voicing concrete needs 
 afforded by increased participation of the people in government, 
 partly from a desire of the governing classes to divert revolu- 
 tionary forces, so as to avoid inconveniently grave organic 
 remedies, modern statesmen have been driven to devote more 
 
 126 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 127 
 
 attention to working-class legislation than heretofore. The 
 dominant note of this wish has been not social reconstruction 
 but humanitarianism. The child, the aged person, the sick, 
 the injured, the unemployed, the weaker members of the poorer 
 classes, have been the objects of growing public solicitude: 
 legal provisions have been made protecting and assisting them 
 in the various emergencies of work and life against which they 
 cannot, or do not, make adequate provision, as individuals, 
 or as members of a family. Factory and other industrial legis- 
 lation regulating conditions of labour, and based on the assump- 
 tion that children, women, and, in some cases, men, are inca- 
 pable of adequate protection through labour contracts; insurance 
 and compensation in case of accident or sickness, or injury to 
 house or tools or cattle, assistance to unemployed workers, 
 pensions for the old, schooling and sometimes feeding for the 
 young, public baths, libraries and other supports designed 
 primarily for the help and information of the workers — all 
 this and much more falls under this humanitarian category. 
 It is true that other motives, for instance, public health, political 
 safety, industrial efficiency, have co-operated in this legislation, 
 but the distinctive character has been the recognition that the 
 state shall alleviate certain evils inherent in the working of the 
 present system, instead of seeking to effect organic changes in 
 that system. 
 
 Such being in the main the work to which modern govern- 
 ments, democratic or even oligarchic in structure, have set 
 themselves, it behooves us to ask how far does Switzerland sat- 
 isfy this "progressive" test? 
 
 The general answer is plain. She has gone as far or further 
 than any other civilised state in these various forms of allevia- 
 tive government. Her record in the development of industrial 
 legislation, in the stricter sense of that term, is indeed remark- 
 able. Its progress and the method of its achievement by the 
 federal instrument deserve particular attention. 
 
128 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 When early in the nineteenth century the factory system of 
 manufacture began to make some progress in East Switzerland, 
 the canton alone was competent to undertake the necessary 
 regulation. Zurich and Thurgau, where numerous spinning 
 mills existed, first took action in the year 1815. The chief 
 impulses, as in the beginnings of English factory legislation, 
 were in part humanitarian, in part educational. Children, 
 driven at an early age into the mill, where many were worked 
 on night shifts, were growing up with no sort of education. On 
 the motion of the Educational Council the canton of Zurich 
 passed an ordinance prohibiting the employment of children 
 less than ten years old in factories, and limiting the hours of 
 labour for older children to twelve or fourteen hours a day, 
 with prohibition of night work. Thurgau in the same year 
 passed an ordinance, not prohibiting child employment, but 
 fixing a maximum day of twelve to fourteen hours, and requir- 
 ing employers to see that children attended school. Some other 
 cantons slowly followed suit, generally forbidding night labour 
 for , children and placing restrictions upon hours of work 
 by day. 
 
 As time went on, the child age was raised, Zurich fixing it at 
 twelve years as early as 1832. A generation later, Aargau 
 raised this limit to thirteen, followed in this limitation by Rural 
 Bale and Glarus, while Urban Bale, in 1869, raised the exemp- 
 tion age up to fourteen. 
 
 But while much of this early legislation related to the employ- 
 ment of children, the regulation of hours of labour for other 
 workers was not neglected. As early as 1848, the Glarus 
 Landsgemeinde passed a law relating to work in spinning 
 mills, which limited hours of labour for all workers, fixing a 
 maximum of thirteen hours per day for day workers and eleven 
 hours for night workers, besides prohibiting the employment of 
 full-time school children in factory work. 
 
 It is worthy of note that in this revolutionary year so advanced 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 129 
 
 a step in the legal regulation of adult male labour was initiated 
 by a canton where "pure democracy" prevailed. 
 
 This early legislation was the more remarkable because, as 
 the factory system spread, the more advanced and enlightened 
 cantons were hampered by the refusal of backward neighbours 
 to conform to their restrictive policy. 
 
 For many years progress was thus delayed in Zurich, Glarus, 
 and the other progressive cantons by the greed and obstinacy 
 of certain cantons which sought to play the "blackleg," and to 
 develop their factory system by a sweating policy, the very 
 problem which confronts the more advanced industrial states 
 of the American Union. 
 
 The method by which the difficulty was overcome is in- 
 structive. After informal approaches and reproaches on the 
 part of the advanced cantons, an era of experiments towards 
 the establishments of Intercantonal Concordats set in. Glarus 
 and Aargau seem to have taken the initiative, and to have made 
 definite proposals to the backward cantons for a common policy. 
 The matter was more than once carried as far as a formal 
 conference, attended by representatives of a dozen cantons, in 
 which the question of a maximum working-day for children, 
 for women, and even for men, was the main object of conten- 
 tion. As in other countries, the battle was first waged round 
 the cotton factory, which then represented the new industrial 
 system in its most advanced form. From 1855 to 1872 these 
 endeavours of voluntary agreement among the cantons were 
 pressed, sometimes almost to a successful issue; but always in 
 the end a refractory minority broke through the proposed 
 Concordat. 
 
 Meanwhile, the question of securing for the federal govern- 
 ment a competency to impose factory laws was agitated, taking 
 first the necessary shape of a constitutional amendment. Re- 
 jected when first presented to the people in 1872, the Federal 
 Amendment conferring on the Bund the new power of indus- 
 
i 3 o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 trial legislation received the sanction of the people in 1874, in 
 the following form : 
 
 "The federal government is empowered to establish uni- 
 form regulations dealing with the employment of children in 
 factories and with the hours of labour of grown persons in the 
 same. It is likewise authorised to pass ordinances for the 
 protection of workers against methods of conducting trade 
 which endanger the health and safety of the workers." 
 
 Gradually the necessity of effective factory regulation of a 
 general character had been gaining popular recognition. The 
 conservatism of the people, however, precluded them from 
 entrusting this function to the federal government, so long as 
 any reasonable chance remained of action through the cantonal 
 governments. But when the breakdown of the Concordat in 
 1872 attested the impracticability of this instrument, the people 
 had the wisdom to make this almost revolutionary change in 
 the Federal Constitution. 
 
 Democracy in Switzerland never acts in a hurry and therefore 
 seldom repents. An effective answer to the vulgar notion that, 
 if direct legislation is vested in the people, ill-considered and 
 ill- drafted laws will be rushed through, is furnished by the 
 proceedings which followed this constitutional amendment of 
 1874. 
 
 The preparatory work of putting into operation the new duty 
 imposed on the federal government was entrusted to the De- 
 partment of Railways and Commerce. Their first step was to 
 consult the governments of the several cantons, and through 
 them to obtain the opinions of the representatives of capital 
 and labour in the various districts. With the material thus 
 gathered, the department constructed a draft proposal, which 
 was then submitted to a commission of experts, and after 
 further change was published in the press and circulated in 
 "interested circles" for public discussion. 
 
 After a summer's interval, during which the draft measure 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 131 
 
 was subjected to the fullest criticism, the Commission of experts 
 again considered it in the light of the new facts and feelings 
 elicited, and after passing through the hands of the Federal 
 Council it was laid before the Federal Assembly in December, 
 1875, in the form of a Message. 
 
 This was the beginning of a further investigation. A Com- 
 mission of the National Council was appointed which set on 
 foot a separate inquiry into the factory conditions of the several 
 industries in the dozen cantons chiefly concerned, and with this 
 fresh information before them reconsidered in the sittings the 
 draft law. Their report to the National Council proposed 
 some minor amendments. Then came three reports of the 
 Commission appointed by the Council of States (Standerat), 
 one report containing unanimous suggestions, followed by a 
 majority and a minority report on matters of disagreement. 
 The chief point of disagreement related to the proposed power 
 to fix a normal working-day for adults. 
 
 When the draft law came up for discussion in the councils, 
 this point was the kernel of contention, the Council of States 
 only accepting this proposal in December, 1876, by a vote of 
 22 against 20. 
 
 In March, 1877, the draft law was finally accepted by the 
 councils, the Council of States voting 24 for, 13 against, the 
 National Council 90 for, 15 against. 
 
 This law was naturally challenged by an application for a 
 referendum, the initiative being signed by 54,844 voters. A 
 stout campaign of discussion ensued, and for six months 
 speeches, debates, and pamphlets dealing with the Factory Law 
 rained upon the electorate. 
 
 Here, as in the Legislature, the principal fight was over the 
 proposal to fix a normal working-day, though the whole prin- 
 ciple of state interference with private business enterprise was 
 challenged by the opponents of the law, which was denounced 
 as a first instalment of Socialism, an injury to Swiss industry, 
 
i 3 2 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 involving as a necessary consequence a general reduction of 
 wages. 
 
 Cantonal sentiment was also evoked against the increasing 
 dominion of the central government. The referendum vote 
 which took place in October, 1877, accepted the law by a small 
 majority upon a very large poll, the numbers being 181,204 for 
 170,857 against. 
 
 "The Liberals and Conservatives voted against it, the Rad- 
 icals and Catholics for it. In the cantons, Zurich, St. Gall, 
 Appenzell, and also in almost all the French cantons, the voting 
 showed a majority against the law, whilst in Neufchatel, Glarus, 
 Bale, Schaffhausen, Aargau, Thurgau, and Solothurm, as also 
 in Berne and in the rural cantons of German Switzerland, the 
 majority declared themselves in favour of the law." * 
 
 No sooner was the Factory Law, thus adopted by a small 
 majority, in force, than the policy it embodied was subjected 
 to the test of a severe trade depression, which showed itself in 
 the industrial cantons, exciting in many quarters a strong 
 opposition to the enforcement of the law. Petitions were 
 organised and presented to the Federal Council to secure powers 
 for a general remission of some of the more rigorous conditions 
 of the law. But the Federal Council stood firm: the voice of 
 the people had spoken, accepting the law which had been so 
 carefully matured, and they were not prepared to take part in 
 any attempt to reverse or even modify its character. The force 
 of the storm was at last broken by the action of the labour 
 unions, which entirely refused to endorse the assertion of the 
 opponents of the law that a fall of wages had occurred in con- 
 sequence of the legal reduction of hours of labour. The work- 
 ers stood firmly by the new law, although the change from time 
 to piece-wages, which took place in a number of industries, 
 caused them at first some alarm : the increase in the productivity 
 
 1 Die Arbeiter -schutz Gesetzgebung der Schweiz, von Dr. T. Landmann, 
 p. xxxvii. 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 133 
 
 of labour resulting from shortening of hours, together with an 
 appreciation of the value of the increased leisure, served to 
 allay any initial feeling of dissatisfaction arising from a slight 
 reduction in piece-wages. 
 
 The resentment of employers was slower to disappear, but 
 after the first outcry it gradually died down. By 1880 the 
 Factory Inspectorate was able to affirm that "there was not 
 much complaining about the restriction of the hours of labour"; 
 in the Report of 1881 we read, " Factory employers and workers 
 have in many places grown accustomed to the normal work-day, 
 and look back with no regret to the longer hours of labour," 
 whilst the Report of 1882 avers that "even the former opponents 
 are contented with the Normal Work-day, and one very seldom 
 hears any complaint about it." 
 
 The main provisions of this Factory Act were as follows : A 
 normal work-day of eleven hours was fixed for all industrial 
 establishments in which "a more or less considerable number 
 of work-people" were " occupied simultaneously and regularly 
 out of their dwellings and in a closed building"; * this work-day 
 to commence not earlier than 5 a.m. in June, July, and 
 August, 6 a.m. in other months, and to end not later than 
 8 p.m. In dangerous occupations the Federal Council has 
 further power to fix the hours. For night work and overtime 
 special permission has to be obtained. An hour's midday 
 interval is secured for all, and, where Sunday work is specially 
 allowed, alternate Sundays' rest must be given. 
 
 All night work and Sunday work is prohibited in the case of 
 women, and rigorous rules for "close time" at and before child- 
 birth are laid down. Fourteen is laid down as the minimum 
 age for employment of children. Young persons under eighteen 
 
 1 This defective definition of factory was amended, 1891, in a later resolution 
 to cover all establishments employing machinery and power, or carrying on 
 dangerous processes where five persons are employed, and all other establish- 
 ments where eleven or more are employed. 
 
134 
 
 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 may not be employed at nights or on Sundays, save in the 
 special case of industries requiring uninterrupted work. 
 
 Careful rules regarding the sanitation of factories are de- 
 vised: legal liability for compensation in cases of accident is 
 imposed on the employer, unless it can be proved that the 
 accident is due to unpreventable causes or to the negligence of 
 the victim. Other clauses relate to payment of wages in legal 
 tender at regular periods, fines and deductions, and the deter- 
 mination of the contract, etc. 
 
 Fines and, in case of repeated infractions, terms of imprison- 
 ment, are provided for breaches of the act. 
 
 In addition to this federal Factory Act, three other federal 
 enactments of a restrictive character deserve mention as in- 
 dicative of the trend of democratic government. 
 
 The first is the law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of 
 phosphorous matches, the history of which is in its way not less 
 significant than that of the wider measure just described. 
 
 Here the initial impulse was strictly humanitarian, consisting 
 in a resolution passed in the later seventies by the Medical 
 Surgical Society of Berne, calling the attention of the govern- 
 ment to the peril of Necrosis. As a result of action taken in 
 the Legislature, early in 1878, ofhcial inquiries were made into 
 the condition of the match industry by the Federal Council, 
 which, after long discussion in the legislative bodies, ended in 
 the passing of a law at the close of 1879, prohibiting the use of 
 " yellow " phosphorus. The result of this action was not, how- 
 ever, very satisfactory; the new phosphorus-free matches were 
 clumsy articles and were very unpopular; the trade, encouraged 
 by this circumstance, was very pressing for a law substituting 
 regulation for prohibition, and in a weak moment the govern- 
 ment gave way, passing in June, 1882, a law which virtually 
 annulled that passed a year and a half before. A revival of the 
 agitation upon humanitarian lines soon ensued, and the con- 
 dition of the trade was once more the subject of several ofhcial 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 135 
 
 inquiries. Reports were secured, once more condemning the 
 use of phosphorus, and in December, 1889, the National Council 
 had assented to a proposal for its prohibition, but the further 
 progress of the measure was postponed by the project for the 
 national monopoly of the match industry, which was vigorously 
 pressed until it was rejected by a referendum in September, 
 1895. Thereupon the prohibition issue was revived, and even- 
 tually, in March, 1899, a new law was passed embodying the 
 prohibition policy, and in July, 1900, it came in force with 
 respect to the manufacture of matches, in April, 1901, to the 
 purchase of the same. 
 
 Another natural and necessary extension of the protective 
 power of Federal Law was the restriction of hours of employ- 
 ment for railroad employees. The nucleus of this legislation is 
 found in a proviso of the Railroad Law of 1872, that every 
 railroad worker should have every third Sunday "free." This 
 concession led to a vigorous movement, first, for an increase in 
 the number of "free Sundays," afterwards to a demand for 
 legal restrictions upon the working-day in general. In 1882 
 the Federal Council adopted resolutions limiting the hours of 
 nominal employment (Prasenzdauer) of railway workers to 
 sixteen, the hours of actual labour to eleven, with further regu- 
 lations as to periods of rest and off-days. A law embodying 
 most of these proposals was passed in 1890. A good deal of 
 friction was encountered from the companies in the adminis- 
 tration of these laws, and the genuine control of the federal 
 government could not be regarded as effective until after the 
 acceptance of the Nationalisation Law in 1898. At the close 
 of 1899 a number of measures relating to the employment were 
 adopted, chief amongst which were the following: 
 
 (1) Reduction of the working-day to eleven hours, with a 
 further reduction in certain special cases. 
 
 (2) Provision of an hour's rest about the middle of the work- 
 ing-day. 
 
136 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 (3) Fifty-two rest-days for all sorts of employees, with an 
 additional eight consecutive days' holiday for the more respon- 
 sible orders of workers, the rest of the employees to have eight 
 consecutive days out of their fifty-two rest-days. 
 
 (4) A rest-day to include a previous or subsequent night so 
 as to give a continuous rest of not less than thirty- two hours. 
 
 The most developed application of the restrictive policy is 
 provided by the Federal Law of December, 1902, which limits 
 the actual working-day to eleven hours, out of a nominal work- 
 day of from twelve to fifteen hours, in the cases of various orders 
 of employees, forbids all night work for women, with a few 
 exceptions in the telegraph and waiting-rooms, etc., and limits 
 night work for men to fourteen days a month. The policy of 
 fifty-two rest-days per year, with eight days' continuous holiday, 
 is further extended and enforced. 
 
 The other important instance of federal legislation for the 
 protection of workers is the enforcement of employers' liability 
 for injuries. The nucleus of this legislation is found in the 
 Railroad Law of 1872, which gives the government power to 
 make regulations " respecting the obligations of the above- 
 mentioned transport companies in relation to compensation 
 for deaths and injuries which occur in construction and work- 
 ing." 
 
 After the adoption of the 1874 Constitution, giving the federal 
 government a general power of regulative legislation in the case 
 of factories, a loose and provisional law was passed in 1877 
 empowering judges to assess damages for injuries on a general 
 consideration of the circumstances of each case. After long 
 investigation and much debate this law was superseded by an 
 employer's Liability Act of 1881, influenced in its structure 
 partly by the recent German legislation of Bismarck, partly by 
 the English Act of 1881. 
 
 The general tenor of this act was to saddle the employers 
 with full responsibility, and liability for full compensation in all 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 137 
 
 cases except where contributory negligence on the part of the 
 victim or other workers, or " force majeure," could be estab- 
 lished, in which cases the employer's liability is either dimin- 
 ished or annulled. 
 
 The fuller application of this policy was delayed until 1887, 
 when another act was passed, extending Employer's Liability 
 for railroads and factories to the building trades, transport 
 industries in general, the laying down and repair of telephones 
 and telegraphs, the installation and removal of machinery, and 
 other technical apparatus, the making of railways, tunnels, 
 roads, bridges, waterworks, etc., mining and digging, the works 
 of public corporations, and works subsidiary to or connected 
 with factories but not within the factory premises. 
 
 Federal legislation on the labour contract follows tolerably 
 closely the main lines of German and English acts: voluntary 
 consent of employer and employed is recognised as the basis 
 of contract, the government confining itself to securing pub- 
 licity for the terms of contract and the fulfilment of the terms. 
 Certain limitations are, however, placed upon methods of pay- 
 ment, wages must be paid in money, at fixed times and places, 
 with restrictions upon fines and deductions; due notices must be 
 given for the termination of a contract, etc. 
 
 Such is the main course of the development of federal legis- 
 lation in control of industry. 
 
 It is important in considering it to bear in mind the division 
 between federal and cantonal authority laid down by Article 
 34 of the 1874 Constitution, which confined the legislative com- 
 petency of the federation to factories, leaving all other sorts of 
 works to the authority of the canton. Although, as we have 
 seen, a very wide interpretation of the term " factory" has been 
 secured, while the extension of federal management or control 
 over transport and other departments of industry has greatly 
 enlarged the practical power of industrial legislation thus pos- 
 sessed, it remains none the less true that the major part of 
 
138 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 industry lies under the control of the cantons. It is, therefore, 
 important to understand how far the federal policy is supple- 
 mented by corresponding legislation in the cantons. 
 
 Federal legislation may be said, partly to have led the way, 
 partly to have forced the hand of the cantonal governments. 
 The necessarily arbitrary distinction between factory and non- 
 factory labour within the same trade gave rise to much agita- 
 tion in the smaller workshops for cantonal laws, which should 
 put these workers on the same favourable footing as the factory 
 workers. 
 
 This movement in the main followed the same lines as the 
 factory legislation; viz., it aimed first and foremost at the pro- 
 tection of women and children, and the substance consisted 
 mainly of restrictions on the hours of labour. 
 
 The first canton to take action was Urban Bale, which passed 
 a law in 1884 regulating the labour of women: it was closely 
 followed by Rural Bale (1888), Glarus (1892), St. Gall (1893), 
 Zurich (1894), Lucerne (1895), Solothurm (1895), Neufchatel 
 (1901), and Aargau (1902), all of which passed special laws 
 restricting the work-time of women. 
 
 The general effect of these laws was to reduce the working- 
 day to eleven or ten hours for women, to prohibit, or greatly to 
 restrict, night work, to provide Sunday and other holidays, to 
 impose a midday rest of an hour, to restrain the employment of 
 young persons or children. Zurich, Bale, Glarus, and St. Gall 
 have throughout taken the lead in imposing the more drastic 
 regulations. 
 
 In Glarus, Vaud, and Obwalden, most of the regulations of 
 the acts are applicable to men as well as to women, and in 
 Obwalden the working-day for men as for women, in work- 
 shops and in shops, is restricted to eleven hours. 
 
 Other important measures supporting and amplifying this 
 policy exist. "The Licensing Laws of most cantons contain 
 regulations for the protection of the employees of inns and tav- 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 139 
 
 erns, the school legislation and the pedlars' acts were made 
 serviceable for the protection of children, the ancient Sunday 
 observance legislation took more and more the character of 
 laws for the ensurance of Sunday rest in the workshops. The 
 apprentice enactments, which originally were intended only as 
 laws for the furtherance of the handicrafts, gradually took on 
 regulations designed for the protection of the labour-power of 
 the young, as for example in canton Geneva, where a former 
 apprentice law was diverted to the purpose of protecting the 
 young." As the federation set the pace for the more advanced 
 cantons, so the movement proceeds by contagion among the 
 cantons. "The progressive steps taken in one canton soon 
 call for imitation in others, the number of the cantons that are 
 supplementing the federal legislation through their own laws 
 constantly increases, the aims are constantly enlarged and the 
 areas of this cantonal legislation grow wider, possibly paving 
 the way for a Federal Workshop Law in the same way that the 
 Cantonal Factory Laws paved the way for the Law of 1877." 
 
 This union of federal and cantonal industrial legislation has 
 not, however, yet covered the whole field of labour, and even in 
 those branches which have been subjected to legal restrictions 
 much remains to be done. "Agricultural occupations and 
 commercial offices are entirely unprotected. The retail trades 
 are only subject to a restricted measure of protection by means 
 of cantonal laws for women workers, and inns and drinkshops 
 are in the same position. Handicrafts in which men only are 
 employed are only subject to the Sunday rest law and, in four 
 cantons, to the apprentice legislation. Handicrafts in which 
 women workers are employed are included without exception 
 under legal protection in the cantons Zurich, Lucerne, Glarus, 
 Solothurm, Aargau, and Neufchatel, without regard to the num- 
 ber of work women employed; in the canton of St. Gall only 
 those businesses come under the women's protective laws which 
 employ more than two workers, in the canton Bale City only 
 
140 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 those with more than three employees, though both in Bale City 
 and St. Gall it holds good that businesses with less than three 
 workers come under the law, in cases where they employ a girl 
 of under eighteen years." 
 
 The division of labour between the federal and cantonal 
 governments with regard to legislation directly dealing with 
 conditions of labour is in some ways applicable to other legis- 
 lation affecting the interests of the workers, though, when we 
 come to matters intimately affecting the lives of the people, the 
 commune also plays an important part as an independent 
 legislative and administrative unit. Sickness, accidents, old 
 age, unemployment, burial, are the principal emergencies in 
 working-class life against which provision must be made. To 
 these in Switzerland may be added loss of cattle, tools or other 
 property, for a large proportion of the wage-earners are pos- 
 sessed of some such property. 
 
 Now, though in Switzerland as in other countries private 
 capitalism, or working-class co-operation, has organised many 
 insurance companies for dealing with some of these risks, while 
 private charitable institutions help to alleviate others, the state 
 in one or other of its areas plays a considerable part. 
 
 One of the most important tests of a modern state consists 
 in the realisation and fulfilment of its duty to tackle the problem 
 of unemployment, which, in the new industrial and social con- 
 ditions of modern life, assumes new grave aspects and forms a 
 permanent source of disorder in the body politic. The indi- 
 vidual worker, the family, the trade-union or friendly society, 
 are all in various ways able to make provision against loss of 
 work arising from individual misfortune or minor irregularities 
 of trade, but they have not been able to provide adequate relief 
 for the "unemployment," caused by large rapid changes in 
 methods of production, such as the introduction of labour- 
 saving machinery into large staple industries, or by the great 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 141 
 
 waves of industrial depression which from time to time affect 
 the general industry of whole nations. Slowly the public mind 
 in most countries is coming to accept the view that organised 
 society as a whole, that is the state, alone is strong enough to 
 grapple with the social waste and danger of this larger unem- 
 ployment. There is as yet no accepted policy, it is the age of 
 experiment. No country is so fruitful a field for these experi- 
 ments as the twenty-five little states of Switzerland. Each has 
 been free to apply its own methods, and they have been very 
 various. 
 
 The thin end of the wedge in the recognition of a public duty 
 towards the unemployed is the establishment of Labour Regis- 
 tries to bring employees in want of work, and employers in want 
 of workmen, into communication. Here the state merely 
 supplements the private agencies which do this work, the 
 ordinary registry offices or employment bureaus and the trade 
 unions. 
 
 Not very much is done along this line in Switzerland by 
 public authorities. There are, however, some half dozen 
 Public Employment Registries, supported in one instance, that 
 of Bale, by the canton, in other instances by the municipality, 
 as in Berne, Schaffhausen, Winterthur, and Zurich. All these, 
 and a few others which have lapsed, have been established since 
 1890. Two of them, those of Berne and Bale, may be consid- 
 ered distinct successes, judged by the number of applications 
 successfully entertained, Bale during recent years finding em- 
 ployment of some ten thousand applicants per annum or nine 
 tenths of the total number: the other experiments are smaller 
 and altogether weaker in results. 
 
 Dr. Reichesberg, analysing the figures for Bale, comes to the 
 conclusion that "they show that the persons who apply to the 
 Registry to find them places, and the persons whom employers 
 seek to engage through the Registry are principally men en- 
 gaged in season trades or unskilled workmen" — a conclusion 
 
i 4 2 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 in conformity with the experiences in other countries. The 
 building trades, domestic service, day labourers, carters, por- 
 ters, messengers, and gardeners, furnish a very large majority of 
 the applicants. 
 
 More novel and interesting are the Relief Stations and Trav- 
 ellers' Homes, which, following the lines of German experiment, 
 are endeavouring to assist those of the "unemployed " who are 
 moving about in search of work. Nearly two hundred of these 
 Relief Stations exist, "distributed in such a manner as not to 
 be too near nor yet too far from one another. Relief is only 
 afforded to those applicants who are provided with proofs of 
 identity, and can satisfy the management that they have had 
 some occupation in the previous three months. Only one meal 
 (dinner) or one night's shelter with food, can be granted to the 
 same applicant in the same half year, and stimulants are for- 
 bidden under penalties. Each shelter consists of two depart- 
 ments ; the first, in which the case of the applicant is considered 
 before admission, and the second, in which food and shelter are 
 provided for the applicant if admitted. The former of these 
 two departments is, if possible, associated with the nearest 
 police station in order to facilitate the verification of papers of 
 identity, etc., of the applicants." 
 
 Though relief is always free, a test of work of from two to 
 four hours is sometimes imposed. There are a number of 
 lodging-houses of a superior type, chiefly used by better class 
 working-men, which may be regarded as a part of the system- 
 atisation of travel in search of work. 
 
 The system is administered by private agencies, in connec- 
 tion with the Swiss Inter- Cantonal Relief Federation and the 
 Swiss Federation of Christian Travellers' Homes; but since a 
 considerable part of the expense is defrayed by the cantonal 
 governments, they may here be regarded as part of the state 
 machinery for dealing with unemployment. 
 
 Neither of the afore-mentioned methods can be considered as 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 143 
 
 other than auxiliary to the ordinary private system of employ- 
 ment. Of a different nature are the two Labour Colonies which 
 exist, the one at Tannershof for the canton of Berne, the other 
 at Herdern in canton Thurgau, for all parts of Switzerland. 
 
 Application to these colonies, the principal work of which is 
 agriculture, with building as supplementary, is made by men 
 who bind themselves to stay, for two months at Tannershof, 
 four weeks at Herdern. It cannot be said that either the scale 
 of the experiment or the conditions under which it is conducted 
 are such as to throw important light on the possibilities of the 
 Labour Colony as a remedy for unemployment. A consider- 
 able proportion of the inmates have been convicted of crimes, 
 many inmates are of weak health or infirm mind, and an average 
 stay of three months is hardly enough to test the educative 
 value of such treatment. A certain amount of curative and 
 elevating work, however, appears to be accomplished, and about 
 half the inmates seem to get situations when they leave. But 
 the character of these colonies is hardly such as to make them 
 suitable to furnish relief to bond fide workingmen whose lack of 
 work is due to trade causes or personal misfortune and not to 
 inefficiency. 
 
 Here, too, the administration is in private hands, the cantons 
 contributing a subsidy. 
 
 One other attempt to deal with unemployment by public 
 effort or public money requires mention, viz., Municipal Unem- 
 ployed Insurance. Berne and St. Gall furnish two different 
 experiments, Berne of a voluntary, St. Gall of a compulsory 
 scheme. According to the Berne scheme, established in 1893, 
 any Swiss citizen resident in that city, who has paid eight monthly 
 premiums and has been in employment for at least six months 
 of the year, can, if he is out of work during the three winter 
 months (December, January, and February), claim a daily 
 allowance, after a week's unemployment, which is continued 
 for a maximum period of ten weeks. Unemployment due to 
 
144 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 incapacity to work gives no claim. The Insurance Fund, to 
 which nearly six hundred men subscribed in 1 900-1, is admin- 
 istered by a sub-committee of the Municipal Labour Registry, 
 and is operated in close connection with that institution. 
 
 The most striking fact in the experiment is the very large 
 proportion of the subscribers who come upon the fund, over 
 sixty-three per cent in 1901. The great majority of the sub- 
 scribers belong to the building trades, most of them being 
 builders' labourers. 
 
 The fund was primarily intended to be self-supporting, but as 
 actually administered it exhibits a large deficit met out of 
 municipal and charitable funds. Even with this public as- 
 sistance the fund has stood on a very unstable basis. Dr. 
 Hoffman, writing in 1903 on Unemployed Insurance, says: 
 "Only upon one point has a practically unanimous opinion 
 been arrived at, that is, upon the entirely impracticable char- 
 acter of Voluntary Municipal Unemployed Insurance — an 
 opinion largely based upon the experience of the Berne 
 Fund." 
 
 A bolder experiment was conducted for two years by the 
 municipality of St. Gall, in the shape of an insurance scheme 
 compulsorily applicable to all male wage-earners earning an 
 average sum of less than four shillings a day, and not already 
 insured in a society furnishing unemployed pay equal in amount 
 to that provided by the Compulsory Insurance Scheme. This 
 scheme was embodied in a cantonal law providing, among other 
 conditions, that no one should receive unemployed pay unless 
 it was found impossible to offer him "work suitable to the trade 
 to which he belonged, or up to his strength, remunerated by 
 the wages current in the district." 
 
 St. Gall adopted a scale of premiums varying with the daily 
 earnings of the insured, and the Unemployed Pay was based on 
 the premiums. The Fund received a subsidy from the Muni- 
 cipality, and the scheme was placed under the administration 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 145 
 
 of a committee of nine members, two appointed by the Muni- 
 cipal Council, seven chosen from the insured workmen. The 
 grave difficulties of working such a scheme soon became ap- 
 parent. Numbers of persons failed to register; of those who 
 did register a largely excessive number registered in the lowest 
 class, thereby paying a premium quite incommensurate with the 
 rate of unemployed pay; many defaulted in the payment of 
 premiums. By the second year of the operation of the scheme 
 it became quite apparent that the benefits were almost exclu- 
 sively enjoyed by a small number of workmen, chiefly of the 
 building trade: no adequate attempt was made to verify the 
 fact of unemployment, or to inquire into the causes, and very 
 grave abuses undoubtedly occurred. The scheme became so 
 unpopular with the respectable working-men that it was aban- 
 doned after the end of the second year of trial. 
 
