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 February 15, 189^. Mo. 20. UNSETTLED QUESTIONS. Fortnigtitly ; $5 a year 
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 LEGISLATION 
 
 BY THE CITIZENSHIP 
 
 THROUGH THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 J. W. SULLIVAN 
 
 NEW YORK 
 TWENTIETH CENTURY PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1892
 
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 Commg. The Death Penalty. The Land Question. The Plutocrat The 
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 DIRECT LEGISLATION 
 
 THE CITIZENSHIP 
 
 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 J. W. SULLIVAN 
 
 CONTENTS: 
 
 As TO This Book i. 
 
 The Initiative and Referendum in Switzerland - - 5 
 
 The Public Stewardship of Switzerland - - - - 25 
 
 The Common Wealth of Switzerland ----- 47 
 
 Direct Legislation in the United States - - - - 72 
 
 The Way Open to Peaceful Revolution - - - - 95 
 
 \_Coi>y 'right, iSq's,' by y! if'.' Suilivcn'l 
 
 NEW YORK 
 TWENTIETH CENTURY PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 iSg2
 
 ^ 
 
 S3 S3 
 
 AS TO THIS BOOK. 
 
 This is the second in a series of sociological works, each a small 
 volume, I have in course of publication. The first, "A Concept of 
 Political Justice," gave in outline the major positions which seem 
 to me logically to accord in practical life with the political princi- 
 ple of equal freedom. In the present work, certain of the positions 
 taken in the first are amplified. In each of the volumes to come, 
 which will be issued as I find time to complete them, similar amplifi- 
 cation in the case of other positions will be made. Naturally, the 
 order of publication of the proposed works may be influenced by 
 the general trend in the discussion of public questions. 
 
 The small-book plan I have adopted for several reasons. One is, 
 that the writer who embodies his thought on any large subject in a 
 single weighty volume commonly finds difiiculty in selling the work 
 or having it read ; the price alone restricts its market, and the 
 volume, by its very size, usually repels the ordinary reader. An- 
 \} other, that the radical world, which I especially address, is nowa- 
 ] days assailed with so much printed matter that in it big books have 
 "~^ slight show of favor. Another, that the reader of any volume in the 
 series subsequent to the first may on reference to the first ascertain 
 the train of connection and entire scope of the thought I would 
 present. And, finally, that such persons as have been won to the 
 sui^port of the principles taught may interest themselves, and per- 
 haps others, in spreading knowledge of these principles, as de- 
 veloped in the successive works. 
 
 On the last-mentioned point, a word. Having dunng the past 
 decade closely observed, and in some measure shared in, the dis' 
 cussion of advanced sociological thought, I maintain with confi- 
 dence the principles of equal freedom, not only in their essential truth, 
 but in the leading applications I have made of them. At least, I 
 
 21120,^
 
 As to this Book. 
 
 may trust that, thus far in either work, in coming to my more im- 
 portant conclusions, I have not fallen into error through bUnd de- 
 votion to an " ism " nor halted at faulty judgment because of limited 
 investigation. I therefore hope to have others join with me, some 
 to work quite in the hues I follow, and some to move at least in the 
 direction of those lines. 
 
 The present volume I have prepared with care. My attention 
 being attracted about eight years ago to the direct legislation of 
 Switzerland, I then set about collecting what notes in regard to that 
 institution I could glean from periodicals and other publications. 
 But at that time very Httle of value had been printed in Eng- 
 lish. Later, as exchange editor of a social reform weekly journal, 
 I gathered such facts bearing on the subject as were passing about 
 in the American newspaper world, and through the magazine in- 
 dexes for the past twenty years I gained access to whatever per- 
 taining to Switzerland had gone on record in the monthlies and quar- 
 terlies ; while at the three larger libraries of New York— the Astor, 
 the Mercantile, and the Columbia College— I found the principal de- 
 scriptive and historical works on Switzerland. But from all these 
 sources only a slender stock of information with regard to the 
 influence of the Initiative and Referendum on the later political 
 and economic development of Switzerland was to be obtained. So, 
 when, three years ago, mth inquiry on this point in mind, I spent 
 some months in Switzerland, about all I had at first on which to base 
 investigations was a collection of commonplace or beclouded fact 
 from the newspapers, a few statistics and opinions from an English 
 magazine or two, and some excerpts from volumes by De Laveleye 
 and Freeman which contained chapters treating of Swiss institu- 
 tions. Soon after, as a result of my observations in the country, I 
 contributed, under the caption " Republican Switzerland," a series 
 of articles to the New York " Times " on the Swiss government of 
 today, and, last April, an essay to the ' ' Chautauquan " magazine on 
 " The Referendum in Switzerland." On the form outlined in these 
 articles I have constructed the first three chapters of the present 
 work. The data, however, excepting in a few cases, are corrected
 
 As to this Book. 
 
 to 1892, and in many respects besides I have profited by the labors 
 of other men in tlie same field. 
 
 The past two years and a half has seen much writing on Swiss 
 institutions. Political investigators are awakening to the fact that 
 in politics and economics the Swiss are doing what has never before 
 been done in the world. In neighborhood, region, and nation, the 
 entire citizenship iu each case concerned is in details operating the 
 government. In certain cantons it is done iu every detail. Doing 
 this, the Swiss are moving rapidly in practically grappling with 
 social problems that elsewhere are hardly more than speculative 
 topics with scholars and theorists. In other countries, consequently, 
 interested lookers-on, having from different points of view taken 
 notes of democratic Switzerland, are, through newspaper, maga- 
 zine, and book, describing its unprecedented progress and suggest- 
 ing to their own countrymen what in Swiss governmental experi- 
 ence may be found of value at home. Of the more solid writing of 
 this character, four books may especially be reconmended. I men- 
 tion them in the order of their publication. 
 
 " The Swiss Confederation." By Sir Francis Ottiwell Adams and 
 C.D.Cunningham. (London: Macmillan & Co. ; i8Sg ; 289 pages ; 
 $1.75.) Sir Francis Ottiwell Adams was for some years British 
 Minister at Berne. 
 
 "The Federal Government of Switzerland: An Essay on th 
 Constitution." By Bernard Moses, Ph. D., professor of history and 
 political economy, University of California. (Pacific Press Publish- 
 ing Company : Oakland, Cal. ; 1889 ; 256 pages ; $1.25.) This work 
 is largely a comparative study of constitutions. It is meant chiefly 
 for the use of students of law and of legal history. It abounds, 
 however, in facts as to Switzerland which up to the time of its pub- 
 lication were quite inaccessible to American readers. 
 
 " State and Federal Government of Switzerland." By John Mar- 
 tin Vincent, Ph. D., librarian and instructor in the department of 
 history and politics, Johns Hopkins University. (Baltimore : Johns 
 Hopkins Press; 1891 ; 247 pages ; $1.50.) Professor Vincent had 
 access, at the university, to the considerable collection of books and
 
 As to this Book. 
 
 papers relating to Switzerland made by Professor J. C. Bluntschli, 
 an eminent Swiss historian who died in i88i,and also to a large 
 number of government publications presented by the Swiss Federal 
 Council to the university library. 
 
 " The Swiss Republic." By Boyd AVinehester, late United States 
 Minister at Berne. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.; 1S91 ; 
 487 pages ; $1.50.) Mr. Winchester was stationed four years at 
 Berne, and hence had better opportunity than Professor Vincent or 
 Professor Moses for obtaining a thorough acquaintance with Switz- 
 erland. Much of his book is taken up with descriptive writing, all 
 
 good. 
 
 Were I asked which of these four works affords the fullest infor- 
 mation as to new Switzerland and new Swiss political methods, I 
 should be obliged to refer the inquirer to h"s own needs. Professor 
 Moses's is best for one applying himself to law and constitu- 
 tional history. Professor Vincent's is richest in systematized de- 
 tails and statistics, especially such as relate to the Referendum and 
 taxation ; and in it also is a bibliography of Swiss politics and his- 
 tory. For the general reader, desiring description of the country, 
 stirring democratic sentiment, and an all-round view of the great 
 little republic, Mr. Winchester's is preferable. 
 
 In expanding and rearranging my " Times" and " Chautauquan 
 articles, I have, to some extent, used these books. I have derived 
 pleasure in finding that their authors, in the facts they present, 
 have brought little or no contradiction to my radical assertions 
 and deductions as to Switzerland. Their testimony, I believe, must 
 convince readers that the close connection of cause and effect whlc'i 
 I have traced between direct legislation and the high position of 
 Switzerland among the nations is true. 
 
 Throughout this work, wherever possible, conservatives, rather 
 than myself, have been made to speak ; hence quotations are fre- 
 quent. The first draft of the chapters on Switzerland have been read 
 by Swiss radicals of different schools, and the final proof sheets 
 have been revised by a Swiss writer of repute living in New York ; 
 therefore serious error is hardly probable. The one fault I myself
 
 j4s to this Book. 
 
 have to find with the work is its baldness of statement, rendered 
 necessary by space hmits. I could, perhaps more easily, have pre- 
 pared four or five hundred pages instead of the one hundred and 
 twenty. I leave it rather to the reader to supply comparison and 
 analysis and the eloquent comment of which, it seems to me, many 
 of the statements of fact are worthy. 
 
 Such readers as should wish to assist in developing direct legisla- 
 tion in this country, I invite to address me, care of the " Twentieth 
 Century," New York. J. W. S.
 
 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM IN 
 vSWITZERLAND. 
 
 Democratic versics Representative Govern?nent. 
 
 There is a radical difference between a democra- 
 cy and a representative government. In a democ- 
 racy, the citizens themselves make the law and super- 
 intend its administration ; in a representative govern- 
 ment, the citizens empower legislators and executive 
 officers to make the law and to carry it out. Under a de- 
 mocracy, sovereignty remains uninterruptedly with 
 the citizens, or rather a changing majority of the citi- 
 zens ; under a representative government, sovereignty 
 is surrendered by the citizens, for stated terms, to offi- 
 cials. In other words, democracy is direct rule by the 
 majority, while in a representative government rule is 
 by a succession of quasi-oligarchies, indirectly and re- 
 motely responsible to the majority. 
 
 Observe, now, first, the influences that chiefly con- 
 tribute to make government in the United States what 
 it is : — 
 
 The county, state, and federal governments are not 
 democracies. In form, they are quasi-oligarchies com- 
 posed of representatives and executives ; but in fact 
 they are frequently complete oligarchies, composed in 
 part of unending rings of politicians that directly con- 
 trol the law and the offices, and in part of the perma-
 
 6 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 nent plutocracy, who purchase legislation through the 
 politicians. 
 
 Observe, next, certain strong influences for the bet- 
 ter that obtain in a pure democracy : — 
 
 An obvious influence is, in one respect, the same as 
 that which enriches the plutocrat and prompts the 
 politician to reach for power — self-interest. When all 
 the members of any body of men find themselves in 
 equal relation to a profitable end in which they solely 
 are concerned, they will be inclined, first, to assert 
 their joint independence of other bodies in that re- 
 spect, and, secondly, each member will claim his full 
 share of whatever benefits arise. But, more than that ; 
 something like equality of benefits being achieved, 
 perhaps through various agencies of force, a second 
 influence will be brought powerfully to bear on those 
 concerned. It is that of justice. Fair play to all the 
 members will be generally demanded. 
 
 In a pure democracy, therefore, intelligently con- 
 trolled self-interest and a consequent sentiment of 
 justice are the sources in which the highest possible 
 social benefits may be expected to begin. 
 
 The reader has now before him the political princi- 
 ple to be here maintained — pure democracy as distin- 
 guished from representative government. My argu- 
 ment, then, becomes this : To show that, by means of 
 the one lawmaking method to which pure democracy 
 is restricted,— that of direct legislation by the citizen- 
 ship,— the political "ring," "boss," and "heeler " may 
 be abolished, the American plutocracy destroyed, and
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 7 
 
 government simplified and reduced to the limits set 
 by the conscience of the majority as affected by social 
 necessities. My task involves proof that direct legis- 
 lation is possible with large communities. 
 
 Direct Legislation in Switzerland. 
 
 Evidence as to the practicability and the effects of 
 direct legislation is afforded by Switzerland, especial- 
 ly in its history during the past twenty-five years. To 
 this evidence I turn at once. 
 
 There are in Switzerland twenty-two cantons 
 (states), which are subdivided into 2,706 communes 
 (townships). The commune is the political as well as 
 territorial unit. Commonly, as nearly as consist- 
 ent with cantonal and federal rights, in local affairs 
 the commune governs itself. Its citizens regard it as 
 their smaller state. It is jealous of interference by the 
 greater state. It has its own property to look after. 
 Until the interests of the canton or the Confederation 
 manifestly replace those of the immediate locality, the 
 commune declines to part with the administration of its 
 lands, forests, police, roads, schools, churches, or taxes. 
 
 Throughout Switzerland the adult male inhabitants 
 of the commune meet at least once annually, usually 
 in the town market place or on a mountain plain, and 
 carry out their functions as citizens. There they de- 
 bate proposed laws, name officers, and discuss affairs 
 of a public nature. On such occasions, every citizen 
 is a legislator, his voice and vote influencing the ques- 
 tions at issue. The right of initiating a measure
 
 ^ THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 belongs to each. Decision is ordinarily made by show 
 of hands. In most cantons the youth becomes a voter 
 at twenty, the legal age for acquiring a vote in federal 
 affairs, though the range for cantonal matters is from 
 eighteen to twenty-one. 
 
 Similar democratic legislative meetings govern two 
 cantons as cantons and two other cantons divided into 
 demi-cantons. In the demi-canton of Outer Appen- 
 zell, 13,500 voters are qualified thus to meet and legis- 
 late, and the number actually assembled is sometimes 
 10,000. But this is the highest extreme for such an 
 assemblage — a Landsgemeinde (a land-community) — 
 the lowest for a canton or a demi-canton comprising 
 about 3,000. One other canton (Schwyz, 50,307 inhabi- 
 tants) has Landsgemeinde meetings, there being six, 
 with an average of 2,000 voters to each. In com- 
 munal political assemblages, however, there are usu- 
 ally but a few hundred voters. 
 
 The yearly cantonal or demi-cantonal Landsge- 
 meinde takes place on a Sunday in April or May. 
 While the powers and duties of the body vary some- 
 what in different cantons, they usually cover the fol- 
 lowing subjects: Partial as well as total revision of 
 the constitution ; enactment of all laws ; imposition of 
 direct taxes ; incurrence of state debts and alienation 
 of public domains ; the granting of public privileges ; 
 assumption of foreigners into state citizenship ; estab- 
 lishment of new offices and the regulation of salaries ; 
 election of state, executive, and judicial officers.* 
 
 * J. M. Vincent . "State and Federal Government in Switzerland."
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 9 
 
 The programme for the meeting is arranged by the 
 officials and published beforehand, the law in some 
 cantons requiring publication four weeks before the 
 meeting, and in others but ten days. " To give oppor- 
 tunities for individuals and authorities to make pro- 
 posals and offer bills, the official gazette announces 
 every January that for fourteen days after a given 
 date petitions may be presented for that purpose. 
 These must be written, the object plainly stated and 
 accompanied by the reasons. All such motions are 
 considered by what is called the Triple Council, or 
 legislature, and are classified as 'expedient' and 'in- 
 expedient.' A proposal receiving more than ten votes 
 must be placed on the list of expedient, accompanied 
 by the opinion of the council. The rejected are placed 
 under a special rubric, familiarly called by the people 
 the Beiwagen. The assembly may reverse the action of 
 the council if it chooses and take a measure out of the 
 'extra coach,' but consideration of it is in that case 
 deferred until the next year. In the larger assemblies 
 debate is excluded, the vote being simply on rejection 
 or adoption. In the smaller states the line is not so 
 tightly drawn. . . . Votes are taken by show of 
 hands, though secret ballot may be had if demanded, 
 elections of officers following the same rule in this 
 matter as legislation. Nominations for office, how- 
 ever, need not be sent in by petition, but may be 
 offered by any one on the spot."* 
 
 * Vincent.
 
 lO THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 The Initiative and the Refcretidum. 
 
 It will be observed that the basic practical princi- 
 ples of both the communal meeting and the Landsge- 
 meinde are these two : 
 
 (i) That every citizen shall have the right to pro- 
 .pose a measure of law to his fellow-citizens — this prin- 
 ciple being known as the Initiative. 
 
 (2) That the majority shall actually enact the law 
 by voting the acceptance or the rejection of the meas- 
 ures proposed. This principle, when applied in non- 
 Landsgemeinde cantons, through ballotings at polling 
 places, on measures sent from legislative bodies to the 
 people, is known as the Referendum. 
 
 The Initiative has been practiced in many of the 
 communes and in the several Landsgemeinde cantons 
 in one form or other from time immemorial. In the' 
 past score of years, however, it has been practiced by 
 petition in an increasing number of the cantons not 
 having the democratic assemblage -of all the citizens. 
 
 The Referendum owes its origin to two sources. 
 One source was in the vote taken at the communal 
 meeting and the Landsgemeinde. The principle some- 
 times extended to cities, Berne, for instance, in the 
 fifty-five years from 1469 to 1524, taking sixty referen- 
 dary votings. The other source was in the vote taken 
 by the ancient cantons on any action by their dele- 
 gates to the federal Diet, or congress, these delegates 
 undertaking no affair except on condition of referring 
 it to the cantonal councils — ad referendum.
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 The principles of the Initiative and Referendum 
 have of recent years been extended so as to apply, to 
 a greater or lesser extent, not only to cantonal affairs 
 in cantons far too large for the Landsgemeinde, but to 
 affairs of the whole Swiss Confederation, comprising 
 three million inhabitants. In other words, the Swiss 
 nation today sees clearly, first, that the democratic sys- 
 tem has manifold advantages over the representative ; 
 and, secondly, that no higher degree of political free- 
 dom and justice can be obtained than by granting to the 
 least practicable minority the legal right to propose a 
 law and to the majority the right to accept or reject it. 
 . In enlarging the field of these working principles, the 
 Swiss have developed in the political world a factor 
 which, so far as it is in operation, is creating a revolu- 
 tion to be compared only with that caused in the in- 
 dustrial world by the steam engine. 
 