 Though it seems possible that a more carefully administered 
 scheme of compulsory insurance might be more successful, the 
 difficulty of enforcing regular payments from all sorts and 
 conditions of workers would probably prove insuperable. The 
 very industrial conditions which make such insurance impor- 
 tant preclude the regularity of contributions on the part of many 
 grades of workers. 
 
 The problem of providing for the old age of the workers by 
 pensions or by institutional homes has never come up as a 
 national question in Switzerland, as it has in Germany, France, 
 Great Britain, and other European countries. This is partly 
 attributable to the fact that large numbers of Swiss workers 
 retain some rights in the allmend of their commune or some 
 other guild claim which helps them to secure a support during 
 old age in their native village or town. In general it may be 
 said that the Swiss burgher can look to his commune for an 
 assistance in old age which involves no sense of personal degra- 
 dation, but is taken as a right of citizenship. 
 
 But in recent times the communal task has been largely 
 
i 4 6 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 supplemented by the cantons, an increasing number of which 
 are setting up cantonal institutions for the aged poor, part of 
 the funds for which are drawn from the public purse, part from 
 charitable donations. In some instances the communes con- 
 tribute towards a central institution. The cantons which 
 already possess these Old Age Homes are Zurich, the two 
 Bales, Geneva, Vaud, Thurgau, St. Gall, and Neufchatel. 
 
 The fullest and best provision is made in Geneva and in 
 Berne. The Asile des Vieillards in Geneva dates back to 
 1849, though it has been reconstituted a few years ago. The 
 minimum age of admission is sixty, and it is open not only to 
 born Genevese, but to other Swiss and even to foreigners who 
 have resided some time in Geneva. A small monthly payment 
 is taken (varying from forty to sixty francs) and a comfortable 
 and even dignified home is provided, with light work at choice 
 and a library of 2569 volumes. The Asile contained in 1899 
 thirty-nine men and fifty women. 
 
 Associated with it is an insurance scheme, also dating back 
 to 1849, by which a single premium at birth or a yearly premium 
 entitles at the age of sixty to a monthly pension of forty francs 
 as an alternative to admission within the Asile. At the end 
 of 1899 there were three hundred and twenty-five persons 
 insured, the majority living on their forty francs outside the 
 Asile. 
 
 The numbers may seem small, but Geneva is a very pros- 
 perous city, with a very small proportion of poor, and probably 
 this provision is ample. 
 
 Mr. Dawson gives a happy picture of the Asile or Old People's 
 Refuge in Berne. 1 ''Originally a private foundation, offering 
 to a few aged people of respectable antecedents a quiet home 
 for the evening of their life, it has come to be regarded more 
 and more as a sort of municipal almshouse, and on an enlarged 
 basis it is now wisely and successfully managed by the author- 
 
 1 Social Switzerland, by W. H. Dawson, Ch. XVI. 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 147 
 
 ities of the town. There are probably few happier spots in 
 Berne than the building in which nearly a hundred old men 
 and women, all over sixty years (which is the minimum age of 
 admission), mostly over seventy, and many well over eighty, are 
 housed, fed, and clothed, without care or anxiety upon their 
 part." 
 
 "Work is quite voluntary in the Old People's Refuge. But 
 though no one is compelled to do anything at all, every one is 
 glad enough to have employment of some kind. The men do 
 gardening in summer, wood-cutting in all seasons, with a little 
 carpentry in the workshops, while the women knit, sew, mend, 
 screen coffee, and take part in certain domestic and culinary 
 duties. For those who do not wish to work there are books, 
 magazines, newspapers, and games, with tobacco for the men, 
 and for the women those tea-pots for two, which stimulate 
 gossip in the known way. As for their meals, they are break- 
 fast at seven, a sip of wine at nine, dinner at twelve, coffee at 
 four, and supper (soup) at six." 
 
 Not a few other institutions of the kind are found in other 
 towns. So far as organised care of the aged is a test of civilisa- 
 tion, Switzerland will certainly rank among the first nations. 
 
 The proportion of aged poor to the population is certainly 
 much smaller than in Germany or Great Britain, and the hu- 
 mane comfortable provision is better than in these countries. 
 The undertaking of the duty by small areas of government 
 instead of by the national government is clearly advantageous. 
 The state in its smaller areas of commune and canton has long 
 assisted in the work of insuring its members against damages 
 to person and property. Long before the days of insurance 
 companies the guilds and corporations which undertook to 
 insure their members against sickness and losses by fire, water, 
 robbery, etc., were partly dependent upon contributions from 
 public funds. In the nineteenth century, most of this work 
 passed into the hands of private insurance companies largely 
 
i 4 8 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 organised with German capital and control. Berne, however, 
 which early in the century established a voluntary scheme of 
 cantonal insurance against fire, passed a law in 1880 making 
 such insurance compulsory. This example was followed by 
 some other cantons, the insurance policy being extended in 
 certain cases to cover live stock and other movables. 
 
 Though insurance against sickness and accidents was gen- 
 erally left to private business associations, or else to religious 
 societies, trade unions or other mutual aid companies, the idea 
 of state insurance gained ground, and with reference to these 
 larger injuries it was felt by many that the poorer cantons were 
 financially inadequate and that the federation should undertake 
 the business. 
 
 The movement once initiated ripened fast, and, since the 
 matter lay outside the domain of the existing Constitution, a 
 constitutional amendment was first required. After an almost 
 unanimous vote of the Assembly the following amendment was 
 submitted to the people in a referendum in 1890, and was 
 accepted by a very large majority. 1 "The Confederation will 
 by statute establish invalid and accident insurance, having 
 regard to already existing invalid funds. It may declare 
 participation to be obligatory upon all or upon special classes 
 of inhabitants." 
 
 Then a curious bit of history was enacted, exhibiting a certain 
 waywardness in the public mind, or perhaps an intelligible 
 change of attitude in passing from general principle to concrete 
 policy. 
 
 After the large vote on the constitutional amendment it 
 seemed certain that the law for federal insurance, the chief 
 promoter of which was Forrer, would be accepted. 
 
 It passed the Lower House with a single hostile vote, and 
 the Upper House was also almost unanimous. But during the 
 interval before the referendum a powerful and ably organised 
 
 1 283,228 for 92,200 against; only \\ cantons against. 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 149 
 
 opposition sprang up, outside the ranks of the party leaders. 
 Three prominent journalists, Micheli, Repond, and Augustine, 
 took the lead in rallying the opponents of the law and in edu- 
 cating the public mind against it. A paper was started called 
 Les Assurances Federates, gare du comite d' action contre la loi: 
 costly circulars and posters were showered all over the French 
 and Italian cantons: an expensive campaign, financed by the 
 insurance companies and by wealthy manufacturers, was put 
 in operation. So successful was this hostile propaganda that, 
 when the voting day came, the law was rejected. A number 
 of different causes contributed to this change of mind, some of 
 which are thus summarised by a competent political student : 
 
 " Furstenberger tells me how the insurance law was defeated. 
 The law combined too many propositions; accident insurance 
 and sick insurance, these were different questions. The law 
 called on employers, on employees, on the state — all for con- 
 tributions, but who was to pay the employers' contributions in 
 the case of day labourers (journaliers), who had no regular 
 employers? There were in French Switzerland many little 
 societies of mutual help for insurance against sickness or death. 
 Every possible concession was made to them ; they were allowed 
 to retain their own existence and their own power of assessing 
 their members; but they were required to place themselves 
 under the regulations of the law in regard to perfecting their 
 very imperfect system. This they were not willing to do. 
 They preferred their own bad system of private insurance to a 
 better system by the state. 
 
 " ' We wish to remain independent,' they said. The principal 
 cause apart from this was financial. The socialists were op- 
 posed to the law. Why, it is not easy to say. One reason was 
 that they demanded that the state should hand over its con- 
 tributions to the trades-unions but retain no supervision. They 
 wanted the trades-unions to be the instruments through which 
 the insurance was effected. Then, too, there was a theoretical 
 
150 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 objection to the assessment of the individual. The socialists 
 felt that the state should make the whole payment necessary. 
 The large employers were against the law; the French indi- 
 vidualists were against it, as they are against every law, i.e., for 
 collective action, — against the bank; against the railroads; 
 against the insurance." 
 
 Though this knockdown blow disposed of the proposal for a 
 time, it is believed that a law more carefully planned to con- 
 ciliate the opposing interests, and dividing the policy of public 
 insurance by giving the accident insurance to the federal, the 
 sick insurance to the cantonal government, will be accepted by 
 the people at no distant date. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL LEGISLATION 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Taking as our criterion the regulation of the time of labour, 
 and as our principal tests, the age limit for employment of 
 children, and the hours' limit of adults, we shall find that upon 
 the whole Switzerland ranks as the most advanced industrial 
 country in the world. 
 
 To the federal legislation which absolutely precludes em- 
 ployment of children below fourteen years of age in factories, 
 and apportions a section of the eleven-hour factory day to edu- 
 cation up to the age of sixteen, we must add the cantonal laws, 
 most of which fix a limit higher than that usual in other coun- 
 tries. 
 
 In nearly all the cantons high educational requirements place 
 important restrictions upon the employment of children and 
 young persons. The following is a list of the school attendance 
 regulations in the different cantons: 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 
 
 151 
 
 All-day 
 
 Partial 
 
 Instruction 
 
 Instruction 
 
 until 
 
 until 
 
 15 
 
 18 [19] 
 
 14 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 18 
 
 12 [13] 
 
 14 [16] 
 
 14 
 
 
 i5 [16] 
 
 
 16 [girls 15] 
 
 
 IS 
 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 i5 [14] 
 
 15 [17] 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 
 13 
 
 iS 
 
 14 [15] 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 15 [girls 14] 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 14 
 
 18 
 
 13 
 
 iS 
 
 13 
 
 iS 
 
 13 
 
 15 
 
 16 [15] 
 
 19 
 
 15 
 
 17 [19] 
 
 14 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 Aargau 
 
 Appenzell, A. R. . 
 Appenzell, I. R. . . 
 
 Bale, Rural 
 
 Bale, City 
 
 Berne 
 
 Freiburg 
 
 Geneva 
 
 Glarus 
 
 Graubiinden 
 
 Lucerne 
 
 Neufchatel 
 
 St. Gall 
 
 Schaffhausen 
 
 Schwyz 
 
 Solothurm 
 
 Ticino 
 
 Thurgau 
 
 Unterwalden, ob. 
 nid. 
 
 Uri 
 
 Vaud 
 
 Valais 
 
 Zug 
 
 Zurich 
 
 The bracketed numbers refer to weakly children or others 
 affected by special circumstances. 
 
 On the application of the second test, regulation of hours of 
 labour for adults, Switzerland also stands almost on a level with 
 France in the extension of legal restraints to male as well as to 
 female labour, and with Austria in her limitation of the factory 
 day, though the British laws, nominally applicable to women 
 only, carry in effect an even closer restriction upon men's hours 
 than are secured by Switzerland. 
 
 The following interesting table recently prepared by the 
 International Labour Association summarises the comparative 
 position of the chief European industrial nations: 
 
152 
 
 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 LEGAL REGULATION OF THE WORKING HOURS 
 
 
 Germany 
 
 Austria 
 
 France 
 
 Legal Limitation 
 
 
 
 
 of Daily Work- 
 
 
 
 
 ing Hours: 
 
 
 
 
 i. In Factories 
 
 11 hours; on Sat- 
 
 11 hours. 
 
 Between 11 and 12 
 
 (a) For Men 
 
 urdays and holi- 
 
 
 hours. 
 
 (b) For Women 
 
 days, 10 hours. 
 
 
 10 hours. 
 
 2. In Mines 
 
 For women , under- 
 
 10 hours. 
 
 Between 8 and 10 
 
 (a) For Men 
 
 ground work forbid- 
 
 In collieries, 9 
 
 hours. 
 
 (b) For Women 
 
 den; above ground, 
 
 hours; underground 
 
 Above ground, 10 
 
 
 as in factories. For 
 
 work forbidden ; 
 
 hours. 
 
 
 men in Prussia a 
 
 above ground, 6, 7, 
 
 
 
 maximum day, de- 
 
 10 hours. 
 
 
 
 pendent on sanitary 
 
 
 
 
 conditions. 
 
 
 
 3. In Handicrafts 
 
 In workshops with 
 
 
 10 hours when to- 
 
 (a) For Men 
 
 mechanical motor- 
 
 
 gether with women 
 
 (6) For Women 
 
 power having to do 
 
 
 and young persons. 
 
 
 with clothing, wash- 
 
 
 10 hours. 
 
 
 ing, and confection- 
 
 
 
 
 ery, as in factories; 
 
 
 
 
 otherwise, unregu- 
 
 
 
 
 lated. 
 
 
 
 4. In Commerce 
 
 Only regulated in 
 
 
 
 (a) For Men 
 
 open market-places, 
 
 
 
 (b) For Women 
 
 n£ to 12! hours. 
 
 
 
 5. In Transport 
 
 Seamen in ports, 
 
 
 Railway servants, 
 
 (a) For Men 
 
 to hours; in the 
 
 
 stokers and machin- 
 
 (b) For Women 
 
 tropics, 8 hours ; 
 
 
 ists, 10 hours; other 
 
 
 at sea, every other 
 
 
 employees, 12 hours. 
 
 
 watch. 
 
 
 
 6. In Public Houses 
 
 On duty, 16 hours. 
 
 
 
 (a) For Men 
 
 
 
 
 (b) For Women 
 
 
 
 
THE STATE FOR THE WORKERS 153 
 
 OF ADULT MALE AND FEMALE WORKERS 
 
 Great Britain 
 
 Italy 
 
 Netherlands 
 
 Switzerland 
 
 Textile factories, 
 
 12 hours. 
 
 11 hours. 
 
 11 hours. 
 
 10 hours; Saturdays, 
 
 
 
 
 5$ hours. Non-tex- 
 
 
 
 
 tile factories, io£ 
 
 
 
 
 hours; Saturdays, 7^ 
 
 
 
 
 hours. 
 
 
 
 
 Above ground, 10 
 
 Above ground, 12 
 
 
 
 hours. 
 
 hours. 
 
 
 
 Same as 1 (6). 
 
 
 
 In one canton, 11 
 hours; in two can- 
 tons, 10 hours; in six 
 cantons, 11 hours. 
 
 In one canton, 11 
 hours. 
 
 
 
 Railway servants, 
 
 11 hours. 
 
 
 
 16 hours in one day, 
 
 
 
 
 42 hours in 3 days, 
 
 
 
 
 168 hours in 14 
 
 
 
 
 days; work involving 
 
 
 
 
 special exertion, 10 
 
 
 
 
 hours. 
 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 INDUSTRIAL PEACE 
 
 The pacific character of Swiss democracy is illustrated in the 
 rapid recent adoption of Courts of Conciliation and of Arbi- 
 tration for trade disputes between employers and workers. 
 The willingness of the body of Swiss workers to enter such 
 courts, attested by the referendum in a number of cantons, as 
 well as by the fact that in several instances the proposal for 
 legal settlement of industrial disputes was initiated by trade 
 unions, is a remarkable testimony to the confidence of the 
 working classes in public justice. 
 
 The courts are entirely of modern origin and owe their 
 structure largely to imitation of French and German models. 
 The earliest cantons to experiment were Neufchatel and 
 Geneva, which naturally turned favourable eyes to the French 
 system of Conseils de Prudhommes. Geneva was the first to 
 adopt the system at the beginning of 1884, extending its scope 
 in 1 89 1 from manufactures and commerce to agriculture and 
 domestic service, and enlarging the body of the settlement so 
 as to secure that "disputes arising between masters and work- 
 men, employers and employees, employees and apprentices, 
 masters and domestic servants, in all that concerns the payment 
 of services, the execution of work and the control of appren- 
 ticeship shall be decided by the Tribunals of Prudhommes." 
 
 The employers and employed in each group of trades elect 
 their representatives, fifteen for each side, to form a Conseil. 
 The numbers choose by ballot a committee consisting of 
 
 154 
 
INDUSTRIAL PEACE 155 
 
 president, vice-president, secretary, and vice- Secretary, the 
 presidency and the other offices being held alternately by an 
 employer and a workman, with the further proviso that, when 
 the president or the secretary is an employer, the vice-officer 
 must be a workman, and vice-versa. 
 
 The work of the Conseil is divided as follows. First comes 
 the Conciliation Board, consisting of an employer and a work- 
 man, who preside by turns. This Board has summary powers 
 of decision in cases involving sums not exceeding 20 francs. 
 In case of disagreement between the members, or where suffi- 
 cient evidence for a summary judgment is lacking, the case is 
 referred to the second board, the Tribunal. 
 
 The Tribunal de Prudhommes consists of a president, three 
 employers, and three workmen, hears evidence and, where 
 necessary, summons experts, and gives final decisions in cases 
 not involving more than 500 francs. 
 
 Cases involving larger sums are carried to the third court, 
 the Chamber of Appeal, which consists of a president, five 
 employers, five workers, and a secretary (without a vote). 
 
 Finally, certain cases where competence of jurisdiction is 
 disputed are referred for decision to a mixed court composed 
 of two judges of the Court of Justice (nominated by this court) 
 and three Prudhommes chosen from among themselves by the 
 Chamber of Appeal. 
 
 The proceedings of the Tribunal and the Chamber of Appeal 
 are public, and careful rules are provided to secure that no 
 member of a court shall have any interest direct or indirect 
 that is prejudicial to the impartiality of his judgment in the 
 case he is called upon to try. 
 
 The Conseils have also other functions of a more general 
 order. They are summoned by the cantonal government to 
 deliberate upon questions affecting industry and commerce. 
 A special committee of Prudhommes determines questions 
 regarding the execution of contracts, and constitutes a sanitary 
 
156 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 authority regarding the conditions of trades. Finally a central 
 committee, consisting of two elected delegates, forms a reporting 
 and mediating committee between the Conseils de Prudhommes 
 and the Council of State and governmental departments, and 
 is also entrusted with general powers of investigation into 
 industrial conditions, hygienic, technical, and educational. 
 
 Such is the system in force in Geneva and Vaud. Two 
 other cantons, Neufchatel and Solothurm, which had adopted 
 the same method, exchanged it later on for what is commonly 
 known as the method of Arbitration Courts. 
 
 The distinctive feature of this method is the appointment of 
 the president of the Industrial Court from outside the trade 
 the disputes of which he has to arbitrate, thus securing a pre- 
 siding officer of guaranteed impartiality and usually of higher 
 experience and general competency. 
 
 The eight cantons applying this method may be divided 
 into two groups, according to the method of appointment of 
 the president. The so-called German group place the appoint- 
 ment in the hands of some governmental body; in Berne the 
 general body of members of the Industrial Courts elects; in 
 St. Gall the district Court, in Lucerne the High Court, in 
 Neufchatel the Great Council. In what is known as the Bale 
 Group, the president is appointed by law. In Bale itself he 
 is one of the presidents of a Civil Court, in Zurich a district 
 judge appointed from among his fellow judges; in Freiburg 
 and Solothurm a special official is provided by the law. 
 
 In other respects these Courts of Industry conform tolerably 
 closely to the general structure of the Conseils de Prudhommes. 
 A separate court is formed in each set of industries, an equal 
 number of employers and workers are chosen by their fellows 
 as judges or assessors, and out of these the actual court is con- 
 structed, the president having sometimes the right to nominate 
 his colleagues from the judges of the group concerned, as in 
 Bale, sometimes the body of the court consisting of the entire 
 
INDUSTRIAL PEACE 157 
 
 number of qualified judges chosen from the body of employers 
 and employed, as in Berne. 
 
 The detailed processes of conciliation and arbitration differ 
 considerably in the various cantons, but the general lines of 
 procedure are the same. For the arbitration of a dispute the 
 aggrieved party enters a suit, following in some cases, e.g., Bale 
 and Zurich, the ordinary civil procedure, in others conforming 
 to a special prescribed form. Cases of conciliation are not 
 taken in public, and the disputants must appear in person. 
 Arbitration Courts, however, are public. Here too, the rule 
 is that the parties must appear in person and conduct their 
 own case, though representation is permitted in certain in- 
 stances where sickness, military service, or other special cause, 
 intervenes, and a few cantons allow the employer to be rep- 
 resented by another official of his firm. As a rule, in case of 
 the non-appearance of either party, judgment goes by default, 
 though in a few cases opportunity is afforded for reopening 
 the case. Counter-charges are permissible, provided the matter 
 comes within the competence of the court, and in some cantons, 
 provided that the counter-charge has relation to the same set 
 of circumstances. The methods of testimony conform to the 
 ordinary usages of the civil courts, sittings are arranged so far 
 as possible to suit the convenience of the parties, the judgments 
 are given publicly by word of mouth or in writing, and are 
 enforcible by the ordinary processes of law. 
 
 In considering the extent to which this method of conciliation 
 and arbitration is applied, it must be remembered that in 
 several of the Cantonal Laws local option in the application of 
 the law is provided, and that only a few industrial towns have 
 yet come in. Further, the law is not compulsory upon all 
 trades, even where it is adopted ; only tolerably well organised 
 industries are fitted for effective application, and even when 
 the law gives compulsory and generally applicable powers, they 
 cannot be enforced in many small irregular industries. 
 
158 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 Perhaps Bale presents the largest systematisation of the 
 courts, and the following grouping indicates its operations: 
 Ten Courts of Arbitration deal with disputes in these groups 
 of trades: (i) Textiles. (2) Earth and building works. (3) 
 Woodwork. (4) Metals. (5) Foodstuffs and Liquors. (6) 
 Clothing trades. (7) Paper-making and polygraphic industry. 
 (8) Chemicals. (9) Transport. (10) Retail trade and other 
 callings (banks, insurance, employments connected with liter- 
 ature, art and science). 
 
 In some cantons the procedure is entirely or virtually gra- 
 tuitous, the costs being borne by the public; this is the case in 
 Geneva, Neufchatel, Vaud, Solothurm, Bale, and Freiburg. 
 In other cantons a single court fee, varying from 1 franc to 
 20 or 30, is imposed. 
 
 In several of the cantons, the application of the law depends 
 upon local option, so that only certain industrial towns make 
 use of it. As a rule both the Conseils and the Industrial Courts 
 have worked smoothly and given general satisfaction. More and 
 more of the industrial cantons are adopting these substitutes 
 for strikes and lock-outs, and several other German cantons 
 are contemplating the adoption of the scheme. 
 
 It is, however, right to recognise that the habits of class 
 antagonism in industry are not easily displaced, and grumbling 
 is sometimes heard respecting the partiality of the courts. 
 This generally takes the form of accusing the judges of leaning 
 to the workmen's side, and in Bale a good deal of ill feeling 
 against the courts has once or twice arisen in the ranks of the 
 employers. 
 
 In Zurich, where in 1889 Courts of Arbitration with a Board 
 of Conciliation were established by private arrangement between 
 employers and workers in half a dozen trades, the experiment 
 proved so unsatisfactory to the employers that in the second 
 year their associations withdrew and the experiment lapsed for 
 several years, being at last revived in 1899 by a cantonal decree. 
 
INDUSTRIAL PEACE 159 
 
 The following table gives a fair indication of the spread of 
 this method of industrial peace in many of the chief centres of 
 industry, with some account of the relative success of concilia- 
 tion and of arbitration. 
 
 The figures make it evident that a very large amount of minor 
 friction is saved by these courts. They also indicate that the 
 courts are far more often used as methods of redress for alleged 
 grievances by workers than by employers. This is perhaps at 
 present the weak point in the system, although it should be 
 borne in mind that the number of claims capable of pecuniary 
 assessment would naturally be far greater on the side of work- 
 men than of employers, most of the cases at issue being claims 
 for wages. 
 
i6o 
 
 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 P in 
 to £j 
 
 CO 
 
 < 
 
 2 
 
 II 
 
 1) 
 
 s 
 w 
 
 CO M 
 
 On CO On 00 
 
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 co vO 
 
 CM VO 
 
 v© I 
 
 VO NO O 
 VO 00 VO "* 
 CM lO 
 
 CI H ^ M 
 On LO 00 CM 
 M CM H 
 
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 N TtQO 
 
 f^ 
 
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 aoo h 
 
 LO 
 
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 CN W 
 
 
 vo *-* 
 
 CM *-■» 
 
 00 vo 
 
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 LO 
 
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 IN 
 M 
 
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 LO 
 
 O On 
 CO I 
 
 (N Ov 
 
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 r-i « 
 
 gu 
 
 55 
 
 W) N O 
 
 CM CN O 
 
 CO co Tf 
 
 Ov vo vo O 
 O 00 vo 
 
 W VO H 
 
 LO rj- 00 vo O Ov 
 00 00 vo Tf On H 
 
 "3- LO 
 
 O H CO 
 Tf ON 00 
 CN CO M 
 
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 CN) On 
 
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 M f^ VO Tf 00 
 t^. LO CN CO 00 
 
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 LO CO 
 CN1 LO 
 
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 w oo O pq 
 
 M 0* corftovO t>> 00 OvO 
 
 CM CO Tf LO vo t^ 00 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 
 
 In an early chapter we discussed the historical significance of 
 the commune, the Gemeinde, as the cell of the democratic 
 organism, showing the sources of its political and economic 
 strength. When this self-governing commune, retaining often 
 in the allmend or in the various quasi-public trusts large landed 
 endowments designed for the common good, has grown into a 
 large modern city, we should expect to find a great development 
 of municipal enterprise. Nor should we be disappointed. 
 Such cities as Zurich, Berne, Geneva, Bale, Schaffhausen, rank 
 to-day among the foremost cities of the world for the variety 
 and efficiency of their public services administered either directly 
 or through bodies elected by the people. Some glimpses have 
 already been afforded of the multifarious activities of these 
 large communes, in the control of the drink traffic, the assistance 
 of the poor, the unemployed, and other social weaklings, etc. 
 But no picture has been given of the general structure of the 
 civic life of such a town as Berne or Zurich. How have these 
 Swiss communities dealt with those important problems relating 
 to "public utilities" which have come up swiftly and silently 
 duj ing a single generation in every advanced industrial country ? 
 Although Switzerland is not a land of mushroom cities, 
 most of her towns have grown relatively fast and have during 
 the last thirty years emerged from an almost mediaeval sim- 
 plicity, as regards drainage, lighting, transit, and other public 
 arrangements, into the position of thoroughly equipped modern 
 communities. 
 
 161 
 
i6 2 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 As in other countries most of the initial work was left to 
 private business enterprise; capitalistic companies came, saying, 
 " We will give you water, we will light your streets and houses, 
 and carry you about the town," and they got profitable conces- 
 sions. Then came an era of gradual enlightenment : intelligent 
 citizens began to see that they had handed over to private 
 groups of profit-makers the power to tax them to an extravagant 
 extent for necessaries and conveniences which they might have 
 provided for themselves, and that they possessed no adequate 
 control either over the quality of these services or over the 
 conditions under which they were provided. In a word, the 
 Swiss citizen, like the citizen of Chicago or of Birmingham, 
 was brought up against the triple danger of private monopoly, 
 rates fixed without competition so as to yield the maximum 
 profit to investors, services determined in quantity and char- 
 acter not by public convenience but by "paying" capacity, 
 bodies of quasi-public employees whose wages, hours, and 
 other conditions of employment were liable to processes of 
 " sweating," which damaged the health and lowered the stand- 
 ard of life of a considerable section of the working classes. 
 
 Did the Swiss citizen fold his hands complacently as he 
 surveyed the situation and say, "Well, perhaps we made a 
 mistake in handing over so much power to private companies, 
 but after all they exhibited so much 'enterprise' in developing 
 these undertakings that they deserve for an illimitable future 
 all that they can get; if they press hard upon us we must bear 
 it, for they have grown so big and strong that we cannot depose 
 them; besides after all they understand the business and we do 
 not, so we had better keep on paying them what they ask and 
 taking from them what we can get; it is better worth our while 
 to do this than to undertake the peril of fighting them, and the 
 risk of entering upon new public functions for which we feel 
 ourselves unfitted?" Or did he break this fatalistic apathy 
 by periodic spasms of wild but impotent fury when the burden 
 
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 163 
 
 galled his shoulders, and rally groups of citizens, who distin- 
 guished themselves from the majority by calling themselves 
 "good," for some brief assault upon some single fortress of 
 monopoly which, captured for a while, slid back into the pos- 
 session of the enemy when the popular resentment died 
 down? 
 
 The recent record of Swiss municipal history, while exhibiting 
 no fully conscious or "theoretic" policy of municipalisation, 
 shows a plain logical development of civic democracy. The 
 early, difficult, speculative, experimental stages of a new in- 
 dustry, even when it is one that supplies a commodity in general 
 demand, is often wisely left to private enterprise; when it has 
 been set upon a safe stable footing, the experimental stage 
 passed, and the routine stage reached, the time has come for 
 the municipality to assume for itself the duty it had previously 
 delegated to others. There is nothing unreasonable in this. 
 The private company recoups itself by high, if uncertain, profits 
 during the period of its control, and commonly obtains ample 
 compensation for its dispossession; the municipality which 
 could not perhaps have exhibited the qualities of adventure 
 and resource which the hope of profit evoked during the era 
 of development is fully competent to conduct with economy 
 and efficiency a fairly settled business, and even to secure for 
 the public purse some share of the more modest profits that 
 belong to a routine industry which is not based on the com- 
 petitive economy, paying all employees the lowest wage they 
 can be hired for, and charging the public the highest rates they 
 can be forced to pay. 
 
 The Swiss citizen, in his democratic "cell," the commune, 
 has everywhere pushed steadily and successfully towards the 
 realisation of this municipal progressive policy. He has not 
 been a plunger; there are German cities, not a few, where 
 bureaucratic socialism has gone further. The Swiss has not 
 been an indiscriminate municipaliser, as in his state and his 
 
164 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 federal policy he has always stopped to ask " whether it will 
 pay"; he is not bent on realising some vision of a self-sufficing 
 city, but he is willing and anxious that his city shall take over 
 any enterprise which it can conduct cheaper, or better, or 
 more safely, than it has been conducted in private hands. 
 
 How general, persistent, and successful has been the pressure 
 of this tendency will be seen from the following short record 
 of municipal facts, which takes in order the chief towns. 
 
 Bale took over in 1868 the gas works, which, originally 
 built by the city in 1852, had been leased to a private firm. 
 In 1875 ^ to °k over tne water works from a private company. 
 The electric works erected by the town, and supplying not 
 only municipal wants but industrial power to private businesses, 
 were erected in 1899 and have been operated by the city. Bale 
 was the first city, in 1892, to undertake the building and working 
 of street railways, successfully opposing the claim of a private 
 company; in 1895 she converted them into an electric system, 
 the length of which now amounts to 23,913 metres. 
 
 Berne was the first Swiss city to take over, in 1861, the gas 
 supply; in 1878 she installed her municipal water supply and 
 in 1891 her electric supply. In 1900 she took over from the 
 company which had worked it for ten years the street railways 
 system which she has since electrified and enlarged to a length 
 of 11,188 m. 
 
 Biel has possessed her water and gas since 1880, and has 
 just erected electric supply works, arranging also to take over 
 an old horse tramway with the purpose of electrifying it. 
 
 Geneva has owned her water from the beginning, her gas 
 and electric works since 1896; though her street railways still 
 remain in the hands of a private company they are dependent 
 for "power" upon the municipal supply. 
 
 Lausanne is less advanced. Only in 1896 did she buy back 
 from a company her gas works, and though she owns her 
 electric supply she possesses only an interest in, not full control 
 
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 165 
 
 over, her electric street railways, though the water works are 
 now publicly owned and operated. 
 
 Lucerne is a well-developed municipality. In 1873 sne m " 
 stalled her water works, in 1894 acquired her gas works, in 
 1897 set up an electric supply, and built an electric street railway 
 system, which by 1899 reached 8527 m. 
 
 Schaffhausen acquired its water works from a company 
 1883-4, bought back its gas works in 1897, installed its electric 
 supply in 1896-8, and has established an electric street railway 
 system amounting in 1906 to 4135 m. 
 
 Thun has its water, gas, and electricity, Vevey its gas, 
 electricity, and street railways (its water, formerly owned in 
 common with seven other communes, was taken over in 1900). 
 
 St. Gall has its water since 1878, its gas bought back in 1886, 
 its electric supply in 1896, and 9292 m. of street railways. 
 
 Winterthur acquired its control of water in 1872, and bought 
 back from a company in the same year its gas; its street rail- 
 ways amounting to 2044 m. were built by the city and are 
 worked by it since 1898. 
 
 Zurich obtained control of water. 1866 (extended 1885); in 
 1886 acquired the gas works which since 1856 had been oper- 
 ated by a company, and set up an electric supply in 1890; her 
 street railways are municipalised to the extent of 25,174 m., 
 leaving about 12,000 m. still in the hands of private companies. 1 
 
 This steady drift towards increased municipal ownership 
 does not attest the influence of theoretic socialism. Each step 
 is taken on business calculations, and the spread of the move- 
 ment is a testimony to its general financial success. Since a 
 city is not, like a private company, under any obligation to 
 make a profit on any or all of its services, and may prefer in 
 some instances to sell a service to its citizens below cost price, 
 we cannot measure from the published accounts the full extent 
 
 1 This summary has reference for the most part to the municipal industries 
 in 1902. Since then municipalisation has made further conspicuous advances. 
 
166 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 of the benefits conferred, except by a comparison of profits 
 and prices too intricate for consideration here. 
 
 But the summary given in the Appendix to this chapter of 
 the chief public services in the most important cities, serves to 
 show that in nearly every instance civic ownership and manage- 
 ment does in fact secure a net profit, after paying the interest 
 on borrowed capital and in most cases a contribution towards 
 a sinking fund. In comparing such results with experience of 
 municipal or private enterprise in America or Great Britain, it 
 must be remembered that hardly one of these cities ranks in 
 population even with the second grade of industrial cities in 
 the two other countries. 
 
 This progress in the municipalisation of public services is 
 conspicuous in the large attention given to the establishment 
 of electrical supplies. It is here that in fact the Swiss muni- 
 cipal reformers have displayed more forethought than those 
 responsible for the similar movement in Great Britain. This, 
 no doubt, is due in part to the attention paid in Switzerland to 
 water power as the possible source of industrial as of other 
 energy in the future. Even now a few cities, such as Geneva 
 and Bale, depend chiefly or partly on water power for their 
 electric supplies. If the future enables electricians to solve 
 the grave problems of storage and distribution which at present 
 retard the full utilisation of water power as the generating 
 medium, the foresight exhibited by these cities will stand them 
 in good stead. In any event it becomes more and more evident 
 that the owners of the most effective supplies of electric energy, 
 however got, are likely to exercise a potent, perhaps a despotic, 
 control over the industrial future, and the comparatively ad- 
 vanced policy of these small Swiss municipalities in seizing 
 the reins of power is evidence of a high order of governmental 
 capacity. Nor is the capacity to be ascribed entirely or chiefly 
 to the skill and enlightenment of a few trained bureaucrats, as 
 is the case in certain German cities. For here the policy must 
 
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 167 
 
 be ascribed in the last resort to the will of the people who 
 have endorsed it. For though in certain of the French cantons 
 there is set up in the larger municipalities an intermediate 
 authority called the Conseil Generale or Conseil Communale, 
 which takes over from the body of the people that elects it 
 many important prerogatives of government, voting the annual 
 budget, supervising the administration of the public domain 
 and the various departments of government, the people even 
 here retains a large power of veto in addition to the electoral 
 rights. In the Germanic cantons, where most of the large and 
 developed municipalities stand, there exists no such barrier 
 between the naked will of the people and the administration. 
 There the final source of authority is the popular Assembly, 
 which elects the officials, votes the taxes, sanctions new enter- 
 prises, and supervises its administrative agents. The powers 
 thus exercised exceed in the aggregate those of an American 
 city, for local autonomy in one all important matter is larger. 
 No limitations are laid by the state upon the taxing power of 
 a city for improvements, and the only limitation on its spending 
 power is usually contained in some proviso that the existing 
 city property shall not be sold or mortgaged without the consent 
 of the cantonal government. 
 
 The large liberty thus enjoyed by a Swiss municipality has, 
 of course, led to a variety of experiments in municipal enter- 
 prise that lie outside the generally accepted limits of " public 
 services." Alike in the domains of education, public health, 
 assistance to the workers, and municipal art and recreation, 
 civic activities take forms unfamiliar to the ordinary American 
 city. Though perhaps there is little in the educational policy 
 even of such advanced cities as Zurich, Lausanne, and Geneva 
 that is altogether new, the Swiss cities have carried technical 
 education and training far beyond anything in America or 
 England. The country is now full of primary technical schools, 
 industrial special schools (Fachschulen), industrial continua- 
 
168 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 tion schools (Gewerbliche Fortbildungs-schulen), artizan schools 
 (Handwerker-schulen), and industrial schools of design (Zeich- 
 nungs-schulen). The Zurich Polytechnic stands at the head 
 of a number of similar institutions, communal in management, 
 where free instruction is given. Both the principles and the 
 practice of art, manufacture, handicraft, and commerce are 
 taught in a variety of carefully graded establishments, where 
 due attention is paid to local requirements, while professional 
 and domestic training are provided in a number of universities 
 and colleges. Industrial and Commercial Museums, well- 
 utilised for oral demonstrations, form an important and a 
 growing feature in the technical education of Swiss cities. 
 
 A hardly less important test of modern civic progress is 
 afforded by the increased hold municipal governments are 
 taking upon the Housing and Land questions, upon the solution 
 of which not merely the health but the liberty of a city so much 
 depends. Gradually in all civilised communities intelligent 
 citizens are coming more and more to recognise the danger of 
 leaving the building and the renting of the homes of the people 
 to unchecked private enterprise and "free" competition. 
 
 Within the last fifteen years many Swiss cities, recognising 
 the social evils arising from over-crowding and excessive rents, 
 have undertaken to provide or to assist in providing workmen's 
 houses. 
 
 Berne was the first to enter on this public policy in 1889, 
 employing her borrowing power to raise capital and construct 
 a number of small dwellings. She now possesses 134 small 
 houses with 182 apartments. Neufchatel has followed in her 
 wake, and since 1893 nas built and lets 61 apartments. Since 
 1897 Lausanne has been negotiating a similar project. Zurich 
 has for some time possessed a group of workmen's dwellings 
 and is planning a large extension of the system in various 
 quarters of the city. Bale is developing a similar project, 
 having acquired since 1895 a considerable quantity of land 
 
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 169 
 
 for the purpose. The city of Geneva, co-operating with the 
 canton, has secured borrowing powers in order to build or to 
 give subventions to building companies. 
 
 The movement is at present in its experimental stage, but 
 many of the municipalities possess or control large plots of 
 land within their borders or upon their outskirts, and the public 
 ownership of houses is assuming a prominent place in the 
 progressive programme. 
 
 Nor does this movement content itself with running up great 
 tenements in which the individuality of the home is lost. The 
 tenement system is almost everywhere abandoned, surviving 
 to-day only in Lausanne, Geneva, and Vevey. Everywhere 
 else it is the small house, the cottage home, which the munici- 
 pality aims to erect. 
 
 Communal democracy, though often irregular and always 
 incomplete in its working, is better represented to-day in Swiss 
 towns like Zurich, Bale, Geneva than in any other cities of the 
 civilised world. A child born in one of these cities and living 
 there throughout his life as a worker gets a greater and more 
 valuable number of supports from the organised self-help of 
 the municipality than anywhere else. 
 
 From infancy his physical as well as his intellectual welfare 
 is safeguarded in the school, where medical inspection and full 
 provision for physical defects are part of the educational system. 
 
 The discovery and training of special aptitudes, so as to open 
 up the best opportunities of work and livelihood, are recognised 
 as civic obligations. A network of technical and culture schools 
 are designed at once to improve the efficiency of the workman 
 and to develop his general intelligence. The quantity of 
 municipal employment under relatively good conditions of 
 employment is continually growing and affords an increasing 
 chance of stable and fairly remunerative employment. Against 
 the disorder and mishaps of industrial life under private em- 
 ployment, the public machinery of labour bureaus, insurance 
 
i 7 o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 and labour homes makes considerable if not adequate provision 
 for the poorer workman, while for the aged or the invalid a 
 comfortable public refuge without degradation is furnished, with 
 a free burial that carries none of the stigma of pauperism but 
 is a common civic right. The ample conception of public 
 education and enjoyment places good books, and lectures, 
 pictures, music and the drama, within the reach of every ordi- 
 nary citizen by means of municipal services which are rendered 
 free or cheap by public subsidies. 
 
MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 
 
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CHAPTER XH 
 
 THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT 
 
 There are those who hold as a self-evident proposition that 
 state activity paralyses individual initiative/ regardless of the 
 fact that everything depends upon the nature' of the state. 
 Where governmental power is exercised by an aristocracy, by a 
 bureaucratic caste, or any substantially non- representative body, 
 or even by a representative assembly unchecked and uninspired 
 by close contact with the feelings and the judgment of the 
 people, the state does in fact become a thing apart from the 
 people, a Providence or Destiny imposing upon the people 
 a will not consciously recognised as theirs. Wherever and 
 in so far as this real and conscious separation between the 
 state and the people exists, the growing power of the state 
 and the increase of its functions are an actual danger to the 
 free individual and co-operative life of the people, who, becom- 
 ing accustomed to a state that does things for them, lose the 
 capacity to do things for themselves. But when the people 
 is and feels itself to be the state, w T hen the part it plays in 
 governmental work is so constant, so various, and so impor- 
 tant as to maintain the consciousness of democracy, no such 
 antagonism between state and private activity exists: govern- 
 ment is simply that form of social self-expression which the 
 will of the community finds it most convenient to adopt for 
 certain purposes, other social work being left to looser forms 
 of voluntary co-operation. 
 
 The Swiss citizen is not less apt, but more apt for every sort 
 of private co-operative effort, because he is accustomed to 
 
 i74 
 
THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT 175 
 
 express his will on many matters through the commune, the 
 canton, and the Confederation. 
 
 As the machinery of the state has been more fully developed 
 upon democratic lines during recent years, private initiative 
 and the spirit of voluntary combination have thriven marvel- 
 lously. Perhaps the most instructive illustration of this spirit 
 is given in the spread of the consumers' co-operative societies 
 through the towns and villages of Switzerland. Some stray 
 seed of the early English co-operative movement of the forties 
 had found their way to Switzerland, but lay dormant for half 
 a century, the simpler conditions of Swiss life and the absence 
 of a large town proletariat being unfavourable to the growth. 
 With the increasing industrialisation of large sections of the 
 population, and improved communications between the towns 
 and villages, the organisation of the consumer has taken shape 
 in the establishment of co-operative stores that already play 
 a very important part in the life of the people, especially in 
 the German cantons. 
 
 The size and extraordinary recent rapidity of growth in 
 this species of co-operation may best be placed in evidence 
 by the following official record, dealing with those societies, 
 (comprising the great majority of the whole number), which 
 belong to the co-operative union (Verbunds-Verein). 
 
176 
 
 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 
 
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THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT 177 
 
 Previously confined to the towns and certain rural 
 districts of the German cantons stretching from the Lake 
 of Constance to the Lake of Geneva, during the last eight 
 years the movement has spread so rapidly into other parts of 
 Switzerland that now there is no single canton without its 
 Konsum-Verein or co-operative store. During these eight 
 years our table shows that the number of societies is 
 nearly trebled and the number of members nearly quadru- 
 pled, while turnover, profits, and dividend on purchases 
 have grown very fast, though naturally the growth of these 
 items is not so rapid as the movement spreads into the 
 poorer districts. 
 
 The position already achieved is one of great strength, for 
 if we compare the number of co-operative members, already 
 exceeding 140,000, with the total population of this little coun- 
 try, a little over three millions and a quarter, and remember 
 that each member represents a family, we shall come to the 
 conclusion that the co-operative movement already embraces 
 about one fifth of the nation. 
 
 In the few industrial cities of considerable size, especially 
 in Bale, Zurich, and Berne, the co-operative stores are a domi- 
 nant factor in local commerce. Bale, indeed, may dispute 
 with Oldham or Rochdale the claim to be the most co-operative 
 city in the world, for its societies possess no less than 27,000 
 members out of a total population of 116,000. Allowing for 
 the probability that four members out of five are heads of a 
 family, we may conclude that about nine tenths of the popula- 
 tion deals more or less with the co-operative stores. The 
 great pillar of the movement here as elsewhere is the grocery 
 store, sugar, coffee, cocoa, soap, and oil figuring amongst the 
 largest items of purchase. A considerable sale, however, of 
 cheap wines, tobacco, and coal takes place, while in Bale and 
 in one or two other large centres butchers' meat figures largely 
 in the local sales. Besides a large and admirably equipped 
 
178 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 central store for the preparation of meat there are no fewer 
 than twenty branches for the retail distribution of meat in 
 Bale. In clothing the stores chiefly confine themselves to 
 boots and shoes and to woollens, though a considerable variety 
 of other goods are also sold. 
 
 The co-operative union with its headquarters at Bale also 
 serves the purpose of a wholesale society, buying in the whole- 
 sale markets large quantities of staple goods, testing and grad- 
 ing them, and serving them out at cost price to meet the 
 demands of the retail stores or of their individual members. 
 The wholesale society, however, is far from being a mere 
 machine for distribution : in its capacity as the central organ of 
 the movement it performs extremely important educational, ad- 
 visory, and developmental work. Under a skilled and highly 
 trained economist, Dr. Hans Muller, it has undertaken these 
 organising and directing functions with a remarkable success. 
 Distribution in the eyes of the Swiss co-operators is to be taken 
 out of the region of profit-making business and to be treated 
 as a scientific problem, viz., how to supply individual consumers 
 with sound and well-made goods at prices which eliminate 
 distributors' profits and merely add to the cost of growing or 
 manufacture the minimum cost of the necessary processes 
 of distribution. Nowhere else, not in the cradle of co-opera- 
 tive Lancashire itself, has this central work of organisation 
 been so thoroughly planned and executed. In the well-equipped 
 chemical laboratory at Bale all sorts of foods are submitted 
 to scientific analysis, and the elaborately ordered show-room 
 is designed not to entice buyers, but to serve as a medium of 
 instruction to the salesmen of the local stores who visit it to 
 learn the nature of the goods they handle. The bookkeeping 
 and statistical departments not merely place the central office 
 in touch with all the branches, but contain a dossier of every 
 member of the local branches, while the library is a com- 
 pendium of the co-operative movement throughout the world, 
 
THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT 179 
 
 containing the permanent and current literature of co-operation 
 in every language. 
 
 The movement is almost entirely a consumers' movement. 
 The wholesale, unlike the English and Scotch wholesales, 
 makes no attempt to establish productive works even for such 
 routine articles as shoes or cloth. Although for a long time 
 past there have existed independent sporadic experiments in 
 productive co-operation, based on the principle of a group of 
 workers owning and managing a business for their own profit, 
 this branch of co-operation has never really thriven. At pres- 
 ent probably not more than a dozen productive co-operative 
 societies exist, and most of these do not fulfil the co-operative 
 ideal, since either they are dependent for the capital they use 
 upon outside business men to whom interest must be paid, 
 or else they are themselves little capitalist companies employ- 
 ing workers who are mere wage-earners and not full co-operators. 
 
 Though in earlier years the Swiss distributive co-operators 
 sometimes dallied with the so-called profit-sharing idea by 
 which the employee receives a portion of the gain of co-opera- 
 tion in addition to his wages, the successful and growing move- 
 ment of to-day is rigidly fixed upon what is known as the 
 " Rochdale plan," which eliminates the trader's profit by serv- 
 ing out commodities at "cost" price. There is, however, 
 one interesting difference between the Swiss and the British 
 method of interpreting this idea, a difference not of economic 
 principle, but of method. The prevailing idea in Great Brit- 
 ain is to sell goods to the co-operative member at ordinary 
 market prices, giving back to him in dividends on purchases 
 the portion of the price which represents trader's profit, and 
 which it is the object of co-operation to "save" for the benefit 
 of members. The test of a successful store is commonly taken 
 to consist of the amount of its half-yearly dividend, and the 
 belittlers of the co-operative movement represent its adherents 
 as mere "divi" hunters. Now the Swiss movement, though 
 
180 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 also concerned with dividends, is less exclusively attached to 
 them, and generally puts a maximum limit of some eight per 
 cent upon this payment. Part of the benefit is given in prices 
 listed below those prevailing in the outside retail market. 
 How much of the benefit shall take this shape varies with the 
 policy of the different societies, but as a rule bread, meat, 
 sugar, and other prime necessaries are sold at very little over 
 cost price, the " dividend" being got out of the sale of wine, 
 tobacco, and luxuries, which are sold at prices little, if any- 
 thing, below that of the outside retail trade. 
 
 In other words, the policy is primarily directed to secure 
 the cheap sale of wholesome articles of necessity or convenience 
 of life. 
 
 As in most countries this movement sprang up first in a 
 scattering of little stores among the towns and villages, buying 
 their goods in the ordinary wholesale markets. The co-oper- 
 ative wholesale is a recent development and has greatly strength- 
 ened the movement. The retail stores are in no wise "tied" 
 to the wholesale; the latter has to show them that it can sell 
 better or cheaper goods to get their custom. But in point 
 of fact each year shows the retail stores taking a larger pro- 
 portion of their goods from the wholesale. This is only natural, 
 seeing that the latter makes no profit on its sales, but sells 
 to the retail stores at cost, plus a small surplus which is put 
 aside to build up a heavy reserve fund, so as to enable the 
 wholesale to expand its business and to perform the educa- 
 tional and other propaganda work which falls within its recog- 
 nised functions. 
 
 One special feature of Swiss co-operation deserves mention, 
 viz., the growth of a number of rural societies for the purchase 
 of manures, machines, and other farming appliances which 
 are got through the wholesale. This work is especially adapted 
 to the needs of a people who, notwithstanding the recent in- 
 dustrial trend, remains in large degree a nation of peasants. 
 
THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT 181 
 
 The educational work of the movement is carried on partly 
 by lectures and conferences, but principally by means of a 
 powerful and ably-written press. There are four regular 
 publications of the movement, two of which, issued from 
 the central organisation at Bale, have great influence, one, the 
 Schweizerische Konsum Verein, circulating chiefly among the 
 store-keepers and committee-men in the various local centres, 
 the other, Genossenschaftliches Volksblatt, addressed to the 
 rank and file of the members, and having a circulation of 
 some 70,000 per week. 
 
 There can be no question that the co-operative movement 
 is not only doing valuable economic service to its many thou- 
 sands of members, but is helping to build up sympathy and 
 solidarity among the different races composing the Swiss 
 populations, and is thus feeding in a very practical way the 
 sense of national democracy. 
 
 Hitherto, like the English and unlike the Belgian co-opera- 
 tor, the Swiss have kept their movement outside party politics, 
 refusing in any way to identify co-operation with the socialistic 
 or labour organisations which are making their impress alike 
 upon municipal, cantonal, and federal politics. 
 
 But on certain political issues directly affecting the success 
 of their work they take a lively and determined action. Con- 
 cerned primarily with the interests of consumers, they neces- 
 sarily favour free trade or low tariff, especially with relation 
 to Germany and France, two nations upon which they are 
 dependent for a large proportion of their manufactured goods 
 and for the whole of their coal fuel. 
 
 Strong political activity has also been directed to obtain for 
 them a remission of the heavy taxation imposed upon them 
 as commercial undertakings, which in certain cantons is a 
 crushing burden on their stores. This claim for exemption 
 of taxation on the ground that they are not commercial com- 
 panies earning profits is of course bitterly contested by the 
 
182 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 associations of ordinary traders, and has not yet been suc- 
 cessfully established anywhere. 
 
 So likewise any special legislation affecting the price or limit- 
 ing the supply of foods brings the co-operators on to the field 
 of politics. In this capacity of defenders of cheap food they 
 have taken an energetic part in fighting the law for the in- 
 spection and restriction of imported meat which, under the 
 cloak of hygiene, the Swiss farming interests have been pro- 
 moting with the object of enhancing the price of domestic 
 cattle. 
 
 In the co-operative movement, as in other movements, the 
 Swiss intelligence is alive to the importance of internationalism, 
 and since 1897 nas sent i ts representatives to the National 
 Co-operative Congresses of other states. Its officers took an 
 active part in the International Co-operative Congress held 
 in 1905 at Buda Pesth, and a number of the stronger Swiss 
 societies have pledged themselves to contribute towards a 
 fund designed to secure a permanent basis for the international 
 organisation. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 SWISS SOCIALISM 
 
 The picture presented here of a real democracy, a people 
 deciding for themselves the important issues of their common 
 life, ascribing to themselves in their communes, their cantons, 
 their Confederation, the full ordering of those matters which 
 most naturally fall within these respective areas of activity, 
 working out by peaceful evolutionary methods, after mature 
 discussion and deliberation, those new governmental organs 
 and functions required for the changing conditions of modern 
 industrial civilisation, conjoining the maximum of effective 
 state co-operation with the minimum interference with indi- 
 vidual liberty, — such a picture may well seem "too good to 
 be true." And to some extent it is too good. There are two 
 classes of critical idealists in Switzerland who agree in certain 
 disparaging judgments upon the achievements and present 
 tendencies of political and social life in the Confederation. 
 Cultured academic reformers, in their moments of impatience 
 with the tardy compromising ways in which "the people" 
 walks, are apt to agree with the out-and-out socialists in re- 
 garding Switzerland as " a bourgeois democracy." Some notion 
 of what is meant by this phrase will have been conveyed to 
 readers who have followed the story of railroad nationalisation 
 or the alcohol monopoly. They will remember that in neither 
 instance could a single regard for principle or public welfare 
 be considered as the determinant motive for the measure. In 
 each case public intelligence and virtue have to be supported 
 by carefully devised appeals to local and industrial interests; 
 
 183 
 
184 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 the cantonal jealousy of the central government had to be 
 appeased by special concessions; and vested interests had to 
 receive careful consideration. In a word, the car of progress 
 could not be run along a smooth track of logic and justice, 
 but was forced to move slowly and with difficulty along the 
 somewhat crooked and jolting journey towards a legislative 
 goal over which "Compromise" was written in large letters. 
 Whether the question be of tariff or taxation, factory legisla- 
 tion or of banking and insurance, organised and industrial 
 interests exercise considerable "pull" upon processes of legis- 
 lation, though this is no evidence of the existence of the coarser 
 methods of corruption practised in many nations. Special 
 local and industrial interests sometimes co-operate, sometimes 
 cross, in the conflict of public opinion which eventually takes 
 shape in acts of government. French and German, Catholic 
 and Protestant, townsman and countryman, men of the moun- 
 tains and of the plains, exhibit manifold divergencies of feeling 
 and of interest which politicians have to manage. In such 
 processes a selection takes place which seems to give a dis- 
 proportionate power to certain types of Swiss. The results 
 of the referendums show that in general the Germans have 
 made both the direction and the pace of recent movements, 
 especially towards centralisation and the increased functions 
 of the Bund, the French cantons remaining more conservative 
 and more confined in thought and feeling within their several 
 cantons. In particular the Bernois is generally cited as a 
 domineering and persistent man, of strong practical and man- 
 aging capacity, who gets his way, and, using his local advan- 
 tage in possessing the seat of federal government, tends to 
 exploit the rest of Switzerland for Bernese purposes. This 
 language one hears everywhere in Switzerland, and though 
 the charges of Bernese exploitation are generally couched in 
 vague terms without explicit evidence of injury done to other 
 cantons, there can be no doubt that Bernese statesmen and 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 185 
 
 the public opinions of the Bernese people have played a rather 
 dominant part in federal affairs ever since the Federal Act of 
 1874. 
 
 When it is said that Switzerland is " a bourgeois democracy," 
 the energetic Bernese tradesman is taken as the typical politi- 
 cian, and his aims are commonly regarded as business aims, 
 to improve such public services as are beneficial to industry 
 and commerce regarded from the " undertaker's " point of 
 view, to keep down taxation, to practise economy, and to util- 
 ise a tariff and commercial treaties for the protection and en- 
 largement of Swiss industries. 
 
 But, especially from the standpoint of the socialist or labour 
 man, a wider significance must be given to " bourgeois" than 
 that which identifies him with the manufacturer or tradesmen 
 of the "burg." 
 
 7 Switzerland remains, as we have seen, in large measure a 
 peasant nation. Now the Swiss peasant is himself in his way 
 "petit bourgeois"; many of the small holders are men of 
 substance, having besides their private property a share in 
 the common property of their village, or at least some claim 
 to support which gives them an economic status very distinct 
 from that of the mere proletarian, the landless labourer who 
 must live exclusively by the continuous sale of his labour power. 
 Now the politics of the bourgeois farmer are simple and con- 
 sistent, viz., to obtain high prices and large demand for the 
 sorts of agricultural produce his land is capable of raising, and 
 to enhance the value of his land, so that, when he wishes to sell 
 and to become a little "rentier," he may do so with advantage. 
 /The peasant probably ranks as a more potent political factor 
 in Switzerland than in any other advanced country. In most 
 modern states the concentration of population in the towns, 
 and the superior political organisation of the industrial and 
 commercial interests of the towns, have enabled the latter to 
 exert a predominant control over politics even in countries 
 
186 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 where the rural population possesses a share of representation 
 in excess of what its numbers entitle it to possess. Now in 
 Switzerland, not merely is it the case that the drift of population 
 to the towns, though considerable, is less rapid than elsewhere, 
 but the capacity of the peasants to exercise an influence upon 
 politics has been very remarkable. Whereas the Swiss indus- 
 trial cities are very cosmopolitan,, and the flow of foreigners 
 renders political organisation somewhat difficult, the stability 
 and solidarity of the peasant class, inheriting traditions of 
 corporate action and strong persistent views of peasant policy, 
 have given them a great power in moulding policy. Here 
 again the referendum and " direct" democracy have contrib- 
 uted. It is no use for any group of astute politicians or busi- 
 ness men to "run through" some measure for the exclusive 
 advantage of the cities and their business interests: such a 
 measure has to go to the great rural population for endorse- 
 ment; here every vote counts, and every rural voter scrutinises 
 with a jealous eye any measure involving some expense or dis- 
 turbance of business in which it is not clear how he himself 
 " comes in." It is not enough that a proposal should be innocu- 
 ous; the peasants are commonly averse to innovation; a certain 
 leaven of positive conservatism, latent in their " philosophy of 
 life," has to be overcome. This is why almost every piece of 
 advanced central legislation is found to contain some protect- 
 ive or other financial sop for the farmer. Nor is it mere blind 
 individual instinct of self-interest that exerts this influence. 
 The organisation of the peasants is hardly less remarkable 
 than that of the co-operative consumers or the trade unions 
 in the developed town industries. The Farmers' Federation 
 (Schweizerischer Bauer- Verband) is an extremely well-organised 
 and powerful combination, with a policy the first plank in 
 which is agricultural protection, and exercising a voting power 
 estimated by competent judges to amount to 250,000 votes 
 on any issue of recognised importance. In several recent 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 187 
 
 political conflicts, where the interest of country versus town, 
 agricultural producer versus industrial consumer, has been in 
 question, the Farmers' Federation has won important victories. 
 The popular acceptance of the Tariff Law of 1902, giving 
 increased protection to Swiss agriculture, and the adoption of the 
 much-debated Food Inspection Bill of 1906, were primarily due 
 to the education and organisation of this powerful federation. 
 
 There can be no question but that the "business" man and 
 the peasant proprietor have hitherto been the principal deter- 
 minant forces in Swiss politics, and the careful and calculating 
 character even of their most " radical" measures attests the 
 importance of this influence. 
 
 How far will time and the growing industrialisation of Swit- 
 zerland overthrow or diminish this "bourgeois" predominance? 
 This interesting question is best approached by a consideration 
 of the character which the proletarian revolt of the working 
 classes under the title of "Socialism "has assumed in Switzerland. 
 
 The Grutli-Verein, to-day the chief socialistic organisation 
 in Switzerland, has a long and interesting history behind it. 
 It came into being in the late thirties, when the forces were 
 gathering in all mid- European countries towards the revolution 
 which culminated in 1848. Its origin and early purpose, 
 however, were not definitely political, but educational and social, 
 seeking "free mutual exchange of ideas, enlightenment, and 
 instruction in general, and especially in national affairs." Its 
 founders, chief amongst whom was Dr. Johann Niederer, a 
 clergyman and a friend of Pestalozzi, and Albert Galeer, a 
 Geneva professor and its first president, called themselves 
 Grutlianer, because in Niederer's words, "I foresee that from 
 this fraternal union of Swiss, without distinction of cantons, 
 some grand results may one day spring, as once our free Switzer- 
 land from the GrUtli." 1 
 
 1 The famous meeting place of the representatives of the Forest Cantons in 
 1307 was Rutli. 
 
188 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 After the war of the Sonderbund and the closer Federal 
 Constitution of 1848, the Grtitli-Verein, whose branches already 
 spread through the chief towns, began to drift more towards 
 political instruction and agitation, though still on an intellectual 
 rather than a closely practical level. In 1849 its new statutes 
 contained the statement, "The Griitli-Verein seeks in word and 
 deed to support the free-thought movement in the father- 
 land." 
 
 It ranked in the early fifties as a free radical organisation 
 with a definite bent towards "social" legislation in favour of 
 the poorer classes of workers, one of its earliest efforts being a 
 petition for a national grant of money to assist workingmen 
 travelling in search of employment. 
 
 The international labour movement of the second half of 
 the sixties, with its definitely socialistic teaching of Marx and 
 Engels, and its trumpet-call, "Proletarians of all nations unite!" 
 made, however, no great impression in Switzerland, which at 
 that time possessed no large "proletariat." The attitude of 
 the Griitli-Verein towards the famous "International" was one 
 of benevolent neutrality. It had not yet come to realise its 
 main function as being to fight capitalism by means of a state 
 democracy. To many of its members the emancipation of the 
 workers lay through non-political co-operation, and the Griitli- 
 Verein threw its energies into various projects of self-help. 
 Co-operative Stores at Zurich and elsewhere owed much to 
 its efforts, and cheap eating houses, savings banks, and sick 
 benefit societies were promoted by its branches. 
 
 In 1873 two new associations came into existence, one the 
 People's Association (Volksverein), aiming at a democratic 
 revision of the Federal Constitution, the other a Workers' 
 Federation (Arbeiterbund) whose object was defined as being 
 "the union of all labour societies in a federation with a view 
 to an agreement upon means for the improvement of the worker's 
 lot as a provisional measure, but ultimately for securing to them, 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 189 
 
 instead of wages, the full produce of their labour, by means of 
 productive associations, and thus for the abolition of all class- 
 domination." 
 
 The Grutli-Verein allied itself with both these movements 
 and took an active part in the demand for the revision of the 
 Federal Constitution in 1874. On socialism, in the shape of 
 the new German propaganda, the society was divided, as indeed 
 was every great radical organisation. But the socialistic faction 
 soon gained the upper hand, as was indicated by the almost 
 unanimous support given in 1874 to the proposal of a legal ten 
 hours' working day. From this time the trend of the move- 
 ment was steadily in the direction of social democracy. The 
 revision of its programme, in 1874, laid down as its definite 
 aims the development of political and social progress in Switzer- 
 land and "the promotion of the national consciousness on the 
 basis of free-thinking democracy." These general phrases, 
 however, found more distinct expression in 1878, when the 
 Grutli-Verein gave its adhesion to the Congress held at Lucerne 
 to the following "principles" of the "Social- Democratic 
 Programme." 
 