 The cantonal Initiative exists in fourteen of the 
 twenty-two cantons, in some of them, however, only 
 in reference to constitutional amendments. Usually, 
 the proposal of a measure of cantonal law by popular 
 initiative must be made through petition by from one- 
 twelfth to one-sixteenth of the voters of the canton. 
 When the petition reaches the cantonal legislature, the 
 latter body is obliged, within a brief period, specified 
 by the constitution, to refer the proposal to a cantonal 
 vote. If the decision of the citizens is then favorable, 
 the measure is law, and the executive and judicial 
 officials must proceed to carry it into effect.
 
 12 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 The cantonal Referendum is in constant practice in 
 all the cantons except Freiburg, which is governed 
 by a representative legislature. The extent, however, 
 to which the Referendum is applied varies consid- 
 erably. In two cantons it is applicable only to finan- 
 cial measures; in others it is optional with the people, 
 who sometimes demand it, but oftener do not ; in 
 others it is obligatory in connection with the passage 
 of every law. More explicitly : In the canton of Vaud 
 a mere pseudo-referendary right exists, under which 
 the Grand Council (the legislature) may, if it so de- 
 cides, propose a reference to the citizens. Valais takes 
 a popular vote only on such propositions passed by the 
 Grand Council as involve a one and a half per cent 
 increase in taxation or a total expenditure of 60,000 
 francs. With increasing confidence in the people, the 
 cantons of Lucerne, Zug, Bale City, Schaffhausen, St. 
 Gall, Ticino, Neuchatel, and Geneva refer a proposed 
 law, after it has passed the Grand Council, to the 
 voters when a certain proportion of the citizens, usu- 
 ally one-sixth to one-fourth, demand it by formal 
 petition. This form is called the optional Referen- 
 dum. Employed to its utmost in Zurich, Schwyz, 
 Berne, vSoleure, Bale Land, Aargau, Thurgau, and the 
 Grisons, in these cantons the Referendum permits no 
 law to be passed or expenditure beyond a stipulated 
 sum to be made by the legislature without a vote of 
 the people. This is known as the obligatory Referen- 
 dum. Glarus, Uri, the half cantons of Niwald and 
 Obwald (Unterwald), and those of Outer and Inner
 
 In swiT/^krlanu. 
 
 13 
 
 Appenzell, as cantons, or dcmi-cantons, still practice 
 the democratic assemblage — the Landsgemeinde. 
 
 In the following statistics, the reader may sec at a 
 glance the progress of the Referendum to the present 
 date, with the population of Switzerland by cantons, 
 and the difficulties presented by differences of lan- 
 guage in the introduction of reforms : — 
 
 
 No. inhab. 
 
 
 Form of Pass- 
 
 Yr. of 
 
 Canton. 
 
 Dec.,i88S. 
 
 Language. 
 
 ing Laws. 
 
 Entry 
 
 Zurich . . . 
 
 337,183 
 
 German. 
 
 Obhg. Ref. 
 
 1351 
 
 Berne . . . 
 
 536,679 
 
 Ger. and French. 
 
 " 
 
 1353 
 
 Lucerne. . . 
 
 135,360 
 
 German. 
 
 Optional Ref. 
 
 1332 
 
 Uri .... 
 
 17,249 
 
 Ger. and Italian. 
 
 Landsgemeinde. 
 
 1291 
 
 Schwyz . . 
 
 50,307 
 
 German. 
 
 Obfig. Ref. 
 
 " 
 
 Unterwald 
 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 Obwald . . 
 
 15,041 
 
 " 
 
 Landsgemeinde. 
 
 
 Niwald . . 
 
 12.538 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
 
 Glarus . . . 
 
 33.825 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
 1352 
 
 Zug . . . . 
 
 23,029 
 
 " 
 
 Optional Ref. 
 
 
 Freiburg . . 
 
 119.155 
 
 French and Ger. 
 
 Legislature. 
 
 14S1 
 
 Soleure . . . 
 
 85,621 
 
 German. 
 
 Oblig. Ref. 
 
 " 
 
 Bale 
 
 
 
 
 1501 
 
 City . . . 
 
 73-749 
 
 " 
 
 Optional Ref. 
 
 
 Country . . 
 
 61,941 
 
 " 
 
 Oblig. Ref. 
 
 
 Schauffhausen 
 
 37,783 
 
 " 
 
 Optional Ref. 
 
 . J 
 
 Appenzeil 
 
 
 
 
 1573 
 
 Outer . . 
 
 54.109 
 
 " 
 
 Landsgemeinde. 
 
 
 Inner . . 
 
 12,888 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
 
 St. Gall . . 
 
 228,160 
 
 " 
 
 Optional Ref. 
 
 1803 
 
 Grisons . . 
 
 94,810 
 
 Ger., Ital.,Rom. 
 
 Oblig. Ref. 
 
 " 
 
 Aargau . . 
 
 193,580 
 
 German. 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
 Thurgau . . 
 
 104,678 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
 Ticino . . . 
 
 126,751 
 
 Italian. 
 
 Optional Ref. 
 
 " 
 
 Vaud. . . . 
 
 247,655 
 
 French and Ger. 
 
 " 
 
 " 
 
 Valais . . . 
 
 101,985 
 
 " 
 
 Finance Ref. 
 
 1S14 
 
 Neuchatel . . 
 
 108,153 
 
 French. 
 
 Optional Ref. 
 
 
 Geneva . . . 
 
 105,509 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 2,917,740 
 
 
 In round numbers, 2,092,000 of the Swiss people 
 speak German, 637,000 French, 156,000 Italian, and 
 30,000 Romansch. Of the principal cities, in 18S7, Zu-
 
 14 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 rich, with suburbs, had 92,685 inhabitants ; Bale, 73,- 
 963 ; Geneva, with suburbs, 73,504 ; Berne, 50,220 ; Lau- 
 sanne, 32,954; and five others from 17,000 to 25,000. 
 Fourteen per cent of the inhabitants (410,000) live 
 in cities of more than 15,000. The factory workers 
 number 161,000, representing about half a million in- 
 habitants, and the peasant proprietors nearly 260,000, 
 representing- almost two millions. The area of Switz- 
 erland is 15,892 square miles, — slightly in excess of 
 double that of New Jersey. The population is slightly 
 less than that of Ohio. 
 
 Switzerland — The Youngest of Republics. 
 
 It is misleading to suppose, as is often done, that 
 the Switzerland of today is the republic which has 
 stood for six hundred years. In truth, it is the young- 
 est of republics. Its chief governmental features, can- 
 tonal and federal, are the work of the present genera- 
 tion. Its unique executive council, its democratic 
 army organization, its republican railway manage- 
 ment, its federal post-office, its system of taxation, its 
 two-chambered congress, the very Confederation itself 
 — all were originated in the constitution of 1848, the 
 first that was anything more than a federal compact. 
 The federal Referendum began only in 1874. The fed- 
 eral Initiative has been just adopted (1891.) The form 
 of cantonal Referendum now practiced was but begnn 
 (in St. Gall) in 1830, and forty years ago only five 
 cantons had any Referendum whatever, and these in 
 the optional form. It is of very recent years that
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 15 
 
 the movement has become steady toward the general 
 adoption of the cantonal Referendum. In i860 but 34 
 per cent of the Swiss possessed it, 66 per cent delegat- 
 ing their sovereign rights to representatives. But in 
 1S70 the referendariship had risen to 71 per cent, only 
 29 submitting to lawmaking officials ; and today the 
 proportions are more than 90 per cent to less than 10. 
 
 The thoughtful reader will ask : Why this continual 
 progress toward a purer democracy ? Wherein lie the 
 inducements to this persistent revolution ? 
 
 The answer is this : The masses of the citizens of 
 Switzerland found it necessary to revolt against their 
 plutocracy and the corrupt politicians who were ex- 
 ploiting the country through the representative sys- 
 tem. For a peaceful revolution these masses found the 
 means in the working principles of their communal 
 meetings — the Initiative and Referendum, — and these 
 principles they are applying throughout the republic 
 as fast as circumstances admit.* 
 
 The great movement for democracy in Europe that 
 culminated in the uprising of 1848 brought to the front 
 many original men, who discussed innovations in gov- 
 ernment from every radical point of view. Among 
 these thinkers were Martin Rittinghausen, Emile Gi- 
 rardin, and Louis Blanc. From September, 1850, to 
 December, 185 1, the date of the coup d'etat of Louis Bo- 
 naparte, these reformers discussed, in the " Democratic 
 
 * While the reports of the Secretary of State and "The History of the Ref- 
 erendum," by Th. Curti, will bear owt many of the statements here made as 
 to how the change from representative to direct legislation came about, the 
 story as I give it has been written me by Herr Carl Biirkli, of Zurich, known 
 in his canton as the " Father of the Referendum."
 
 l6 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 pacifique," a weekly newspaper of Paris, the subject of 
 direct legislation by the citizens. Their essays created 
 a sensation in France, and more than thirty journals 
 actively supported the proposed institution, when the 
 coup d'etat put an end to free speech. The articles were 
 reprinted in book form m Brussels, and other works 
 on the subject were afterward issued by Rittinghauscn 
 and his co-worker Victor Considerant. Among Con- 
 siderant's works was " Solution, ou gouvernement di- 
 rect du peuple," and this and companion works that 
 fell into the hands of Carl Biirkli convinced the latter 
 and other citizens of Zurich (" an unknown set of 
 men," says Biirkli) of the practicability of the demo- 
 cratic methods advocated. The subject was widely 
 agitated and studied in Switzerland, and the fact that 
 the theory was already to some extent in practice 
 there (and in ancient times had been much practiced) 
 led to further experiments, and these, attaining success, 
 to further, and thus the work has gone on. The cantonal 
 Initiative was almost unknown outside the Landsge- 
 meinde when it was established in Zurich in 1869. 
 Soon, however, through it and the obligatory Referen- 
 endum (to use Herr Biirkli's words) : " The plutocratic 
 government and the Grand Council of Zurich, which 
 had connived with the private banks and railroads, 
 were pulled down in one great voting swoop. The peo- 
 ple had grown tired of being beheaded by the office- 
 holders after every election." And politicians and 
 the privileged classes have ever since being going 
 down before these instruments in the hands of the
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. I7 
 
 people. The doctrines of the French theorists needed 
 but to be engrafted on ancient Swiss custom, the 
 Frenchmen in fact having drawn upon Swiss experi- 
 ence. 
 
 The Optional and the Obligatory Referendum. 
 
 To-day the movement in the Swiss cantons is not 
 only toward the Referendum, but toward its obligatory 
 form. The practice of the optional form has revealed 
 defects in it which are inherent.* 
 
 Geneva's management of the optional cantonal Ref- 
 erendum is typical. The constitution provides that, 
 certain of the laws being excepted from the Referen- 
 dum, and a prerequisite of its operation being the pres- 
 entation to the Grand Council of a popular petition, 
 the people may sanction or reject not only the bulk of 
 the laws passed by the Grand Council but also the de- 
 crees issued by the legislative and executive powers. 
 The exceptions are (i) "measures of urgence " and (2) 
 the items of the annual budget, save such as establish 
 a new tax, increase one in force, or necessitate an issue 
 of bonds. The Referendum cannot be exercised 
 against the budget as a whole, the Grand Council in- 
 dicating the sections which are to go to public vote. 
 In case of opposition to any measure, a petition for 
 the Referendum is put in circulation. To prevent the 
 measure from becoming law, the petition must receive 
 the legally attested signatures of at least 3,500 citizens 
 — about one in six of the cantonal vote — within thirty 
 
 * The facts relative to the operation of these two forms of the Referendum 
 have been given me by Monsieur P. Jamin, of Geneva.
 
 l8 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 days after the publication of the proposed measure. 
 After this period— known as "the first delay"— the 
 referendary vote, if the petition has been successful, 
 must take place within forty days— " the second 
 delay." 
 
 The power of declaring measures to be " of urgence " 
 lies with the Grand Council, the body passing the 
 measures. Small wonder, then, that in its eyes many 
 bills are of too much and too immediate importance 
 to go to the people. " The habit," protested Grand Coun- 
 cilor M. Putet, on one occasion, " tends more and more 
 to introduce itself here of decreeing urgence unne- 
 cessarily, thus taking away from the Referendum 
 expenses which have nothing of urgence. This is 
 contrary to the spirit of the constitutional law. Pub- 
 lic necessity alone can authorize the Grand Council to 
 take away any of its acts from the public control." 
 
 Another defect in the optional Referendum is that 
 it can be transformed into a partisan weapon — politi- 
 cians being ready, in Geneva, as in San Francisco, to 
 take advantage of the law for party purposes. For 
 example, the representatives of a minority party, 
 seeking a concession from a majority which have just 
 passed a bill, will threaten, if their demands are not 
 granted, to agitate for the Referendum on the bill ; 
 this, though the minority itself may favor the meas- 
 ure, some of its members, perhaps, having voted for it. 
 As the majority may be uncertain of the outcome of a 
 struggle at the polls, it will probably be inclined to 
 make peace on the terms dictated by the minority.
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 19 
 
 But the most serious objections to the optional form 
 arise in connection with the petitioning. Easy though 
 it be for a rich and strong party to bear the expense of 
 printing, mailing, and distributing petitions and circu- 
 lars, in case of opposition from the poorer classes 
 the cost may prove an insurmountable obstacle. Es- ^ 
 pecially is it difficult to get up a petition after sev- 
 eral successive appeals coming close together, the con- 
 stant agitation growing tiresome as well as financially 
 burdensome. Hence, measures have sometimes be- 
 come law simply because the people have not had time 
 to recover from the prolonged agitation in connection 
 with preceding propositions. Besides, each meas- 
 ure submitted to the optional Referendum brings 
 with it two separate waves of popular discussion — one 
 on the petition and one on the subsequent vote. On 
 this point ex-President Numa Droz has said: "The 
 agitation which takes place while collecting the neces- 
 sary signatures, nearly always attended with strong 
 feeling, diverts the mind from the object of the law, 
 perverts in advance public opinion, and, not permitting 
 later the calm discussion of the measure proposed, 
 establishes an almost irresistible current toward rejec- 
 tion." Finally, a fact as notorious in Switzerland as 
 vote-buying in America, a large number of citizens 
 who are hostile to a proposed law may fear to record an 
 adverse opinion by signing a Referendum list. Their 
 signatures may be seen and the unveiling of their 
 sentiments imperil their means of livelihood. 
 
 Zurich furnishes the example of the cantons having
 
 20 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 ■^^ the obligatory Referendum. There the law provides: 
 I. That all laws, decrees, and changes in the con- 
 stitution must be submitted to the people. 2. That 
 all decisions of the Grand Council on existing law 
 must be voted on. 3. That the Grand Council may 
 submit decisions which it itself proposes to make, 
 and that besides the voting on the whole law, the 
 Council may ask a vote on a special point. The Grand 
 Council cannot put in force provisionally any law or 
 decree. The propositions must be sent to the voters 
 at least thirty days before voting. The regular ref- 
 erendary ballotings take place twice a year, spring and 
 autumn, but in urgent cases the Grand Council may 
 call for a special election. The law in this canton 
 assists the lawmakers — the voters — in their task ; 
 when a citizen is casting his own vote he may also 
 deposit that of one or two relatives and friends, upon 
 presenting their electoral card or a certificate of au- 
 thorization. 
 
 In effect, the obligatory Referendum makes of the 
 entire citizenship a deliberative body in perpetual ses- 
 sion — this end being accomplished in Zurich in the 
 face of every form of opposing argument. Formerly, 
 its adversaries made much of the fact that it was ever 
 calling the voters to the urns ; but this is now avoided 
 f^by the semi-annual elections. It was once feared that 
 party tickets would be voted without regard to the 
 merits of the various measures submitted ; but it has 
 been proved beyond doubt that the fate of one propo- 
 sition has no effect whatever on that of another decid-
 
 IN SWITZERLAND 
 
 ed at the same time. Zurich has pronounced on nine- 
 ty-one laws in twenty-eight elections, the votes indi- 
 cating surprising independence of judgment. When 
 the obligatory form was proposed for Zurich, its sup- 
 porters declared it a sure instrument, but that it might 
 prove a costly one they were not prepared by experi- 
 ment to deny. Now, however, they have the data to 
 show that taxes — unfailing reflexes of public expendi- 
 ture — are lower than ever, those for police, for example, 
 being only about half those of optional Geneva, a less 
 populous canton. To the prophets who foresaw end- 
 less partisan strife in case the Referendum was to be 
 called in force on every measure, Zurich has replied by 
 reducing partisanship to its feeblest point, the people 
 indifferent to parties since an honest vote of the 
 whole body of citizens must be the final issue of 
 every question. 
 
 The people of Zurich have proved that the science 
 of politics is simple. By refusing special legislation, 
 they evade a flood of bills. By deeming appropri- 
 ations once revised as in most part necessary, they pay 
 attention chiefly to new items. By establishing prin- 
 ciples in law, they forbid violations. Thus there re- 
 main no profound problems of state, no abstruse ques- 
 tions as to authorities, no conflict as to what is the 
 law. Word fresh from the people is law. 
 
 The Federal Referendum. 
 
 The Federal Referendum, first established by the 
 constitution of 1874, is optional. The demand for it
 
 22 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM 
 
 must be made by 30,000 citizens or by eight cantons. 
 The petition for a vote under it must be made within 
 ninety days after the publication of the proposed law. 
 It is operative with respect either to a statute as 
 passed by the Federal Assembly (Congress), or a de- 
 cree of the executive power. Of 149 Federal laws and 
 decrees subject to the Referendum passed up to the 
 close of 1891 under the constitution of 1874, twenty- 
 seven were challenged by the necessary 30,000 peti- 
 tioners, fifteen being rejected and twelve accepted. 
 The Federal Initiative was established by a vote 
 taken on Sunday, July 5, 1891. It requires 50,000 peti- 
 tioners, whose proposal must be discussed by the 
 Federal assembly and then sent within a prescribed 
 delay to the whole citizenship for a vote. The Initi- 
 ative is not a petition to the legislative body ; it is a 
 demand made on the entire citizenship. 
 