 " I. The social-democratic party in Switzerland works 
 for the maintenance and furtherance of the interests of 
 the working people in every relation. It recognises that 
 the liberation of the working classes must be achieved by the 
 workers themselves. 
 
 II. The struggle for the liberation of the working class is no 
 struggle for the predominance of a caste, but for equal rights 
 and equal duties and for the abolition of class supremacy. 
 
 III. The economic dependence of the worker on the capital- 
 ist forms the chief basis of class supremacy, and therefore the 
 social-democratic party aims at the supercession of the existing 
 productive system (wage system) by co-operative labour." 
 
 It will be observed that there is in this statement of "social 
 democracy" no allusion to state socialism or the use of political 
 
i 9 o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 machinery; its prophets still appear to have looked to private 
 methods of co-operative labour for the salvation of the 
 workers. 
 
 But this did not prevent them from lending powerful aid to 
 the new factory legislation which was being pressed upon the 
 federal government, and from offering a hearty support to 
 the working class demands for a ten-hour day, the prohibition 
 of the labour of children under fifteen years, and the limitation 
 of women's labour to eight hours. 
 
 From that time onward, both in federal and cantonal pol- 
 itics, the Griitli-Verein has worked steadily and persistently 
 for almost every one of the causes of democratic organisation 
 and state socialism which have come up for settlement. The 
 federal subvention of popular schools, the bank-note monopoly 
 and the federal bank, the popular initiative for partial revision 
 of the Constitution, the right to labour, the alcohol monopoly, 
 the match monopoly, the nationalisation of railroads, reformed 
 factory legislation, — on these and other issues the Grtitlianer 
 have voted and worked for social progress. 
 
 They have taken an active part in promoting the public 
 insurance policy, which still remains undecided, and in urging 
 the cause of international agreement on labour legislation. 
 
 In canton and commune the Griitli-Verein have cordially 
 co-operated with the other working class and democratic 
 organisations. 
 
 "Juster taxation laws relieving the economically weak and 
 placing the burden more upon the strong, the establishment of 
 people's schools, the extension of technical and domestic in- 
 struction, the gratuitous provision of school apparatus, free 
 burial, promotion of the care of public health, improvement of 
 housing, bank and loan reforms favourable to small peasants 
 and traders, public labour-information offices, statistical bu- 
 reaus, trade arbitration courts, cantonal labour legislation and 
 factory inspectorate — such are some of the wide circle of 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 191 
 
 cantonal and communal movements for which the Griitlianer 
 and their confederates have laboured with excellent results." * 
 
 While becoming more political in recent years the Griitli- 
 Verein has not relaxed its educational and social functions, and 
 still co-operates through its branches with the consumers' co- 
 operative societies and the other voluntary working class 
 movements. Lectures and libraries play a large part in its 
 life, and Zurich is the centre of its influential press. 
 
 The numbers of its members have varied in recent years 
 from about eight to sixteen thousand, but through its numerous 
 branches (278 in 1903) it exercises an influence far beyond that 
 indicated by its numbers. 
 
 The exact political status of the Griitli-Verem is difficult to 
 define, and perhaps is best described in the following passage 
 from its official report of 1900: 
 
 "By means of its extension to a large number of places which 
 are not closely touched by any organisation of a similar purpose, 
 and in regard to its general position, the Grutli-Verein is de- 
 signed to form the middle point of the social-democratic party. 
 The party itself it cannot and ought not to be; the situation is 
 already too far advanced for that, quite apart from the fact that 
 a union cannot properly represent a party which is a popular 
 movement. 
 
 But, everywhere, provided that they direct their Constitution 
 as well as their educative and formative activities in consonance 
 with modern needs, the Griitli sections can become the intellec- 
 tual centre of the social- democratic party of their place, and in 
 the small localities where, with this exception, no labour alliance 
 or only a weak one exists, likewise the organising centre. In 
 point of fact the Griitli sections already have in their hands the 
 political guidance of the social democracy in many places, just 
 as in central matters the general union has hitherto often taken 
 
 1 Leitfaden }ur die Secktionen und Mitglieder des Schweizer Griitli-Vereins 
 (Zurich, 1900), p. 33. 
 
i 9 2 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 the part of initiator and chief worker for the politics of Swiss 
 social democracy. In any case a social-democratic party, em- 
 bracing all the social-democratic elements in the country, which 
 in fact is wanted and ought to emerge in the early future, would 
 be unthinkable apart from the Grutli-Verein as chief support 
 of its organising basis." 
 
 During recent years the Verein has repeatedly worked in the 
 ranks of the so-called "extreme left," marching in its front and 
 uniting with its trusted leaders on the occasion of conferences 
 about concrete questions of the day. The name "extreme 
 left" indicates, as is stated in the 1898 Report, "No political 
 party, but only the occasional co-operation of the different 
 social democratic organisations and the East Swiss democracy, 
 i.e., that part of the democracy which does not adhere to the 
 governmental free-thought or radical-democratic party for 
 definite issues of federal policy. Nothing else was ever in- 
 tended, or indeed could be intended, by the common action 
 which manifests itself in occasional meetings of general com- 
 missions or selected persons in greater or less numbers. The 
 'extreme left' in the people corresponds approximately to the 
 'social political group' in Parliament, which also represents 
 no definite political party." 
 
 It would hardly be possible for a political organisation to 
 occupy this unattached position, and to do this work in any 
 other country than Switzerland. Where party machinery is 
 strongly formed, controls elections and moulds legislative policy, 
 such a body would in self-defence be driven either to enroll 
 itself with a radical or socialist party in Parliament, or to form 
 itself into such a party, as the independent labour party has 
 done in England. The "free" position of the Grutli-Verein as 
 a political force is explained, partly by the comparatively slight 
 importance attaching to parties in Swiss politics and the absence 
 of sharp divisions between the parties. But another considera- 
 tion arising directly from the nature of Swiss democracy is 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 193 
 
 more important. In America, or England, an organisation of 
 citizens, desirous to secure legislative and administrative changes, 
 when their policy assumes a practical shape, can only appeal 
 to party. In Switzerland there is no such necessity. For the 
 Griitli-Verein to convert the leaders or the rank and file of the 
 radical party to some definite project which they espoused 
 would not suffice to secure adoption; it could at most secure its 
 discussion and its embodiment in a legal draft. The people 
 would in any matter of debatable importance have to pronounce 
 upon it. In order, then, to effect a practical adoption of any 
 advanced measure, the Griitli-Verein must educate and organise 
 public opinion among the mass of citizens. No amount of 
 skill or success in wire-pulling at Berne could enable them to 
 dispense with this work of general propaganda. 
 
 This necessity of looking to the education of the people, 
 rather than to the manipulation of party machinery, vitally 
 affects the organisation and methods of every reform movement 
 in Switzerland. Whether the object be temperance legislation, 
 public insurance, severance of church from state, popular 
 initiative, direct election of executive, or any other measure 
 where two or more strongly formed opinions or interests are 
 involved, it is not enough for the supporters of a policy to 
 secure pledges from elected representatives, or the admission 
 of their proposal to a place upon a party platform, even if that 
 party commands a strong majority in the Assembly. The 
 majority of the voters in the country must be reached, a suc- 
 cessful movement must therefore above all else agitate and 
 educate, convince the understanding, and awaken enough 
 feeling to drive the requisite majority of electors to the poll 
 when this particular issue is submitted. 
 
 This explains why the socialism of Switzerland finds a less 
 definite expression in party organisation than in other European 
 countries. Where parliamentary institutions are dominant, the 
 main efforts of practical socialists are necessarily directed 
 
i 9 4 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 towards the candidature of their adherents in parliamentary 
 and other elections; for they would be aware that a compact 
 minority of socialists might come to hold the balance of power 
 amongst the parties and might so force their will upon the 
 legislation of the country. Swiss socialists could entertain no 
 such hope; no strong socialistic measure could pass into law 
 unless the actual majority of the voting public were at any 
 rate ad hoc socialists. 
 
 These considerations forcibly express themselves in the con- 
 stitution and methods of the social-democratic party formally 
 enrolled after the labour day agitation of 1888. The following 
 Political and Economic Programme adopted at the Olten Con- 
 ference in 1 89 1, and embodied in the manifesto of the new 
 party in 1892, carries, alike in its positive claims and its 
 omissions, the peculiar stamp of Swiss democracy: 
 
 Political Programme 
 
 " 1. Extension of democracy. 
 
 "2. Extension of central government (Einheit Staates). 
 
 "3. Gratuitous popular education and popular culture in the 
 widest sense conformable to the conditions of modern science; 
 confinement of all ecclesiastical activities to the private life of 
 citizens. 
 
 "Economic Progress 
 
 "1. The successive nationalisation of commerce, communi- 
 cations, industry, agriculture, and trades monopolies and state 
 (communal) functions. In conformity with the principle that 
 the product, after abstracting the cost of production and a sum 
 furnishing the contributions towards public objects (schools, 
 administration of justice, care of the sick, aged, invalids, 
 military, etc.) should be handed over as equally as possible to 
 all the co-producers (mitwirkenden). 
 
 "For which purpose, the establishment of a standing com- 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 195 
 
 mission for economic legislation which shall settle all critical 
 questions, find out the best methods and ways of carrying out 
 the particular acts of nationalisation, and lay suitable proposals 
 before the National Assembly. The members of the commission 
 to be chosen by the people. They must be paid by the federal 
 government and devote all their energies exclusively to this 
 work. 
 
 " 2. The right of all citizens to work must be expressed in the 
 Constitution, and officials in administering it must see that 
 every one according to his request obtains a sufficiently remu- 
 nerative occupation in the service of the state, the commune, 
 or voluntary private employer, as far as possible in accordance 
 with his capacities. ,, 
 
 This general statement of policy differs, of course, very 
 widely from that familiar in most social-democratic programmes. 
 Though it opens with a general plea for "Socialisation," the 
 conclusion of section 1 and of section 2 in the economic pro- 
 gramme seems to make it clear that not even as a pious ideal 
 is the complete nationalisation of all the instruments of pro- 
 duction, distribution, and exchange, and the supervision of all 
 private or public enterprise, contemplated. For while the ending 
 of the first section appears to point to a scheme of productive 
 co-operation in which the "surplus" or "profit," after defraying 
 necessary charges, shall go to the particular group of workers, 
 the latter section avowedly contemplates the survival of private 
 business enterprise. 
 
 But this strangely qualified socialism is characteristic of 
 Swiss democracy, alike in its disregard of theoretic finality, 
 and in the absence of that emphasis upon the class struggle 
 which from the first distinguished the formal social-democratic 
 creed of Germany. The fact that so large a proportion of the 
 common people still possess some stake in the land, or some 
 hold upon a livelihood other than that obtained by the sale of 
 their labour power to capitalist employers, shaped the early 
 
196 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 expression of Swiss socialism on other lines than those of 
 a mere class-war. The existence of so considerable a 
 measure of actual socialism in the communal and cantonal 
 institutions of the country naturally impelled the intelligent 
 leaders of the new socialist movement to a formulation of 
 actions and methods which should appeal to the principle of 
 historic continuity, embodying alike the conservation of the 
 socialistic institutions already existing and a development of a 
 socialism in the federal government which should supplement 
 the local socialism, and proceed experimentally, by the applica- 
 tion of the referendum and initiative, for the public control 
 and working of such functions as public opinion was ready to 
 entrust to the federal government. 
 
 In a word, Swiss democracy inhibits revolution. Where each 
 concrete proposal, either of constitutional or legal reform, 
 requires the separate sanction of the people, there can be no 
 possibility of rushing a large policy of socialism through a 
 legislative assembly which contains a snatch majority of avowed 
 socialists elected by a sudden swell of revolutionary feeling in 
 the electorate, or in which a socialist-labour minority by skilful 
 tactics compels a majority to execute its will. The practical 
 and detailed working of Swiss democracy, obliging each step 
 to be separately shaped and separately taken, imposes on the 
 theoretic socialist an opportunism which his German and 
 French confreres have been much slower to admit. 
 
 Not less important, as a check upon wasteful methods of 
 reform, is the fact that the referendum furnishes a sharp indis- 
 putable test of the strength of popular opinion. 
 
 In England, France or Germany such an issue as "the 
 right to public employment," or a "universal eight hours" 
 scheme, may occupy the front place in the socialistic agitation 
 for an indefinite period, because there is no means of ascer- 
 taining with any degree of accuracy how strong is the popular 
 demand for such a measure. In Switzerland it is competent 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 197 
 
 either for the friends or the enemies of such a scheme to demand 
 and obtain that it shall be submitted to a quantitative expres- 
 sion of popular judgment; if this test discloses the fact that a 
 strong majority is opposed to the measure, its advocates recog- 
 nise the futility and waste of progressive energy involved in 
 pressing it further for the present, and relegate it to the list of 
 reforms which require more popular education before it is ripe 
 for practical politics. Thus the " Right to Labour" was brought 
 to the test by the Griitli-Verein and the Labour Union in 1894, 
 and was rejected by a popular vote of 308,289 against 75,880. 
 The result of such a vote is to divert the emphasis and energy 
 of the advanced sections from a measure which, however 
 desirable in itself, has evidently no early chance of acceptance, 
 to other measures which may be urged with more chance of 
 success. 
 
 Such enforced opportunism is one characteristic of Swiss 
 socialism. The other, as one saw from the early programme, 
 was the formulation of socialism on general grounds of social 
 expediency rather than on the basis of a class struggle. 
 
 Of course the economic weakness of the wage- earner under 
 the system of capitalistic employment received early emphasis, 
 but the bitterness of the "conflict" was abated partly by the 
 fact that the capitalistic system was less prevalent in Switzerland 
 than in other European countries, partly by a clinging faith to 
 the attainment of economic liberty for the workers by means of 
 voluntary co-operative associations which should be independ- 
 ent of state aid for their constitution or their finance. 
 
 But while compromise and opportunism must remain strongly 
 embedded in any extreme left-wing policy, Swiss socialism 
 during recent years shows signs of increased class conscious- 
 ness, and evolves more and more along the lines of the prole- 
 tarian struggle. The impelling factor in this change is, of 
 course, the growing industrialisation of large sections of the 
 Swiss population. Here, as in all other advanced countries, 
 
198 
 
 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 the towns are absorbing an ever increasing share of the popu- 
 lation, and in the towns the larger forms of manufacture and 
 commerce, involving great capitalistic organisation, play a role 
 of growing importance. The last census of occupations shows 
 agriculture displaced from its primacy, the number both of 
 men and women engaged in the manufacturing industries 
 considerably exceeding the farming population. 
 
 Extractive industry 
 
 (Agriculture, mining, forestry, etc.) 
 
 Manufacture 
 
 Commerce 
 
 Transport 
 
 Professions and public offices 
 
 Personal service, etc 
 
 Occupations 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 405,159 
 
 80,215 
 
 435,142 
 
 224,782 
 
 69,414 
 
 54,536 
 
 52,327 
 
 3,549 
 
 44,219 
 
 22,543 
 
 3,165 
 
 9,161 
 
 1,009,426 
 
 394,786 
 
 Among the manufacturing, commercial, and transport em- 
 ployments a diminishing proportion of the persons are employed 
 in business of their own. The large textile factories, iron and 
 machine works, chocolate and brewing industries, and the 
 great hotel-keeping industry, not to mention the ever-expanding 
 railroad industry, find employment for a larger and larger 
 number of workers. A certain number of these no doubt 
 retain a hold upon the commune of their origin, which secures 
 them some measure of support for old age and other emergen- 
 cies. But the great majority of those of Swiss origin and the 
 foreign workers, who form a considerable portion of the whole 
 body, have no support or supplement to their status of wave- 
 labourer; their livelihood is exposed to all the fluctuations of 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 199 
 
 the competitive system of industry, and to the superior bar- 
 gaining power enjoyed by employers in the determination of 
 wages and other conditions of labour. 
 
 The recent growth of this large proletariat brings the labour 
 and socialist movements of Switzerland more closely into line 
 with those of other industrial nations. This is recognised both 
 by the Griitli-Verein and by the labour party, and has led to 
 the formation of a definitely socialist political party, based upon 
 working-class interest, and seeking to advance the conditions 
 of the workers through the machinery of government. 
 
 The following defence of its primary aims is presented by 
 one of its most prominent leaders, Councillor E. Wullschlegel 
 of Bale: 
 
 "The opponents of an independent labour policy are fond 
 of casting in its teeth the charges that it proclaims class- 
 war and is unpatriotic in its practices. Nothing could be 
 more unjust. The class-war is a fact and in no wise a prop- 
 erty peculiar to labour politics. It is mirrored constantly in 
 the every-day clashes of interests, and is carried on quite as 
 ruthlessly, if not more ruthlessly, by the groups of interests that 
 are opposed to labour. The charge of unpatriotism is particu- 
 larly humorous coming from the mouths of those who, paying 
 exclusive regard to their private interests, allow themselves to 
 be restrained by no patriotic considerations from damaging the 
 conditions of labour of Swiss workers through the introduction 
 of foreign workers, and the preparation of ruinous competition 
 for internal industries through the establishment of factories 
 in foreign lands with Swiss capital. 
 
 " Moreover the Swiss labour movement has never renounced 
 nationalism in thought and feeling, nor will it do so in the 
 future. Against improper demands of foreign monarchies, to 
 whom the Swiss Republic with her liberal institutions and her 
 right of asylum is a thorn in the side, it has indeed more than 
 any other class upheld the republican ideal. The Swiss labour- 
 
200 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 movement certainly recognises international duties and aims, 
 as well as local and national ones. In a state which concludes 
 international conventions and is proud of harbouring inter- 
 national bureaus supported by foreign governments, that can 
 surely be no justifiable imputation. Moreover, the whole trend 
 of modern intercourse drives towards increased regulation of 
 international relations and interests. Hitherto such regulations 
 have been formed with the smallest amount of consideration 
 for working folk, though these surely have a claim to participate 
 in the light as well as the dark side of the growing internation- 
 alism. The further-sighted opponents of the social-democratic 
 labour movement have, in fact, recognised that right in the 
 form of a demand for international labour legislation. More- 
 over, the national and international conventions of the labour 
 movement constitute also an admirable schooling in the sub- 
 ordination of separate interests under a common higher interest, 
 which manifests not only economic and social-political but 
 likewise democratic and ethical proclivities. 
 
 "It makes for the break-down of the contrast between edu- 
 cated and ignorant workers which causes so much social 
 mischief, and the removal of the short-sighted opposition to 
 technical progress, which, for example, reduces the middle class 
 handicraft movement to such a low level; in a word, to place the 
 working classes on a higher status, and as a consequence also to 
 widen their outlook as regards the needs of the whole community. 
 
 " It is precisely that intensive systematic handling of politics, 
 from which many think that the workers ought to abstain, that 
 enables labour to guard against the worst outgrowths of egoism 
 and sectarian narrowness. The social-democratic labour move- 
 ment conducted from higher standpoints is thus an element of 
 genuine Statecraft in the true sense of that term." 
 
 How far the practice of the Swiss socialist labour movement 
 conforms to the high principles here set forth may possibly be 
 matter for dispute. 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 201 
 
 But it is interesting to observe that Swiss socialism, even 
 when entering the era of distinct class consciousness and class 
 struggle, still remains, at any rate in the minds of some of its 
 representatives, less intransigeant than the movement in neigh- 
 bouring countries, retaining a spirit of moderation and of 
 opportunism imposed upon it by the existence of democratic 
 institutions more advanced than those which exist elsewhere. 
 
 When we turn from theoretic to practical considerations, and 
 ask what are the political proposals which this socialist-labour 
 party put in the front of their federal programme, we find our- 
 selves moving rather in an atmosphere of modern social radi- 
 calism than of formal socialism. For the measures which 
 Herr Wullschlegel names as the next aim, are public insurance 
 against accident and sickness, a shorter working-day for 
 manufactures and transport trades, the unification of civil and 
 criminal law, improved regulation of labour-contracts, and a 
 reduction of the tariff on necessaries of life. 
 
 Switzerland, of course, possesses groups of socialists more 
 pronounced in their economic theory and more "revolutionary" 
 in their methods than the social-democratic party. Large 
 numbers of foreign workmen, especially Germans, are found 
 in Zurich, Schaffhausen, Bale and other manufacturing dis- 
 tricts, some of them refugees from foreign oppressive govern- 
 ments, and many of them inured to the thought and feeling of 
 the more rigorous social- democracy of Germany. 
 
 To these the nationalism, the militarism, the protective fiscal 
 system, the large regard for rights of private property and 
 private enterprise, which stamp the actual democracy of Swit- 
 zerland, are, of course, anathema; nor do they regard with 
 much favour the co-operative and other voluntary movements 
 which thrive in many of the cantons. 
 
 It is to these more especially that Switzerland appears as a 
 bourgeois democracy, formed by the desires and ideals of the 
 little land-owner and the little business man, and destitute of 
 
202 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 any large conception of an economic commonwealth. Social- 
 istic measures may be taken by such a people, but they do 
 not make for a genuinely socialistic state. The little farmer 
 and trader favour nationalisation of railroads because they 
 want cheap rates and extended facilities for their goods; they 
 support public subsidies for technical instruction in order to 
 furnish a good supply of cheap skilled labour; federal and state 
 banking represents the kick of the ordinary manufacturer, 
 trader, and farmer against the rich financiers of Geneva and 
 Berne; and the alcohol monopoly is to be interpreted primarily 
 as a measure giving preference to domestic over foreign drinks. 
 
 In other words, they deny the reality of Swiss democracy 
 regarded as the expression in government of the " general will," 
 ascribing the really determinate and formative influence to the 
 class interest of particular industries or groups of industries 
 coercing or cajoling the people to vote as they want. 
 
 There is just enough plausibility in this representation to 
 make it worth while raising the question whether the demo- 
 cratic institutions of Switzerland will enable that country ulti- 
 mately to escape the serious situation which exists not only in 
 despotic or oligarchic nations but in nations where democracy 
 resides in the play of representative government. Will the 
 referendum, the initiative and the other forms of direct popular 
 control be proof against the manipulation of the powerful 
 economic interests, or will the latter be enabled by skilful use 
 of the press, the schools, and other instruments of intellectual 
 influence, to make the "people" vote as they desire and require? 
 Pessimist critics of Swiss institutions are not wanting who 
 predict that democratic methods accommodated to the simple 
 stable life of a sparse rural population living in communes and 
 small cantons will prove impracticable for the fuller and more 
 complex life of a centralised and populous national state. 
 When, on the one hand, powerful and wealthy groups of capi- 
 talists control the developed manufacture, commerce, and 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 203 
 
 finance, while, on the other hand, politics exert an ever increas- 
 ing influence upon business operations, will it be possible to 
 prevent business men from dominating politics ? Here, as else- 
 where, it will be to the interest of the propertied and entrepreneur 
 classes to defend the "rights" of property and the liberty to 
 manage their own businesses their own way against "inter- 
 fering" labour legislation or "confiscating" methods of tax- 
 ation; here, as elsewhere, the judicious manipulation of a tariff 
 may be of inestimable value to trades with a "pull"; the devel- 
 opment of public expenditure everywhere means remunerative 
 contracts and lucrative or influential offices; as economic in- 
 equality grows wider, plutocratic standards of life and morals 
 will exert their corrupting influence. This will mean, either 
 the withdrawal from the referendum of an increasing number 
 of important issues, on grounds of urgency or unsuitability for 
 popular determination, or else the contrivance of arts of political 
 management especially adapted to the conditions of Swiss 
 democracy, which shall enable the financier and the "boss" 
 to procure the formal registration of the popular will at the 
 polls. 
 
 If the people in America and elsewhere can be jockeyed or 
 bamboozled into electing "representatives" who are not really 
 their "choice" but the nominees of the party managers and 
 ulitmately of the trusts which finance the parties, will not the 
 same power be exerted in Switzerland to induce the people to 
 accept or reject legislative measures according to the dictates 
 of interested factions ? Will the difference in democratic forms 
 in Switzerland furnish an efficacious prophylactic against a 
 disease which appears in every other advanced democratic 
 nation ? 
 
 Such are the doubts and dismal prophecies which do not 
 lack expression, especially among persons whose culture and 
 refinement is offended and even shocked at the dominance of 
 materialistic motives which they seem to see in the modern 
 
20 4 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 political development. The Centralist, who favours a powerful 
 nationality, and is annoyed at the wasteful concessions made 
 to the obstinate cantonal sectarianism; the Federalist, who is 
 filled with apprehensions at the strong suckage of the Bund; 
 the Peace man, who desponds before the steady support given 
 to universal military service by the people; the Free Trader, 
 who sees that every progressive measure is attended by pro- 
 tective doles, — such men are sometimes filled with dismal fore- 
 bodings as to the abiding success of Swiss democracy or the 
 maintenance of such liberty and purity as it possesses now. 
 
 Nor can any impartial political student regarding Swiss 
 institutions from without ignore these perils. If capitalism, 
 manufacturing, commercial, and financial, follows in Switzer- 
 land the same lines of development, proceeding as far and as 
 fast as in America, Great Britain, or Germany, it is difficult to 
 conceive that the democracy of that country can wholly escape 
 the poison and corruption which economic parasitism naturally, 
 that is to say historically, engenders. Granting the existence 
 of capitalistic combinations relatively as strong as those which 
 control the finance, the transport, and the great manufacturing 
 industries of the United States, and animated by similarly selfish 
 interests, it would be manifestly unsafe to assume that the spirit 
 of liberty, equality, and local self-government, which have been 
 so signally exhibited in the history of Switzerland, would 
 successfully resist the capitalist thraldom. 
 
 Assuming the existence of powerful business corporations 
 controlling the most valuable sources of raw materials, the 
 forests, the water power, the great electric industries, the rail- 
 roads, the banking and insurance trade, and the remunerative 
 city services, it seems probable enough that they would distort 
 or mutilate the political institutions, so as to control them and 
 adapt them to their business purposes. 
 
 In such an event the class war in Switzerland would assimilate 
 to that of other countries in Europe or America, breeding a 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 205 
 
 socialism which, in the last resort, may turn to revolutionary 
 measures to overthrow a despotic rule for which there seems no 
 constitutionally feasible remedy. 
 
 But the safeguard of Switzerland seems to rest in the fact 
 that some of these assumptions are unwarranted. The reason 
 why the socialism of Switzerland is less militant, milder, and 
 more opportunist than elsewhere, is that neither economically 
 nor politically is capitalism possessed of half the strength that 
 it exhibits in the other industrial countries. Partly by the 
 survival and development of older communal and cantonal 
 public enterprise, partly by the growth of a considerable measure 
 of federal socialism before private capitalism had gathered 
 great strength, the people of Switzerland are already strongly 
 entrenched in many of the economic out-posts which, in America 
 and other countries, are powerful fortresses of private monopoly. 
 The railroads, the sole method of transport over most of the 
 country, are already in the hands of the federal government; 
 there are no coal and iron mines whose possession may form a 
 strong pillar of capitalism; the forests are for the most part 
 communal, cantonal or intercantonal properties. The water 
 power is seldom left to uncontrolled private enterprise; the 
 more advanced municipalities not only own most of their street 
 railways, gas, water, telephones, and electric plant, but are the 
 purveyors of electric energy to private industry; the communes, 
 the cantons, and the federal government altogether do a 
 large proportion of the banking and insurance business, and 
 are extending their hold over these financial functions; the 
 liquor trade, which in Great Britain and in certain parts of 
 America is a source of deep political corruption, is in part owned, 
 in large measure controlled, by government. 
 
 Unless private capitalism can win back all or most of these 
 public functions, it does not seem possible that it can attain the 
 dangerous power it possesses in those countries where it has 
 enjoyed a free career of exploitation. To the checks named 
 
2o6 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 above must be added the hold which a large proportion of the 
 working people still possess upon the land. Capitalism in 
 Switzerland is thus deprived of some of the main conditions of 
 growth. To suppose that the iron masters, chocolate manu- 
 facturers, bankers, hotel keepers, and other capitalists can 
 exercise in Swiss political institutions a power comparable to 
 that which they wield in the United States, Great Britain, or 
 Germany, would be preposterous. Yet, if they are to use 
 politics for private business ends in Switzerland, they must be 
 accredited with greater power than in other countries, because 
 direct democracy is necessarily more difficult to "manage" than 
 representative assemblies where party machinery can be manip- 
 ulated and lubricated easily. 
 
 Revolutionary socialism has no hold in Switzerland for it 
 finds no fuel there. If there is a country in the world where 
 revolutionary socialism would be stamped out as an insurance 
 company stamps out fire, it is Switzerland, the country of 
 small properties and industries. 
 
 Switzerland is an instance of a country, and we might almost 
 say of a civilisation, which has escaped the most bewildering 
 of the modern currents. Its people have not been led off into 
 the pursuit of fabulous wealth, like the Swiss and other peoples 
 in America. There are many Swiss in America, but they show 
 there the same characteristics as the other people of America. 
 The Swiss in Switzerland and in America are two entirely 
 different animals politically. It is a matter of environment. 
 The English and others who are so prone to show their supe- 
 riority to us by lecturing us on our "corruption" did precisely 
 the same things when they came to America to live. 
 
 Switzerland is of supreme importance to the student of 
 politics and economics, because it is an instance of an orderly 
 and normal development of a people of our race, with institu- 
 tions practically identical with ours at the beginning. 
 
SWISS SOCIALISM 207 
 
 Switzerland tells us how our race evolves when not overcome 
 by monopoly. New Zealand tells us how it behaves when 
 bound hand and foot by the monopoly. From the two many 
 of the lessons of the immediate future can be learned. If the 
 Western World is not to sink into the helpless stratification of 
 existence which makes the oriental civilisation so intolerable 
 to us, we must learn these lessons and apply them. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 
 
 What light does the modern experience of Switzerland shed 
 upon the root problems of democracy as they present them- 
 selves in other countries that have committed themselves to 
 the broad road of popular self-government? Most of these 
 countries have set themselves to the elaboration of represent- 
 ative institutions through which the popular will may operate, 
 tempered, guided, and informed by the superior knowledge 
 and discretion of elected persons who shall exercise a finally 
 determinant voice in all important acts of government. The 
 underlying supposition of representative democracy is that the 
 people are neither able nor willing to give the requisite time 
 and trouble to weigh the merits of concrete acts of policy, 
 often intricate and far-reaching in their probable effects, but 
 that they are able and willing to appoint from amongst them 
 persons competent to consider and give judgment on their 
 behalf, choosing these persons not with reference to their 
 fitness for determining any one of several known issues, but 
 for some general capacity applicable to the whole range of 
 government that falls within the scope of their office. 
 
 The variety and intricacy of governmental functions in a 
 large modern community have given the appearance of neces- 
 sity to this method of procedure, at any rate with regard to 
 all public matters which are, by reason of the area they cover 
 or their specialism, removed from the experience of the ordi- 
 nary citizen. Only certain simple issues of the ward, the 
 
 208 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 209 
 
 precinct, or in some instances the city, fall sufficiently within 
 the cognisance of the mass of citizens for them to be safely 
 entrusted with their decision, and even there the tendency to 
 hand them over either to elected bodies or to expert officials 
 who know better than the common people what is good for 
 them is very strong. As the social horizon for the ordinary 
 person continually widens, exposing him as man, worker, and 
 citizen to an increasing number of important forces that play 
 over the area of the state or the nation, the proportion of 
 public issues that lie under his immediate attention is smaller. 
 The politics of the street, the ward, the village, become rel- 
 atively less important; the politics of the state, the nation, the 
 world, more important. This appears, both by the growing 
 complexity it imparts to politics and by the increased central- 
 isation of government, to compel the citizen to depend more 
 and more upon the judgment of representatives, and less and 
 less upon his own judgment, so far as concrete acts of govern- 
 ment are concerned. 
 