 Where the cantonal Referendum is optional, a suc- 
 cessful petition for it frequently secures a rejection of 
 the law called in question. In 1862 and again in 1878, 
 the canton of Geneva rejected proposed changes in its 
 constitution, on the latter occasion by a majority of 
 6,000 in a vote of 11,000. Twice since 1847 the same can- 
 ton has decided against an increase of official salaries, 
 and lately it has declined to reduce the number of its 
 executive councilors from seven to five. The experi- 
 ence of the Confederation has been similar. Between 
 1874 and 1880 five measures recommended by the 
 Federal Executive and passed by the Federal Assembly 
 were vetoed by a national vote.
 
 IN SWITZERLAND, 23 
 
 Revision of Constitutions. 
 
 Revision of a constitution through the popular 
 vote is common. Since 1814, there have been sixty 
 revisions by the people of cantonal constitutions 
 alone. Geneva asks its citizens every fifteen years 
 if they wish to revise their organic law, thus twice in 
 a generation practically determining whether they 
 are in this respect content. The Federal constitution 
 may be revised at any time. Fifty thousand voters 
 petitioning for it, or the Federal Assembly (Congress) 
 demanding it, the question is submitted to the coun- 
 try. If the vote is in the affirmative, the Council of 
 States (the senate) and the National Council (the 
 house) are both dissolved. An election of these bodies 
 takes place at once; the Assembly, fresh from the peo- 
 ple then makes the required revision and submits the 
 revised constitution to the country. To stand, it must 
 be supported by a majority of the voters and a ma- 
 jority of the twenty-two cantons. 
 
 Suynmary. 
 
 To sum up : In Switzerland, in this generation, di- 
 rect legislation has in many respects been established 
 for the federal government, while in so large a canton 
 as Zurich, with nearly 340,000 inhabitants, it has also 
 been made applicable to every proposed cantonal law, 
 decree, and order, — the citizens of that canton them- 
 selves disposing by vote of all questions of taxa- 
 tion, public finance, executive acts, state employment, 
 corporation grants, public works, and similar opera-
 
 24 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM. 
 
 tions of government commonly, even in republican 
 states, left to legislators and other officials. In every 
 canton having the Initiative and the obligatory Refer- 
 endum, all power has been stripped from the officials 
 except that of a stewardship which is continually and 
 minutely supervised and controlled by the voters 
 Moreover, it is possible that yet a few years and the 
 affairs not only of every canton of Switzerland but of 
 the Confederation itself will thus be taken in hand 
 at every step. 
 
 Here, then, is evidence incontrovertible that pure de- 
 mocracy, through direct legislation by the citizenship, is 
 practicable — more, is now practiced — in large commu- 
 nities. Next as to its effects, proven and probable.
 
 THE PUBLIC STEWARDvSHIP OF SWITZER- 
 LAND. 
 
 If it be conceived that the fundamental principles 
 of a free society are these : That the bond uniting 
 the citizen with his fellows be that of contract ; 
 that rights, including those in natural resources, be 
 equal, and that each producer retain the full product 
 of his toil, it must be conceded on examination that 
 toward this ideal Switzerland has made further ad- 
 vances than any other country, despite notable points 
 in exception and the imperfect form of its fed- 
 eral Initiative and Referendum. Before particulars 
 are entered into, some general observations on this 
 head may be made. 
 
 The Political Status in Switzerland. 
 
 An impressive fact in Swiss politics to-day is its 
 peace. Especially is this true of the contents and tone 
 of the press. In Italy and Austria, on the south and 
 east, the newspapers are comparatively few, mostly 
 feeble, and in general subservient to party or govern- 
 ment ; in Germany, on the north, where State Social- 
 ism is strong, the radical press is at times turbulent and 
 the government journals reflect the despotism they up- 
 hold ; in France, on the west and southwest, the public 
 writers are ever busy over the successive unstable cen-
 
 2^ 1"HE PUBLIC STEWARDSHIP 
 
 tral administrations at Paris, which exercise a bureau- 
 cratic direction of every commune in the land. In all 
 these countries, men rather than measures are the 
 objects of discussion, an immediate important cam- 
 paign question inevitably being whether, when once in 
 office, candidates may make good their ante-election 
 promises. Thus, on all sides, over the border from 
 Switzerland, political turmoil, with its rancor, person- 
 alities, false reports, hatreds, and corruptions, is end- 
 less. But in Switzerland, debate uniformly bears not 
 on men but on measures. The reasons are plain. 
 Where the veto is possessed by the people, in vain may 
 rogues go to the legislature. With few or no party 
 spoils, attention to public business, and not to patron- 
 age or private privilege, is profitable to office holders 
 a*? well as to the political press. 
 
 In the number of newspapers proportionate to popu- 
 lation, Switzerland stands with the United States 
 at the head of the statistical list for the world. In 
 their general character, Swiss political journals are 
 higher than American. They are little tempted to 
 knife reputations, to start false campaign issues, to 
 inflame partisan feeling ; for every prospective can- 
 tonal measure undergoes sober popiilar discussion the 
 year round, with the certain vote of the citizenship in 
 view in the cantons having the Landsgemeinde or the 
 obligatory Referendum, and a possible vote in most of 
 the other cantons, while federal measures also may be 
 met with the federal optional Referendtim. 
 
 The purity and peacefulness of Swiss press and
 
 Of SWITZERLAND. if 
 
 politics is due to the national development of to-day 
 as expressed in appropriate institutions. Of these in- 
 stitutions the most efEective, the fundamental, is direct 
 legislation, accompanied as it is with general educa- 
 tion. In education the Swiss are preeminent among 
 nations. Illiteracy is at a lower percentage than in 
 any other country ; primary instruction is free and 
 compulsory in all the cantons ; and that the higher 
 education is general is shown in the four universities, 
 employing three hundred instructors. 
 
 An enlightened people, employing the ballot freely, 
 directly, and in consequence effectively — this is the 
 true sovereign governing power in Switzerland. As 
 to what, in general terms, have been the effects of this 
 power on the public welfare, as to how the Swiss them- 
 selves feel toward their government, and as to what 
 are the opinions of foreign observers on the recent 
 changes through the Initiative and Referendum, some 
 testimony may at this point be offered. 
 
 In the present year, Mr. W. D. McCracken has pub- 
 lished in the "Arena" of Boston his observations of 
 Swiss politics. He found, he says, the effects of the 
 Referendum to be admirable. Jobbery and extrava- 
 gance are unknown, and politics, as there is no money 
 in it, has ceased to be a trade. The men elected to 
 office are taken from the ranks of the citizens, and are 
 chosen because of their fitness for the work. The peo- 
 ple take an intelligent interest in every kind of local 
 and federal legislation, and hiive a full sense of their 
 political responsibility. Th(^ mass of useless or evil
 
 28 THE PLfBLIC STEWARDSHIP 
 
 laws which legislatures in other countries are con- 
 stantly passing with little consideration, and which 
 have constantly to be repealed, are in Switzerland not 
 passed at all. 
 
 In a study of the direct legislation of Switzerland, 
 the "Westminster Review," February, 1888, passed this 
 opinion : " The bulk of the people move more slowly 
 than their representatives, are more cautious in adopt- 
 ing new and trying legislative experiments, and have 
 a tendency to reject propositions submitted to them 
 for the first time." Further: " The issue which is pre- 
 sented to the sovereign people is invariably and neces- 
 sarily reduced to its simplest expression, and so placed 
 before them as to be capable of an affirmative or nega- 
 tive answer. In practice, therefore, the discussion of de- 
 tails is left to the representative assemblies, while the 
 people express approval or disapproval of the general 
 principle or policy embraced in the proposed measure. 
 Public attention being confined to the issue, leaders 
 are nothing. The collective wisdom judges of mer- 
 its." 
 
 A. V. Dicey, the critic of constitutions, writes in the 
 " Nation," October 8, 1885: " The Referendum must be 
 considered, on the whole, a conservative arrangement. 
 It tends at once to hinder rapid change and also to get 
 rid of that inflexibility or immutability which, in the 
 eyes of Englishmen at least, is a defect in the consti- 
 tution of the United vStates." 
 
 A Swiss radical has written me as follows : " The 
 development given to education during the last quar-
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 29 
 
 ter of a century will have without doubt as a conse- 
 quence an improved judgment on the part of a large 
 number of electors. The press also has a role more 
 preponderant than formerly. Everybody reads. Cer- 
 tainly the ruling classes profit largely by the power of 
 the printing press, but with the electors who have re- 
 ceived some instruction the capitalist newspapers are 
 taken with due allowance for their sincerity. Their 
 opinion is not accepted without inquiry. We see a 
 rapid development of ideas, if not completely new, at 
 least renewed and more widespread. More or less 
 radical reviews and periodicals, in large number, are 
 not without influence, and their appearance proves 
 that great changes are imminent." 
 
 Professor Dicey has contrasted the Referendum with 
 the plebiscite : " The Referendum looks at first sight like 
 a French plebiscite, but no two institutions can be 
 marked by more essential differences. The plebiscite is 
 a revolutionary or at least abnormal proceeding. It is 
 not preceded by debate. The form and nature of the 
 questions to be submitted to the nation are chosen and 
 settled by the men in power, and Frenchmen are asked 
 whether they will or will not accept a given policy. 
 Rarely, indeed, when it has been taken, has the voting 
 itself been full or fair. Deliberation and discussion 
 are the requisite conditions for rational decision. 
 Where effective opposition is an impossibility, nomi- 
 nal assent is an unmeaning compliment. These es- 
 sential characteristics, the lack of which deprives 
 a French plebiscite of all moral significance, are the
 
 30 THE PUBLIC STEWARDSHIP 
 
 undoubted properties of the Swiss Referendum." 
 In the "Revue des Deux Mondes," Paris, August, 
 1 89 1, Louis Wuarin, an interested observer of wSwiss 
 politics for many years, writes: "A people may indi- 
 cate its will, not from a distance, but near at hand, 
 always superintending the work of its agents, watching 
 them, stopping them if ther* is reason for so doing, 
 constraining them, in a word, to carry out the people's 
 will in both legislativ^e and administrative affairs. In 
 this form of government the representative system is 
 reduced to a minimum. The deliberative bodies re- 
 semble simple committees charged with preparing 
 work for an elected assembly, and here the elected 
 assembly is replaced by the people. This sovereign 
 action in person in the transaction of public business 
 may extend more or less widely; it may be limited to 
 the State, or it may be extended to the province also, 
 and even to the town. To whatever extent this super- 
 vision of the people may go, one thing may certainly 
 be expected, which is that the supervision will become 
 closer and closer as time goes on. It never has been 
 known that citizens gave up willingly and deliberately 
 rights acquired, and the natural tendency of citizens is 
 to' increase their privileges. Switzerland is an ex- 
 ample of thia type of democratic government. . , . 
 There i.: some reason for regarding parliamentary 
 government — at least under its classic and orthodox 
 form of rivalry between two parties, who watch each 
 other closely, in order to profit by the faults of their 
 adversaries, v/ho dispute with each other for power
 
 OK SWITZK-RLANl). 3I 
 
 without the interests of the country, in the ardor of 
 the encounter, being always considered — as a transi- 
 tory form in the evolution of democracy." 
 
 The spirit of the Swiss law and its relation to the 
 liberty of the individual is shown in passages of 
 the cantonal and federal constitutions. That of Uri 
 declares: ""Wliatevcr the Landsgemeinde, within the 
 limits of its competence, ordains, is law of the land, 
 and as such shall be obeyed," but : " The guiding 
 principle of the Landsgemeinde shall be justice and 
 the welfare of the fatherland, not willfulness nor the 
 power of the strongest." That of Zurich : " The peo- 
 ple exercise the lawmaking power, with the assistance 
 of the state legislature." That of the Confederation : 
 "^Vll the Swiss people are cqvial before the law. There 
 are in Switzerland no subjects, nor privileges of place, 
 birth, persons, or families." 
 
 In these general notes and quotations is sketched in 
 broad lines the political environment of the Swiss 
 citizen of to-day. The social mind with which he 
 stands in contact is politically developed, is bent on 
 justice, is accustomed to look for safe results from the 
 people's laws, is at present more than ever inclined to 
 trust direct legislation, and, on the whole, is in a 
 state of calmness, soberness, tolerance, and political 
 self-discipline. 
 
 The machinery of public stewardship, subject to 
 popular guidance, maj'- now be traced, beginning with 
 the most simple form.
 
 32 THE PUBLIC "STEWARDSHIP 
 
 Orga/iiza/io/i of the Coinmunc. 
 
 The common necessities of a vSwiss neighborhood, 
 such as establishing and maintaining local roads, po- 
 lice, and schools, and administering its common 
 wealth, bring its citizens together in democratic assem- 
 blages. These arc of different forms. 
 
 One form of such assemblage, the basis of the 
 superstructure of government, is the political com- 
 mimal meeting. " In it take place the ejections, fed- 
 eral, state, and local ; it is the local iniit of state gov- 
 ernment and the residuary legatee of all powers not 
 granted to other authorities.- Its procedure is ample 
 and highly democratic. It meets either at the call of 
 an executive council of its own election, or in pursu- 
 ance of adjournment, and, as a rule, on a Sunday or 
 holiday. Its presiding officer is sometimes the mayor, 
 sometimes a special chairman. Care is taken that only 
 voters shall sit in the body of the assembly, it being a 
 rule in Zurich that the register of citizens shall lie on 
 the desk for inspection. Tellers arc appointed by vote 
 and must be persons who do not belong to the village 
 council, since that is the local cabinet which proposes 
 measures for consideration.. Any member of the as- 
 sembly may offer motions or amendments, but usually 
 they are brought forward by the town council, or at 
 least referred to that body before being voted upon."* 
 The officials of the commune chosen in the communal 
 meeting, are one chief executive (who in French com- 
 munes usually has two assistants), a communal coun- 
 
 * Vincent.
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 33 
 
 cil, which legislates on the lesser matters eoming up 
 between communal meetings, and such minor officials 
 as are not left to the choice of the council. 
 
 A second form of neighborhood assemblage is one 
 composed only of those citizens who have rights in 
 the communal corporate domains and funds, these 
 rights being either inherited or acquired (sometimes 
 by purchase) after a term of purely political citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 A third form is the parish meeting, at which gather 
 the members of the same faith in the commune, or of 
 even a smaller church district. The Protestant, the 
 Catholic, and the Jewish are recognized as State reli- 
 gions — the Protestant alone in some cantons, the Cath- 
 olic in others, both in several, and both with the Jew- 
 ish in others. 
 
 A fourth form of local assembly is that of the school 
 district, usually a subdivision of a commune. It elects 
 a board of education, votes taxes to defray school ex- 
 penses, supervises educational matters, and in some 
 districts elects teachers. 
 
 Dividing the commune thus into voting groups, each 
 with its appropriate purpose, makes for justice. He who 
 has a share in the communal public wealth (forests, 
 pastoral and agricultural lands, and perhaps funds), is 
 not endangered in this property through the votes of 
 non-participant newcomers. Nor are educational af- 
 fairs mixed with general politics. And, though State 
 and religion are not yet severed, each form of belief 
 is largely left to itself ; in some cantons provision is
 
 34 THE PUHLIC STKWARDSHIP 
 
 made that a citizen's taxes shall not go toward the 
 support of a religion to which he is opposed. 
 
 Organization of Canio?i ami Confederation. 
 
 In no canton in Switzerland is there more than one 
 legislative body : in none is there a senate. The cities 
 of vSwitzerland have no mayor, the cantons have no 
 governor, and, if the title be used in the American 
 sense, the republic has no President. Instead of 
 the usual single executive head, the Swiss employ nn 
 executive council. Hence, in every canton a deadlock 
 in legislation is impossible, the way is clear for all 
 law demanded by a majority, and ncitlier in canton 
 nor Confederation is one-man power known. 
 
 The cantonal legislature is the Grand Council. In 
 the Landsgemeinde cantons and those having the 
 obligatory Referendum, it is little more than a super' 
 visory committee, preparing measures f(jr the vote of 
 the citizens and acting as a check on the cantonal ex' 
 ecutive council. In the remaining cantons (those hav 
 ing the opti(jnal Referendum), " the legislature has 
 the power to spend money below a specified limit ; to 
 enact laws of specified kinds, usually not of general 
 application ; and to elect the more important officials, 
 the amount of discretion [in the different cantons] ris- 
 ing gradually till the complete representative govern- 
 ment is reached "* in Freiburg, which resembles one 
 of our states. Though in several cantons the Grand 
 Council meets every two months for a few days' ses- 
 
 ♦ Vincent.
 
 C)F SWITZERLAND. 35 
 
 sion, in most of the cantons it meets twice a year. The 
 pay of members ranges from sixty cents to $1.20 per 
 day. The lei;islativc bodies are lar.oe ; the ratio in 
 five cantons is one legislator to every 1,000 inhabitants ; 
 in twelve it ranges from one to 187 up to one to 800, and 
 in the remaining five from one to 1,000 to one to 2,000. 
 The Landsgenieinde cantons iisiially have fifty to sixty 
 members ; (Geneva, with 20,000 voters, has a hundred. 
 
 In six of the twenty-two cantons, if a certain num- 
 ber of voters petition for it, the question must be sub- 
 mitted to the people whether or not the legislature 
 shall be recalled and a new one elected. 
 
 The formation cf the Swiss Federal Assembly (con- 
 gress), established in 1848, was influenced by the make- 
 up of the American congress. The lower house is 
 elected by districts, as in the United States, the basis 
 of representation being one member to 20,000 inhabit- 
 ants, and the number of members 147. The term for 
 this house is three years ; the pay, four dollars a day, 
 during session, and mileage. The ui)pcr house, the 
 Council of Stales (senate), the only body of the kind 
 in Switzerland, is composed of two members from each 
 canton. Cantonal law governing their election, the 
 tenure of their office is not the same : in some cantons 
 they are elected by the people, in others by the legis- 
 lature ; their pay varies ; their term of office ranges 
 from one to three years. Their brief terms and the 
 fact that Ihcir more important functions, such as the 
 election of the federal executive council, take place in 
 joint session with the second chamber, render the
 
 36 THE PUBLIC STEWARDSHIP 
 
 members of the "upper" house of less weight in na- 
 tional affairs than those of the "lower." 
 
 Szcn'ss Executives. 
 
 The executive councils of the cities, the cantons, and 
 the Confederation are all of one form. They are com- 
 mittees, composed of members of equal rank. The 
 number of members varies. Of cantonal executive 
 councilors, there are seven in eleven of the cantons, 
 three, five, and nine in others, and eleven in one. In 
 addition to carrying out the law, the executive council 
 usually assists somewhat in legislation, the members 
 not only introducing but speaking upon measures in 
 the legislative body with which they are associated, 
 without, however, having a vote. In about half the 
 cantons, the cantonal executive councils are elected by 
 the people ; in the rest by the legislative body. 
 
 Types of the executive councils are those of Geneva, 
 city and canton. The city executive council is com- 
 posed of five members, elected by the people for four 
 years. The salary of its president is $800 a year ; that 
 of the other four members, $600. The cantonal execu- 
 tive has seven members ; the salaries are : the presi- 
 dent, $1,200 ; the rest, $1,000. In both city and can- 
 tonal councils each member is the head of an adminis- 
 trative department. The cantonal executive council 
 has the power to suspend the deliberations of the city 
 executive council and those of the commugal councils 
 whenever in its judgment these bodies transcend their 
 legal powers or refuse to conform to the law. In case
 
 OF SWITZERLA>fD. 37 
 
 of such suspension, a meeting of the cantonal Grand 
 Council (the legislature) must be called within a week, 
 and if it approves of the action of the cantonal execu- 
 tive, the council suspended is dissolved, and an elec- 
 tion for another must be had within a month, the 
 members of the body dissolved not being immediately 
 eligible for re-election. The cantonal executive coun- 
 cil may also revoke the commissions of communal ex- 
 ecutives (maires and adjoints), who then cannot im- 
 mediately be re-elected. Check to the extensive powers 
 of the cantonal executive council lies in the fact that 
 its members are elected directly by the people and 
 hold office for only two years. But in cantons having 
 the obligatory Referendum, Geneva's methods, how- 
 ever advanced in the eyes of American republicans, 
 are not regarded as strictly democratic. 
 
 The Federal Executive Council. 
 
 The Swiss nation has never placed one man at its 
 head. Prior to 1848, executive as well as legislative 
 powers were vested in the one house of the Diet. Un- 
 der the constitution adopted in that year, with which 
 the Switzerland as now organized really began, the 
 present form of the executive was established. 
 
 This executive is the Federal Council, a board of 
 seven members, whose term is three years, and who 
 are elected in joint session by the two houses of the 
 Federal Assembly (congress). The presiding officer 
 of the council, chosen as such by the Federal Assem- 
 bly, is elected for one year. He cannot be his own 
 
 211205
 
 38 THE PUBLIC STEWARDSHIP 
 
 successor. While he is nominally President of the 
 Confederation, Swiss treatises on the subject uniform- 
 ly emphasize the fact that he is actually no more than 
 chairman of the executive council. He is but " first 
 among his equals " {^primus inter pares). His prerogatives 
 — thus to describe whatever powers fall within his du- 
 ties — are no greater than those pertaining to the rest 
 of the board. Unlike the President of the United 
 States, he has no rank in the army, no power of veto, 
 no influence with the judiciary ; he cannot appoint 
 military commanders, or independently name any offi- 
 cials whatever ; he cannot enforce a policy, or declare 
 war, or make peace, or conclude a treaty. His name 
 is not a by-word in his own country. Not a few among 
 the intelligent Swiss would pause a moment to recall 
 his name if suddenly asked : " Who is President this 
 year ?" 
 
 The federal executive council is elected on the as- 
 sembling of the Federal Assembly after the triennial 
 election for members of the lower house. All Swiss 
 citizens are eligible, except that no two members may 
 be chosen from the same canton. The President's sal- 
 ary is $2,605, that of the other members $2,316. AVhile 
 in office, the councilors may not perform any other 
 public function, engage in any kind of trade, or prac- 
 tice any profession. A member of the council is at 
 the head of each department of the government, viz.: 
 Foreign Affairs, Interior, Justice and Police, Military, 
 Finances, Commerce and Agriculture, and Post-Office 
 and Railroads. The constitution directs a joint trans-
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 39 
 
 action of the business of the council by all the seven 
 members, with the injunction that responsibility and 
 unity of action be not enfeebled. The council appoints 
 employes and functionaries of the federal depart- 
 ments. Each member may present a nomination for 
 any branch, but names are usually handed in by the 
 head of the department in which the appointment is 
 made. As a minority of the board is uniformly com- 
 posed of members of the political party not, if it may 
 be so described, " in power," purely partisan employ- 
 ments are difficult. Removals of federal officeholders 
 in order to repay party workers are unheard of. 
 
 The executive council may employ experts for special 
 tasks, it has the right to introduce bills in the Federal 
 Assembly, and each councilor has a "consultative 
 voice " in both houses. In practice, the council is sim- 
 ply an executive commission expressing the will of 
 the assembly, the latter having even ordered the re- 
 vision of regulations drawn up by the council for its 
 employes at Berne. The acts of the asssembly being 
 liable to the Referendum, connection with the will of 
 the people is established. Thus popular sovereignty 
 finally, and quite directly, controls. 
 
 While both legislators and executives are elected for 
 short terms, it is customary for the same men to serve 
 in public capacities a long time. Though the people 
 may recall their servants at brief intervals, they al- 
 most invariably ask them to continue in service. Em- 
 ployes keep their places at their will during good be- 
 havior. This custom extends to the higher offices
 
 40 THE PUBLIC STEWARDSHIP 
 
 filled by appointment. One minister to Paris held the 
 position for twenty-three years ; one to Rome, for six- 
 teen. Once elected to the federal executive council, a 
 public man may regard his office as a permanency. Of 
 the council of 1889, one member had served since 1863, 
 another since 1866. Up to 1879 no seat in the council 
 had ever become vacant excepting through death or 
 resignation. 
 
 Features of the Judiciary. 
 
 Civil and criminal courts arc separate. The justice 
 of the peace sits in a case first as arbitrator, and not 
 until he fails in that capacity does he assume the chair 
 of magistrate. His decision is final in cases involving 
 sums up to a certain amount, varying in different lo- 
 calities. Two other grades of court are maintained in 
 the canton, one sitting for a judicial subdivision 
 called a district, and a higher court for the whole can- 
 ton. Members of the district tribunal, consisting of 
 five or seven members, are commonly elected by the 
 people, their terms varying, with eight years as the 
 longest. The judges of the cantonal courts as a rule 
 are chosen by the Grand Council ; their number seven 
 to thirteen ; their terms one to eight years. The can- 
 tonal court is the court of last resort. The Federal 
 Tribunal, which consists of nine judges and nine alter- 
 nates, elected for six years, tries cases between canton 
 and canton or individual and canton. For this bench 
 practically all Swiss citizens are eligible. The entire 
 judicial system seems designed for the speedy trial of 
 cases and the discouragement of litieation.
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 4I 
 
 No court in Switzerland, not even the Federal Tri- 
 bunal, can reverse the decisions of the Federal Assem- 
 bly (congress). This can be done only by the people. 
 
 The election by the Assembly of the Federal Tribu- 
 nal — as well as of the federal executive — has met with 
 strong opposition. Before long both bodies may be 
 elected by popular vote. 
 
 Swiss jurors are elected by the people and hold office 
 six years. In French and German Switzerland, there 
 is one such juror for every thousand inhabitants, and 
 in Italian vSwitzerland one for every five hundred. To 
 a Swiss it would seem as odd to select jurors haphaz- 
 ard as to so select judges. 
 
 In most of the manufacturing cantons, councils of 
 prud'hommes are elected by the people. The various 
 industries and professions are classified in ten groups, 
 each of which chooses a council of prud'hommes com- 
 posed of fifteen employers and fifteen employes. Each 
 council is divided into a bureau of conciliation, a tri- 
 bunal of prud'hommes, and a chamber of appeals, cases 
 going on appeal from one board to another in the 
 order named. These councils have jurisdiction only 
 in the trades, their sessions relating chiefly to pay- 
 ment for services and contracts of apprenticeship. 
 
 A Deinocratic Army. 
 
 In surveying the simple political machinery of 
 Switzerland, the inquirer, remembering the fate of so 
 many republics, may be led to ask as to the danger of 
 its overthrow by the Swiss army. The reply is that,
 
 42 
 
 THE PUBLIC STEWARDSHIP 
 
 here, again, so far as may be seen, the nation has 
 wisely planned safeguards. To show how, and as the 
 Swiss army differs widely from all others in its organ- 
 ization, some particulars regarding it are here perti- 
 nent. 
 
 The more important features of the Swiss military 
 system, established in 1874, are as follows : There is 
 no Commander-in-chief in time of peace. There is no 
 aristocracy of officers. Pensions are fixed by law. 
 There is no substitute system. Every citizen not dis- 
 abled is liable either to military duty or to duties es- 
 sential in time of war, such as service in the postal de- 
 partment, the hospitals, or the prisons. Citizens en- 
 tirely disabled and unfit for the ranks or semi-military 
 service are taxed to a certain per centage of their 
 property or income. No canton is allowed to maintain 
 more than three hundred men under arms without 
 federal authority. 
 
 Though there is no standing army, every man in the 
 country between the ages of seventeen and fifty is en- 
 rolled and subject annually either to drill or inspec- 
 tion. On January i, 1891, the active army, comprising 
 all unexempt citizens between twenty and thirty-two 
 years, contained 126,444 officers and men ; the first re- 
 serve, thirty-three to forty-four years, 80,795 '■> the sec- 
 ond reserve, all others, 268,715 ; total, 475,955. The 
 Confederation can place in the field in less than a week 
 more than 200,000 men, armed, uniformed, drilled, and 
 every man in his place. 
 
 On attaining his twentieth year, every Swiss youth
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 43 
 
 is summoned before a board of physicians and mili- 
 tary officers for physical and mental examination. 
 Those adjudged unfit for service are exempted — tem- 
 porarily if the infirmity may pass away, for life if it 
 be permanent. The tax on exempted men is $1.20 plus 
 thirty cents per year for $200 of their wealth or $20 of 
 their income, until the age of thirty-two years, and 
 half these sums until the age of forty-four. On being 
 enrolled in his canton, the soldier is allowed to return 
 home. He takes with him his arms and accoutre- 
 ments, and thenceforth is responsible for them. He 
 is ever ready for service at short call. Intrusting the 
 soldiery with their outfit reduces the number of arm- 
 mories, thus cutting down public expenditures and 
 preventing loss through capture in case of sudden in- 
 vasion by an enemy. 
 
 In the vSwiss army are eight divisions of the active 
 force and eight of the reserve, adjoining cantons unit- 
 ing to form a division. Each summer one division is 
 called out for the grand manoeuvres, all being brought 
 out once in the course of eight years. 
 
 In case of war a General is named by the Federal 
 Assembly. At the head of the army in time of peace 
 is a staff, composed of three colonels, sixteen lieuten- 
 ant colonels and majors, and thirty-five captains. 
 
 The cost of maintaining the army is small, on an 
 average $3,500,000 a year. Officers and soldiers alike 
 receive pay only while in service. If wounded or taken 
 ill on duty, a man in the ranks may draw up to $240 
 a year pension while suffering disability. Lesser
 
 44 THE PUBLIC STEWARDSHIP 
 
 sums may be drawn by the family of a soldier who 
 loses his life in the service. 
 
 At Thounc, near Berne, is the federal military acad- 
 emy. It is open to any Swiss youth who can support 
 himself while there. Not even the President of the 
 Confederation may in time of peace propose any man 
 for a commission who has not studied at the Thoune 
 academy. A place as commissioned officer is not 
 sought for as a fat office nor as a ready stepping-stone 
 to social position. As a rule only such youths study 
 at Thoune as are inclined to the profession of arms. 
 Promotion is according to both merit and seniority. 
 Officers up to the rank of major are commissioned by 
 the cantons, the higher grades by the Confederation. 
 
 In Switzerland, then, the military leader appears 
 only when needed, in war ; he cannot for years after- 
 ward be rewarded by the presidency ; pensions cannot 
 be made perquisites of party ; the army, /. e. the whole 
 effective force of the nation, will support, and not at- 
 tempt to subvert, the republic. 
 
 The True Social Contract. 
 
 The individual enters into social life in Switzerland 
 with the constitutional guarantee that he shall be in- 
 dependent in all things excepting wherein he has in- 
 extricable common interests with his fellows. 
 
 Each neighborhood aims, as far as possible, to gov- 
 ern itself, so subdividing its functions that even in 
 these no interference with the individual shall occur
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 4^ 
 
 that may be avoided. Adjoining- neighljorhoods next 
 form a district and as such control certain common in- 
 terests. Then a g-reater group, of several districts, 
 unite in the canton. Finally takes place the federation 
 of all the cantons. At each of these necessary steps 
 in organizing societ)-, the avowed intention of the 
 masses concerned is that the primary rights of the in- 
 dividual shall be preserved. vSays the "Westminster 
 Review ": " The essential characteristic of the federal 
 government is that each of the states which combine 
 to form a union retains in its own hands, in its indi- 
 vidual capacity, the management of its own affairs, 
 while authority over matters common to all is exer- 
 cised by the states in their collective and corporate ca- 
 pacity." And what' is thus true of the Confederation 
 with respect to the independence of the canton is 
 equally true of canton with respect to the commune, 
 and of the commune with respect to the individual. 
 No departure from home rule, no privileged individ- 
 uals or corporations, no special legislation, no courts 
 with powers above the people's will, no legal discrimi- 
 nations whatever — such their aim, and in general their 
 successful aim, the Swiss lead all other nations in 
 leaving to the individual his original sovereignty. 
 Wherever this is not the fact, wherever purpose fails 
 fulfillment, the cause lies in long-standing complica- 
 tions which as yet have not yielded to the newer 
 democratic methods. On the side of official organi- 
 zation, one historical abuse after another has been at- 
 tacked, resulting in the simple, smooth-running, neces-
 
 46 THE PUBLIC STEWARDSHIP. 
 
 sary local and national stewardships described. On 
 the side of economic social organization, a concomi- 
 tant of the political system, the progress in Switzerland 
 has been remarkable. As is to be seen in the follow- 
 ing chapter, in the management of natural monopolies 
 the democratic Swiss, beyond any other people, have 
 attained justice, and consequently have distributed 
 much of their increasing wealth with an approach to 
 equity ; while in the system of communal lands prac- 
 ticed in the Landsgemeinde cantons is found an ex- 
 ample to land reformers throughout the world.
 
 THE COMMON WEALTH OF SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Unless producers may exercise equal right of access 
 to land, the first material for all production, they 
 stand unequal before the law ; and if one man, through 
 legal privilege given to another, is deprived of any 
 part of the product of his labor, justice does not reign. 
 The economic question, then, under any government, 
 relates to legal privilege — to monopoly, either of the 
 land or its products. 
 
 With the non-existence of the exclusive enjoyment 
 of monopolies by some men — monopolies in the land, 
 in money-issuing, in common public works — each pro- 
 ducer would retain his entire product excepting his 
 taxes. This end secured, there would remain no polit- 
 ico-economic problem excepting that of taxation. 
 
 Of recent years the Swiss have had notable success 
 in preventing from falling into private hands certain 
 monopolies that in other countries take from the 
 many to enrich a few. Continuing to act on the princi- 
 ples observed, they must in time establish not only 
 equal rights in the land but the full economic as well 
 as political sovereignty of the individual. 
 
 Land and Climate. 
 
 Glance at the theatre of the labor of this people. 
 Switzerland, with about 16,000 square miles, equals in
 
 ^8 THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 area one-third of New York. Of its territory, 30 per 
 
 cent waterbeds, glaciers, and sterile mountains — is 
 
 unproductive. Forests cover 18 per cent. Thus but 
 half the country is good for crops or pasture. The va- 
 rious altitudes, in which the climate ranges from that 
 of Virginia to that of Labrador, are divided by agri- 
 culturists into three zones. The lower zone, including 
 all lands below a level of 2,500 feet above the sea, 
 touches, at Lake Maggiore, in the Italian canton of 
 Ticino, its lowest point, 643 feet above the sea. In this 
 zone are cultivated wheat, barley, and other grains, 
 large crops of fruit, and the vine, the latter an abun- 
 dant source of profit. The second zone, within which 
 lies the larger part of the country, includes the lower 
 mountain ranges. Its altitudes are from 2,500 to 5,000 
 feet, its chief growth great forests of beech, larch, 
 and pine. Above this rises the Alpine zone, upon the 
 steep slopes of which are rich pastures, the highest 
 touching 10,000 feet, though they commonly reach but 
 8,000, where vegetation becomes sparse and snow and 
 glaciers begin. In these mountains, a million and a half 
 cattle, horses, sheep, and goats are fed annually. In 
 all, Switzerland is not fertile, but rocky, mountainous, 
 and much of it the greater part of the year snow-covered. 
 Whatever the individual qualities of the Swiss, their 
 political arrangements have had a large influence in 
 promoting the national well-being. This becomes evi- 
 dent with investigation. Observe how they have 
 placed under public control monopolies that in other 
 countries breed millionaires : —
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 49 
 
 Railroads. 
 
 One bureau of the Post-Office department exercises 
 federal supervision over the railroads, a second man- 
 ages the mail and express services, and a third those 
 of the telegraph and telephone. 
 
 Of railroads, there are nearly 2,000 miles. Their 
 construction and operation have been left to private 
 enterprise, but from the first the Confederation has 
 asserted a control over them that has stopped short 
 only of management. Hence there are no duplicated 
 lines, no discriminations in rates, no cities at the mer- 
 cy of railroad corporations, no industries favored by 
 railroad managers and none destroyed. The govern- 
 ment prescribes the location of a proposed line, the 
 time within which it must be built, the maximum tar- 
 iffs for freight and passengers, the minimum number 
 of trains to be run, and the conditions of purchase in 
 case the State at any time should decide to assume pos- 
 session. Provision is made that when railway earn- 
 ings exceed a certain ratio to capital invested, the sur- 
 plus shall be subjected to a proportionately increased 
 tax. Engineers of the Post-Office department super- 
 intend the construction and repair of the railroads, 
 and post-office inspectors examine and pass upon the 
 time-tables, tariffs, agreements, and methods of the 
 companies. Hence falsification of reports is prevent- 
 ed, stock watering and exchange gambling are ham- 
 pered, and " wrecking," as practiced in the United 
 States, is unknown. 
 