 This reticulation of representative institutions has, however, 
 not so far fulfilled the sanguine expectations of its theoretic 
 advocates. Its complexity and the indirectness of its working 
 have lent themselves to grave abuses, and in that country where 
 the machinery of representation has been most logically con- 
 structed as an instrument for the expression of the popular 
 will, the abuses are the greatest. The organisation of the party 
 which seems essential to " representative systems" has led in 
 the United States and elsewhere to the construction of party 
 "machines" so strong and so ably operated that instead of 
 the will of the people flowing freely upwards by processes of 
 delegation and election, and finding expression in policies 
 determined by men who are the genuine choice of the people, 
 the will of the machine politicians is pumped down the machine 
 to the very bottom of the representative system, the primary 
 or ward meeting, and comes up again with the falsely formal 
 
210 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 stamp of the people's will upon it. Nor is this the worst. For 
 the machine politician, great or small, hires out the machine 
 to the highest bidder, and those organised business interests 
 which have most to fear from the free, intelligent expression 
 of the popular will, and therefore most to gain by its sup- 
 pression or reversal, buy the machine, and secure that their 
 creatures shall be the chosen representatives and that their 
 will shall receive the popular endorsement. When the people 
 finds out that it has been betrayed, it is angry; but often it 
 does not find out at all, or when it does find out it is too late. 
 Besides, as a rule it has no remedy except through the very 
 channels of machine politics by which the betrayal has been 
 effected. The interest and the will of the people are those of 
 a multitude of scattered amateurs confronting the interest and 
 the will of close corporations of professional experts. How 
 can the former secure and hold the control of the machine? 
 So far as powerful capitalist bodies exist, founded upon or 
 sustained by legal privileges in the shape of charters, tariffs, 
 or illegal privileges, so long as lucrative offices are available 
 for party spoils, so long as public expenditure can be made a 
 source of private profit through contracts, loans, and develop- 
 ment schemes, this skilled manipulation of the representative 
 machinery will continue. The extent of the poisoning of the 
 popular will and the particular acts of corruption and distortion 
 employed will vary with the local conditions. In some states 
 the crudest forms of monetary bribery are used, in others 
 subtler arts of influence: but the strong business politicians, 
 who know what they want and mean to get it, fit their methods 
 to the human material they are handling. 
 
 We need not exaggerate these notorious diseases of the repre- 
 sentative system. The failure is of course relative, not abso- 
 lute, the popular will is not impotent, nor are the boss and his 
 paymaster omnipotent in the machine: at any given time 
 there exist known though changing limits to the management 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 211 
 
 of representation, and any transgression beyond those limits 
 is apt to arouse a ground-swell of popular indignation which 
 throws over the machine and lifts into power, or at any rate 
 to office, men who are the genuine representatives of popular 
 feeling. The people must always be humoured, they must be 
 cajoled rather than coerced, and there are necessary limits 
 to the practise of deception, the chief of which consists in the 
 probability of being found out. 
 
 The only democracy in the world which cannot be betrayed 
 is the Swiss. Even the New Zealand democracy with its 
 representative system may find its strongest wishes disregarded, 
 its best interests sacrificed by the factions or folly of its parlia- 
 ment. But this is impossible in Switzerland. There the people 
 may force into legislation any law they want : they may prevent 
 any act they do not want. 
 
 In New Zealand the Parliament may be elected on one issue 
 and find itself called on to legislate upon another without 
 knowing in the least what the people would want. 
 
 In a few nations the coarser corruption is absent, but on 
 the whole the history of recent attempts of the people in pop- 
 ularly governed countries to redress the enormities that exist 
 in regard to the distribution of economic opportunities, and 
 to defend themselves against new dangerous forms of exploi- 
 tation connected with the financial and industrial capitalism, 
 points a lesson of definite and dismal failure for representative 
 government. 
 
 This is sometimes admitted, but with the proviso that the 
 lesson to be drawn is not that the representative government is 
 a worse method than direct government, but that no form of 
 democracy can be effective until the mass of the people is 
 raised to a higher general level of intelligence, honesty, and 
 public spirit. But, granting this general proposition, the 
 question still remains whether direct government may not be 
 less ineffective than representative, or whether some combina- 
 
212 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 tion of the two may not be directly instrumental in raising 
 those very qualities of intelligence, honesty, and public spirit 
 that are desiderated. 
 
 Let us then return to our question, "What light does Swiss 
 experience shed upon this darkness?" 
 
 During the last generation, as we have seen, there has been 
 a steady and general tendency, both in the central and local 
 governments, to displace the representative power by the direct 
 popular vote. 
 
 The rule is that a definite sanction by a vote of the majority 
 of citizens must be given to important acts of legislation or 
 administration, so that appointment of officials by direct vote 
 of the people displaces appointment by elected bodies. 
 
 How far this process of direct government has been carried 
 may be best expressed in the following summary by M. Emil 
 Frey : 
 
 " To-day nine cantons possess the obligatory referendum, 
 eight the facultative, and six the Landsgemeinde, while only 
 two cantons, Freiburg and Valais, have stood by the rep- 
 resentative system. Changes in the cantonal constitutions 
 require, in conformity with the Federal Constitution, the sanc- 
 tion of a majority of the people of the canton. Alterations 
 in the Federal Constitution are subject to the ratification of 
 the people and the cantons. The so-styled initiative has 
 been introduced in ten cantons; besides the six cantons with 
 Landsgemeinde it is absent from three cantons, Schwyz, Frei- 
 burg, and Valais. In the federation the initiative is appli- 
 cable only to constitutional changes. 
 
 "In twenty-two cantons the people elect the executive; only 
 in the cantons Freiburg, Vaud, and Valais is the appoint- 
 ment still vested in the hands of the Great Council. The 
 members of the Legislature in all cantons are elected by the 
 people, likewise the members of the Swiss National Council. 
 In nineteen cantons the representatives for the State Council 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 213 
 
 are also elected by the people; in the cantons Berne, Frei- 
 burg, St. Gall, Vaud, Valais, and Neufchatel the appoint- 
 ment for the State Council is vested in the Great Councils. 
 
 "In conclusion, besides the communal officials, the lower 
 judicial officers in twenty-two cantons are directly appointed 
 by the people, while in Zug and Neufchatel they are elected 
 by the Great Councils, in Freiburg by the cantonal bench. 
 
 "Thus in the overwhelming majority of the cantons and 
 in the Confederation, the legislation and, with the exception 
 of the Federal Council and the highest judicial officers, the 
 election of the most important executive officers, are entrusted 
 to the people." 
 
 Nor is this movement towards pure democracy yet ended. 
 Although, as we have already seen, the formulated initiative 
 for partial changes in the Federal Constitution, secured in 1891, 
 has placed in the hands of the people a large though undefined 
 power of initiating what are in fact legislative changes, the 
 limitations and delays imposed by this method have evoked 
 a vigorous agitation for a direct legislative initiative. The 
 recent action of the canton of Zurich in introducing a practical 
 proposal to the Federal Assembly has now forced the question 
 into the immediate foreground of politics, and it seems likely 
 that before long this further step in the logic of direct popular 
 government will be taken. 
 
 One further step is advocated by the extreme democrats as 
 necessary to complete the legislative control of the people, 
 the substitution of a compulsory for a permissive referendum 
 in the case of federal laws. 
 
 "Under a democratic system," argued Gengel, an early 
 advocate of this position, "all the laws passed by the Chamber 
 ought to be submitted ipso jure to the sanction of the people. 
 When the representatives know that the laws will finally go 
 to the people, they will make it their business to frame them 
 in harmony with popular ideas and needs, and will try to supply 
 
214 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 the omissions. Having the final decision in their hands, the 
 people will make a careful study of the laws. With the com- 
 pulsory referendum the people will give their votes as a matter 
 of course, whereas in the case of the optional referendum they 
 will only do so after a certain amount of agitation. The op- 
 tional referendum is a weapon of opposition. It can only 
 reject. The compulsory referendum, on the contrary, is the 
 means of expressing the popular will and ratifying the acts of 
 those in power." l 
 
 But there is no strong popular feeling behind this view, which 
 is rather that of the theorist than of the practical politician. 
 In point of fact, it is doubtful whether the real control of the 
 people would not rather be diminished than increased by 
 making the referendum compulsory. The formal ratification 
 of laws passed by the Assembly affords no increase of popular 
 legislative power; the referendum, whether compulsory or 
 facultative, acts entirely by rejection. Now the actual power 
 of rejection is not enhanced by obliging the people to pass on 
 every law, instead of selecting the particular laws upon which 
 they wish to test the national will. On the contrary, if every 
 law went to the people as a matter of course, the agitation or 
 education requisite to promote discussion of a dubious measure, 
 
 1 Die Erweiterung des Volksrechts (quoted Deploige, p. 97). 
 
 The fact that in most of the cantons where the referendum is compulsory 
 for cantonal laws a much larger proportion of rejections is recorded than in 
 the case of federal laws, is not conclusive evidence that the intelligent will of 
 the people is more effective. As a rule the opposition to a law is more strongly 
 felt than the approval; frequently it tends to represent a definite and perhaps 
 an organised interest that deems itself assailed. Where every law is formally 
 submitted to the people, it will be a more difficult task to rally the supporters 
 to the poll than the opponents. Moreover, whatever elements of pique, general 
 discontent, or other irrational emotions, exist in the popular mind, will be apt 
 to find their vent in a blind wrecking policy which is not in any proper sense an 
 expression of "the general will." For its effective operation the referendum 
 seems to require a sufficient interval for deliberation and education, and must 
 not be so frequent as to preclude reasonable consideration of the merits of 
 each law. 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 215 
 
 and perhaps to secure its "veto," would be far less effective, 
 causing laws which the people would at present reject to "pass 
 in the crowd," or else enabling popular caprice or a small 
 snatch vote to cause rejection. An optional referendum, en- 
 abling the people to focus their attention and judgment upon 
 controversial, while ignoring non-controversial, acts, seems 
 really to give them more control. 
 
 The case for the initiative is very different. However sel- 
 dom used, the initiative does enlarge the actual liberty of the 
 people, furnished the positive legislative power which the 
 referendum, whether facultative or compulsory, lacks. With- 
 out the initiative or with an initiative only for constitutional 
 amendments, the validity of whose application is determined 
 by the Assembly, the strongest desire of the people for legis- 
 lative change may remain impotent, unless a recent election 
 of the Assembly has given definite expression of this desire. 
 
 The demand for a federal initiative is therefore an inevitable 
 supplement to the referendum in the historical evolution of 
 Swiss democracy. 
 
 Pari passu with this agitation has proceeded a demand for 
 direct popular election of the Federal Executive Council 
 (Bundesrath), at present elected by the lower house of the 
 federal Legislature. 
 
 The strong and serious advocacy of these latest steps by 
 responsible statesmen supports the conviction that Swiss 
 democracy in its modern development is successful arid 
 confident. 
 
 But is this success genuine, and this confidence justified? 
 Does it work for progress? 
 
 Before endeavouring to answer these questions it is neces- 
 sary once more to emphasise the character of the movement. 
 In general terms it implies the subordination of representatives 
 to direct government in the sense that the sovereignty of the 
 people is realised and expressed in determinant single acts of 
 
2i6 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 government. Representative institutions are not destroyed, 
 but are made supplementary to the direct action of the popular 
 will, their functions being to relieve the people of a burden of 
 practical governmental business too heavy for them to bear, 
 to assist the will of the people to obtain adequate expression 
 by providing fuller discussion and advice, and finally to form 
 a substitute for the people in matters of emergency and in 
 such matters of finance as, from their intricate and special 
 nature, are incapable of being dealt with by popular vote. 
 
 That it does not belong to the logic of the movement to dis- 
 spense with representative government is attested by the efforts 
 made to improve the method of representation so as to make 
 these elected bodies better reflections of popular opinion and 
 desire. 
 
 This movement has not merely been contemporaneous with 
 the tendency towards direct government, but has been organ- 
 ically associated with it. The same leaders, the same popular 
 sentiments as favour the referendum and initiative, have sup- 
 ported the system of proportionate representation which is 
 making way in the cantons. Those who desire to destroy an 
 institution do not set about to strengthen it. Swiss democ- 
 racy establishes a new harmony in the relations between rep- 
 resentative and direct government, a new division of functions, 
 and the fact that a growing number of determinant powers 
 are assigned to the latter does not warrant the assumption 
 that the former is marked for extinction or that it can fail to 
 continue to occupy an important place in the fabric of Swiss 
 government. 1 
 
 1 The agitation for minority representation through some system of Propor- 
 tion began in the middle of last century, but the first application of the principle 
 was reserved for a case of grave political perplexity. The gerrymandering in 
 the canton of Ticino, by which a party minority but little inferior to the ma- 
 jority in number was kept in permanent political impotence, had led to a violent 
 revolution only allayed by interference of the federal government. Under 
 these circumstances the first experiment in proportional representation was 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 217 
 
 When the proposal to endow the people with the power of 
 initiating and passing any law which they approve, and of 
 exercising an effective veto over the actions of their represent- 
 atives, first presents itself to ordinary sober citizens it is often 
 regarded as "revolutionary." The "people," it appears, 
 cannot safely be entrusted with the direct personal exercise 
 of so much power. The "people" has not the time, the abil- 
 ity, or the inclination to study and determine concrete laws 
 and other acts of polity, and ought to leave to those expert 
 advisers, whom it has chosen, the right freely to determine the 
 legislative forms in which this polity shall be expressed. The 
 ordinary citizen is more fitted to select persons of political 
 wisdom than to determine whether any particular political 
 act is wise. 
 
 If a people is enabled to pass any law it chooses without 
 any let or hindrance, or to veto any law which the judgment 
 of its competent advisers has approved, a spasm of popular 
 excitement, fear, anger, or cupidity may induce sudden and 
 
 introduced. The curative success here achieved naturally "boomed" the 
 remedy, and now five cantons, Ticino, Neufchatel, Geneva, Zug, Solothurm, 
 with several of the larger municipalities, including Berne and Bale, have, 
 adopted it. The form, differing in details in the various instances, is every- 
 where substantially the same. Nomination of candidates takes place on party 
 or group tickets, each elector has as many votes as there are vacancies and 
 may either vote a party ticket or make one for himself out of the various tickets. 
 There is no cumulative voting for one or several candidates, but if a voter 
 does not mark the full number of choices, the balance goes to the ticket as a 
 whole under which he registers. 
 
 It is in the counting of the votes that the idea of proportion is put into effect. 
 The board of election first determines how many valid votes have been cast, 
 then how many for each ticket or party, and how many for each candidate. 
 The whole number of votes is then divided by the number of vacancies to be 
 filled in order to find the so-called "electoral gradient." The number of 
 votes given for each ticket is then divided by the electoral gradient to show 
 how many representatives are elected from each. Every group has a right to 
 as many delegates as the gradient is contained times in its vote. If a party 
 does not receive enough votes to equal this division, it has no representative. 
 (Vincent, p. 78.) 
 
218 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 irrevocable actions involving the honour, the safety, the very 
 existence of the Commonwealth. 
 
 For the effect of the referendum, accompanied by the initia- 
 tive, is not merely to substitute direct for representative 
 government, but to remove the check of a second legislative 
 chamber. A single judgment of the people, or, where the 
 initiative is used, a repeated judgment of the same people, 
 makes or unmakes legislation. 
 
 To those brought up on the classical phraseology of the " fickle 
 multitude" lashed to fury by a " demagogue," dupe to the 
 " panacea" of any glib-tongued legislative charlatan, intoxi- 
 cated with the sense of power and eager to use it for levelling 
 purposes, the experiment may well seem dangerous. 
 
 Persons indoctrinated with the theory of agitation which 
 finds favour in conservative quarters in America and Great 
 Britain, by which unscrupulous politicians can sow grievances, 
 generate popular discontent, stimulate unjust or impracticable 
 remedies, trading on the ignorance and excitability of "the 
 mob," may be recommended to compare this theory with the 
 facts as illustrated in Swiss history. 
 
 Among Swiss statesmen, officials, and political students 
 there is a widely held opinion that the referendum and the 
 initiative work out "conservatively." This view, when exam- 
 ined, does not mean that progress is thereby retarded, but 
 simply that the people do not "rush their gates." This dis- 
 tinction deserves further elucidation. A certain school of 
 advanced radicals opposed the referendum movement in Swit- 
 zerland, as they oppose it elsewhere, on two grounds. First, 
 that, upon the whole, representatives more intelligent, and devot- 
 ing themselves more closely to practical politics, would be able 
 and willing to devise, draft, and carry through progressive 
 legislation somewhat in advance of the conscious wishes of 
 the electorate. Secondly, an objection closely related to the 
 other, that the mass-mind is conservative in the sense that it 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 219 
 
 will reject a measure, nine tenths of which it approves on 
 account of the other tenth which it disapproves. Since the 
 referendum must be exercised in an affirmative or negative 
 judgment on a complete draft of a law, a collection of minor 
 discontents is liable to cause a rejection of a measure the main 
 provisions of which the majority really approves. This objec- 
 tion rests on the supposition that the dislikes of the average 
 man are more effective than his likes. 
 
 Now the experience of Switzerland appears to give some 
 measure of support to both these objections. One thing is 
 quite certain, viz., that the "referendum" has not favoured 
 1 'hasty" legislation. The great progressive measures securing 
 large new functions for the federal government, the factory 
 legislation, the nationalisation of railroads, of the alcohol 
 monopoly, and the national bank, etc., ripened in the legisla- 
 tive assembly earlier than in the country; many of these laws, 
 or the constitutional amendments enabling them, were rejected 
 once or more by the people. In none of these cases can it be 
 pretended that the people acted in a hurry, or sought to curtail 
 the elaborate processes of inquiry and discussion which in 
 every instance preceded the drafting and passing of the law in 
 the representative assemblies. Most measures obtained the 
 assent of one or both legislature assemblies long before they 
 were put into a form acceptable to the people. 
 
 To this must be added the admission that several important 
 measures of a progressive or a socialistic character, such as 
 the match monopoly, the right to public employment and 
 the compulsory insurance law, have been rejected and have 
 not yet found popular acceptance, though in two of these 
 instances the representative chambers endorsed the proposal. 
 
 Generalising from these and other instances where the repre- 
 sentative assemblies appear more advanced than the people, 
 critics have made out a prima facie case against the referendum 
 regarded as an instrument of popular progress. 
 
22o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 But such a judgment is based on a superficial interpretation 
 of the facts. 
 
 The action of the people through the referendum is some- 
 times represented as distinctively obstructive, because in a 
 large proportion of instances when a proposal is put to them 
 they have rejected it. From the time of the adoption of the 
 Federal Constitution, in 1874, up to June, 1906, the referendum 
 has been used twenty-nine times for laws and resolutions, and 
 eighteen times for constitutional amendments. Of the 29 
 laws they have accepted 10 and rejected 19; of the 18 con- 
 stitutional amendments they have accepted 12 and rejected 6. 
 Besides this, since 1891, there have been six votings on initiative 
 demands, only one of which was accepted. 
 
 The total number of votings upon concrete legislative pro- 
 posals thus amounts to 53, and of these 30 were rejected, 23 
 accepted. Even thus regarded the preponderance of rejection 
 is not very great; it cannot be said that the popular vote is a 
 definitely destructive weapon. Still less do the facts admit this 
 interpretation when looked at more closely. It will be observed, 
 first, that the people appears much more favourably inclined 
 towards constitutional amendments than towards laws, though 
 most of the amendments were really preliminary towards the 
 passing of some law which previously lay outside the legislative 
 competence of the federation. 
 
 Of these amendments twice as many were accepted as re- 
 jected. This is susceptible of two explanations. In the first 
 place it is doubtless easier to get the assent of the people to a 
 principle than to the particular law devised to embody that 
 principle. So, for instance, the same people that had bestowed 
 upon the federal government the right to legislate on a national 
 accident and sick insurance scheme rejects the particular scheme 
 when it is presented in a draft law. A constitutional amendment 
 generally adds a new function to the government, but the particu- 
 lar exercise of that function may quite reasonably be unpopular. 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 221 
 
 But there is another explanation of the discrepancy in the 
 proportion of acceptances and rejections among laws and con- 
 stitutional amendments respectively. The referendum in the 
 latter is obligatory, but in the former facultative. 
 
 This means, of course, that only those laws and decrees are 
 submitted to a referendum which have evoked the opposition 
 of a substantial body of citizens who conceive it possible that 
 they may win the majority of the electorate to their view. 
 
 It is evident that this consideration completely disposes of 
 the notion that the people is proved to be hostile to progressive 
 legislation by the fact that they reject more laws than they 
 accept. Of course they do, for only those laws which are 
 likely to be rejected are put to the vote. In point of fact, since 
 1874 no less than 246 laws and resolutions have been passed 
 by the Federal Assembly, all of which might have been put to 
 the people, if the opposition to them had been strong enough to 
 secure the qualifying number for the demand, and keen enough 
 to press it to a vote. Where no referendum was demanded it 
 must be assumed that the people silently endorsed the act of 
 their Federal Legislature, and that out of the total number of 
 246 laws and resolutions only 19 met with their disapproval. 
 
 The initiative has certainly not proved so far a very service- 
 able tool, the only case where it has been successfully evoked 
 being the least creditable legislative action of the Swiss democ- 
 racy in recent years, viz., the passing of the famous " slaughter- 
 house" article drafted under the influence of an anti-Semitic 
 agitation. 
 
 It seems unlikely that the formulated initiative, either for a 
 constitutional amendment or for a law, would be put to frequent 
 use, for if a "cause" is strong enough to advance by this legis- 
 lative path, it is unlikely to be so destitute of friends inside the 
 Assembly that it cannot obtain attention in the ordinary way. 
 
 The referendum is essentially a veto, and it is therefore foolish 
 to argue that it is conservative or destructive because, in 
 
222 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 a majority of instances where it is invoked, it causes 
 rejection. 
 
 Moreover, the charge of being an anti-progressive instrument 
 weakens before a close scrutiny into the chief instances where 
 it appears to have been used as a means of defeating a pre- 
 sumably "progressive" measure. Several of the rejections are 
 based upon the natural and not unreasonable fear lest the 
 central government should undertake functions which might 
 be better left to the cantons. This state-right feeling led the 
 people in 1874 to reject the law transferring the determination 
 of the Swiss franchise from the sovereignty of the cantons to 
 that of the federation (though on the same day when this law 
 was rejected they accepted a law federalising the law of mar- 
 riage and divorce), and the same feeling was admittedly 
 responsible in high degree for the recent rejection of the 
 insurance law. 
 
 The promoters of federal socialism have indeed sustained 
 several severe disappointments. The rejection of the initiative 
 for a constitutional amendment for legislation in The Right 
 to Labour (1894), and of the attempt to establish a Federal 
 Match Monopoly are often adduced as evidence of the conserv- 
 ative working of the popular vote. But both these " reforms " 
 were of dubious value, and a variety of causes co-operated for 
 their defeat. 
 
 The same is true also of the rejection by a small majority of 
 the Small Workshops Law in 1894, a proposal to extend the 
 area of federal factory legislation. In all these cases the states- 
 right feeling, and the accompanying distrust of central bureau- 
 cracy, played a considerable part. 
 
 In some instances the popular vote has stopped an un- 
 doubtedly retrogressive and injurious law. An example of this 
 is afforded by the Spoils Campaign, as it was called, of 1894, 
 in which a law was launched by popular initiative to compel 
 the federal government to distribute a portion of the tariff 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 223 
 
 revenue among the cantons at two francs per head. Here was 
 an attempt of the cantons to turn the table of centralisation, 
 and to rifle the resources of the federation for the purposes of 
 keeping down local taxation. The good sense of the people 
 repelled the temptation, for when the measure came to the 
 referendum it was lost by an overwhelming majority. 
 
 There are, however, a few instances in which sound measures 
 have been denied or delayed, and unsound measures affirmed 
 by the popular vote. It would indeed be strange if this or any 
 other instrument of government worked with perfect wisdom 
 and justice. Religious narrowness and a certain meanness in 
 money matters are characteristic defects of the peasant and 
 the petit bourgeois. To these defects may be attributed the 
 reactionary Slaughter-House Law, the rejection of the vote for 
 Foreign Legations, and perhaps that of the Compulsory Vac- 
 cination Law. But the endorsement of undeniably reactionary 
 acts and the refusal of undeniably progressive acts have been 
 extremely rare. 
 
 There remains, however, a residual truth in the statement 
 that the referendum works conservatively. Most radical or 
 socialistic measures have been rejected at least once by the 
 people after they have received the final assent of a majority of 
 the representatives. It may even be admitted that when a 
 measure is put to the referendum there is a fractious tendency 
 to reject rather than to accept. A peasant in a rural district 
 of one of the German cantons was asked why he and his fellow 
 villagers always seemed to vote against the measures that were 
 supported by the member whom they returned to the Legis- 
 lative Assembly. "Well, you see," was the reply, "it is like 
 this. If we say 'Yes,' it is nothing, but if we say 'No,' that is 
 something for us." The adverse vote alone appears to be an 
 exercise of power. Something must be allowed for this among 
 the more ignorant portions of the people, but not too much. 
 
 There is in addition a truly favourable strain of conservatism 
 
224 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 in the people. They will not vote for any large measure of 
 centralised radicalism suddenly thrust before them. Their 
 tendency is to prefer the canton which they know to the larger, 
 vaguer entity of the federation. "My shirt is nearer to me 
 than my coat," is their homely proverb. Besides, they are 
 not easily swept off their feet by some taking theory into giv- 
 ing large new powers to any sort of government. They want 
 to feel sure how it will work out, especially as regards taxation 
 and revenue. 
 
 If this is conservatism, no doubt upon the whole the Swiss 
 people is conservative, and to that extent the referendum 
 worked conservatively. But can real progress be got faster 
 than accords with the actual temperament and wishes of the 
 people? That is the real issue, if we are seeking to estimate 
 the worth of the referendum as an instrument of progress. It 
 may be true, as Mr. Lowell, for example, holds, that "the 
 people are really more conservative than their representatives," * 
 though the reason given, the popular rejection of radical meas- 
 ures accepted by the Assembly, is not quite convincing, for some 
 allowance must be made for the feeling of doubtful represen- 
 tatives, when a measure regarding the merits of which they 
 entertain no clear conviction comes up for consideration. 
 They will be more readily inclined to give their formal assent, 
 because they know that the ultimate and real decision rests 
 with the people. A member who would not vote for a law 
 if he knew his vote gave immediate validity to it will often vote 
 for it if the real meaning of his vote is that the people are thereby 
 enabled to consider and determine it. A law rejected by the 
 Assembly will not be put to the people, a law accepted may 
 upon demand be put; this being so, an affirmative vote in the 
 Assembly will often express not a complete confidence in the 
 utility of the law, but a desire to saddle the people with the real 
 responsibility of rejection. 
 
 1 Vol. II, p. 269. 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 225 
 
 But suppose it were admitted, as indeed is not unlikely, 
 that the greater knowledge and higher average intelligence of 
 the representatives does make them more progressive than 
 the people. Are we thereby forced to the conclusion that the 
 referendum blocks or retards progress ? Only if it be assumed 
 that the passing of the largest number of formally progressive 
 laws constitutes progress. There are indeed some social re- 
 formers who appear to think that it is their duty to get them- 
 selves elected into office by electors who do not know how 
 " advanced" they are, in order that they may use their legis- 
 lative power to put on the statute book laws which express, not 
 the actual will of the people, but what "ought" to be their will 
 if they were as wise as their representatives. Now of this mode 
 of forcing the pace of legislation it may be said that it is not 
 democracy and it is not progress. No law is good per se, and 
 true progress is not secured, but is actually retarded, by getting 
 on to the statute book measures not acceptable to the people. 
 The abiding tendency of the Swiss people has been to insist 
 upon their Legislature accommodating the laws to the state of 
 public opinion. This has sometimes meant a good deal of 
 modification and of compromise, weakening the theoretic 
 efficacy of a law, as in the case of the Alcohol Monopoly and the 
 Factory Law. We have seen that even the interests and the 
 prejudices of large sections of the people must be taken into 
 account in framing a law : offence must not be given to powerful 
 industries, local machinery of government must be preferred, 
 expenses must be kept down. It seems quite possible that 
 representative government, endowed with full legislative author- 
 ity, might produce a larger crop of technically better laws in a 
 given time. 
 
 But this "forced" progressive legislation suffers from two 
 defects which outweigh its superficial advantages. In the first 
 place, the excellence of a law largely depends upon the excel- 
 lence of its administration, and a law passed in opposition to, 
 
226 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 or in advance of, the general sentiment, will of necessity be ill- 
 administered. This will be particularly true of nations accus- 
 tomed to liberty in thought and action and resentful of public 
 acts that offend their convenience or sense of justice. The 
 difficulty of enforcing liquor legislation, compulsory school 
 attendance, or factory regulations, that are opposed to the 
 wishes of large sections of citizens, is a notorious example of 
 the waste of progress in passing laws without due considera- 
 tion of the actual sentiments of the people. 
 
 In Switzerland, with the fear of the people continually before 
 their eyes, legislators must mould their measures to fit the 
 practical requirements of the situation; they must go to their 
 constituents and try to ascertain what the people want, so that 
 they may hammer the theoretically good law into the sort of 
 goodness that fits the people; perhaps, as in the nationalisa- 
 tion of the railroads and the national bank, they must make 
 several "tryings on" before they get a " fit" which the customer 
 consents to wear. Is not this a saner method than that their 
 customer must take and wear a suit of clothes which must be 
 well made because it fits the Apollo Belvedere? 
 
 Every true democrat rightly resents the "We know better 
 what you want than you know yourself" attitude adopted by 
 many defenders of the superiority of representative institution. 
 A law, like a coat, must be made to fit the wearer, and the one 
 to determine whether it does fit must be the wearer himself, 
 not the tailor. 
 
 But not merely does a law passed in advance of public opinion 
 by the superior intelligence of elected persons suffer from ill- 
 administration, it suffers also from insecurity. A law forced 
 on to the statute book against the will of the people may be 
 undone by a change in the composition of Parliament. Radical 
 measures which have won unpopularity because the country 
 was not "ripe" for them, may be the cause of the return of a 
 conservative majority which will repeal them. Indeed, a 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 227 
 
 growing practical defect of representative government with 
 party legislation is that the passing of a law carries with it no 
 finality, and that a large proportion of the energy and time of 
 legislative bodies is devoted to repealing or amending the laws 
 passed by their predecessors. This waste is inevitable under a 
 Constitution which furnishes no way by which to test whether a 
 law is or is not acceptable to the people who are to obey it. 
 
 It will be generally agreed that it is essential to the sound 
 operation of a particular law, and indeed to the general con- 
 fidence in the art of government, that a sense of permanency 
 shall be attached to laws. No other method secures this so 
 well as the referendum. It acts as an economy of the time and 
 energy not merely of the representative legislature but of the 
 people. It is not the least service of the referendum that it 
 puts ideas and feelings which claim political attention to an 
 ordeal. Under representative government a political project 
 may engage public attention, arousing hopes and alarms for 
 an indefinite time: the wildest and most foolish proposals may 
 float about the public mind in empty phrases and platform cries, 
 making or marring the fortunes of statesmen and parties, and 
 corrupting the popular intelligence. No one is able to know 
 how much support a project has or how much enthusiasm there 
 is behind it. Even after it has entered the arena of practical 
 politics, has been the subject of resolutions in the Houses of 
 Congress, has been put into legislative form and voted down, 
 it is not killed, but is liable to come up again and again if it 
 contains any plausibility or seems useful for vote- catching at 
 elections. Thus politicians are in constant dread of ghosts and 
 chimeras whose unsubstantiality they cannot prove and whose 
 reappearances they cannot exorcise. 
 
 In Switzerland it is different. If any plausible proposal 
 comes up in politics, its backers know that the only way to 
 secure serious attention for it is to put it to the test provided by 
 the Constitution. Unless they are able to obtain enough sup- 
 
228 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 port to get the formal registry of the Assembly so that it may 
 go to the referendum, and can secure the necessary number of 
 votes for the referendum demand, they cannot make good their 
 claim for its importance; if it is submitted to the people and is 
 voted down by a large majority, its fate is settled, if not for 
 good, at any rate for a long period of time. The converse also 
 holds. When a law is once accepted by the people, after the 
 period of canvass and discussion that supervenes between its 
 acceptance by the Assembly and the referendum, the seal of 
 finality is set upon this act of policy; its stoutest adversaries 
 usually accept the inevitable, willing to make the best of it. 
 Reversal of the people's will thus formally and deliberately 
 expressed is not contemplated as a serious possibility. 
 
 Here then we have one answer to the objection that the refer- 
 endum retards progress. It may, perhaps does, lengthen the 
 time between the early inception and the act of legislation, and 
 may moderate the rigour of the law; but the laws that are thus 
 sanctioned are better expressions of the popular will, are better 
 received and administered, and have more security of per- 
 manence. This means more progress in the long run. 
 
 Even where parliamentary government is taken at its best, 
 with a party system free from all the grosser forms of corruption, 
 the referendum would form a serviceable support and com- 
 plement, affording a peaceful test for closely contested issues, 
 and associating the people with the work of government in a 
 manner calculated to increase the popular respect for law. 
 Every one values more that which he has had a hand in making. 
 
 But where party, falls under the dominion of a machine 
 operated by economic interests, utilising every known art of 
 corruption and manipulation in order to bend public policy to 
 private ends, by procuring laws favourable to their interests, it 
 is difficult to devise any remedy so efficacious as the substitu- 
 tion of direct government for that indirect government which 
 has broken down. 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 229 
 
 Some degree of efficacy may indeed attend the efforts to 
 restore and improve the reality of representation by checking 
 corrupt practices, by securing the greater freedom of the pri- 
 maries, by imposing educational qualifications for the franchise, 
 or by introducting methods of proportionate representation. 
 But the final triumph of each or all these reforms of repre- 
 sentative procedure is doubtful. They may result in converting 
 the two-party system of England or the United States into the 
 multiple-party system, into which parliamentary government 
 has lapsed in most continental countries, leading to the pro- 
 motion of legislation by a series of underground deals among 
 the different groups, representing political, racial, business, or 
 religious sects. 
 
 It is difficult to decide which yields the worst results, a two- 
 party system run by powerful party autocrats in the interest of 
 their paymasters, or the unstable group-system whose weakness 
 forces government to rest more and more upon a powerful and 
 practically uncontrolled bureaucracy. 
 
 A chief claim for the referendum is that it weakens party 
 government and renders the machine innocuous. To the 
 orthodox parliamentarian this will appear a perilous admission, 
 for to him party and party organisation are essentials of good 
 government. Hence the language of M. Deploige on the 
 proposed referendum in Belgium. 
 
 "Parties are a necessity in a parliamentary system, and in 
 spite of their exaggerations and inconveniences they are a 
 distinct benefit in our country. They are the intermediaries 
 between the mass of the electors and the leaders. They group 
 and educate the citizens, they register the echoes of general 
 opinions, they subject complaints to a sifting process, they 
 recommend moderation to the turbulent, and tabulate the 
 important matters in the order which seems to them most 
 useful. 
 
 Once you divide them, break up their ranks, and destroy 
 
230 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 their programmes, you will have deprived the people of their 
 necessary guides, and you will only have before you a great 
 multitude of errant or indifferent electors." 1 
 
 To Americans who have seen the most complete develop- 
 ment of party organisation, M. Deploige's rhapsody will seem 
 a humorous travesty. The "education" of the citizen, the 
 "moderation," the "intermediation," and above all the "tabu- 
 lation" of important matters, "in the order which seems to 
 them most useful," are expressions which carry a sinister sig- 
 nificance to students of the American party and its machine. 
 It is precisely because each one of these theoretically service- 
 able functions has in practice become so distorted and corrupted 
 as to form a separate menace to good government, that sober 
 citizens are seeking earnestly for methods of diminishing the 
 power of party. That party systems and party spirit have 
 been of immense value at certain epochs of national develop- 
 ment, no one will dispute. Whenever and so long as some 
 single issue or line of public policy, absorbing the political 
 attention of a people, divides them sharply into two opposing 
 camps, the necessities of the situation render close party or- 
 ganisation necessary. But when the dominant idea or prin- 
 ciple which formed the cleavage and inspired the party has 
 died or departed, leaving the living organism to lapse into the 
 form of a machine, no longer tenanted by a soul, but driven 
 by forces generated from economic interests and pumped into 
 the system to simulate a soul, each sort of service party is 
 capable of rendering becomes a separate vice, the worst of which, 
 perhaps, is "education." 
 
 Indeed, quite apart from the perversion of the party system, 
 a really intelligent democracy is inconsistent with strong party 
 adhesion. In modern politics, where so many diverse issues 
 of importance involving different principles and standards come 
 up for settlement, honest and intelligent citizens cannot give 
 
 1 p. xxiv. 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 231 
 
 that constant allegiance to party which was possible when a 
 single principle or policy was paramount. Political education, 
 if it is real, negates the possibility of such constant co-operation 
 as is required to give validity to party. Indeed, we may go 
 further and contend that the maintenance of an effective party 
 system is inherently inconsistent with real democracy. For 
 the kind of authority and discipline demanded for party or- 
 ganisation emphasises the distinction between leaders and 
 followers, and whatever formal provision may be made for the 
 liberties of the rank and file, the real power will pass into the 
 hands of "bosses," who will be swayed by private interest or 
 by the zest of the party game, while the practical impotence of 
 the masses will breed apathy. If we are to have a really edu- 
 cated live democracy, responsibility must be brought home to 
 the individual citizen, and this is impossible so long as he is 
 taught to lean on and defer to party. 
 
 Party names and organisations have not indeed entirely 
 disappeared in Switzerland, but their meaning and importance 
 are slight. One hears of Liberals, Conservatives, Socialists, 
 and Labour Men as forming "parties," and giving a party vote 
 to certain measures. Something of the same import which 
 these names would carry in America or England adheres to 
 them in Switzerland; but comparatively few citizens would be 
 described or would describe themselves as "belonging to" this 
 or that party, and the same holds of the organs of the press, 
 which do so much of the "education" for which party is sup- 
 posed to stand. Even among politicians party allegiance is 
 extremely loose, and excepting on certain few issues and in the 
 less enlightened rural districts, where race and religious author- 
 ity carry great weight, the party vote is a somewhat incalculable 
 quantity. 
 
 Under the dominion of the representative system the hier- 
 archy of influences runs, party, men, measures. Under the 
 dominion of a sovereign people it runs, measures, men, party. 
 
232 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 Not that there is less political organization in Switzerland than 
 elsewhere. There is more. But citizens group themselves in 
 leagues, societies, or in purely temporary associations, for the 
 promotion of particular acts or lines of policy. Such organisa- 
 tions, of course, are found also under close representative govern- 
 ment, but the work is weakened by clashing with the interests 
 and activities of party. In Switzerland the initiators or enthu- 
 siasts of an idea which they wish to embody in a public policy 
 can devote the whole of the energy to the single task of educating 
 the electorate. In that work they will not encounter the bitter 
 opposition of the party machinist, fearful of touching a project, 
 the popularity of which is not assured. They cannot hope to 
 carry through their project by cajolery or menace or log-rolling 
 in the lobby of the party convention or the house; in order to 
 succeed they must convert the people. They must, no doubt, 
 cultivate the art of compromise; but compromise in order to 
 conciliate bodies of voters by abating the asperities of a project 
 is, as we have seen, essential to the wholesome action of democ- 
 racy, and differs widely from the baneful compromises often 
 forced upon the political managers of a law in its tortuous 
 wanderings through the legislative houses. 
 
 Indeed no stronger argument for the efficacy of the referen- 
 dum can be found than is afforded by a study of the difference 
 in the mode of "educating" public opinion in Switzerland and 
 in the United States. The vital difference is this. In Switzer- 
 land the early education is done by men who are genuinely con- 
 vinced of the utility of their proposal. This was the case in the 
 Nationalisation of Railroads campaign, the Alcohol Monopoly 
 campaign, the struggle for the Federal Factory Law, etc. The 
 speeches and writings by which the education was conducted 
 were directed to the merits of the issue, and though appeals 
 were doubtless made both to interests and prejudices, both 
 sides of the case, stated with ability and honesty, were pretty 
 certain to get to the ears and eyes of the ordinary citizen. It 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 233 
 
 was necessary to persuade the citizen that this measure was 
 socially advantageous, and even if the citizen also scrutinised 
 it closely to see whether it was a private gain or damage to him- 
 himself, this is an ineradicable weakness in politics. 
 
 In the United States an educative campaign, to have any 
 chance of success, must in almost all cases be undertaken by a 
 party. Instead of going straight to the people the proposers 
 of a measure will go to the party managers, the latter will scru- 
 tinise it, not to see whether it is in itself sound and serviceable, 
 but whether it is capable of being so presented as a plank in the 
 party programme as to evoke enthusiasm. If the party takes it 
 up, the method of education differs very widely from that em- 
 ployed under a free democracy. Education for enthusiasm is 
 not the same thing as education for conviction. Party propa- 
 ganda distorts and exaggerates everything it touches; appealing 
 primarily to attached adherents, it need not meet the arguments 
 of the opponents, for partisans do not listen to both sides. Even 
 if the project is unpalatable to a section of the party, it may be 
 forced upon them as a plank of the party platform. Accepted 
 in this spirit the legislative proposal may be made a mandate 
 to elected persons by the votes of citizens who have never given 
 any separate consideration to the proposal on its merits, or who, 
 having considered it, object, but swallow their objection because 
 of party! 
 
 Now, under Swiss democracy the fangs of political corruption, 
 operative through "the machine," are drawn. Trusts, rail- 
 roads, and other great capitalist organisations cannot control 
 politics. It is possible to "influence" and even to "buy" 
 legislatures, but it is impossible to buy the people. Even the 
 railroad companies and the distilleries, two of the most potent 
 business forces in the country, could not make a serious attempt 
 to tamper with the popular vote in matters so important to them 
 as the scale and mode of compensation when their businesses 
 were nationalised. 
 
234 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 In conversation Herr Forcer thus emphasises that fact: 
 " There is no cure for the ills of capitalism so sure and com- 
 plete as democracy. It is absolutely impossible to be sure that 
 the people will vote as you want them to do. You cannot either 
 force them or persuade them with certainty. Give the people 
 the referendum and the initiative; let them vote often enough 
 on public questions, and it will be impossible for corruption to 
 exist. Have a campaign once in a while, have an election of 
 representatives whose laws are not submitted to the people, 
 and it may be possible to corrupt the public, but not when they 
 can vote five or six times a year." 
 
 Concrete proposals, not party, become the basis of organisa- 
 tion and of education under direct democracy. Leagues and 
 societies for the promotion of single issues or lines of policy thus 
 tend to displace general " party" organisation. The political 
 machinist can no longer pump his will down the machine, and 
 by rigging primaries, imposing delegates, packing conventions, 
 dictating programmes, manipulating committees, convert a 
 notion or an aspiration into a law which the people is bound on 
 penalty to obey. 
 
 Neither can he use the same machinery to prevent the strong 
 definite desire of the majority from taking legislative form. 
 Since he can no longer determine the fate of a law, or the dis- 
 posal of public money, or the bestowal of lucrative offices, or 
 procure immunity for breaches of the law, his paymasters will 
 no longer pay him for goods he is no longer able to deliver, and 
 so the machine can no longer be worked as a profit. 
 
 Thus the party system inevitably withers under the growth of 
 direct democracy. If the vote of the entire people must confirm 
 every important and contested act, if the people can force any 
 measure to the test of a popular vote which has legislative 
 validity, the despotism of the machine is broken, and party, 
 abandoning the preposterous position it has usurped, resumes 
 its modest place as a loose voluntary association of like-minded 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 235 
 
 citizens working for a common policy which is wider and more 
 continuous than that of separate leagues that devote themselves 
 to ripening some one concrete proposal for legislative action. 
 
 The referendum and the initiative have broken party govern- 
 ment in Switzerland. 
 
 To the stalwart parliamentarian this seems to negate the con- 
 duct of representative government. How can ministers pre- 
 serve unity of policy or even formulate with confidence a policy 
 at all, unless they are assured of the steady support of a ma- 
 jority of members of the legislative assembly, and how can this 
 support be assured without strong party organisation ? 
 
 The sovereignty of the people, directly exercised in acts of 
 policy, neither demands, nor is consistent with, the doctrine and 
 practice of collective ministerial responsibility, as known either 
 in the United States or in Great Britain. The Swiss Ministry, 
 the members of the Federal Council, though primarily ranking 
 as the executive authority, have important legislative functions. 
 The Council can draft and introduce legislative proposals, and 
 can propose and discuss them in the Assembly, though their 
 members have neither seats nor votes. In fact, the framing of 
 the legislative policy rests largely with the Council. The latter, 
 if it is to get through its measures, must, in the first instance, 
 rely on the support of a majority in the two houses. But this 
 majority it cannot command through the bond of party alle- 
 giance, for in the first place there is no presumption that the 
 Federal Council itself unanimously approves the measure in- 
 troduced by one of its members in its name, or even that the 
 members of the Federal Council are all adherents of the same 
 party. If a measure favoured by the Federal Council 
 fails to get the vote of the houses, it may still become law through 
 the use of the formulated initiative and the referendum, while 
 the acceptance of the two houses does not secure the measure 
 if, on submission to the people, an adverse vote is given. Not 
 only the loose condition of parties but the exercise of direct 
 
236 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 popular legislative power negatives the practice of collective 
 cabinet responsibility. 
 
 "The Federal Council represents no one body in the Federal 
 Assembly. It is usually composed of members of the left and 
 centre groups — that is to say, of Radicals and Liberal- Con- 
 servatives; but in 1891 a member of the extreme right, Dr. 
 Zemp, the clerical representative of Lucerne, was elected Coun- 
 cillor, and in 1894 was promoted by a three- to-one vote of a 
 dominantly Radical Assembly to the office of President. Nor 
 is it even necessary that the majority of the Council should 
 share the opinion of the majority of the Assembly. From 1876 
 to 1883 four of the seven members were Liberals and three 
 Radicals, though the majority of the people's representatives 
 were Radicals. 
 
 "It follows from this non-party character that the federal 
 executive is not expected to be unanimous. No measure, it is 
 true, may be brought before the Assembly unless it has received 
 the votes of the other ministers, but it is a mere matter of form, 
 and a Councillor feels himself in no way bound to support a bill 
 of his colleague because he has been obliging enough to give 
 it his vote in order that it may be debated in the Assembly. 
 What is more, he has no hesitation in opposing it openly, and 
 members of the Council have even been known to argue against 
 each other in the Assembly. 
 
 "To Englishmen it would seem impossible that an executive 
 made up of persons of different political views, and uncon- 
 nected by any ties of party loyalty, should constitute a strong 
 and efficient administrative body. One would expect such a 
 casual coalition to spend its time in quarrels and fruitless dis- 
 cussions. As a matter of fact, however, it works very smoothly. 
 This is partly due to the placid dispositions of the Swiss Coun- 
 cillors and their willingness to accept a compromise. But such 
 a result could not be possible if the Federal Council were in 
 any sense a "responsible Cabinet," obliged themselves to lay 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 237 
 
 before Parliament and the country a distinct policy, and ex- 
 pected to resign collectively or individually if that policy or any 
 part of it were defeated. No idea of responsible leadership 
 enters into the relationship between the Federal Council and the 
 Federal Assembly. Each minister is elected as an executive 
 official to carry out within his own department the will of the 
 Assembly and ultimately of the whole electorate." 1 
 
 In other words, as the referendum, by destroying the technical 
 and moral strength of party, educates and emphasises the indi- 
 vidual responsibility of the ordinary citizen, through imposing 
 on him acts of judgment in concrete issues of policy, so it oper- 
 ates similarly both in the legislative houses and in the Federal 
 Council. Members of the House are not impelled by con- 
 siderations of party allegiance to subordinate their personal 
 judgment upon the merits of a measure to the party view, speak- 
 ing and voting, not according to their freely formed opinions, 
 but according to the coercion of a party whip. So in the 
 Federal Council the fact that two or more parties may be and 
 usually are represented is a guarantee for the effective criticism of 
 measures which cannot exist where a Cabinet is drawn entirely 
 from one party, while the separate individual responsibility of 
 each minister enables each act of policy to be determined upon 
 its merits, which cannot be the case where its adverse fate may 
 involve a party crisis and a change of government. 
 
 As in the general evolution of punishment a definite step in 
 ethical advance is marked by the substitution of individual for 
 tribal or family responsibility, as embodied in the maxim, "The 
 soul that sinneth it shall die," so in the sphere of politics, when 
 it becomes feasible to confine the responsibility to individual 
 ministers, a similar ethical and political advance takes place. 
 When a particular law is in point of fact the creation of an indi- 
 vidual minister, it is unreasonable and inexpedient that his 
 
 1 Miss Thom (Mrs. Knowles), Introduction to Deploige's The Referendum 
 in Switzerland, p. xxvi. 
 
238 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 colleagues, most of whom may have taken little actual share 
 in its preparation, and some of whom may have strongly opposed 
 its main principles, should be assumed to be in complete accord 
 with its author, and to be equally blameworthy with him in 
 case it turns out a failure. It may well be admitted that this 
 false pretence of unanimity is inevitable under a purely repre- 
 sentative system, but the possibility of superseding it by a mode 
 of procedure which more correctly interprets the real facts 
 must be accounted a great political advantage. The amount 
 and the nature of the " concessions " involved in the doctrine 
 of collective ministerial responsibility are felt to be degrading 
 by politicians of nice conscience, and serve to deprive the public 
 service of some of its most valuable servants. The same is true 
 of the dominion of the party system and spirit in the houses; 
 the inhibition of free and fearless individual judgment and its 
 expression involves a similar perversion of truth. That a num- 
 ber of men, chosen to speak and vote in accordance with their 
 personal interpretation of the true public interest involved in 
 acts of policy should habitually subordinate this duty to the 
 cause of party is in reality a mode of misrepresentation. Under 
 the strict party system there is upon each issue a false dramatisa- 
 tion of judgment which presents two sharply antagonistic views 
 instead of the ten, twelve, or twenty variant views which would 
 appear if members were free to form and to express a judgment 
 of their own. 
 
 In Switzerland, where a ministry need not resign when an 
 important measure drafted by it is rejected either by the houses 
 or by the nation, where even the individual minister in charge 
 of the rejected measure can retain his seat, the interests of the 
 public are far better served than by a collective responsibility 
 which implies either a false unanimity or a frequent change of 
 personnel. 
 
 It is, however, charged against the Swiss system that, by 
 diminishing the legislative power, enjoyed by the Federal Coun- 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 239 
 
 cil and the Federal Assembly, a loss not merely of collective 
 but of individual responsibility is incurred. Not merely can a 
 member of the government retain his place after his measure 
 is defeated, but an ordinary member of the Assembly is not 
 necessarily rejected by his constituents at the next election 
 because they disapprove of votes which he has given. 
 
 If, upon the whole, they like and trust their member, they 
 will return him, though they are aware that upon one or more of 
 the leading issues of the day he does not voice their view; for 
 when the matter comes to the referendum they can undo the 
 effect of his vote in the Assembly. 
 
 This seems to imply that neither minister nor member wields 
 the same amount of power as in America or Great Britain. 
 Able men who value personal power, and are qualified to use it 
 well, will, it is argued, be reluctant to enter political life under 
 these conditions, while those who are there will view their 
 legislative functions too lightly. 
 
 Nor, it is contended, is this diminished responsibility of repre- 
 sentatives compensated by increased responsibility in the 
 people. In a representative body the members are under the 
 eye of the public; they are responsible and feel it. But in a 
 vote of the whole people every individual is lost and people vote 
 by blind instinct, selfishness, or passion. Such is the contention 
 of the opponents of the referendum. 
 
 The issue of responsibility is indeed a critical one. But the 
 comparative politics of to-day do not support this interpreta- 
 tion. It is not true, as we have seen, that the representative 
 system in America, or even in Europe, anywhere supports or 
 permits a high degree of real responsibility in the individual 
 members of a party. In particular the movement for the 
 referendum and the initiative is everywhere inspired by the 
 conviction of the people that the responsibility of representa- 
 tives is not and cannot be secured. On the other hand, it does 
 not appear that a referendum, as exercised in Switzerland, is a 
 
24 o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 blind movement of a mob-mind. Our inquiry into the history 
 of the most important acts of policy done by the referendum 
 shows that in nearly every case a genuine education of the elec- 
 torate is involved and that sudden instinctive passionate action 
 is extremely rare. 
 
 That a referendum of the Swiss people is a fully enlightened 
 expression of the general will, embodying the keen responsi- 
 bility of all or most of its individual members, cannot be pre- 
 tended. A considerable proportion of the more inert electors 
 do not vote. Indeed the large percentage who refuse to take 
 part in the referendum is sometimes made a reproach against 
 it, though without much reason. For when the actual con- 
 firmation or rejection of a law is achieved by a vote which is 
 less than half of the total electorate, the general will is none the 
 less effective. Those who are too ignorant or indifferent to 
 vote may fairly be disregarded, and the decision of a majority 
 of actual voters, however small the actual number of recorded 
 votes may be, is still entitled to rank as the true expression of 
 the national will. 1 
 
 The altered attitude towards the responsibility of ministers 
 and members of Parliament, which direct democracy has brought 
 about, has had the beneficial effect of securing a far higher 
 continuity in political offices than is possible under representa- 
 tive government. 
 
 The Federal Council indeed partakes very largely of the 
 character of a permanent official service. From 1848 to 1895 
 there were only thirty- three Federal Councillors, the average 
 period of office being over ten years, only two cases being 
 recorded of Councillors failing to obtain re-election when they 
 stood for it. The same holds, though not quite to the same 
 extent, of membership in the Federal Assembly. It is not 
 deemed necessary to dismiss a valued and experienced public 
 
 1 Analysis of the votings from 1874 to 1895 shows that they varied from 
 71.9 per cent of the electorate to 43.5 per cent. 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 241 
 
 servant because you disagree with some of the votes he gives, 
 for the referendum enables you to correct his errors. In 1887 
 only forty per cent of the seats were contested; in the 1896 
 election there were only twenty-five new members out of one 
 hundred and sixty in the National Council, and only eight 
 new members in the Council of States. 1 This means very 
 little excitement about elections, no elaborate electioneering, 
 no disturbance of business and no corruption. 
 
 The net result is that the legislative and executive functions 
 are mostly fulfilled by men of considerable experience, and a 
 high degree of continuity of administration is secured. 
 
 To a large extent, it may be said, the government is in the 
 hands of "professional politicians,'' but the stigma which 
 attaches to this designation under the party system, when the 
 politician is a servant of the machine, keeping one eye on the 
 "boss," the other on the "spoils," entirely disappears when 
 direct democracy has ousted the machine. 
 
 Of course it is true that the stability thus given to political 
 officers implies that they are less susceptible to the changing 
 play of public opinion than would otherwise be the case. The 
 Federal Council in particular goes its own way, considering, 
 preparing, and drafting measures to be recommended to the 
 houses, without keeping its ear continually to the ground, or 
 calculating how the present popularity or unpopularity of a 
 proposal will operate at the next elections. 
 
 The stability thus imparted to the elected officers goes very 
 far to offset the diminished prerogative in legislation which 
 the referendum and initiative imply. It is not true, as is some- 
 times held, that the practical effect of this popular exercise of 
 legislative powers is to reduce Parliament to the condition of 
 a mere advisory committee with no real authority. 
 
 Though the formal sovereignty is vested in the people, the 
 fact that they can override the decisions of the elected assem- 
 
 1 Deploige, pp. xxviii and xxix. 
 
24* A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 blies does not make the debates and votes of these bodies 
 negligible factors. The assemblies are strong, and wield a 
 very genuine authority, because their members are known and 
 respected. It follows indeed upon the continuity of office, and 
 from the habit of close frequent contact with the people which 
 direct democracy requires, that most important Swiss states- 
 men are personally known better and more widely than is the 
 case with the statesmen of other nations. Not only have men 
 of the stamp of Numa Droz and Forrer wielded a personal 
 authority in politics which, operative partly through the elected 
 legislature, partly by direct action on the popular mind, is 
 probably as great as that exercised by any great party leader 
 such as Blaine in America or Gladstone in England, but men of 
 the second rank in light and leading obtain at least as large a 
 meed of influence and honour as in those countries where their 
 direct personal determination of political issues is greater. 
 
 Thus the referendum and initiative, though extirpating 
 many of the defects and abuses which party domination fastens 
 upon representative institutions, does not destroy the repre- 
 sentative system or sterilise its useful functions. So far as it 
 is possible to form a judgment, the Swiss get out of their elected 
 officers at least as valuable services as any other nation and 
 hold them in as high esteem. The influence of members of 
 the Legislature is primarily due, not so much to the power 
 attaching to their office, as to the personal reputation they 
 enjoy among their constituents and among the nation at large; 
 for the direct co-operation of the people with the legislative 
 assemblies in the making of laws brings the representative 
 into close and constant touch with his constituency. If he is 
 a man whose knowledge, experience, and judgment carry weight, 
 his real legislative power will not be confined to his speech and 
 vote in the Assembly. When an important issue is before the 
 country, especially in the educative interval between the passage 
 of a law by the houses and its submission to a referendum, 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 243 
 
 his voice will be at the service of the electorate for exposition 
 and for conference, and the fact that he is known to be no ser- 
 vile partisan whose seat and political career will be imperilled 
 if the issue goes against his party gives greater value to his 
 counsel and enables him to exert a larger measure of personal 
 influence in the determination of the popular vote. 
 
 This brings us to the true test of democracy in Switzerland 
 as elsewhere, the question how to secure the free play of the 
 general will expressing itself in concrete acts of government 
 through the multitudinous units of intelligent personality. 
 Merely representative government is not democracy, however 
 wide the franchise, however proportionate the representation, 
 because it embodies no provision fastening a conscious contin- 
 uous responsibility upon the minds of the citizen-voters. This 
 can only be secured by associating the electorate, not with 
 some general selection of members of Parliament at regular 
 or irregular intervals of several years, but with the direct 
 distinct indorsement of acts of policy. Defenders of the rep- 
 resentative system are compelled to admit that sound represent- 
 ation depends upon the political intelligence of the electorate 
 and their realisation of the nature of the legislative functions 
 members are called upon to exercise, as well as upon their 
 general confidence in the character of the candidate for whom 
 they vote. Now this intelligence and this realisation are not 
 adequately stimulated and sustained by mere participation 
 in the choice of persons who are to legislate for the people. 
 Still less is this the case where party organisation has such 
 control of the electoral machinery as to designate the can- 
 didate, select and misrepresent the issue, and fan the flame 
 of party spirit among the electorate. In a representative par- 
 liament thus elected there is no adequate security that the 
 measures passed command the free intelligent support of the 
 majority of legislators, still less that they express the will of 
 the people. If government by the people for the people is 
 
244 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 desirable, it can only be secured by giving the people an effec- 
 tive veto on the acts of those to whom they have accorded a 
 general power of agency, accompanied by an initiative enabling 
 them to compel consideration and submission of issues which 
 come up in a form or at a time that precludes the pressure of 
 a mandate through the ordinary channels of election. 
 
 By no other means does it seem possible to stimulate that 
 intelligent participation of the people in government which is 
 democracy, to ensure that any single act of the Legislature 
 commands the support of a majority of the people, and so to 
 secure that chief economy of political progress, the general 
 confidence in the wisdom and stability of acts of policy that 
 are "broad-based upon a people's will." 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 THE FREQUENCY OF VOTING 
 
 Those who are unfamiliar with the working of the referendum 
 often express alarm at the frequency of voting which they 
 think it must involve. In point of fact the tax upon the ma- 
 chinery of government and the time and trouble of the elec- 
 torate is not heavy. The forty- seven votes taken on federal 
 laws and amendments during the thirty- two years, 1 874-1 906, 
 involved only thirty-four separate votings, just over one per 
 annum. To these may be added four separate votings on the 
 six uses of the initiative. 
 
 Even in those cantons, the majority, in which the compul- 
 sory referendum is employed, the burden, though heavier, 
 cannot be considered intolerable. In Zurich, for example, 
 there were submitted to the people during the years 1869 to 
 1893 one hundred and twenty-eight measures, ninety-nine of 
 which were accepted and twenty-nine rejected. But as a 
 rule these votes are taken in batches at a spring and an autumn 
 
REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE 245 
 
 voting, three or four laws being presented at the same time. 
 In Berne, where the referendum is also obligatory, the people 
 voted on ninety-seven cantonal measures between 1869 and 
 1896. 
 
 The citizens also have to vote upon municipal affairs. The 
 burden of the triple obligation to the commune, the canton, 
 and the Confederation is, however, lightened in many in- 
 stances by an arrangement familiar to American voters, by 
 which a number of votes affecting the several areas of govern- 
 ment are taken at the same time and upon the same voting 
 paper. The citizen of Geneva or of Bale generally counts 
 upon six or seven separate invitations to record his judgment 
 during the twelve months. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE FRUITS OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 The account here given of the structure and working of Swiss 
 political institutions shows that the sovereignty of the people 
 is more complete, more direct, and more effective in its exer- 
 cise than in the United States. Within the individual state 
 there is for the most part no barrier upon the power of an abso- 
 lute majority to express itself in legislation, save on such mat- 
 ters as are expressly reserved for the federal government. 
 Neither Governor nor Senate possesses any veto which enables 
 them to thwart the desires of the people : the refusal of one or 
 both houses does not prevent the peoples in most of the can- 
 tons from passing their laws through the use of an initiative 
 and a referendum which overrides and disregards the elected 
 bodies; not only legislative but constitutional changes are 
 effected by the same bare majority. 
 
 In federal affairs, the maintenance of the concept of state 
 rights requires that constitutional changes should receive 
 the endorsement of a majority of the states as well as of the 
 general electorate, but here too a bare majority suffices; and 
 this power of the people to effect constitutional changes has, 
 through the " formulated initiative," developed into a prac- 
 tical power to initiate legislation which, though not complete, 
 goes very far towards giving to the people a competency of 
 legislation co-ordinate with, or, in case of conflict, superior to, 
 that of the legislative assemblies. The people can in effect 
 legislate independently of the legislative assemblies both in 
 the cantons and the federation: no veto of president or gov- 
 
 246 
 
THE FRUITS OF DEMOCRACY 247 
 
 ernor, or of one * or both of the houses, being technically com- 
 petent to check the power of the people to translate its will 
 into law. When the initiative for federal legislation is, as seems 
 likely to be the case, added to the "formulated initiative" 
 for constitutional changes, the technique for direct popular 
 law-making will be practically complete. None of the checks 
 which are so potent in America are here operative: there is 
 no president or governor whose consent must be won, no Su- 
 preme Court to pass upon the constitutionality of laws, no 
 indirectly elected Senate with specially reserved powers de- 
 signed to check the popularly elected House ; no three quarters 
 majority of states is required for constitutional amendment. 
 Executive officers in Switzerland are endowed with none of 
 the dictatorial powers they exercise, as president, governor, or 
 mayor, in the various governmental areas of America. Nor 
 is there any scrap of the baneful provisions for forming and 
 mechanising the free will of the people by forcing it to operate 
 through party machinery, which we find in America. With 
 a full and easy franchise, loose party attachments, no spoils, 
 and temporary organisation for specific issues, the will of the 
 people flows free, if not always well-informed, through the 
 broad provided channels of legislation. The referendum and, 
 to a less extent, the initiative, are definite calls to the free 
 individual exercise of civic duties of a more responsible and 
 therefore a more educative and ennobling character than the 
 party voting which elsewhere so commonly usurps the name. 
 The ideal of the Swiss is not to elect benevolent and honest 
 despots, to whom they shall transfer for long spells of office 
 the duty of governing for the people: the Swiss nation is to 
 govern for themselves, using officials just for what they are 
 worth and can be trusted to do. 
 