 Owing to tunnels, cuts, and bridges, the construe-
 
 56 THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 tion of the vSwiss railway S3^stem has been costly ; 
 Mulhall's statistics give Switzerland a higher ratio of 
 railway capital to population than any other country 
 in Europe. Yet the service is cheap, passenger tariffs 
 being considerably less than in France and Great 
 Britain, and, about the same as in Gerr»any, within a 
 shade as low as the lowest in Europe. 
 
 Differing from the narrow compartment railway 
 carriages of other European countries, the passenger 
 cars of Switzerland are generally built on the Ameri- 
 can plan, so that the traveler is enabled to view the 
 scenery ahead, behind, and on both sides. For circular 
 tours, the companies make a reduction of 25 per cent 
 on the regular fare. At the Jarger stations are inter- 
 preters who speak English. Unlike the service in 
 other Continental countries, third class cars are at- 
 tached to all trains, even the fastest. On the whole, des- 
 pite the highest railroad investment per head in Europe, 
 Switzerland has the best of railway service at the 
 lowest of rates, the result of centralized State control 
 coupled with free industry under the limitations of 
 that control. In the ripest judgment of the nation up 
 to the present, this system yields better results than 
 any other : by a referendary vote taken in Decem- 
 ber, 1 89 1, the people refused to change it for State 
 ownership of railroads. 
 
 Mails, the Telegraph, the Telephone, a?id Highways. 
 
 The Swiss postal service is a model in completeness, 
 cheapness, and dispatch. Switzerland has 800 post-
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 5 1 
 
 offices and 2,000 depots where stamps are sold and let- 
 ters and packages received. Postal cards cost i cent ; 
 to foreign countries, 2 cents, and with return flap, 4. 
 For half-ounce letters, within a circuit of six miles, 
 the cost is i cent ; for letters for all Switzerland, up 
 to half a pound, 2 cents ; for printed matter, one 
 ounce, two-fifths of a cent ; to half a pound, i cent ; one 
 pound, 2 cents ; for samples of goods, to half a pound, 
 I cent ; one pound, 2 cents. 
 
 There are 1,350 telegraph offices open to the public. 
 A dispatch for any point in vSwitzerland costs 6 cents 
 for the stamp and i cent for every two words. 
 
 The Swiss Post-Office department has many surprises 
 in store for the American tourist. Mail delivery every- 
 where free, even in a rural commune remote from the 
 railroad he may see a postman on his rounds two or 
 three times a day. When money is sent him b}' postal 
 order, the letter-carrier puts the cash in his hands. If 
 he wishes to send a package by express, the carrier 
 takes the order, which soon brings to him the postal 
 express wagon. A package sent him is delivered in 
 his room. At any post-office he may subscribe for any 
 Swiss publication or for any of a list of several 
 thousand of the world's leading periodicals. When 
 roving in the higher Alps, in regions where the roads 
 are but bridle paths, the tourist may find in the most 
 unpretending hotel a telegraph office. If he follows 
 the wagon roads, he may send his hand baggage ahead 
 by the stage coach and at the end of his day's walk 
 find it at his destination.
 
 52 THE COiMMON WEALTH 
 
 There are three hundred stage routes in Switzer- 
 land, all operated under the Post-Office department, 
 private posting on regular routes being prohibited. 
 The department owns the coaches; contractors own the 
 horses and other material. From most of the termini, 
 at least two coaches arrive and depart daily. Passen- 
 gers, first and second class, are assigned to seats in 
 the order of purchasing tickets. Every passenger in 
 waiting at a stage office on the departure of a coach 
 must by law be provided with conveyance, several 
 supplementary vehicles often being thus called into 
 employ. A postal coach may be ordered at an hour's 
 notice, even on the mountain routes. Coach fare is 
 6 cents a mile ; in the Alps, 8. Each passenger is al- 
 lowed thirty-three pounds of baggage ; in the Alps, 
 twenty-two. Return tickets are sold at a reduction of 
 lo per cent. 
 
 The cantonal wagon roads of wSwitzerland are une- 
 qualed by any of the highways in America. They are 
 built by engineers, are solidly made, are macadamized, 
 and are kept in excellent repair. The Alpine post 
 roads are mostly cut in or built out upon the steep 
 mountain sides. Not infrequently, they are tunneled 
 through the massive rocky ribs of great peaks. Yet 
 their gradient is so easy that the average tourist walks 
 twenty-five miles over them in a short day. The en- 
 gineering feats on these roads are in many cases nota- 
 ble. On the Simplon route a wide mountain stream 
 rushes down over a post-road tunnel, and from within 
 the traveler may see through the gallery-like windows
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 53 
 
 the cataract pouring close beside him down into the 
 valley. On the route that passes the great Rhone gla- 
 cier, the road ascends a high mountain in a zigzag 
 that, as viewed in front from the valley below, looks 
 like a colossal corkscrew. This road is as well kept as 
 the better turnpikes of New York, teams moving at a 
 fast walk in ascending and at a trot in descending, 
 though the region is barren and uninhabitable, and win- 
 try nine months in the year. These two examples, 
 however, give but a faint idea of the vast number of 
 similar works. The federal treasury appropriates to 
 several of the Alpine cantons, in addition to the sums 
 so expended by the local administrations, from $16,000 to 
 $40,000 a year for the maintenance of their post roads. 
 With lower postage than any other country, the net 
 earnings of the Swiss postal system for 1889 were 
 $560,000. This, however, is but a fraction of the real 
 gain to the nation from this source. Without their 
 roads, railroads, stage lines, and mail facilities, their 
 hotels, numbering more than one thousand and as a 
 rule excellently managed, could not be maintained 
 for the summer rush of foreign tourists, worth to the 
 country many million dollars a year. The finest Al- 
 pine scenery is by no means confined to Swiss bound- 
 aries, but within these line^ the comforts of travel far 
 surpass those in the neighboring mountainous coun- 
 tries. In Savoy, Lombardy, and the Austrian Tyrol, 
 the traveler must be prepared to put up with compara- 
 tively antiquated methods and primitive accommoda- 
 tions.
 
 54 
 
 THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 Yet, previous to 1849, each Swiss canton had its own 
 postal arrangements, some cantons farming out their 
 systems either to other cantons or to individuals. In 
 each canton the services, managed irrespective of fed- 
 eral needs, was costly, and Swiss postal systems, as 
 compared with those of France and Germany, were 
 notoriously behindhand. 
 
 Banking. 
 
 While the Confederation coins the metallic money 
 current in the country, it is forbidden by the consti- 
 tution to monopolize the issue of notes or guarantee 
 the circulation of any bank. For the past ten years, 
 however, it has controlled the circulation of the banks, 
 the amount of their reserve fund, and the publication 
 of their reports. The latter may be called for at the 
 discretion of the executive council, in fact even daily. 
 
 There are thirty-five banks of issue doing business 
 under cantonal law. Of these, eighteen, known as 
 cantonal banks, either are managed or have their notes 
 guaranteed by the respective cantons. Thus, while 
 banking and money - issuing are free, the cantonal 
 banks insure a requisite note circulation, minimizing 
 the rate of interest and reducing its fluctuations. The 
 setting up of cantonal banks, in order to withdraw priv- 
 ileges from licensed banks, was one of the public ques- 
 tions agitated by social reformers and decided in sev- 
 eral of the cantons by direct legislation. 
 
 Taxes. 
 The framework of this little volume does not admit
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 55 
 
 SO much as an outline of the various methods of taxa- 
 tion practiced in Switzerland. As in all countries, they 
 are complex. But certain significant results of direct 
 legislation are to be pointed out. In all the cantons 
 there is a strong tendency to raise revenue from direct, 
 as opposed to indirect, taxes, and from progressive tax- 
 ation according to fortune. The following, from an edi- 
 torial in the "Christian Union," February 12, 1891, so 
 justly and briefly puts the facts that I prefer printing 
 it rather than words of my own, which might lie under 
 suspicion of being tinged with the views of a radical : 
 "With the democratic revolution of 1830 the people 
 demanded that direct taxation should be introduced, 
 and since the greater revolution of 1848 they have 
 been steadily replacing the indirect taxes upon neces- 
 sities by direct taxes upon wealth. In Zurich, for ex- 
 ample — where in the first part of this century there 
 were no direct taxes — in 1832 indirect taxation sup- 
 plied four-fifths of the local revenue ; to-day it supplies 
 but one-seventeenth. The canton raises thirty-two 
 francs per capita by direct taxation where it raises but 
 two by indirect taxation. This change has accom- 
 panied the transformation of Switzerland from a 
 nominal to a real democracy. By the use of direct 
 taxation, where every man knows just how much he 
 pays, and by the use of the Referendum, where the 
 sense of justice of the entire public is expressed as to 
 how tax burdens should be distributed, Switzerland 
 has developed a system by which the division of society 
 into the harmfully rich and wretchedly poor has been
 
 ^6 THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 checked, if not prevented. In the most advanced can- 
 tons, as has been brought out by Professor Cohn in 
 the ' Political Science Quarterly,' the taxes, both on 
 incomes and on property, are progressive. In each 
 case a certain minimum is exempted. In the case of 
 incomes, the progression is such that the largest in- 
 comes pay a rate five times as heavy as the very mod- 
 erate ones ; while in the case of property, the largest 
 fortunes pay twice as much as the smallest. The tax 
 upon inheritances has been most strongly developed. 
 In the last thirty years it has been increased sixfold. 
 The larger the amount of property, and the more dis- 
 tant the relative to whom it has been bequeathed, 
 the heavier the rate is made. It is sometimes as high 
 as 20 per cent. .Speaking upon this point, the New 
 York ' Evening Post ' correspondent says : ' Evidently 
 there are few countries that do so much to discourage 
 the accumulation of vast fortunes ; and, in fact, Swit- 
 zerland has few paupers and few millionaires.' " 
 
 Until 1848, each canton imposed cantonal tariff 
 duties on imported goods, and, as is yet the case in 
 most continental countries, until a few years ago the 
 larger cities imposed local import duties {octrois). But 
 the octroi is now a thing of the past, and save in one 
 respect the cantons have abolished cantonal tariffs. 
 The mining of salt being under federal control, and 
 the retail price regulated by each canton for itself, 
 supervision of imports of salt into each canton be- 
 comes necessary 
 
 The "Statesmen's Year Book" (1891) gives the debts
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 
 
 57 
 
 of all the cantons of wSwitzerland as inconsiderable, 
 while the federal debt, in 1S90 but eleven million dol- 
 lors, is less than half the federal assets in stocks 
 and lands. In summing- up at the close of his chapter 
 on "State and Local Finance," Prof. Vincent says: 
 " On the whole, the expenditures of Switzerland are 
 much less than those of neighboring states. This may 
 be ascribed in part to the lighter military burden, in 
 part to the fact that no monarchs and courts must be 
 supported, and further, to the inclinations of the Swiss 
 people for practical rather than ornamental matters." 
 And he might pertinently have added, "and to the fact 
 that the citizens themselves hold the public purse- 
 strings." 
 
 Lii/iitations to Siviss Freedom. 
 
 Certain stumbling blocks stand in the way of sweep- 
 ing claims as to the freedom enjoyed in Switzerland. 
 One is asked: What as to the suppression of the Jesuits 
 and the Salvation Army ? As to the salt and alcohol 
 monopolies of the State ? As to the federal protective 
 tariff ? What as to the political war two years ago in 
 Ticino ? 
 
 Two mutually supporting forms of reply are to be 
 made to these queries. One relates to the immediate 
 circumstances under which each of the departures 
 from freedom cited have taken place ; the other to 
 historical conditions affecting the development of the 
 Swiss democracy of to-day. 
 
 As to the first of these forms of reply :
 
 58 THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 In the decade previous to 1848 occurred the religious 
 disturbances that ended in the war of the Sonderbund 
 (secession), when several Catholic cantons endeavored 
 to dissolve the loose federal pact under which Switzer- 
 land then existed. On the defeat of the secessionists, 
 the movement for a closer federation — for a Confed- 
 eration — received an impetus, which resulted in the 
 present union. By an article of the constitution then 
 substituted for the pact, convents were abolished and 
 the order of the Jesuits forbidden on Swiss soil. Both 
 had endangered the State. Mild, indeed, is this proscrip- 
 tion when compared with the effects of the religious 
 hatreds fostered for centuries between territories now 
 Swiss cantons. In the judgment of the majority this 
 restriction of the freedom of a part is essential to that 
 enjoyed by the nation as a whole. 
 
 The exercises of the Salvation Army fell imder the 
 laws of the municipalities against nuisances. The final 
 judicial decision in this case was in effect that while 
 persons of every religious belief are free to worship in 
 Switzerland, none in doing so are free seriously to 
 annoy their neighbors. 
 
 The present federal protective tariff was imposed 
 just after the federal Referendum (optional) had been 
 called into operation on several other propositions, 
 and, the public mind weary of political agitation, de- 
 mand for the popular vote on the question was not 
 made. The Geneva correspondent of the Paris 
 "Temps" wrote of the tariff when it was adopted in 
 1884: "This tariff has sacrificed the interest of the
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 59 
 
 whole of the consumers to temporary coalitions of pri- 
 vate interests. It would have been shattered like a 
 card house had it been submitted to the vote of the 
 people." In imposing the tariff, the Federal Assembly 
 in self-defense followed the action of other Continen- 
 tal governments. Many raw materials necessary to 
 manufactures were, however, exempted and the burden 
 of the duties placed on luxuries. As it is, Switzerland, 
 without being able to obtain a pound of cotton except 
 by transit through regions of hostile tariffs, maintains 
 a cotton manufacturing industry holding a place 
 among the foremost of the Continent, while her total 
 trade per head is greater than that of any other coun- 
 try in Europe. 
 
 The days of the federal salt monopoly are num- 
 bered. The criticisms it has of late evoked portend 
 its end. A popular vote may finish it at any time. 
 
 The State monopoly of alcohol, begun in 1887, is as 
 yet an experiment. Financially, it has thus far been 
 moderately successful, though smuggling and other 
 evasions of the law go on on a large scale. The na- 
 tion, yet in doubt, is awaiting developments. With a 
 reaction, confidently predicted by many, against high 
 tariffs and State interference with trade, the monopoly 
 may be abolished. 
 
 The little war in Ticino was the expiring spasm of 
 the ultramontanes, desperately struggling against the 
 advance of the Liberals armed with the Referendum 
 The reactionaries were suppressed, and the people's 
 law made to prevail The story, now to be read in the
 
 6o THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 annual reference books, is a chronicle that cannot fail 
 to win approval for democracy as an agency of peace 
 and justice. 
 
 The explanations conveyed in these facts imply yet 
 a deeper cause for the lapses from freedom in ques- 
 tion. This cause is that Switzerland, in many cantons 
 for centuries undemocratic, is not yet entirely demo- 
 cratic. Law cannot rise higher than its source. The 
 last step in democracy places all lawmaking power 
 directly and fully in the hands of the majority, but if 
 by the majority justice is dimly seen, justice will be 
 imperfectly done. No more may be asserted for de- 
 mocracy than this : (i) That under the domination 
 of force, at present the common state of mankind, es- 
 cape from majority rule in some form is impossible. (2) 
 That hence justice as seen by the majority, exercising 
 its will in conditions of equality for all, marks the 
 highest justice obtainable. In their social organiza- 
 tion and practice, the Swiss have advanced the line of 
 justice to where it registers their political, — their men- 
 tal and moral, — development. Above that, manifestly, 
 it cannot be carried. 
 
 Despite a widespread impression to the contrary, the 
 traditions for ages of nearly all that now constitutes 
 Swiss territory have been of tyranny and not of 
 liberty. In most of that territory, in turn, bishop, king, 
 noble, oligarch, and politician governed, but until the 
 past half century, or less, never the masses. Half the 
 area of Switzerland, at present containing 40 per cent
 
 OF SWITZKRLANJJ. 6 1 
 
 of the inhabitants, was brought into the federation 
 only in the present century. Of this recent accession, 
 Geneva, for a brief term part of France, had previous- 
 ly long been a pure oligarchy, and more remotely a 
 dictatorship ; Neuchatel had been a dependency of the 
 crown of Prussia, never, in fact, fully released until 
 1857 ; Valais and the Grisons, so-called independent 
 confederacies, had been under ecclesiastical rule ; 
 Ticino had for three centuries been governed as con- 
 quered territory, the privilege of ruling over it pur- 
 chased by bailiffs from its conciuerors, the ancient 
 Swiss League — " a harsh government," declares the 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica, " one of the darkest pas- 
 sages of Swiss history." Of the older Switzerland, 
 Bale, Berne, and Zurich were oligarchical cities, each 
 holding in feudality extensive neighboring regions. 
 Not until 1833 were the peasants of Bale placed on an 
 equal footing with the townspeople, and then only 
 after serious disturbances. And the inequalities be- 
 tween lord and serf, victor and vanquished, vot- 
 er and disfranchised, existed in all the older states 
 save those now known as the Landsgemeinde can- 
 tons. Says Vincent : " Almost the only thread that 
 held the Swiss federation together was the possession 
 of subject lands. In these they were interested as 
 partners in a business corporation. Here were reve- 
 nues and offices to watch and profits to divide, and 
 matters came to such a pass that almost the only ques- 
 tions upon which the Diet could act in concert were 
 the inspection of accounts and other affairs connected
 
 62 THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 with the subject territories. The common properties 
 were all that prevented complete rupture on several 
 critical occasions. Another marked feature in the con- 
 dition of government was the supremacy gained by 
 the patrician class. Municipalities gained the upper 
 hand over rural districts, and within the municipali- 
 ties the old families assumed more and more privi- 
 leges in government, in society, and in trade. The 
 civil service in some instances became the monopoly 
 of a limited number of families, who were careful to 
 perpetuate all their privileges. Even in the rural de- 
 mocracies there was more or less of this family su- 
 premacy visible. Sporadic attempts at reform were 
 rigorously suppressed in the cities, and government 
 became more and more petrified into aristocracy. A 
 study of this period of Swiss history explains many of 
 the provisions found in the constitutions of today, 
 which seem like over-precaution against family influ- 
 ence. The effect of privilege was especially grievous, 
 and the fear of it survived when the modern constitu- 
 tions were made." 
 
 Here, plainly, are the final explanations of any short- 
 comings in Swiss liberty. In those parts of Switzerland 
 where these shortcomings are serious, modern ideas 
 of equality in freedom have not yet gained ascendency 
 over the ages-honored institution of inequality. Prog- 
 ress is evident, but the goal of possible freedom is yet 
 distant. How, indeed, could it be otherwise when in sev- 
 eral cantons it was only in 1848, with the Confedera- 
 tion, that manhood suffrage was established ?
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 63 
 
 But how, it may be inquired, did the name of Swiss 
 ever become the synonym of liberty ? This land whose 
 soldiery hired out as mercenaries to foreign princes, 
 this League of oppressors, this hotbed of religious 
 conflicts and persecutions, — how came it to be regard- 
 ed as the home of a free people ! 
 
 The truth is that. the traditional reputation of the 
 whole country is based on the ancient character of a 
 part. The Landsgemeinde cantons alone bear the test 
 of democratic principles. Within them, indeed, for a 
 thousand years the two primary essentials of democ- 
 racy have prevailed. They are : 
 
 (i) That the entire citizenship vote the law. 
 
 (2) That land is not property, and its sole just ten- 
 ure is occupancy and use. 
 
 The first-named essential is yet in these cantons 
 fully realized ; largely, also, is the second. 
 
 The Communal Lands of Switzerland. 
 
 As to the tenure of the land held in Switzerland as 
 private property, Hon. Boyd Winchester, for four years 
 American minister at Berne, in his recent work, " The 
 Swiss Republic," says : " There is no country in Eu- 
 rope where land possesses the great independence, 
 and where there is so wide a distribution of land own- 
 ership as in Switzerland. The 5,378,122 acres devoted 
 to agriculture are divided among 258,637 proprietors^ 
 the average size of the farms throughout the whole 
 country being not more than twenty-one acres. Tlie 
 facilities for the acquisition of land have producec
 
 64 THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 small holders, with security of tenure, representing 
 two-thirds the entire population. There are no pri- 
 mogeniture, copyhold, customary tenure, and manori- 
 al rights, or other artificial obstacles to discourage 
 land transfer and dispersion." " There is no belief in 
 Switzerland that land was made to administer to the 
 perpetual elevation of a privileged class ; but a wide- 
 spread and positive sentiment, as Turgot puts it, that 
 ' the earth belongs to the living and not to the dead,' 
 nor, it may be added, to the unborn." 
 
 Turgot's dictum, however, obtains no more than to 
 this extent : (i) The cantonal testamentary laws al- 
 most invariably prescribe division of property among 
 all the children — as in the code Napoleon, which pre- 
 vails in French Switzerland, and which permits the tes- 
 tator to dispose of only a third of his property, the 
 rest being divided among all the heirs, (2) Highways, 
 including the railways, are under immediate govern- 
 ment control. (3) The greater part of the forests are 
 managed, much of them owned, by the Confederation. 
 
 (4) In nearly all the communes, some lands, often con- 
 siderable in area, are under communal administration. 
 
 (5) In the lyandsgemeinde cantons largely, and in oth- 
 er cantons in a measure, inheritance and participation, 
 jointly and severally, in the communal lands is had by 
 the members of the communal corporation — that is, by 
 those citizens who have acquired rights in the public 
 property of the commune. 
 
 Nearly every commune in Switzerland has public 
 lands. In many communes, where they are mostly
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 65 
 
 wooded, they are entirely in charge of the local gov- 
 ernment ; in others, they are in part leased to individ- 
 uals ; in others, much of them is worked in common 
 by the citizens having the right ; but in the Landsge- 
 meinde cantons it is customary to divide them period- 
 ically among the members of the corporation. 
 
 Of the Landsgemeinde cantons, one or two yet have 
 nearly as great an area of public land as of private. 
 The canton of Uri has nearly i,ooo acres of cultivated 
 lands, the distribution of which gives about a quarter 
 of an acre to each family entitled to a share. Uri has 
 also forest lands worth between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 
 francs, representing a capital of nearly 1,500 francs to 
 each family. The commune of Obwald, in Unterwald, 
 with 13,000 inhabitants, has lands and forests valued 
 at 11,350,000 francs. Inner Rhodes, in Appenzell, with 
 12,000 inhabitants, has land valued at 3,000,000 francs. 
 Glarus, because of its manufactures, is one of the rich- 
 est cantons in public domain. In the non-Landsge- 
 meinde German cantons, there is much common land. 
 One-third of all the lands of the canton of Schauffhau- 
 sen is held by the communes. The town of Soleurc 
 has forests, pastures, and cultivated lands worth about 
 6,000,000 francs. To the same value amounts the com- 
 mon property of the town of St. Gall. In the canton 
 of St. Gall the communal Alpine pasturages comprise 
 one-half such lands. Schwyz has a stretch of common 
 land (an all mend) thirty miles in length and ten to fif- 
 teen in breadth. The city of Zurich has a well-kept 
 forest of twelve to fifteen square miles, worth millions
 
 66 THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 of francs. Winterthur, the second town in Zurich, has 
 so many forests and vineyards that for a long period 
 its citizens not only had no taxes to pay, but every au- 
 tumn each received gratis several cords of wood and 
 many gallons of wine. Numerous small towns and vil- 
 lages in German Switzerland collect no local taxes, 
 and give each citizen an abundance of fuel. In addi- 
 tion to free fuel, cultivable lands are not infrequently 
 allotted. At Stanz, in Unterwald, every member of the 
 corporation is given more than an acre. At Buchs, in 
 St. Gall, each member receives more than an acre, with 
 firewood and grazing ground for several head of cattle. 
 Upward of two hundred French communes possess 
 common lands. In the canton of Vaud, a number of 
 the communes have large revenues in wood and but- 
 ter from the forests and pastures of the J;ira mount- 
 ains. Geneva has great forests ; Valais many vine- 
 yards. 
 
 In the canton of Valais, communal vineyards and 
 grain fields are cultivated in common. Every member 
 of the corporation who would share in the produce of 
 the land contributes a certain share of work in field 
 or vineyard. Part of the revenue thus obtained 
 is expended in the purchase of cheese. The rest of 
 the yield provides banquets in which all the mem- 
 bers take part. 
 
 Excepting in the case of forests, the trend is away 
 from working the lands in common. Examples of the 
 later methods are to be seen in the cantons of Ticino 
 and Glarus, as follows : —
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 6^ 
 
 Several communes in I'icino, notably Airolo, have 
 much public wealth. Airolo has seventeen mountain 
 pastures, each of which feeds forty to eighty head of 
 cattle. Each member of the corporation has the right 
 to send up to these pastures five head for the summer. 
 Those sending more, pay for the privilege ; those send- 
 ing less, receive a rental. On a specified day at the be- 
 ginning of the season and on another at the close, the 
 milk of each cow is weighed ; from these amounts her 
 average yield is estimated, and her total produce 
 computed. The cheese and butter from the herds are 
 sold, most of it in Milan, the hire of the herders paid, 
 and the net revenue divided among the members ac- 
 cording to the yield of their cows. 
 
 In Glarus, the produce of the greater part of the 
 communal lands, instead of being directly divided 
 among the inhabitants, is substituted for taxation. 
 The commonable alps are let by auction for a term of 
 years, and, in opposition to ancient principles, stran- 
 gers may bid for them. Some of the Glarus communes 
 sell the right to cut timber in the forest under the su- 
 perintendence of the guardians. The mountain ho- 
 tels, in not a few instances the property of the com- 
 munes, are let year by year. Land is frequently rent- 
 ed from the communes by manufacturing establish- 
 ments. A citizen not using his share of the communal 
 land may lease it to the commune, which in turn will 
 let it to a tenant. The communes of Glarus are watch- 
 ful that enough arable land is preserved for distribu- 
 tion among the members. If a plot is sold to manu-
 
 68 THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 facturers, or for private building purposes, a piece of 
 equal or greater extent is bought elsewhere. Glarus 
 has relatively as many people engaged in industries 
 aside from farming as any other spot in Europe. It 
 has 34,000 inhabitants, of whom nearly 15,000 live di- 
 rectly by manufactures, while of the rest many indi- 
 rectly receive something from the same source. Dis- 
 tributive cooperative societies on the English plan 
 exist in most of the industrial communes. The mem- 
 bers of the communal corporations in Glarus, though 
 not rich, are as free and independent as any other 
 wage-workers in the world : they inherit the common 
 lands ; their local taxes are little or nothing ; they are 
 assured work, if not in the manufactories then on the 
 land. 
 
 Of the poverty that fears pauperism in old age, that 
 dreads enforced idleness in recurrent industrial crises, 
 that undermines health, that sinks human beings in ig- 
 norance, that deprives men of their manhood, the Swiss 
 who enjoy the common lands of the Landsgemeinde 
 cantons know little or nothing. They have enough. 
 They have nothing to waste, nothing to spare ; their 
 fare is simple. But they are free. It is to the like 
 freedom and equality of their ancestors that histori- 
 ans have pointed. It would be well nigh meaningless 
 to refer to any freedom and equality among other 
 ancient Swiss. The right of asylum from religious 
 oppression is the sole feature of liberty at all general 
 of old. The present is the first generation in which 
 all the Swiss have been free. The chief elements of
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 69 
 
 their political freedom — the Initiative and Referen- 
 dum — came from the Landsgemeinde cantons. From 
 the same source, in good time, so also may come to all 
 Switzerland the prime element of economic freedom — 
 free access to land. 
 
 Poverty is a relative condition. Men may be poor 
 of mind — ignorant ; and of body — ill-fed, ill-clothed, 
 ill-sheltered ; and of rights — dependent. And from 
 the state of hopeless deprivation involving all these 
 forms upward are minute gradations. Where stand 
 the Swiss in the scale ? 
 
 This the reply : Their system of education gives free 
 opportunity to all to partake of the mental heritage 
 of the ages. Their method of distribution, through 
 the inheritance laws, of private and common lands, 
 has made roughly two-thirds of the heads of families 
 agricultural land holders. There being in other re-^ 
 gards government control of all monopolies, the con- 
 sequence is a widespread distribution of the annual 
 product. Hence, no pauperism to be compared with that 
 of England ; no plutocracy such as we have in America. 
 Certain other facts broadly outline the general com- 
 fort and independence. As one effect of the subdi- 
 vision of the land, the soil, so far as nature permits, 
 is highly cultivated, its appearance fertile, finished, 
 beautiful, and in striking contrast with the dom- 
 nating vast, bare mountain rocks and snovv^beds. The 
 many towns and cities bear abundant signs of a gen- 
 eral prosperity, their roads, bridges, stores, residences,
 
 >jO THE COMMON WEALTH 
 
 and public buildings betokening in the inhabitants 
 industry and energy, and freedom to employ these 
 qualities. Emigration is at low percentage, and of 
 those citizens who do leave for the New World not a 
 few are educated persons with some means seeking 
 short cuts to fortune. ]\[uch of the rough work of 
 Switzerland is done by vSavoyards, as houseworkers, 
 and by Italians, as farm hands, laborers, and stone ma- 
 sons : showing that as a body even the poorest of the 
 propertyless Swiss have some choice of the bet- 
 ter paid occupations. Every spring sees Italians, 
 by scores of thousands, pouring over the Alps for 
 a summer's work in Switzerland. Indeed, Swiss wage- 
 workers might command better terms were it not 
 for competing Italians, French, and Germans. In other 
 words, through just social arrangements, enough has 
 been done in Switzerland to raise the economic level 
 of the entire nation ; but the overflow of laborers from 
 other lands depresses the condition of home labor. 
 Nevertheless, where, it may be asked, is the people 
 higher in the scale of civilization, in all the word im- 
 plies, than the Swiss ? 
 
 To recount what the Swiss have done by direct 
 legislation : 
 
 They have made it easy at any time to alter their 
 cantonal and federal constitutions, — that is, to change, 
 even radically, the organization of society, the social 
 contract, and thus to permit a peaceful revolution at 
 the will of the majority. They have as well cleared
 
 OF SWITZERLAND. 71 
 
 from the way of majority rule every obstaele, — privi- 
 lege of ruler, fetter of ancient law, power of legislator. 
 They have simplified the structure of government, 
 held their officials as servants, rendered bureaucracy 
 impossible, converted their representatives to simple 
 committeemen, and shown the parliamentary sys- 
 tem not essential to lawmaking. They have writ- 
 ten their laws in language so plain that a layman 
 may be judge in the highest court. They have fore- 
 stalled monopolies, improved and reduced taxation, 
 avoided incurring heavy public debts, and made a 
 better distribution of their land than any other Euro- 
 pean country. They have practically given .home 
 rule in local affairs to every community. They have 
 calmed disturbing political elements ; — the press is pu- 
 rified, the politician disarmed, the civil service well reg- 
 ulated. Hurtful partisanship is passing away. Since the 
 people as a whole will never willingly surrender their 
 sovereignty, reactionary movement is possible only in 
 case the nation should go backward. But the way is 
 open forward. Social ideals may be realized in act 
 and institution. Even now the liberty-loving Swiss 
 citizen can discern in the future a freedom in which 
 every individual, — independent, possessed of rights in 
 nature's resources and in command of the friiits of his 
 toil, — may, at his will, on the sole condition that he re- 
 spect the like aim of other men, pursue his happiness.
 
 DIRECT LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED 
 STATES. 
 
 " But these are foreign methods. How are they to 
 be engrafted on our American sj-stem ?" More than 
 once have I been asked this question when describing 
 the Initiative and Referendum of Switzerland. 
 
 The reply is : Direct legislation is not foreign to 
 this country. Since the settlement of New England 
 its practice has been customary in the town meeting, 
 an institution now gradually spreading throughout 
 the western states — of recent years with increased ra- 
 pidity. The Referendum has appeared, likewise, with 
 respect to state laws, in several forms in every part of 
 the Union. In the field of labor organization, also, es- 
 pecially in several of the more carefully managed na- 
 tional unions, direct legislation is freely practiced. 
 The institution does not need to be engrafted on this 
 republic ; it is here ; it has but to develop naturally. 
 
 The Toivn Meeting. 
 
 The town meeting of New England is the counter- 
 part of the Swiss communal political meeting. Both 
 assemblies are the primary form of the politico-social 
 organization. Both are the foundation of the struc- 
 ture of the State. The essential objects of both are 
 the same : to enact local regulations, to elect local oflS
 
 DIRECT LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 73 
 
 cers, to fix local taxation, and to make appropriations 
 for local purposes. At both, any citizen may propose 
 measures, and these the majority may accept or reject 
 — /. e., the working principles of town and commune 
 alike are the Initiative and the Referendum. 
 
 A fair idea of the proceedings at all town meetings 
 may be gained through description of one. For sev- 
 eral reasons, a detailed account here of what actually 
 happened recently at a town meeting is, it seems to 
 me, justified. At such a gathering is seen, in plain 
 operation, in the primary political assembly, the prin- 
 ciples of direct legislation. The departure from those 
 principles in a representative gathering is then the 
 more clearly seen. In many parts of the country, too, 
 the methods of the town meeting are little known. By 
 observing the transactions in particular, the reader will 
 learn the variety in the play of democratic principle 
 and draw from it instructive inference. 
 
 The town of Rockland, Plymouth county, in the east 
 of Massachusetts, has 5,200 inhabitants ; assesses for 
 taxation 5,787 acres of land ; contains 1,078 dwelling 
 houses, 800 of which are occupied by owners, and num- 
 bers 1,591 poll tax payers, who are therefore voters. 
 
 At 9 a. m., on Monday, March 2, 1891, 819 voters of 
 Rockland assembled in the opera house for the annual 
 town meeting, the "warrant" for which, in accordance 
 with the law, had been publicly posted seven days be- 
 fore and published once in each of the two town news- 
 papers. A presiding officer for the day, called a mod- 
 erator, was elected by show of hands, after which an
 
 74 DIRECT LEGISLATION 
 
 election by ballot for town officers for the ensuing year 
 was begun. The supervisors of the voting were the 
 town clerk and the three selectmen (the executive offi- 
 cers of the town), who were seated on a platform at 
 one end of the hall. To cast his ballot, a voter mount- 
 ed the platform, his name was called aloud by the 
 clerk, his ballot was deposited, a check bell striking as 
 it was thrown in the ballot-box, and the voter stepped 
 on and down. The ballot was a printed one, its size, 
 color, and type regulated by state law. When the vot- 
 ers had cast their ballots, five tellers, who had been 
 chosen by show of hands, counted the vote. In this 
 balloting for town officers, there was no division into 
 Republicans and Democrats, although considerable 
 grouping together through party association could be 
 traced. The officers elected were a town clerk and 
 treasurer ; a board of three, to serve as selectmen, as- 
 sessors, overseers of the poor, and fence viewers ; 
 three school committeemen ; a water commissioner ; a 
 board of health of three members ; two library trus- 
 tees ; three auditors, and seven constables. 
 
 A vote was also taken by ballot — " Yes " or " No " — 
 on the question : " Shall licenses be granted for the 
 sale of intoxicating liquors in this town ?" The yeas 
 were 317 ; nays, 347. The form of ballot used in this 
 case was precisely that invariably employed in the 
 Referendum in Switzerland. 
 
 After a recess of an hour at midday, the business 
 laid out in the " warrant " was resumed. There were 
 present 700 to 800 voters, with, as on-lookers on the
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 75 
 
 same floor, a large number of women, the principal and 
 pupils of the high school, and the teachers and chil- 
 dren of the grammar schools. 
 