 We have seen them during the last half century steadily 
 and persistently moving towards a completion of direct demo- 
 
 1 Eighteen of the cantons have single chambers. 
 
248 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 cratic government in which all matters of debatable policy, 
 not involving sudden emergency, shall be determined by the 
 vote of the people, the representative councils being used as 
 consultative and preparatory instead of final legislative bodies. 
 The same people have also shown a growing disposition to 
 claim and use the right of modifying their constitutions, so 
 as to adapt them to the changing demands of modern life, 
 and to elect their executive officers directly instead of indirectly. 
 
 Endowed with these new powers, they have employed them 
 to effect a number of important legislative and constitutional 
 changes which have had important reactions upon the polit- 
 ical and economic structure of national life. Profoundly 
 influenced by sentiments of local self-government, and sus- 
 picious of any encroachments or even enlargement of the 
 federal power, they have nevertheless been led to take a 
 number of steps increasing the prerogatives of the central 
 government in matters involving not infrequently an actual 
 diminution of the governmental power of the cantons. 
 
 The driving force in most of these cases has been the actual 
 unity of national interests, imposed by the new conditions of 
 transport and of commerce, breaking up the economic separa- 
 tion of the cantons and their once self-sufficing valleys. The 
 railroad, the telegraph, the rise of large manufactures, the 
 tourist trade, to name the leading new economic circumstances, 
 forced an increased co-operation of the cantons, involving a 
 reflection of this increased union in the political institutions 
 of the nation. Swiss nationalism, as a conscious factor, is 
 not particularly strong, but it is growing, and is fed continually 
 by the new functions of the federal government which form 
 the chief outward and visible signs of the new national unity. 
 
 Differences of race and language, imbedded in ancient 
 territorial cleavages, make the process of national fusion slower 
 than has been the case in the United States, so that although 
 the activities of the federal government, as compared with 
 
THE FRUITS OF DEMOCRACY 249 
 
 tiiose of the state, are somewhat more numerous, and pene- 
 trate closer into the workaday life of the people than is the case 
 in America, the natural unity in Switzerland, psychologically 
 or sentimentally considered, is less advanced. This doubtless 
 is due in no small measure to the fact that federal laws are 
 almost entirely administered through cantonal officers, so that 
 in the most impressive forms of judicial procedure the majesty 
 of the Confederation is concealed. But the steady continual 
 growth of the structure and functions of the federal govern- 
 ment, and the slow growth of national feeling that accompanies 
 it, is a first and supremely significant product of Swiss democ- 
 racy. This significance is enhanced by the fact that theory 
 or wide-seeing statecraft has had little part in bringing it 
 about: the premature centralism of the first Napoleon was 
 speedily and almost wholly shaken off. Each step taken in 
 the march of federalism has been taken on its own account 
 and because it seemed to yield definite practical advantages 
 to the majority of the people. Yet the movement itself, as 
 we have seen, has not been slow and has given to the Swiss 
 federal government certain powers the lack of which is a 
 grave source of national weakness and waste to the sovereign 
 people of the United States. The national ownership of the 
 railroads and the national control over industrial legislation 
 are the most important instances of the superior federalism 
 of Switzerland, both the direct first fruits of the referendum. 
 The other trend of Swiss democracy with its free play of 
 popular legislative forces is towards carefully guarded forms 
 of experimental socialism. Alike in the commune, the canton, 
 and the Confederation, the power of the people is applied to 
 substitute public ownership for private monopoly, to safeguard 
 the community in their capacity of producers or consumers 
 against injuries incident upon the conduct of private business 
 enterprise, and finally to furnish out of public resources a sound 
 basis of opportunity, economic and intellectual, to the body 
 
2 5 o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 of citizens. These three chief socialistic tendencies of the 
 modern state are represented in Switzerland by a variety of 
 legislative experiments, set on foot to meet some concrete griev- 
 ance or to satisfy some definite felt want of the people. 
 
 As a tributary to this same stream of socialistic tendency we 
 may mention the progressive system of taxation adopted by a 
 growing number of the cantons, and applied to income, property, 
 and inheritance. When we bear in mind the retention of 
 considerable portions of public lands by the communes or by 
 semi-public trusts, we shall perceive that Swiss democracy 
 aims in one way or another at building up bulwarks of social 
 support which prevent her citizens sinking to the economic 
 status of mere proletarians, entirely dependent for the sub- 
 sistence of themselves and their families upon the precarious 
 sale of their labour power to capitalist employers. 
 
 This socialism is with them almost as instinctive and oppor- 
 tunist as their federalism. It nationalises the railroads, not 
 from any theory that the general highways ought to belong to 
 the people, but from the slowly growing pressure of a number 
 of practical considerations; it undertakes the alcohol trade, not 
 to stop drinking, but to check the ravages of a particularly 
 pernicious kind of spirit; it establishes cantonal banks, extends 
 factor}' legislation, promotes public schemes of insurance, to 
 meet the practical requirements of the people in the several 
 localities. 
 
 The achievements and the methods of this operative democ- 
 racy, as exhibited in the meagre sketch we have been able to 
 give, serve to furnish some plain indication of the character of 
 the people. Here, after all, lies the supreme test. What sort 
 of a people is it that expresses its free collective will through 
 the democracy, and what in return is the influence of the 
 democracy upon the character of the nation? 
 
 Some things may be said with certainty. We have not to 
 do with a policy moulded and motived by idealists or by bureau- 
 
THE FRUITS OF DEMOCRACY 251 
 
 cratic formalists. Though notions of political reform, here as 
 elsewhere, commonly take definite shape through individual 
 thinkers or statesmen or enthusiasts, they cannot, as is possible 
 in less popularly governed states, pass into policy straight from 
 the hands of their maker by a process of authoritative push. 
 Swiss democracy is an anvil upon which every project is ham- 
 mered out of its original shape before it becomes law; it must 
 receive the very impress of the popular will, not merely through 
 the formal vote which constitutes it law, but through the multi- 
 farious handling of council, commission, and assembly needed 
 to mould it into acceptable shape. Thus it comes about that 
 such a measure as the Alcohol Monopoly Law is directed with 
 special provisions, exceptions, and protective considerations 
 designed to allay suspicions, to conciliate interests, and to avert 
 antagonism. 
 
 As a logical or theoretic product the law suffers, but this 
 hammering has made it just so much more the creature of the 
 popular will and the better adapted to the actual work it was 
 designed to do. 
 
 The ordinary citizen is not shoemaker enough to cut and 
 make a pair of boots, but he knows better than any shoemaker 
 whether the boots made for him fit, he can tell where the pinch 
 is, and will send the boots back until they have been adapted to 
 his feet. This is the principle of the referendum; it imputes 
 no superstitious wisdom to the man in the street; the latter is 
 no legislative expert, but he knows his needs and those of his 
 neighbours, and he and they know when they are "suited" 
 with a law. Laws made under such conditions, like shoes, will 
 fit their wearers better. 
 
 A concomitant but hardly less important gain is that laws 
 are not multiplied needlessly, turned out wholesale by a legis- 
 lative machine, or (changing the metaphor) spawned by a 
 low-type organism. 
 
 The political peril of a multiplication of laws, so amply 
 
252 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 illustrated by the machine method of certain American states, 
 is no mere modern phenomenon. The damage done when any 
 individual or "interest" with sufficient "pull" can get a law 
 put on the statute book is summarised with epigrammatic mor- 
 dancy by Tacitus when, writing of the worst days of the Roman 
 Empire, he said "et in corruptissima republica plurimae leges." 
 In Switzerland only laws accommodated to the requirements of 
 the people are allowed to pass. Of course the people sometimes 
 make mistakes. One of the best effects of a practical applica- 
 tion of real democracy is to dispel the illusive halo of false 
 sentimentality with which mere theorists and orators have 
 decorated the principle of popular government. If the voice 
 of the people is in Switzerland "the voice of a God," no one 
 knows better than the ordinary Swiss citizen what a very 
 human sort of God it is that speaks through the popular vote. 
 But in collective as in individual man the "divine" grows only 
 by process of experience. 
 
 If there is ever to be a noble type of democracy, it can only 
 come from a less noble form gradually evolving by the exercise 
 of freedom in those determinate acts of choice which are the 
 making of the social personality. It is not difficult to find 
 flaws in the recent political conduct of the Swiss people: short- 
 sightedness, industrial class interest, religious bigotry, cantonal 
 jealousy, that narrowly practical view of life called materialism, 
 have found clear expression in not a few popular decisions. 
 An oligarchy of superior persons might have turned out laws 
 which escaped these flaws, but the technically better law- 
 making would have been worse for the people. A right under- 
 standing of democracy requires that the people should be free 
 not merely to make "good" laws but "bad" ones, to commit 
 those errors which express its lower nature and to learn from 
 the suffering it involves. 
 
 Every moralist is familiar with this truth as it applies 
 to the individual organism; though less willingly admitted, 
 
THE FRUITS OF DEMOCRACY 253 
 
 the truth has the same importance as a canon of collective 
 progress. 
 
 That Swiss democracy, the outcome of the national character 
 in its environment, produces wholesome reactions on that 
 character, no serious student of national psychology can doubt. 
 The consciousness of exercising popular sovereignty does make 
 some difference even in the bearing of the ordinary citizen. In 
 the less advanced cantons among the rural population, espe- 
 cially in the Catholic districts, there is perhaps as much igno- 
 rance of wider public issues as one would find among English 
 labourers in Dorset or Berkshire, though even there the Swiss 
 have some real though narrow training in the management of 
 local affairs virtually denied to English peasants. But a very 
 large and an ever-growing proportion of Swiss citizens main- 
 tain a more sustained and better- informed interest in the 
 politics of the canton and the Confederation than are found 
 among the people of corresponding social and economic status 
 in America or England. Though the majority may not take 
 their sovereignty very seriously, it is not possible for strangers 
 from less democratic lands to mix among them without recog- 
 nising that the fact of this sovereignty imparts a certain dignity 
 which is due to the direct impact of democracy on personality. 
 
 Step from Geneva over the neighbouring French boundary, 
 from one republic to another, you seem to feel the difference 
 between a self-governing and a bureaucratic over-centralised 
 state. The Swiss character, as it has been here exhibited, is 
 solid and practical, as becomes a people whose energy has 
 been chiefly engaged in winning a livelihood from a difficult 
 soil, in a trying climate, under natural conditions confining 
 co-operation and commerce to narrow areas. Civilisation and 
 culture in their full significance are plants of slow growth in 
 such a soil. Connoisseurs of culture will find even the most 
 developed of the Swiss cities lacking in "joie de vivre," and in 
 the more luxuriant beauties of the choicest cities of Italy, France, 
 
254 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 or Germany; though for the general level of comfort, health, 
 good order, and external equipment, Geneva, Zurich, Lausanne, 
 Berne, and Bale are probably superior to any other cities of 
 their size. In the creative activities of the fine arts and of 
 literature the Swiss do not excel, and though scientific curi- 
 osity is well cultivated, it yields high average products rather 
 than distinguished achievements. There is good reason to 
 regard the Swiss as sound ordinary human stuff, evolving under 
 rather arduous but fairly representative conditions towards a 
 type of society which expresses no particularly favoured set of 
 circumstances, such as have given brief brilliancy to other small 
 states in history, like Athens or Venice, but is indicative of 
 a slow popular self-development on a basis of political and 
 economic equality. 
 
 Normality is of course always a matter of degree, and it is 
 not difficult to point out special circumstances favouring and 
 determining in peculiar ways the democracy of Switzerland. 
 But it is right to recognise that there is nothing in the stock of 
 the Swiss people or their history to justify us in attributing to 
 them any special "genius" for " democracy," or in supposing 
 that what they have done in developing effectively the arts of 
 direct self-government other nations cannot do. So far as 
 " stock" can be said to have been a determinant factor in the 
 making of their democracy, it is that Teutonic stock which by 
 infusion and admixture is present in so many nations on the 
 European and American continents. Nor can the inter- 
 nationalism or cosmopolitanism forced upon parts of Switzer- 
 land during important formative epochs of her history be seri- 
 ously regarded as affecting the types of her political institutions. 
 What is undoubtedly to be considered a condition of the earlier 
 ripening of genuinely democratic forms, viz., the survival of 
 solid nuclei of political and economic freedom in many of the 
 communes and some of the cantons during the dark ages of 
 feudal and later oligarchic dominion throughout Europe, does 
 
THE FRUITS OF DEMOCRACY 255 
 
 not affect the ultimate and supremely important question, how 
 far the forms of direct democracy which are blossoming in 
 modern Switzerland can be taken as normal fruits of the com- 
 mon spirit of democracy, to be followed, not in slavish imita- 
 tion but in free adaptation, by other nations following the same 
 course of evolution. 
 
 Switzerland has been more fortunate than other countries 
 in conserving some of the germs of democratic institutions 
 adapted to modern popular needs and in ripening them in due 
 season. Do not let us be deterred from recognising in these 
 products whatever they contain of common advantage for our 
 democracy. There is a school of political thinkers whose cul- 
 tivated opportunism, masquerading as patriotism, leads them 
 to develop a doctrine, that each nation has an entirely different 
 set of political problems to solve, that each of these must be 
 treated separately upon its own merits, and that we can learn 
 little and apply practically nothing of what has happened to 
 other nations. Now this is an essentially false and injurious 
 doctrine, inimical to true nationalism, in depriving us of the 
 free use of the example of other nations, and still more inimical 
 to that wider and stronger internationalism which is fed by a 
 sense of community of human needs and modes of satisfaction 
 and the fuller intercourse involved. 
 
 The likeness in mankind is incomparably greater than the 
 difference, and this prime principle of human equality applies 
 to nations and their histories as to individuals. The notion 
 that a new nation may safely and conveniently go its own gait, 
 working out a free destiny in the void of history, is indeed a 
 fatuous form of insolence, involving a heavy penalty in waste 
 of progress if not in tragical disaster. 
 
 But Switzerland we are told is "such a little one''; modes 
 of government suit her that must ipso facto be unsuitable in such 
 a country as the United States, or even in Great Britain with its 
 great congested population of town dwellers. That size makes 
 
256 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 a difference in the applicability of political forms is a general 
 truth which is beyond dispute; but this admission by no means 
 involves the judgment that any political institution which is 
 found to work well upon a small scale must work ill on a large 
 scale. The size of a country or a population is sometimes as 
 irrelevant a consideration as the size of an individual. One 
 does not conclude that because alcohol is a noxious beverage 
 for little men it must be wholesome for big men. Similarly, the 
 assumption that because the referendum succeeds in Switzer- 
 land it would fail in the United States is quite unwarranted. 
 The truth seems to be that the ballot is the most expansive of 
 political inventions, an increase of area involving very little 
 increased complexity of use or irregularity of result. 
 
 Moreover, the argument for an extended and regular use of 
 the referendum and the initiative in a working democracy is no 
 mere plea for the preference of one method or instrument. It 
 is a plea for the application of a principle, that of direct as 
 opposed to indirect participation of the body of citizens in the 
 critical determinant acts of government. 
 
 The size of a nation and the complexity of its public affairs 
 may be good grounds for safeguarding the application of the 
 principle of popular sovereignty lest the people should be unduly 
 burdened and bewildered with the numerous or improper calls 
 upon its judgment; they cannot be grounds for denying it the 
 opportunity of direct separate decision upon the crucial acts of 
 its political career. 
 
 It may, however, be frankly conceded that some of the con- 
 spicuous and most admirable traits of Swiss democracy are 
 directly traceable to the smallness of the nation. It is a deep- 
 seated illusion to suppose that either the future or the present 
 lies with great empires. At present the most highly civilised 
 nations of the world, if we test civilisation by the culture of its 
 inhabitants and their capacity for orderly and progressive 
 government, securing substantial justice and equality of oppor- 
 
THE FRUITS OF DEMOCRACY 257 
 
 tunity for all, are the small peoples of the old and new worlds. 
 In Europe we have more to learn that is worth learning from 
 Denmark, Holland, Sweden, and Switzerland than from the 
 great empires, and in the new it is New Zealand that yields 
 most true light and leading along the path of real democracy. 
 
 It is natural that Switzerland should get a better and a fuller 
 use out of her democratic institutions than Great Britain, France, 
 or the United States. For it has no policy of territorial expan- 
 sion to waste the energy and to corrupt the character of its 
 people, and no great speculative sources of wealth to strangle 
 honest industry. 
 
 Happy Switzerland! It has no coast, no navy, no colonies, 
 no empire, no masses, no new wealth and very little old wealth, 
 no trusts and no departmental stores, and though some of the 
 internal troubles which beset other civilisations may arise here, 
 the power of the people will be better able to cope with them. 
 Confined within the narrow limits of her little land she is forced 
 to concentrate her energy upon her internal resources. Here 
 we have a key-note to the genuineness of her democracy, the 
 counter-foil of the infinities of the great nations. While the 
 aristocrats of England and the millionnaires of America are 
 crushing together an entire vintage of greed — red, black, white, 
 yellow — in the imperialism which uses union to teach undying 
 hatred, the Swiss are giving the finest example to be found in 
 all history of the union of races in peace through mutual respect 
 and reciprocity, democracy, the free expression of different 
 races. 
 
 We have said that the Swiss are not pre-eminently idealists 
 or sentimentalists, even in the better significance of those words. 
 Yet they realise better ideals and truer sentiments than other 
 nations more advanced in the material arts of civilisation. 
 
 Education, liberality of mind, a peaceable disposition and a 
 regard for the rights of other nations are necessary qualities for 
 their survival and well-being. The value set by the Swiss 
 
2S 8 A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 people upon knowledge, not only science but history and "the 
 humanities," is well attested by the splendid simplicity of the 
 inscription which stands on the portico of the principal edifice 
 of Geneva University: "Le peuple de Geneve en consecrant 
 cet edifice aux Etudes sup6rieures rend hommage aux bienfaits 
 de Pinstruction, garantie fondamentale de ses libertes." 1 
 
 People say that Switzerland and New Zealand could do 
 "these things" because they were small countries. But 
 "these things" are things all people must do if they are to 
 survive — that is, survive as democracies. Evidently, there- 
 fore, we must make ourselves " small countries," i.e., countries 
 in which the citizens know one another; in which their affairs 
 are within their comprehension, imagination, and control; in 
 which the centre is not out of reach of those on the circum- 
 ference; in which the machinery is not so massive that the 
 mind and the hand of the common people cannot grasp it. 
 
 This is the secret of the cry which has arisen in every age of 
 democratic renaissance for decentralization, home rule, sim- 
 plicity, etc. In our corporations, in the church, in the English 
 co-operative movement, in New York politics, everywhere that 
 organisation exists, there comes on this struggle between the 
 two tendencies: to centralise, to decentralise; to usurp, to free; 
 to integrate, to disintegrate. 
 
 We can have centralisation safely only if, at the same moment 
 as we aggrandize and develop the centre, we aggrandize and 
 develop the individual in himself and in his control of the centre. 
 We need not hope, need not even wish to achieve equilibrium. 
 
 When this contest between the opposing forces is ended it 
 will be because death has come. When the centre is too weak, 
 as it was in the American Confederation, a strong centralising 
 movement will spring up. When the centre is too strong, as it 
 
 1 " The People of Geneva in consecrating this building to the higher 
 studies, render homage to the benefits of Education as the fundamental guar- 
 anty of its liberties." 
 
THE FRUITS OF DEMOCRACY 259 
 
 is to-day, in all our political parties and in the government of 
 our corporations, there will arise spontaneous movements to 
 protect the rights of stockholders, and through rehabilitation 
 and the primaries, and in other ways, to make the people masters 
 again of their own political machinery. 
 
 For these purposes, in all fields of association, — not in the 
 political alone, but in churches, corporations, clubs, societies, 
 wherever organisation is used as a vehicle for a common energy, 
 — no method seems so adapted to kill the efforts of the ambi- 
 tious, the unscrupulous, and the too good, to fortify themselves 
 in the centre, as this institution perfected and perpetuated by 
 these simple mountaineers. By this simple and ancient device 
 they have kept burning for centuries a more vital democracy 
 than can be seen anywhere else. By this institution the individ- 
 ual knows himself to be at once an independent and efficient unit 
 of the centre and circumference. If more force is needed at the 
 centre he gives it and in submitting to it, knows that he is in- 
 telligently and as a free citizen submitting only to his own 
 authority co-operatively with that of other equal individuals. 
 
 If more independency is needed by the individual, the com- 
 mune, the canton, he withdraws the needed amount by recalling 
 his representative, by proposing and passing a law, by amending 
 the Constitution. With this instrument he can prevent the 
 clique, cabal, ring, junta, usurper, more clearly than is possible 
 anywhere else. In no other country in the world, not even in 
 paradisical New Zealand, is the citizen so thoroughly an indi- 
 vidual as in Switzerland. The Swiss is proudly conscious that 
 in himself he is not only voter, but official; he can feel in himself 
 that he is part president; part senator; etc. The state of mind 
 of an Englishman who worships a king, or of an American who 
 speaks as Long did of "the President under whose Majesty"; 
 or of a public like that of New York which cannot have its 
 street railroad tunnel made safe for itself; or of a people who 
 lament that they are powerless to rule their own party or their 
 
2 6o A SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 
 
 own city, is unthinkable to a Swiss. The Swiss people are 
 very crude in many things: their economic condition is much 
 depressed; they have a bad political economy; they treat their 
 women, if not shamefully, without the least concession of the 
 democratic right and individuality they claim for themselves. 
 But at least in this matter of keeping balanced the respective 
 power of the individual and organisation, preventing usurpa- 
 tions, keeping the social servant a servant, though he would as 
 gladly become master as any other servant, the Swiss are ahead 
 of the world, and have achieved one of those perfections of 
 structure which in the social biology must be regarded as a 
 ''final form," as the structure of man is a "final form" in the 
 animal physiology. 
 
REFERENCES 
 
 Die Arbeiter-Schutz-Gesetzebung der Schweiz. Dr. T. Landmann. 
 
 Die Erweiterung des Volksrechts. 
 
 Geschichte der Schweiz. Danklicker. 
 
 Governments and Parties. Lowell. 
 
 Handworterbuch der Schweizerischen Volkswirthschajt. Dr. Kistler. 
 
 Leitfaden fiir die Sektionen und Mitglieder des Griitli-Vereins. 1900. 
 
 Pure Democracy and Pastoral Life in Inner Rhodes. T. Irving Richman. 
 
 Social Switzerland. W. H. Dawson. 
 
 The Growth of the English Constitution. Professor Freeman. 
 
 The Referendum in Switzerland. Deploige. 
 
 The Rise of the Swiss Republic. McCrackan. 
 
 The Swiss Republic. Winchester. 
 
 261 
 
INDEX 
 
 Aargau, adopts initiative in 1852, 66. 
 
 child labour, 128. 
 
 conquered by Confederation, 16. 
 
 labour legislation, 129. 
 Act of Mediation, 21, 59. 
 Africa, 127. 
 Agriculture, 5, 114. 
 Alamanni, 9. 
 Alcohol, administration of law, 117. 
 
 adulteration checked, 123. 
 
 cheap spirits for industrial use, 123. 
 
 closing of small distilleries, com- 
 pensation to owners, 117. 
 
 distilleries under supervision, prices, 
 profits, 118. 
 
 duty raised on spirits, lowered on 
 wines, beers and cider, 116. 
 
 exemptions from law, 117, 123. 
 
 federal control of supply, 26. 
 
 government distribution, 119. 
 
 government monopoly of manu- 
 facture, 26, 113, 115, 116. 
 
 graded license, 122. 
 
 law on manufacture and distribu- 
 tion, 117. 
 
 less drunkenness, 124. 
 
 license of distilleries, 117. 
 
 municipal monopoly of retail trade 
 in Bale, 122. 
 
 no prohibition, 125. 
 
 price of spirits fixed by law, cost 
 price for technical arts, 119. 
 
 profits divided among cantons, 120. 
 
 proposals of Federal Council, 115. 
 
 quality raised, decrease of quantity 
 sold, 120. 
 
 referendum on government mo- 
 nopoly, 117. 
 
 regulation of liquor traffic by can- 
 tons till 1890, 115. 
 
 retail licenses, 114. 
 
 retail trade private, under regula- 
 tion of cantons, 119. 
 
 taxes levied by Confederation to 
 be divided among cantons, 116. 
 
 treatment of employees, 118. 
 
 use made of profits, 121. 
 Allmend, 10, 14, 33, 36, 37, 145, 161. 
 America, checks on legislation, 247. 
 
 party rule in, 193, 218, 231, 247. 
 
 representative system in, 247. 
 American Civil War, 23. 
 American Federal Constitution, 23. 
 Amman, 45, 63. 
 Appenzell, district government, 41. 
 
 joins Confederation in 1513, 17. 
 
 Landsgemeinde in, 48, 53, 54, 55. 
 Arbeiterbund, 188. 
 Arbitration, see Labour. 
 Asia, 127. 
 
 Asile des Veillards, 146. 
 Athens, 254. 
 Augustine, 149. 
 Austria, conflict with Berne, 13. 
 
 enters into alliance with Catholic 
 cantons, 18. 
 
 regulation of work-day in, 152. 
 
 Bale, adoption of referendum, 63. 
 
 child labour, 128. 
 
 co-operation, 177, 178. 
 
 joins Confederation in 1501, 17. 
 
 municipal retail liquor trade, 122. 
 
 municipal works, 164, 168, 171. 
 
 Peace of, in 1499, 17. 
 Belgium, 229. 
 Berne, aristocratic cliques, 15. 
 
 conflict with Austria; victory of 
 Laupen 1339, 13. 
 
 election methods, 43. 
 
 free City of Empire, joins Forest 
 < State League in 1353, 13. 
 
 inviolability of territory, 14. 
 
 municipal housing, 168. 
 
 Municipal Unemployed Insurance, 
 
 i43- 
 municipal works, 164, 171. 
 owns railroads, 90. 
 rise of burgher nobility, 19. 
 separate alliance with Zurich, 18. 
 
 263 
 
264 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Biel, municipal works, 164, 171. 
 
 Birmingham, 162. 
 
 Bismarck, 136. 
 
 Blaine, 242. 
 
 Boards of Guardians, 45. 
 
 Buda Pesth, 182. 
 
 Bundesrath, 215. 
 
 Burgher corporations, 35, 37, 38. 
 
 Burgundians, 9. 
 
 Burial, free, 170. 
 
 Brun, leader of the people, 13. 
 
 Calvin, 18. 
 
 Canton sovereignty, 21. 
 
 Cantonal constitutions, 21, 60, 65, 68. 
 
 Cantonal Council, 85, 86. 
 
 Cantons vote on factory law, 132. 
 
 withdraw from Federal Diet, 22. 
 Capitalism, dangers of, less on account 
 of federal and municipal owner- 
 ship, 204-206. 
 
 failure of democracy under, six. 
 Catholic Cantons, 3, 18, 25. 
 
 League of, in 1845, 23. 
 Catholic Church (Roman), 18. 
 Catholic Party, 100. 
 Centralists, 21. 
 Chamber of Appeal, 155. 
 Chicago, 162. 
 Cities, growth of, 162. 
 
 largest industrial, 5. 
 
 liberty of, 167. 
 Class, consciousness, 197, 201. 
 
 interests, 59-61, 202, 203. 
 
 struggle, 195. 
 
 supremacy, 189. 
 
 war, 196, 199, 204. 
 Climate, 3. 
 
 Commission of State, 43. 
 Communal Assembly, how elected, 
 functions and power of, 42, 43, 
 
 45- 
 Communal Council, duties of President 
 and Secretary, 45. 
 election and functions, 42-44, 46. 
 Communal democracy, 169. 
 Communal care of the poor, 34, 37. 
 Communal property, administration of, 
 38. 
 encroachments of rights by burgher 
 
 corporations, 35. 
 modifies evils of factory system; 
 
 applied to public welfare, 38. 
 new burghers do not share in, 35. 
 rights and regulation of, 34, 35. 
 
 value of, and tendency to convert 
 into individual property, 37. 
 Communal rights, 36, 37. 
 Communes, church, 42. 
 
 civil, 41, 42. 
 
 independent organisation of, 43. 
 
 local self-government, 32, 33. 
 
 political, 35, 42. 
 
 poor law, 41. 
 
 popular, 42. 
 
 school, 40. 
 
 unit of government; increased politi- 
 cal and social power, 39, 40. 
 Compulsory Insurance scheme, 144. 
 Conciliation, see Labour. 
 Concordat, 130. 
 Confederation, of three Forest Cantons, 
 
 Berne joins in 1353, completes the 
 eight cantons of the early Con- 
 federation, 14. 
 
 conquest of Aargau cause of civil 
 wars, 16. 
 
 Diets held, have no executive power, 
 
 17- 
 
 effect of Reformation, 18. 
 
 eight cantons added to, 21. 
 
 equal political rights, 21. 
 
 establishes optional referendum, 
 1874, 64. 
 
 Federal Pact of August, 181 5, be- 
 ginning of modern democratic, 
 21. 
 
 federal power of, 77. 
 
 First Perpetual League, in 1291, 
 
 Freiburg and Solothurm join 148 1, 
 Schaffhausen and Bale, 1501, 
 Appenzell, 15 13, 17. 
 
 guards political independence from 
 Austria, 14. 
 
 Luzerne joins, 12. 
 
 organised into Federal state, 23. 
 
 politically independent from Em- 
 pire, 17. 
 
 power of President, 86. 
 
 protection to Appenzell, Graubiin- 
 den and Valais, 16. 
 
 separate alliances, no central govern- 
 ment, 15. 
 
 tyrannical rule of, 19, 20. 
 Congress of Swiss Communal Union, 
 
 "5- 
 Congress of Vienna, 21. 
 Conseil Communale, 167. 
 
INDEX 
 
 265 
 
 Conseils de Prudhommes, 154, 155, 156 
 
 158. 
 Conservative Right party, 100. 
 Constitution, amendment of 1874, on 
 industrial legislation, 130. 
 
 amendment of 1885, right to legis- 
 late on manufacture and sale of 
 spirits, 116. 
 
 amendment of 1890, on accident 
 and invalid insurance, 148. 
 
 amendment of 1891, confers power 
 of partial revision, 77-78. 
 
 amendments, 26, 69-71. 
 
 cantonal, changes require majority 
 vote of the people; Federal, 
 changes are subject to the rati- 
 fication of the people and the 
 cantons, 212. 
 
 forbids partition of communal lands, 
 38. 
 
 law on revisions, 25, 68, 212. 
 
 new, establishes permanent Diet, 
 increases Federal authority, 21. 
 
 of 1848, 24, 115, 188. 
 
 of 1874, legislative powers, 76-80, 
 136, 137, 220. 
 
 qualifications of voters, 42. 
 
 reconstruction of, in 1848, 23. 
 
 revision in 1874, 24. 
 
 revision of Cantonal, 1830; of 
 Federal, 1832, 22. 
 
 right of the people to change, 65. 
 
 struggle between Federalists and 
 Centralists, 21. 
 
 vote on new, 24. 
 Constitution of Helvetic Republic, 20, 38. 
 Consumers' Co-operative Society, 176. 
 Co-operation, 175. 
 
 Belgian, 181. 
 
 growth of, 176, 177. 
 
 in politics, 181. 
 Co-operative associations, 197. 
 
 Congress, national and inter- 
 national, 182. 
 
 distribution; library, manufacture at 
 minimum cost, 178. 
 
 dividend, 179, 180. 
 