 The " warrant " (the schedule for the meeting) con- 
 sisted of forty-four " articles," each representing a mat- 
 ter to be debated and voted on — that is to say, a subject 
 for legislation. These articles had been placed in the 
 warrant by the selectmen, either on their own motion 
 or on request of citizens. The election of moderator 
 had taken place imder article i ; that of town officers 
 under article 2 ; that on license under article 3. The 
 voting on the rest of the articles now took place by 
 show of hands. Article 4 related to the annual reports 
 of the town officers, printed copies of which were to be 
 had by each citizen. These were read and discussed. 
 Article 5 related to the general appropriations for 
 town expenses for the ensuing year The following 
 were decided on, each item being voted on separately : 
 
 For highway repairs - - $3,800 For military aid - - - - $500 
 
 For removing snow - - 300 For guideboards - - - 50 
 
 For fire department - - 1,200 For abatement of taxes and 
 
 For police service - - - 500 collector's fee - - - 500 
 
 For night watch - - - 600 For support of poor - - 5,500 
 
 For town officers - - - 2,200 For library, etc - - - - 1,000 
 
 For town committees, and For schools, proper - -11,300 
 
 Abingdon records - 50 For school-incidentals - i.ouo 
 
 For miscellaneous expenses 1,200 For school books - - - 1,000 
 
 For interest _ - - - 1,000 For hydrants - - - - 2,300 
 
 For memorial day - - 100 For water bonds, etc - 2,500 
 
 Article 6, which was agreed to, authorized the town 
 treasurer to borrow money in anticipation of the col- 
 lection of taxes ; article 7 related to the method of
 
 y6 DIRECT LEGISLATION 
 
 collecting the town taxes. It was decided these should 
 be farmed out to the lowest bidder, and, on the spot, a 
 citizen secured the contract at sixty-eight cents on the 
 hundred. Article 8 related to the powers of the tax 
 collector ; 9, to a list of jurors reported by the select- 
 men, which was accepted ; 10, to methods of repairing 
 highways and sidewalks ; 11, to appropriating money 
 for memorial day. Articles 10 and 11 were passed 
 over, having been covered in the general appropria- 
 tions, and the selectmen were instructed to enforce in 
 highway work the nine-hour law. Article 12, which 
 was adopted, provided for a night watch ; 13, relating 
 to copying the records of Abingdon, had been passed 
 upon m the general appropriations ; 14, providing for 
 widening and straightening a street, was passed, and 
 $350 appropriated for the purpose ; 15, providing for 
 concrete sidewalks, excited much debate, and $300 was 
 appropriated in addition to material on hand Articles 
 16, appropriating $350 for draining a street, and 17, re- 
 questing the selectmen to lay out a water course on 
 another street, were adopted. Article 18, which was 
 carried by a large majority, appropriated, in five 
 items, discussed and voted on separately, $7,250 for 
 the fire department. Article 19 appropriated $100 for 
 a town road, 20 $200 for another, and these were adopt- 
 ed, but 21, by which $325 was asked for another road, 
 was laid on the table. Articles 22 and 23, appropriat- 
 ing $75 and $25 for bridges, were passed. Article 24, 
 proposing the graveling of a sidewalk, was referred to 
 the selectmen. Articles 25, 26, 27, and 28, proposing
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 77 
 
 the laying of sidewalks, were adopted, with appropri- 
 ations of $150, $125, $150, and $150 ; but 29, also pro- 
 posing a new sidewalk, was laid on the table. Arti- 
 cle 30, proposing a new sidewalk, was adopted, with an 
 appropriation of $300, but 31, proposing another, was 
 laid on the table. Articles 32, proposing to change the 
 grading of two streets, with an appropriation of $500 ; 
 7,:^, appropriating $300 for a highway roller ; 34, pro- 
 viding for a public drinking fountain, and appropriat- 
 ing $200 ; 35, providing for a new bridge, and appro- 
 priating $75, were all adopted. Articles 36, 37, and 
 38, providing for extensions to the water mains, were 
 laid on the table. Article 39, appropriating $300 for 
 relocation of a telephone line, was adopted ; but arti- 
 cles 40, providing for a memorial building, 41, provid- 
 ing for a town hall, and 42, providing for a soldiers' 
 memorial, were laid on the table. Lastly, articles 43 
 and 44, providing for changes in street names, were 
 accepted as reported by the selectmen. 
 
 After finishing the " warrant," the meeting appro- 
 priated $10 to pay the moderator, fixed $3 a day as the 
 rate for the selectmen, and directed the latter not to 
 employ as constable any man who had been rejected 
 by a vote of the town. It was 10.45 P- i^^- when the 
 assemblage broke up, a recess having been taken from 
 5.30 to 7.30. 
 
 The proceedings at this meeting were characterized 
 by democratic methods. When the town officers hand- 
 ed in their reports, they were questioned and criticised 
 by one citizen and another. A motion to refer the
 
 78 OlKbX' I' I FT. ISl A rU>N 
 
 general appropriation list to a oomuuttce of twenty- 
 five met with overwhelminji- defeat in the faee of the 
 expressed sentiment that about all left of primitive 
 democracy was the old-fashioned town meetini^. One of 
 the speakers on the town library appropriation was a 
 lady, and her point was carried. On the question of 
 btiying new tire extingntishing- apparatus, there were 
 sides and leaders, with prolonged debate. As to roads 
 and bridges, each matter was dealt with on its own 
 merits and separately from other similar propositions. 
 In the election for ofhcers, women voted for school 
 committeemen. 
 
 The only officials of Rockland under annual salary 
 are the treasurer and town physician. Selectmen re- 
 ceive a sum per diem ; constables, fees ; school com- 
 mitteemen make out their own bills. The others serve 
 for nothing. 
 
 Rockland, politically, is a typical New England 
 town. "What is to be said of its manner of town meet- 
 ing may, with little modification, be said of all. Each 
 citizen present at such a tncctiug may Join in the de- 
 bate. From the printed copy of the officers* reports he 
 may learn what his town government has done in the 
 year past ; from the printed warrant he may see what 
 is proposed to be done in the year comii^g. Ho who 
 knows the better way in any of the business is sure to 
 receive a hearing. The pockets of all being concerned, 
 whatever is best and cheapest is insured. Bribery, 
 successful only in the dark, has little or no tield in the 
 town meetini}-.
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 79 
 
 Provision usually exists by which a town may dispose 
 of any urgent matters springing- up for legislation in 
 the course of the year : as a rule a special town meet- 
 ing may be called on petition of a small number of 
 citizens, commonly seven to eleven. 
 
 In a study of the town meeting system of today, in 
 "Harper's ^Monthly," June, 1891, Henry Loomis Nel- 
 son brought out many convincing facts as to its su- 
 periority over government by a town board. Where 
 the cost for public lighting in a New England town 
 had been but $2,000, in a New York town of the same 
 size it had amounted to $11,000. The cities of Worces- 
 ter, Mass., and Syracuse, New York, each of about 80,- 
 000 inhabitants, were compared, with the New Eng- 
 land city in every respect by far the more economic- 
 ally governed. Towns in New England are uni- 
 formly superior to others in other parts of the country 
 with regard to the extent of sewers and paved streets. 
 The aggregate of town debts in New England is vast- 
 ly less than the aggregate for a similar population in 
 the Middle States. The state constitutions of New 
 England commonly relate to fundamental principles, 
 since each district may protect itself by the town 
 meeting ; but outside New England, to assert the 
 rights of localities, state constitutions usually per- 
 force embody particulars. In their fire and police de- 
 partments, and public school and water supply systems, 
 New England towns lead the rest of the country. 
 " The influence," says Mr. Nelson, " of the town meet- 
 ing government upon the physical character of the
 
 8o DIRECT LEGISLATION 
 
 country, upon the highways and bridges, and upon the 
 appearance of the villages, is familiar to all who have 
 traveled through New England. The excellent roads, 
 the stanch bridges, the trim tree-shaded streets, the 
 universal signs of thrift and of the people's pride in 
 the outward aspects of their villages, are too well 
 known to be dwelt upon." In every New England 
 community many of the men are qualified by experi- 
 ence to take charge of a public meeting and conduct 
 its proceedings with some regard to the forms ob- 
 served in parliamentary bodies. But elsewere in the 
 Union few of the citizens have any knowledge of 
 such forms and observances. " In New England there 
 is not a voter who may not, and very few voters 
 who do not, actively participate in the work of govern- 
 ment. In the other parts of the country hardly any 
 one takes |)art in public affairs except the office- 
 holder." 
 
 John Fiske, in " Civil Government in the United 
 States," (1890), says that "the general tendency to- 
 ward the spread of township government in the more 
 recently settled parts of the United States is unmis- 
 takable." The first western state to adopt the town 
 meeting system was Michigan ; but it now prevails in 
 four-fifths of the counties of Illinois ; in one-sixth of 
 Missouri, where it was begun in 1879; and in one- 
 third of the counties of Nebraska, which adopted it in 
 1883 ; while it has gone much further in Minnesota 
 and Dakota, in which states it has been law since 1878 
 and 1883, respectively.
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 8l 
 
 ''Within its proper sphere," says Fiske, "government 
 by town meeting is the form of government most ef- 
 fectively under watch and control. Everything is done 
 in the full daylight of publicity. The specific objects 
 for which public money is to be appropriated are dis- 
 cussed in the presence of everybody, and any one who 
 disapproves of any of these objects, or of the way in 
 which it is proposed to obtain it, has an opportunity 
 to declare his opinions." " The inhabitant of a New 
 England town is perpetually reminded that ' our gov- 
 ernment ' is ' the people.' Although he may think 
 loosely about the government of his state or the still 
 more remote government at Washington, he is kept 
 pretty close to the facts where local affairs are con- 
 cerned, and in this there is a political training of no 
 small value." 
 
 The same writer notes in the New England towns a 
 tendency to retain good men in office, such as we have 
 seen is the case in Switzerland. " The annual election 
 affords an easy means of dropping an unsatisfactory 
 officer. But in practice nothing has been more com- 
 mon than for the same persons to be re-elected as 
 selectman or constables or town-clerks for year after 
 year, as long as they are willing or able to serve. The 
 notion that there is anything peculiarly American or 
 democratic in what is known as ' rotation in office ' is 
 therefore not sustained by the practice of the New 
 England town, which is the most complete democracy 
 in the world." In another feature is there resemblance 
 to Swiss custom : some of the town officials serve
 
 82 DIRECT LEGISLATION 
 
 without pay and none receive exorbitant salaries. 
 
 The Referendum in States, Cities, Counties, Etc. 
 
 Few are aware of the advances which direct legisla- 
 tion has made in state government in the United States. 
 Many facts on this subject, collected by Mr. Ellis P. 
 Oberholtzer, were published in the "Annals of the 
 American Academy of Political and Social Science," 
 November, 1891. Condensed, this writer's statement 
 is as follows : Constitutional amendments now go to 
 the people for a vote in every state except Delaware. 
 The significance of this fact, and the resemblance of 
 this vote to the Swiss Referendum, is seen when one 
 considers the subject matter of a state constitution. 
 Nowadays, such a constitution usually limits a legis- 
 lature to a short biennial session and defines in detail 
 what laws the legislature may and may not pass. In 
 fact, then, in adopting a constitution once in ten or 
 twenty years, the voters of a state decide upon admissi- 
 ble legislation. Thus they themselves are the real 
 legislators. Among the matters once left entirely to 
 legislatures, but now commonly dealt with in consti- 
 tutions, are the following : Prohibiting or regulating 
 the liquor traffic ; prohibiting or chartcTing lotteries ; 
 determining tax rates ; founding and locating state 
 schools and other state institutions ; establishing a 
 Itgal rate of interest; fixing the salaries of public offi- 
 cials ; drawing up railroad and other corporation reg- 
 ulations ; and defining the relations of husbands and 
 wives, and of debtors and creditors. In line v/ith all
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 83 
 
 this is a tendency to easy amendment. In nearly all 
 the new states and in those older ones which have re- 
 cently revised their constitutions, the time in which 
 amendments may be effected is as a rule but half of 
 that formerly required. Where once the approval of 
 two successive legislatures was exacted, now the con- 
 sent of one is considered sufficient. 
 
 In fifteen states, until submitted to a popular vote, 
 no law changing the location of the capital is valid ; in 
 seven, no laws establishing banking corporations ; in 
 eleven, no laws for the incurrence of debts excepting 
 such as are specified in the constitution, and no excess 
 of "casual deficits" beyond a stipulated sum ; in sev- 
 eral, no rate of assessment exceeding a figure propor- 
 tionate to the aggregate valuation of the taxable prop- 
 erty. Without the Referendum, Illinois cannot sell its 
 state canal ; Minnesota cannot pay interest or princi- 
 pal of the Minnesota railroad ; North Carolina cannot 
 extend the state credit to aid any person or corpora- 
 tion, excepting to help certain railroads unfinished in 
 1876. With the Referendum, Colorado may adopt 
 woman suffrage and create a debt for public buildings. 
 Texas may fix a location for a college for colored 
 youth ; Wyoming may decide on the sites for its state 
 university, insane asylum and penitentiary. 
 
 Numerous important examples of the Referendum 
 in local matters in the United States, especially in the 
 West,were found by Mr. Oberholtzcr. There are many 
 county, city, township, and school district referendums. 
 Nineteen state constitutions guarantee to counties the
 
 84 DIRECT LEGISLATION 
 
 right to fix by vote of the citizens the location of the 
 county seats. So also usually of county lines, divi- 
 sions of counties, and like matters. Several western 
 states leave it to a vote of the counties as to when they 
 shall adopt a township organization, with town meet- 
 ings ; several states permit their cities to decide when 
 they shall also be counties. As in the state, there are 
 debt and tax matters that may be passed on only by 
 the people of cities, boroughs, counties, or school dis- 
 tricts. Without the Referendum, no municipality in 
 Pennsylvania may contract an aggregate debt beyond 
 2 per cent of the assessed valuation of its taxable 
 property ; no municipalites in certain other states may 
 incur in any year an indebtedness beyond their reve- 
 nues ; no local governments in the new states of the 
 West may raise any loans whatever ; none in other 
 states may exceed certain limits in tax rates. With 
 the Referendum, certain Southern communities may 
 make harbor improvements, and other communities 
 may extend the local credit to railroad, water trans- 
 portation, and similar corporations. The prohibi- 
 tion of the liquor business in a city or county is 
 often left to a popular vote ; indeed, "local option" is 
 the commonest form of Referendum. In California 
 any city with more than 10,000 inhabitants may frame a 
 charter for its own government, which, however, must 
 be approved by the legislature. Under this law Stock- 
 ton, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Oakland have acquired 
 new charters. In the state of Washington, cities of 
 20,000 may make their own charters without the legis-
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 85 
 
 lature having any power of veto. Largely, then, such 
 cities make their own laws. 
 
 In fact, the vast United States seems to have seen 
 as much of the Referendum as little Switzerland. But 
 the effect of the practice has been largely lost in the 
 great size of this country and in the loose and unsys- 
 tematized character of the institution as known here. 
 
 In the "American Commonwealth " of James Bryce, 
 a member of Parliament, there is a chapter entitled 
 "Direct Legislation by the People." After reciting 
 many facts similar in character to those given by Mr. 
 Oberholtzer, Mr. Bryce inquires into the practical 
 workings of direct legislation. He finds what are to 
 his mind some "obvious demerits." Of these demer- 
 its, such as apply to details he develops in the course 
 of his statements of several cases of Referendum. In 
 summing up, he further points out what seem to him 
 two objections to the principle. One is that direct 
 legislation " tends to lower the authority and sense 
 of responsibility of the legislature." But this is pre- 
 cisely the aim of pure democracy, and from its point 
 of view a merit of the first order. The other objection 
 is, "it refers matters needing much elucidation by 
 debate to the determination of those who cannot, on 
 account of their numbers, meet together for discus 
 sion, and many of whom may have never thought 
 about the matter." But why meet together for dis- 
 cussion ? Mr. Bryce here overlooks that this is the 
 age of the newspaper and telegraph, and that through
 
 g6 DIRECT LEGISLATION 
 
 these sources the facts and much debate on any matter 
 of public interest may be forthcoming on demand. 
 Mr. Bryce,ho\vever, sees more advantages than demerits 
 in direct legislation. Of the advantages he remarks : 
 "The improvement of the legislatures is just what 
 the Americans despair of, or, as they would prefer to 
 say, have not time to attend to. Hence they fall back 
 on the Referendum as the best course available under 
 the circumstances of the case and in such a world as 
 the present. They do not claim that it has any great 
 educative effect on the people. But they remark with 
 truth til at the mass of the people are equal in intelli- 
 gence and character to the average state legislator, 
 and are exposed to fewer temptations. The legislator 
 can be ' got at,' the people cannot. The personal in- 
 terest of the individual legislator in passing a measure 
 for chartering banks or spending the internal im- 
 provement fund may be greater than his interest; as 
 one of the community in preventing bad laws. It will 
 be otherwise with the bulk of the citizens. The legis- 
 lator may be subjected by the advocates of women's 
 suffrage or liquor prohibition to a pressure irresistible 
 by ordinary mortals ; but the citizens are too numer- 
 ous to be all wheedled or threatened. Hence they can 
 and do reject proposals which the legislature has as- 
 sented to. Nor should it be forgotten that in a country 
 where law depends for its force on the consent of the 
 governed, it is eminently desirable that law should not 
 outrun popular sentiment, but have the whole weight 
 of the people's deliverance behind it."
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 87 
 
 The Initiative and Referendum in Labor Organizations. 
 
 The Referendum is well known to the Knights of 
 Labor. For nine years past expressions of opinion have 
 been asked of the local assemblies by the general 
 executive board. The recent decision of the order to 
 enter upon independent political action was made by 
 a vote in response to a circular issued by the General 
 Master Workman. The latter, at the annual conven- 
 tion at Toledo, in November, 1891, recommended that 
 the Referendum form a part of the government ma- 
 chinery throughout the United States. The Knights 
 being in some respects a secret organization, data as 
 to referendary votings are not always made public. 
 
 For the past decade or longer several of the national 
 and international trades-unions of America have had 
 the Initiative and Referendum in operation. Within 
 the past five years the institution in various forms has 
 been taken up by other unions, and at present it is in 
 more or less practice in the following bodies, all asso- 
 ciated with the American Federation of Labor : 
 
 No. of No. of Members, 
 
 National or International Union. Local Unions. December, 1891. 
 