 English and Scotch Wholesale, 177. 
 
 English movement, 175, 179, 258. 
 
 members, 176, 177. 
 
 prices, 178, 180. 
 
 production, consumers' movement, 
 179. 
 
 profit-sharing, 179. 
 
 propaganda, 180, 181, 
 
 publications, 181. 
 
 rural societies, 180. 
 
 stores, 175-179, 188. 
 
 Swiss and British method, 179. 
 
 Union, 175, 177. 
 
 Wholesale Society, 178, 180. 
 Cornaz, 94. 
 Court of Justice, 155. 
 Covenant of Sempach, 15. 
 Covenant of Stans, 17. 
 Curti, 94. 
 
 Danklicker, 15. 
 Dawson, W. H., 146, 147, 
 Democratic institutions, test of, 126. 
 Democracy, Swiss, adapted to modern 
 conditions, 5. 
 
 advantages of, 257. 
 
 an example to other nations, 255, 
 
 257- 
 attitude towards representative in- 
 stitutions, 29. 
 "bourgeois," 185, 187, 201. 
 compromise in, 184. 
 decay of, in 16th and 17th centuries, 
 
 19, 20. 
 direct participation of citizen; no 
 
 party rule; no highly centralised 
 
 government, 7. 
 diversity and growth, 5, 6. 
 effect on national character and 
 
 citizenship, 253. 
 free and co-operative, 7, 8. 
 increased power of the people, 84. 
 individual initiative under, 175. 
 local, S3. 
 makes laws to fit the needs of the 
 
 people, 251. 
 not due to racial traits, 254. 
 not revolutionary, 196. 
 people retain direct control, 28. 
 practical, not theoretical, 104, 105, 
 
 in, 251. 
 preserved and strengthened by early 
 
 confederation, 14. 
 safest from betrayal, 211. 
 union by separate alliances, 15. 
 Denmark, 257. 
 Department of Railways and Commerce, 
 
 entrusted with industrial legis- 
 lation, 130. 
 Deploige, quoted, 63, 64, 76, 214, 229, 
 
 230. 
 Direct government of popular assembly, 
 
 32. 
 
266 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Direct Legislation, see Initiative and 
 
 Referendum. 
 Distilleries, see Alcohol. 
 Drink habit, abstinence party, 124. 
 
 difficulty in dealing with, 122, 124. 
 
 drunkenness reduced, 124. 
 
 efforts to check, 116. 
 
 no prohibition laws, 125. 
 
 sale of absinthe prohibited in Vaud, 
 125- 
 
 spread of, 114, 116. 
 Droz, Numa, 100, 242. 
 
 Education — advanced technical and in- 
 dustrial, 167, 168, 169. 
 
 medical inspection, in schools, 169. 
 
 Polytechnic schools, industrial and 
 commercial museums, 168. 
 
 regulation of school attendance, 
 
 150. IS*- 
 
 school system vested in the com- 
 mune; school communes, 40, 41. 
 
 under canton and federal control, 
 
 27, 77- 
 Einwohner-Gemeinde, 40. 
 Einwohner Gemeinde Rat, 44. 
 Election — methods, 43, 44, 83, 212, 213. 
 by referendum, 82. 
 executive officers elected by the 
 
 people, 212, 213. 
 in Landsgemeinde, 51. 
 members of the Legislature and of 
 Swiss National Council elected 
 by the people, 212. 
 of Communal Council, 44. 
 of Federal Executive Council, 215. 
 of judicial officers, 213. 
 of Senator, 54. 
 of State Council, 86, 213. 
 Engels, 188. 
 
 England, 167, 193, 196, 231, 253. 
 Executive officers not endowed with 
 dictatorial powers, 247. 
 
 Factory, system, see Labour. 
 Federal Act of 1874, 185. 
 Federal Agreement, 22, 60. 
 Federal Assembly, decides on rights of 
 constitutional initiative, 67. 
 decides whether a proposal is a law 
 
 or decree, 80, 84. 
 duties of, in constitutional revisions, 
 
 78. 
 rights of, in constitutional amend- 
 ments, 25, 26. 
 
 Federal Council, adopts proposal of state 
 railways, 89. 
 adopts resolutions limiting the hours 
 
 of railway workers, 135. 
 duties of, 82, 235. 
 Federal President, chairman of, 86. 
 investigates match industry, 134. 
 its members belong to different 
 
 political parties, 236, 237. 
 on purchase of railways, 92-94, 96- 
 
 98, 104. 
 publishes and circulates laws 
 
 passed by the Assembly, 81. 
 stability of office, 240, 241. 
 Federal debt, 27. 
 
 Federal decrees, Federal Assembly de- 
 cides whether a proposal is a 
 law or decree, 80, 81. 
 Federal Diet, 17, 21, 22. 
 Federal Executive Council, 215. 
 Federal Government, powers enlarged, 
 
 23, 26-28. 
 Federal laws, 76, 77. 
 Federal Tribunal, elected by Federal 
 Assembly, 86. 
 has no power to declare laws passed 
 unconstitutional, 87. 
 Federalists, 21, 100. 
 Feudal system, 10. 
 First Perpetual League, 12. 
 Food Inspection Bill of 1906, 187. 
 Forest States or cantons, 10, 13, 14, 18. 
 Forrer, 148, 234, 242. 
 Freeman, Professor, 49. 
 Freiburg, joins Confederation 148 1, 17. 
 representative system in, 212. 
 rise of burgher nobility, 19, 
 France, 22, 104, 124, 125, 145, 151, 152, 
 
 181, 196, 253, 257. 
 Franchise, extension of, 60, 82, 247. 
 
 protection of, 77. 
 French Republic, 21. 
 French Revolution, 20. 
 Frey, Emil, 212. 
 Furstenberger, 149. 
 
 Galeer, Albert, 187. 
 
 Gau, or county, 9. 
 
 Geneva, canton created by Congress of 
 
 Vienna, 21. 
 municipal works, 164, 172. 
 Gengel, 213. 
 Germany, 145, 147, 152, 181, 195, 196, 
 
 201, 204, 206. 
 Gladstone, 242. 
 
INDEX 
 
 267 
 
 Glarus, joins First Perpetual League, 13. 
 
 labour legislation, 1 29. 
 
 Landsgemeinde, 48, 51, 55. 
 
 limits hours of labour, 128. 
 
 rule of people, 15. 
 Government ownership, see also alcohol; 
 railroads. 
 
 alcohol, gunpowder, 26. 
 
 extent of, 205. 
 
 post office, telegraphs, railroads, 27. 
 
 Grand Council or Great Council — all 
 
 measures to be presented to 
 
 Landsgemeinde, must be first 
 
 sent and passed upon by, 53, 54. 
 
 dissolution, 85. 
 
 duties of, in constitutional revisions, 
 69-74. 
 
 legislative power of, 60, 61. 
 
 powers limited, 54, 63. 
 
 referendum at the option of, 64. 
 Great Britain, 153, 166, 204, 206, 218, 
 
 235. 239, 254, 255, 257. 
 Griitli-Verein — chief socialistic organi- 
 sation, 187. 
 
 educational and social, 191. 
 
 free from party control, 193. 
 
 origin and early purpose, 187, 188. 
 
 political activity, 190-192. 
 
 Right to Labour, 197. 
 
 unique position of, 192. 
 Guyer-Zeller, 100. 
 
 Helvetia, 9. 
 Helvetic League, 58. 
 High Court, 86. 
 Hoffman, Dr., 144. 
 Holland, 257. 
 Houses of Assembly, 80. 
 
 Imperialism, 16, 257. 
 Industrial Courts, 156, 158. 
 disputes settled by, 160. 
 Industrial Legislation, Cantonal laws, 
 
 138. i39- 
 
 Department of Railways and Com- 
 merce, 130. 
 
 draft proposed for Factory Law, 
 130. 
 
 Federal laws, 132-137. 
 
 Federal Workshop Law, 139. 
 
 Message and Report on Factory 
 Laws, 131. 
 
 powers given to Federal govern- 
 ment, 129-130. 
 
 progress of, 127, 150. 
 
 Industry, textile, 5, 128. 
 Initiative, agitation for, 62, 66. 
 
 agitation for direct legislative, 213. 
 
 confers on the people power of 
 legislation independent from As- 
 sembly, 65-67. 
 
 creates individual responsibility. 
 247- 
 
 destroys party abuses, 242. 
 
 effect of, 66, 218. 
 
 federal, applies only to constitu- 
 tional changes, 212. 
 
 "formulated," 26, 72, 85, 213, 221, 
 235, 246, 247. 
 
 legislative, adopted by every canton, 
 except three, 66. 
 
 mandatory petition, 66. 
 
 on labour laws, 131. 
 
 popular, 78, 79, 83, 222. 
 
 popular, for all constitutional 
 amendments, 83. 
 
 practical test in acquiring railroads, 
 88. 
 
 regulations of, 68-74. 
 
 rights of, 44, 53. 6l > 6 5~ 6 7. 7 1 - 
 
 vote on, for constitutional revision, 
 
 25- 
 voting on, 220. 
 Insurance, accident, invalid, 27, 148, 
 149, 150. 
 by guilds and corporations, 147, 
 
 148. 
 of workmen, compulsory, 76. 
 unemployed, 143-145. 
 vote on Federal, 148. 
 Intercantonal Concordats, 129, 130. 
 International Council of Hygiene and 
 
 Demography, 115. 
 International Labour Association, 151. 
 International Labour legislation, 200. 
 International Labour movement, 188. 
 Internationalism, 200, 258. 
 Italy, regulation of work day, 153. 
 
 Kirchen-Gemeinde, 40. 
 
 Kistler, Dr., 41. 
 
 Knowles, Mrs. (Miss Thorn), 237. 
 
 Konsum-Verein, 177. 
 
 Labour, apprentice law, 139. 
 child, 128, 133, 150, 190. 
 compensation for accident, 134. 
 contracts, 137. 
 
 employer's liability, 136, 137. 
 holidays, rest days, 136, 138, 139. 
 
268 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Labour, hours, 128, 132, 133, 138, 
 
 i5i-i53» io°- 
 Labour Registries, 141. 
 legislation follows German and 
 
 English acts, 137. 
 night work; overwork, Sunday 
 
 work, 133, 138. 
 normal, workday, 131, 133, 136. 
 payment of wages ; fines, 134, 
 
 137. 
 protection for workers in general, 
 
 140. 
 protection of women and children, 
 
 138, 139, 190. 
 Public Employment Registries, 141. 
 railroad employees, 135. 
 Relief Stations and Travellers' 
 
 Homes for unemployed, 142. 
 Right to Labour, 197, 222. 
 unemployed, 140-144. 
 Labour — Arbitration, Courts of, 154, 
 156, 158. 
 costs, 158. 
 
 disputes settled, 160. 
 how formed, 156. 
 not always compulsory, 157. 
 procedure, public hearing, testi- 
 mony, 157-158. 
 trades dealt with, 158. 
 Labour — Conciliation Boards, 154, 155, 
 158. 
 cases not public, 157. 
 cases settled, 160. 
 power of Boards, 155. 
 Labour Colonies, 143. 
 Labour, Conseils de Prudhommes, 154, 
 
 155, 156, 158. 
 Labour, agitation for factory laws, 
 129. 
 factory system, 128, 129. 
 imprisonment for disobeying law, 
 
 134. 
 law drafted, 131. 
 passed by small majority, 132. 
 provisions of law, 133, 134. 
 Labour societies, union of, 188 
 Lancashire, co-operation in, 178. 
 Land allotments, 34. 
 Lands, common, pass into private owner- 
 ship, 36. 
 public, constitution of 1799 forbids 
 partition of, 38. 
 Lands, public, 36, 250. 
 Land tenure, centre of rural government 
 and politics, 33. 
 
 Landmann, Dr. T., 132. 
 Landsgemeinde, Commission of State 
 elected by, 53. 
 
 democracy of, 47. 
 
 description of, 49. 
 
 district assemblies, 55. 
 
 early adoption in fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries, 48. 
 
 election of, powers of, 51. 
 
 election of Senators, 54. 
 
 Grand Council and, 54. 
 
 memorial, council of, 52. 
 
 oath of allegiance, 51. 
 
 of Glarus in 1848 regulates labour, 
 128. 
 
 qualified voters, 55. 
 
 six cantons have, 212. 
 Languages, German, French, Italian, 
 
 Romansch, 3, 4. 
 Lausanne, municipal nouses, 168. 
 
 municipal works, 164, 172. 
 Law and decree, definition of, 80. 
 Laws, Alcohol Monopoly, 117, 251. 
 
 apprentice, 139. 
 
 as an expression of public opinion, 
 225. 
 
 Compulsory Vaccination Law, 223. 
 
 difficulty of enforcing unpopular, 
 226. 
 
 employer's liability, 136. 
 
 factory, 27, 128-134, 225, 232. 
 
 federal, 76-79. 
 
 federal, cannot be declared un- 
 constitutional, 87. 
 
 initiative and referendum, 68-75. 
 
 meet requirements of the people, 
 252. 
 
 Nationalisation Law, 100, no, 135. 
 
 not multiplied needlessly, 251. 
 
 prohibiting manufacture and sale of 
 phosphorous matches, 134. 
 
 railroad, 135-136. 
 
 Railroad Law of 1852, 90. 
 
 regulating length of work-day, 152 
 
 153- 
 regulating manufacture, 26. 
 regulating women and child labour, 
 
 138- 
 Slaughter House Law, 223. 
 Small Workshops Law rejected, 222. 
 League of Thirteen, 48. 
 Legislation, see Industrial and Labour. 
 Legislature, members of, elected by the 
 
 people, 212. 
 Louis XIV., 20. 
 
INDEX 
 
 269 
 
 Lowell, "Governments and Parties," 62, 
 
 76, 224. 
 Lucerne, adoption of referendum, 64. 
 aristocratic cliques, 15. 
 joins Forest Canton League, in 
 
 1332, 12. 
 leaves Confederation and enters into 
 
 relations with Austria, 18. 
 municipal works, 165, 172. 
 rise of burgher nobility, 19. 
 
 Mark, 10, 33. 
 Markgenossenschaft, 11. 
 Marx, 188. 
 
 McCrackan, "Rise of the Swiss Re- 
 public," quoted, 18, 19. 
 Medical Surgical Society of Berne, 134. 
 Micheli, 149. 
 Milhaud, Prof. E., 109. 
 Milliet, M, 116, 117, 119, 120, 123, 124. 
 Muller, Dr. Hans, 178. 
 Monopoly, alcohol, gunpowder, 26. 
 
 bank-note, match, 190. 
 
 results of private, 162. 
 Morgarten, victory of, 12. 
 Municipal, Council for unemployed, 145. 
 
 employment, 169. 
 
 Labour Registry, 144. 
 
 no limitation of taxing power of 
 cities, 167. 
 
 unemployed insurance, 143, 144. 
 Municipal ownership, advantages of , 166. 
 
 electricity, 164, 165, 166, 1 71-173. 
 
 gas, water, street railways, 164, 165, 
 171-173. 
 
 slaughter-house, baths, 171. 
 
 workmen's houses, 168. 
 Municipal Works, 1 71-173. 
 
 Napoleon, 20, 21, 59, 249. 
 National Council, 80. 
 
 against purchase of railways, 92. 
 
 appoints commission to investigate 
 factory conditions, 131. 
 
 decides against state railway con- 
 struction, 90. 
 
 elected by the people, 212. 
 
 elected for three years, 85. 
 
 length of office, 24 r. 
 
 votes for labour laws, 131. 
 
 votes for railway purchase bill, 100. 
 Nationalisation, see Alcohol; see Rail- 
 roads. 
 Nationalisation Law, 100, no, 135. 
 Netherlands, regulation of workday, 153. 
 
 Neufchatel, adopts referendum, 1879, 65. 
 
 canton created by Congress of 
 Vienna, 21. 
 
 municipal houses, 168. 
 
 municipal works, 173. 
 New York, 258, 259. 
 New Zealand, 207, 211, 257, 258, 259. 
 Niederer, Dr. Johann, 187. 
 
 Occupations, 198. 
 
 Old Age, right of maintainance, 37, 145. 
 
 provisions for, 140, 147. 
 Old Age Homes, 146. 
 Oldham, co-operative city, 177. 
 Old People's Refuge, 146. 
 
 Party propaganda, 233. 
 Party system, abuses and dangers of, 
 228-230. 
 
 inconsistent with true democracy, 231. 
 Patriotism of capitalism, 199. 
 Pearson, Charles, 127. 
 Peasants, democracy of, 15. 
 
 war, 20. 
 People's Association, 188. 
 Pestalozzi, 187. 
 Population, 3, 4. 
 Popular Assembly, functions and powers 
 
 of, 42, 43. 
 Poor law Boards, 45. 
 Poor law communes, 45. 
 Poor relief, 34, 37. 
 Proletariat, increase of, 199. 
 Proportional representation, 32, 43, 44. 
 
 adopted by five cantons, and some 
 municipalities, 217. 
 
 election, methods of 217. 
 
 first introduced in Ticino, 216. 
 Protestantism, chief hold in French 
 cantons, 18. 
 
 Berne and Zurich centres of, 18. 
 Public Employment Registries, 141. 
 Public Ownership, a substitute for pri- 
 vate monopoly, 249. 
 
 Railroads, accounts, statistics, 107. 
 administration, 97. 
 advance in receipts, 106, 109. 
 cantonal policy, 90. 
 companies bring suits for decision 
 
 of rights under franchises, 10 1. 
 Confederation owns stock, and 
 
 acquires voting power, 93. 
 cost of, 103. 
 debt, 97. 
 
270 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Railroads, decision against state con- 
 struction; franchises granted by 
 cantons, 90. 
 
 depreciation fund, 95. 
 
 difference between public and pri- 
 vate service, 108. 
 
 employees, 105, 108-111, 135. 
 
 evils of private ownership, 105. 
 
 fares and rates, 109, no. 
 
 federal law of control and power to 
 grant franchises, 91. 
 
 finance, 97. 
 
 first costs, 95. 
 
 foreign capitalists, 99, 100. 
 
 importance of efficiency and cheap- 
 ness, 88, 89. 
 
 labour, wages, pensions, hours re- 
 duced, holidays, no. 
 
 law of railroad accounts, 96. 
 
 Law of 1852, 90. 
 
 loose financial methods, 94. 
 
 National Commission of 1852, 104. 
 
 nationalisation result of spirit of 
 democracy, whose aim is the 
 safety and well-being of the 
 Commonwealth, 111. 
 
 net earnings, 97. 
 
 net profit, 108, no. 
 
 ownership and operation greatest 
 achievement of federal democ- 
 racy, 88. 
 
 petition for national system, 89. 
 
 public vs. private service, 108. 
 
 Railroad Account Bill, 95. 
 
 railway budget kept separate from 
 federal budget, no. 
 
 reasons for drop in receipts in 1901. 
 104. 
 
 referendum on Nationalisation Law 
 100. 
 
 sinking fund, no. 
 
 surplus, 97, 108, no. 
 
 valuation, 103. 
 
 watered stock, 95. 
 Railroad, purchase, adopted bill of, 100. 
 
 advocated, 91. 
 
 agreement of, 101, 102. 
 
 campaign free from political corrup- 
 tion, not a party issue, 99. 
 
 compulsory, 93, 10 1. 
 
 consummated, state administration 
 begins 1903, 102. 
 
 cost of, funds for, 96. 
 
 dates of, 10 1, 104. 
 
 discussions, 99. 
 
 estimates of, stock value, 98. 
 
 excessive values, first costs, investi- 
 gation of, 94, 95. 
 
 Federal Council approves purchase 
 of Central R. R., 93. 
 
 Federal Council advocates, 96. 
 
 Federal Council against, for finan- 
 cial reasons, 92. 
 
 first negotiations, 101. 
 
 high price of, opposed, 93. 
 
 law of, 95, 97. 
 
 popular movement, for, 96. 
 
 popular movement of, 96. 
 
 price, 102 ^103, 104. 
 
 proposals tf, 92, 94. 
 
 referendum rejects, 93. 
 
 referendum vote on, 100. 
 
 right of, 90. 
 
 terms of, 94-96, 103. 
 
 vote of the people, for and against, 
 105. 
 Railroad Companies, Central, 93, 96, 98, 
 101, 104. 
 
 Jura-Simplon, 92, 96, 98, 102, 104, 
 no. 
 
 North- Eastern, 96, 98, 101, 102, 104. 
 
 St. Gothard, 96, 97, 98, 102, 104, 
 108, in. 
 
 Union Swiss, 96, 98, 102. 
 Referendum, accepting Nationalisation 
 Law, 100. 
 
 Alcohol Law, 117, 124. 
 
 agitation for, 62. 
 
 application of principle of, 256. 
 
 Article in Federal Constitution, 24. 
 
 articles of, 62, 63. 
 
 ballot and method of election, 82, 83. 
 
 check on class interests, 202. 
 
 compulsory, 214, 221, 244. 
 
 conservative, 219, 223. 
 
 constitutional, obligatory, result 
 depends upon a majority of the 
 voters and the cantons, 83. 
 
 creates individual responsibility, 247. 
 
 dates of adoption, 63, 94. 
 
 destroys party government, 235, 237. 
 
 determined by majority of actual 
 voters, 80. 
 
 difference between veto and, 62. 
 
 effect of, 218. 
 
 effect of, on representatives, 224. 
 
 factory law, 131, 132. 
 
 facultative, 212, 214, 221. 
 
 federal laws subject to optional, 80. 
 
 free from party control, 228. 
 
INDEX 
 
 271 
 
 influence of, 184, 186, 196, 197. 
 invalid and accident insurance, for 
 
 and against, 148, 149. 
 in form of a veto, 62. 
 is essentially a veto, 221. 
 laws on, regulations of, 68-74, 80. 
 laws on expression of popular will, 
 
 228. 
 legislative, optional, option can be 
 
 denied by Assembly, 83. 
 legislative, result depends upon 
 
 majority of voters, 83. 
 national match monopoly, rejected, 
 
 *35- 
 
 national ownership gained through, 
 249. 
 
 objections to, 219, 237. 
 
 obligatory and optional, 64, 73. 
 
 obligatory in nine cantons, 212. 
 
 on dissolutions of Cantonal and 
 Great Councils, 85. 
 
 on railroad purchase, 93, 97, 100. 
 
 on tariff distribution, 223. 
 
 optional, 213, 214, 215. 
 
 origin and introduction, 59. 
 
 practical test of, in acquiring rail- 
 roads, 88. 
 
 prevents abuses of the represent- 
 ative system, 59. 
 
 prevents abuses of party domination, 
 242. 
 
 prevents corruption in politics, 234. 
 
 progressive, 221. 
 
 proposed by voters or cantons, 81. 
 
 rights of; agitation for, 62. 
 
 secures permanency of laws, 227, 
 228. 
 
 subjects withheld from, 81. 
 
 value of, in educating public opin- 
 ion, 8i, 232, 234, 237, 240, 259. 
 
 voting under, 220, 240, 244. 
 Reformation, causes break in Con- 
 federation, 18, 19, 
 
 spread of, in Forest States, 18. 
 Reichesberg, Dr., 141. 
 Relief Station for Unemployed, 142. 
 Religion, 3, 4, 18. 
 Repond, 106, 149. 
 
 Representative government, abuses of, 
 60, 61, 209-211. 
 
 bribery, 210. 
 
 checks upon, 31, 57, 59. 
 
 defects of, 29, 227, 228. 
 
 displaced by direct vote of the 
 people, 212. 
 
 fails to represent the whole people, 
 
 243- 
 
 failure under capitalism, 21 r. 
 
 improved, not destroyed by direct 
 action of the people, 216, 225, 242. 
 
 in Freiburg and Valais, 212. 
 
 party machines, 209, 210. 
 
 single legislative chambers, 60. 
 
 suppression of, 74. 
 Richman, T. Irving, 54. 
 Rights, of petition, 66. 
 
 political, 60. 
 
 popular, 71. 
 
 qualified voters, 43. 
 Rochdale, co-operative city, 177. 
 
 plan, 179. 
 Roman Empire, 252. 
 Rousseau, 46, 59. 
 
 Schaffhausen, change of Constitution by 
 initiative, 66. 
 joins Confederation in 1501, 17. 
 municipal works, 165. 
 Schar, 96. 
 
 Schenck, Federal Councillor, 115. 
 School communes, 40, 41, 45. 
 Schweizerischer Bauer- Verband, 186. 
 Schwyz, breaks federal tie and enters 
 into relations with Austria, 18. 
 enters First Perpetual League in 
 
 1291, 11. 
 is governed by popular assembly, 15. 
 Landsgemeinde, 48, 54. 
 Sembach, Covenant of, 15. 
 
 victory of, 1386, 14. 
 Senators, election of, 86. 
 Short terms of office, 85. 
 Siebner Konkordat, 22. 
 Small Council, nominated by the mem- 
 bers of Great Council, 60. 
 Small countries, lessons to be learned 
 
 from, 257-259. 
 Social-Democratic Labour Party, 199, 
 200. 
 political proposals of, 201. 
 Social-Democratic Programme, 189, 190, 
 
 i94, i95- 
 Socialism, experimental, 249, 250. 
 federal, 205, 222. 
 German propaganda, 189. 
 opportunism of, 196-197. 
 policy of Swiss differs from French 
 
 and German, 195, 196. 
 revolutionary, 201, 205, 206. 
 State, 189. 
 
272 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Socialism, Swiss organisation, 187. 
 the "International," 188. 
 weaker than in other European 
 countries, 38. 
 Socialist Congress, 189. 
 Socialists, favor purchase of railroads, 
 100. 
 oppose purchase of railroads, 93. 
 oppose Federal Insurance Law, 149. 
 petition for referendum for expro- 
 priation of railroads, 96. 
 Social reconstruction, 127. 
 Solothurm, joins Confederation in 1481, 
 
 Sonderbund, 188. 
 
 Spoils Campaign, 222. 
 
 Stampfli, first member of Radical Party 
 
 in Federal Council, 91. 
 State Communes, see Landsgemeinde. 
 State Council, direct election of, 86. 
 
 elected by the people in nineteen 
 
 cantons, 121. 
 for factory law, 131. 
 in favour of nationalisation of rail- 
 roads, 100. 
 in six cantons appointed by the 
 
 Great Councils, 213. 
 length of office determined by can- 
 tons, 85. 
 one of the Houses of Assembly, 80. 
 re-election of members, 241. 
 Statistics, age for school attendance, 151. 
 alcohol trade, profits, how spent, 
 
 121. 
 area, 4. 
 
 cases before Industrial Courts, 160. 
 Co-operation, 176. 
 language, 4. 
 
 legal work day, 152-153. 
 Municipal Works, 1 71-173. 
 Occupations, 198. 
 population, 4. 
 railroads, 98, 107. 
 referendum, 64, 65. 
 religion, 4. 
 Stephenson and Swinburne, English 
 engineers favour state construc- 
 tion of railroads, 1849, 89. 
 St. Gall, joins Confederation, 21. 
 municipal works, 165, 173. 
 referendum first established in Con- 
 stitution of 1831, 62. 
 Sovereign people, cannot be corrupted 
 
 or bought, 233. 
 Sweden, 257. 
 
 Swiss Confederation, see Confederation. 
 Swiss Constitution, see Constitution. 
 Swiss, army, humane conduct ordered 
 
 in war, 23. 
 Communal Union, 115. 
 culture, 253, 254, 258. 
 Farmers' Federation, 187. 
 Federation of Christian Travellers' 
 
 Homes, 142. 
 Houses of Assembly, 80. 
 ideal of self-government, 247. 
 individualism, 259. 
 Intercantonal Relief Federation, 
 
 142. 
 Ministry, responsibility of, 235, 237, 
 
 240, 242. 
 money system, 27. 
 nationalism, 248. 
 peasants, 15, 19, 185, 186, 187. 
 political organisation, 232. 
 political parties, 100, 204, 231, 236. 
 politics, free from corruption, 233, 
 
 234- 
 politics free from corporate control, 
 
 233- 
 
 treatment of women, 260. 
 Switzerland, climate, 3. 
 
 complete equality, 21, 60. 
 
 Constitution of Helvetic Republic, 
 20. 
 
 danger of capitalistic control less 
 than in other countries, 204, 206. 
 
 decay of democracy in 16th and 
 17th centuries, 19, 20. 
 
 differences of race, religion, in- 
 dustry, 3, 20. 
 
 east and west join against common 
 foe in 1339, 13. 
 
 invaded by French, 1797, 20. 
 
 languages, 3, 4. 
 
 not ruled by party politics, 192, 
 
 193- 
 
 religious dissensions, 18. 
 
 remains neutral in Thirty Years' 
 
 War, 18. 
 renounces allegiance to Empire, 
 
 suzerainty of France, 1648, 20. 
 settled in fifth century, 9. 
 to great extent a peasant nation, 185. 
 
 Tacitus, 252. 
 
 Tariff, 187, 222. 
 
 Taxation, 27, 116, 250. 
 
 Thirty Years' War, 18. 
 
 Thorn, Miss (Mrs. Knowles), 237. 
 
INDEX 
 
 2 73 
 
 Thurgau, joins Confederation; 21. 
 
 regulates child labour, in 1815, 128. 
 Thun, municipal works, 165. 
 Ticino, first to adopt proportional repre- 
 sentation, 216. 
 
 joins confederation, 21. 
 Travellers' Homes for Unemployed, 142 
 Tribunal de Prudhommes, 154, 155. 
 
 Unemployed, see Labour. 
 United States, 31, 204, 206, 209, 233 
 235. 2 45» 246, 249, 255, 257. 
 Supreme Court, 86, 247. 
 Universal Suffrage. 60. 
 Unterwalden, Landsgemeinde, 47, 53. 
 leaves Confederation and enters into 
 
 relations with Austria, 18. 
 liberties of, enters First Perpetual 
 
 League, n. 
 rule by popular assembly, 15. 
 Uri, charter and liberties of, rule by 
 popular assembly, n. 
 enters First Perpetual League, n. 
 Landsgemeinde, 47, 49, 51, 55. 
 leaves Confederation and enters 
 
 relations with Austria, 18. 
 under jurisdiction of the Abbey of 
 Zurich, 11. 
 
 Valais, adopts referendum, 63. 
 
 canton created by Congress of 
 Vienna, 21. 
 
 representative system, 212. 
 Vaud, enters Confederation, 21. 
 
 initiative first adopted by, 66. 
 
 prohibits sale of absinthe, 125. 
 Venice, 254. 
 
 Veto, cannot be used against the people, 
 246. 
 
 importance of, by the people, 244. 
 
 no presidential, 60. 
 
 power of people, 167, 217. 
 
 power of referendum, 62. 
 Vincent, 217. 
 Volksverein, 188. 
 Voters, qualifications of, 42. 
 
 rights and duties of, 44. 
 Voting, frequency of, 244. 
 
 Western Democracy, danger of Asia and 
 
 Africa to, 127. 
 Whitman, 59. 
 Winchester, 3. 
 
 Winterthur, municipal works, 165, 173. 
 Workers' Federation, 188. 
 Wiillschlegel, Councillor E., 199, 201. 
 
 Zemp, Dr., 99, 100, 236. 
 Zug, aristocratic cliques, 15. 
 
 joins Forest State Alliance, in 1352, 
 
 13- 
 Landsgemeinde, 48. 
 leaves Confederation and enters 
 
 into relations with Austria, 18. 
 Zurich, Abbey of, 11. 
 
 aristocratic cliques, 15. 
 
 co-operation in, 188. 
 
 forms separate alliance with Berne, 
 
 18. 
 free city of the Empire, 13. 
 joins Confederation of Forest States, 
 
 in 1351, 13. 
 municipal housing, 168. 
 municipal works, 165, 173. 
 regulation of child labour in 181 5, 
 
 128. 
 right of separate alliances, 14. 
 Zwingli, 18. 
 
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