 Journeymen Bakers - - - - - 81 17.500 
 
 Brewery Workmen ----- 61 9.5oo 
 
 United Broth'h'd of Carpenters and Joiners 740 65,000 
 
 Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners - 40 2,800 
 
 Cigar-makers ----- 310 27,000 
 
 Carriage and Wagon Makers - - - n 2,000 
 
 Garment Workers ----- 24 4.000 
 
 Granite Cutters - - - ■ - - 75 20,000 
 
 Tailors ------- 170 17.000 
 
 Typographical Union - - - - 290 28,000 
 
 Total - - . . i92,Soo
 
 00 DIRECT LEGISLATION 
 
 Direct legislation has long been familiar to the 
 members of the International Cigar-Makers' Union. 
 Today, amendments to its constitution, the acts of its 
 executives, and even the resolutions passed at dele- 
 gate conventions, are submitted to a vote by ballot in 
 the local unions. The nineteenth annual convention, 
 held at Indianapolis, September, 1891, provisionally 
 adopted 114 amendments to the constitution and ^^ 
 resolutions on various matters. Though some of the 
 latter were plainly perfunctory in character, all of 
 these 147 propositions were printed in full in the " Offi- 
 cial Journal" for October, and voted on in the 310 
 unions throughout America in November. The Initi- 
 ative is introduced in this international union through 
 local unions. When twenty of the latter have passed 
 favorably on a measure, it must be submitted to the 
 entire body. An idea of the financial transactions of 
 the Cigar-Makers' International Union may be gath- 
 ered from its total expenditures in the past twelve 
 years and a half. In all, it has disbursed in that time 
 $1,426,208. Strikes took $469,158 ; sick benefits, $439,- 
 010 ; death benefits, $109,608 ; traveling benefits, $372,- 
 455, and out of work benefits, $35,795. The advance of 
 the Referendum in this great union has been very 
 gradual. It began in 1877 with voting on constitu- 
 tional amendments. The most recent, and perhaps 
 last possible, step was to transfer the election of the 
 general executive board from the annual convention 
 to the entire body. 
 
 The United Garment Workers of America practice
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 89 
 
 direct legislation under Article 24 of their constitu- 
 tion, which is printed under the caption, "Referendum 
 and Initiative." It prescribes two methods of Initia- 
 tive. One is that three or more local unions, if of differ- 
 ent states, may instruct the general secretary to call for 
 a referendary vote in the unions of the national organ- 
 ization. The other is that the general executive board 
 must so submit all questions of general importance. 
 The general secretary issues the call within two weeks 
 after the petition for a vote reaches him, and the vote 
 is taken within six months afterward. Eighteen prop- 
 ositions passed by the annual convention of this 
 union at Boston, in November, 1891, were submitted to 
 a vote of the local unions in December. 
 
 In 1890, the local unions of the International Typo- 
 graphical Union, then numbering nearly 290, voted on 
 twenty-five propositions submitted from the annual 
 convention. In 1891, fourteen propositions were sub- 
 mitted. Of the latter, one authorized the formation 
 of unions of editors and reporters ; another directed 
 the payments to the President to be a salary of $1,400, 
 actual railroad fares by the shortest possible routes, and 
 $3 a day for hotel expenses ; another rescinded a six 
 months' exemption from a per capita tax for newly 
 formed unions ; another provided for a funeral benefit 
 of $50 on the death of a member ; by another an as- 
 sessment of ten cents a month was levied for the 
 home for superannuated and disabled union printers. 
 All fourteen were adopted, the majorities, however, 
 varying from 558 to 8,758.
 
 90 
 
 DIRECT LEGISLATION 
 
 Is Complete Direct Legislation in Government Practicable ? 
 
 The conservative citizen, contented with the exist- 
 ing state of things, is wont to brush aside proposed 
 innovations in government. To do so he avails him- 
 self of a familiar stock of objections. But have they 
 not all their answer in the facts thus far brought forth 
 in these chapters ? Will he entertain no " crazy theo- 
 ries"? Here is offered practice, proven in varied and 
 innumerable tests to be thoroughly feasible. He is op- 
 posed to foreign institutions ? Here is a time-honored 
 American institution. He holds that men cannot be 
 made better by law ? Here are facts to show that with 
 change of law justice has been promoted. He deems 
 democracy feebleness? Here has been shown its stal- 
 wart strength. He is sure workingmen are incapable 
 of managing large affairs ? Let him look to the cigar- 
 makers — their capacity for organization, their self-re- 
 straint as an industrial army, the soundness of their 
 financial system, the mastery of their employers in 
 the eight-hour question. He believes the intricacies 
 of taxation and estimates of appropriation beyond the 
 average mind? He may see a New England town 
 meeting in a single day dispose of scores of items and, 
 with each settled to a nicety, vote away fifty thousand 
 dollars. He fears state legislation, by reason of its 
 complexity, would prove a puzzle to the ordinary 
 voter? Why, then, are the more vexatious subjects so 
 often shifted by the legislators to the people ? 
 
 The conservative objector is, first, apt to object be-
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 9I 
 
 fore fully examining- what he dissents from, and. sec- 
 ondly, prone to have in mind ideal conditions with 
 which to compare the new methods commended to 
 him. In the matter of legislation, he dreams of a body 
 of high-minded lawgivers, jnst, wise, unselfish, and not 
 of legislators as they commonly are. He forgets that 
 Congress and the legislatures have each a permanent 
 lobby, buying privileges for corporations, and other- 
 wise influencing and corrupting members. He forgets 
 the party caucus, at which the individual member is 
 swamped in the majority ; the " strikers," members 
 employing their powers in blackmail ; the Black Horse 
 Cavalry, a combination of members in state legisla- 
 tures formed to enrich themselves by plunder through 
 passing or killing bills. He forgets the scandalous 
 jobs put through to reward political workers ; the 
 long lists of doubtful or vicious bills reviewed in the 
 press after each session of every legislative body ; the 
 pamphlets issued by reform bodies in which perhaps 
 three- fourths of a legislature is named as untrust- 
 worthy, and the price of many of the m.embers given. 
 The City Reform Club of New York published in 1SS7: 
 "As with the city's repesentatives of 1SS6, the chief 
 objects of most of the New York members were to 
 make money in the 'legislative business,' to advance 
 their own political fortunes, and to promote the inter- 
 ests of their factions." And where is the state legis- 
 lature of which much the same things cannot be said ? 
 The conservative objector may not know how the 
 most important bills are often passed in Congress.
 
 92 DIRECT LEGISLATION 
 
 He may not know that until toward the close of a ses- 
 sion the business of Congress is political in the party- 
 sense rather than in the governing sense ; that on the 
 floor the play is usually conducted for effect on 
 the public ; that in committees, measures into which 
 politics enter are made up either on compromise or 
 for partisan purposes ; that, finally, in the last days of 
 a session, the work of legislation is a scramble. The 
 second day before the adjournment of the last Con- 
 gress was thus described in a New York daily paper: 
 " Congress has been working like a gigantic thresh- 
 ing machine all day long, and at this hour there is 
 every prospect of an all-night session of both houses. 
 Helter-skelter, pell-mell, the ' unfinished business ' has 
 been poured into the big hopper, and in less time than 
 it takes to tell it, it has come out at the other end com- 
 pleted legislation, lacking only the President's signa- 
 ture to fit it for the statute books. Public bills pro- 
 viding for the necessary expenses of the government, 
 private bills galore having as their beneficiaries fa- 
 vored individuals, jobbery m the way of unnecessary 
 public buildings, railroad charters, and bridge con- 
 struction — all have been rushed through at lightning 
 speed, and the end is not yet. A majority of the House 
 members, desperate because their power and influence 
 terminate with the end of this brief session, and a 
 partisan Speaker, whose autocratic rule will prevail 
 but thirty-six short hours longer, have left nothing 
 unattempted whereby party friends and proteges 
 might be benefited. It is safe to say that aside from a
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 93 
 
 half dozen measures of real importance and genuine 
 merit the countr}^ would be no worse off should every 
 other bill not yet acted upon fail of passage. Certain 
 it is that large sums of money would be saved to the 
 Government." And what observer does not know that 
 scenes not unlike this are repeated in almost every 
 legislature in its closing hours ? 
 
 As between such manner of even national legisla- 
 tion on the one hand, and on the other the entire citi- 
 zenship voting (as soon would be the fact under direct 
 legislation) on but what properly should be law — and 
 on principles, on policies, and on aggregates in appro- 
 priations — would there be reason for the country to 
 hesitate in choosing ? 
 
 Among the plainest signs of the times in America 
 is the popular distrust of legislators. The citizens are 
 gradually and surely resuming the law-making and 
 money-spending power unwisely delegated in the 
 past to bodies whose custom it is to abuse the trust. 
 " Government " has come to mean a body of represen- 
 tatives with interests as often as not opposed to those 
 of the great mass of electors. Were legislation direct, 
 the circle of its functions would speedily be narrowed ; 
 certainly they would never pass legitimate bounds at 
 the urgency of a class interested in enlarging its own 
 powers and in increasing the volume of public outlay 
 Were legislation direct, the sphere of every citizen 
 would be enlarged; each would consequently acquire 
 education in his role, and develop a lively interest in 
 the public affairs in part under his own management.
 
 94 DIRECT LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 And what so-called public business can be right in 
 principle, or expedient m policy, on which the Ameri- 
 can voter may not pass in person ? To reject his au- 
 thority in politics is to compel him to abdicate his 
 sovereignty. That done, the door is open to pillage of 
 the treasury, to bribery ot the representative, and to 
 endless interference with the liberties of the individual.
 
 THE WAY OPEN TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. 
 
 What I set out in the first chapter to do seems to me 
 done. I essayed to show how the political "machine," 
 its "ring," "boss," and "heeler," might be abolished, 
 and how, consequently, the American plutocracy 
 might be destroyed, and government simplified and 
 contracted to the field of its natural operations. These 
 ends achieved, a social revolution would be accom- 
 plished — a revolution without loss of a single life or 
 destruction of a dollar's worth of property. 
 
 Whoever has read the foregoing chapters has seen 
 these facts established : 
 
 (i) That much in proportion as the whole body of 
 citizens take upon themselves the direction of public 
 affairs, the possibilities for political and social para- 
 sitism disappear. The " machine " becomes without 
 effective uses, the trade of the politician is rendered 
 undesirable, and the privileges of the monopolist are 
 withdrawn. 
 
 (2) That through the fundamental principles of de- 
 mocracy in practice — the Initiative and the Referen- 
 dum—great bodies of people, with the agency of cen- 
 tral committees, may formulate all necessary law and 
 direct its execution. 
 
 (3) That the difeerence between a representative 
 government and a democracy is radical. The differ-
 
 g6 THE WAY OPEN 
 
 ence lies in the location of the sovereignty of society. 
 The citizens who assign the lawmaking power to offi- 
 cials surrender in a body their collective sovereignty. 
 That sovereignty is then habitually employed by the 
 lawgivers to their own advantage and to that of a twin 
 governing class, the rich, and to the detriment of the 
 citizenship in general and especially the poor. But 
 when the sovereignty rests permanently with the citi- 
 zenship, there evolves a government differing essen- 
 tially from representative government. It is that of 
 mere stewardship and the regulation indispensable to 
 society. 
 
 The Social Forces Ready for Our Methods. 
 
 Now that our theory of social reform is fully sub- 
 stantiated by fact, our methods shown to be in har- 
 mony with popular sentiment, our idea of democratic 
 government clearly defined, and our final aim political 
 justice, there remains some consideration of early 
 possible practical steps in line with these principles 
 and of the probable trend of events afterward. 
 
 Having practical work in view, we may first take 
 some account of the principal social forces which may 
 be rallied in support of our methods :— 
 
 To begin with : Sincere men who have abandoned 
 hope of legislative reform may be called to renewed 
 effort. Many such men have come to regard politics 
 as inseparable from corruption. They have witnessed 
 the tediousness and unprofitableness of seeking relief 
 through legislators, and time and again have they seen
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. 97 
 
 the very officials elected to bring about reforms go 
 over to the powers that exploit the masses. They have 
 seen in the course of time the tricks of partisan legis- 
 lators almost invariably win as against the wishes of 
 the masses. They know that in politics there is little 
 study of the public needs, but merely a practice of the 
 ignoble arts of the professional politician. Here, how- 
 ever, the proposed social reorganization depends, not 
 on representatives, but on the citizens themselves ; 
 and the means by which the citizens may fully carry 
 out their purposes have been developed. A fact, too, of 
 prime importance : Where heretofore in many local- 
 ities the people have temporarily overthrown politician 
 and plutocrat, only to be themselves defeated in the 
 end, every point gained by the masses in direct legis 
 lation may be held permanently. 
 
 Further : Repeatedly, of late years, new parties have 
 risen to demand justice in government and improve- 
 ment in the economic situation. One such movement 
 defeated but makes way for another. Proof, this, that 
 the spirit of true reform is virile and the heart of the 
 nation pure. The progress made, in numbers and 
 organization, before the seeds of decay were sown in 
 the United Labor party, the Union Labor party, the 
 Greenback-Labor party, the Peoples' party of 1S84, and 
 various third-party movements, testify to the readi- 
 ness of earnest thousands to respond, even on the slight- 
 est promise of victory, to the call for radical reform. 
 That in such movements the masses are incorruptible 
 is shown in the fact that in every instance one of the
 
 98 The way open 
 
 chief causes of failure has been doubt in the integ- 
 rity of leaders given to machine methods. But in 
 direct legislation, machine leaders profit nothing for 
 themselves, hold no reins of party, can sell no votes, 
 and can command no rewards for workers. 
 
 Again : The vast organizations of the Knights of 
 Labor and the trades-unions in the American Federa- 
 tion of Labor are evidence of the willingness and abil- 
 ity of wage-earners to cope practically with national 
 problems. And at this point is to be observed a fact of 
 capital significance to advocates of pure democracy. 
 Whereas, in independent political movements, sooner 
 or later a footing has been obtained by a machine, re- 
 sulting in disintegration, in the trades organization, 
 while political methods may occasionally corrupt lead- 
 ers, the politician labor leader uniformly finds his 
 fellow workmen turning their backs on him. The 
 organized workers not only distrust the politician but 
 detest political chicanery. Such would equally be 
 the case did the wage-workers carry into the politi- 
 cal field the direct power they exert in their unions^ 
 And in politics this never-failing, incorruptible power 
 of the whole mass of organized wage-workers may 
 be exerted by direct legislation. Therewith may be 
 had politics without politicians. As direct legislation 
 advances, the machine must retire. 
 
 Here, then, with immediate results in prospect from 
 political action, lies encouragement of the highest de- 
 gree — alike to the organized workers, to the men 
 grown hopeless of political reform, and to the men in
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. 9Q 
 
 active rebellion against the two great machine ridden 
 parties. 
 
 Encouragement founded on reason is an inestima- 
 ble practical result. Here, not only may rational hope 
 for true reform be inspired ; a lively certainty, based 
 on ascertained fact, may be felt. All men of experi- 
 ence who have read these pages w^U have seen con- 
 firmed something of their own observations in direct 
 legislation, and will have accepted as plainly logical 
 sequences the developments of the institution in Swit- 
 zerland. The New Englander will have learned how 
 the purifying principles of his town meeting have 
 been made capable of extension. The member of a 
 labor organization will have observed how the simple 
 democracy of his union or assembly may be trans- 
 ferred to the State. The "local optionist " will have 
 recognized, working in broader and more varied 
 fields, a well tried and satisfactory instrument. The 
 college man will have recalled the fact that wherever 
 has gone the Greek letter fraternity, there, in each so- 
 ciety as a whole, and in each chapter with respect to 
 every special act, have gone the Initiative and the Ref- 
 erendum. And every member of any body of equal 
 associates must perceive that the first, natural circum- 
 stance to the continued existence of that body in its 
 integrity must be that each individual may propose a 
 measure and that the majority may accept or reject 
 it ; and this is the simple principle of direct legisla- 
 tion. Moreover, any mature man, east or west, in any 
 locality, may recall how within his experience a com-
 
 loo THE WAY OPEN 
 
 munity's vote has satisfactorily put vexatious ques- 
 tions at rest. With the recognition of every such fact, 
 hope will rise and faith in the proposed methods be 
 made more firm. 
 
 Abolition of the Lawmaking Monopoly. 
 
 To radical reformers further encouragement must 
 come with continued reflection on the importance to 
 them of direct legislation. In general, such reformers 
 have failed to recognize that, before any project of 
 social reconstruction can be followed out to the end, 
 there stands a question antecedent to every other. 
 It is the abolition of the lawmaking monopoly. Un- 
 til that monopoly is ended, no law favorable to the 
 masses can be secure. Direct legislation would de- 
 stroy this parent of monopolies. It gone, then would 
 follow the chiefer evils of governmental mechanism — 
 class rule, ring rule, extravagance, jobbery, nepotism, 
 the spoils system, every jot of the professional trading 
 politician's influence. To effect these ends, all schools 
 of political reformers might unite. For immediate 
 purposes, help might come even from that host of con- 
 servatives who believe all will be well if officials are 
 honest. Direct majority rule attained, inviting oppor- 
 tunities for radical work would soon lie open. How, 
 may readily be seen. 
 
 The New England town collects its own taxes ; it 
 manages its local schools, roads, bridges, police, public 
 lighting and water supply. In similar affairs the Swiss 
 commune is autonomous. On the Pacific coast a ten-
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. lOl 
 
 dency is to accord to places of 10,000 or 20,000 inhabi- 
 tants their own charters. Throughout the country, in 
 many instances, towns and counties settle for them- 
 selves questions of prohibition, license, and assess- 
 ments ; questions of help to corporations and of local 
 public improvement. Thus in measure as the Referen- 
 dum comes into play does the circumscription practic- 
 ing it become a complete community. In other words, 
 with direct legislation rises local self-government. 
 
 The Principles of Local Self- Government. 
 
 From even the conservative point of view, local self- 
 government has many advantages. In this country, 
 the glaring evils of the State, especially those forming 
 obstacles to political improvement and social progress, 
 come down from sources above the people. Under the 
 existing centralization whole communities may pro- 
 test against governmental abuses, be practically a unit 
 in opposition to them, and yet be hopelessly subject 
 to them. Such centralization is despotism. It forms 
 as well the opportunity for the demagogue of to-day — 
 for him who as suppliant for votes is a wheedler and 
 as politician and lawgiver a trickster. Centralization 
 confuses the voter, baffles the honest newspaper, fo- 
 ments partisanship, and cheats the masses of their 
 will. On the other hand, to the extent that local inde- 
 pendence is acquired, a democratic community mini- 
 mizes every such evil. In naturally guarding itself 
 against external interference, it seeks in its connec- 
 tion with other communities the least common politi-
 
 102 THE WAV OPEN 
 
 cal bonds. It is watchful of the home rule principle. 
 Under its local self-government, g-overnment plainly 
 becomes no more than the management of what are 
 wholly public interests. The justice of lopping 
 off from government all matters not the common af- 
 fairs of the citizens then becomes apparent. The 
 character of every man in the community being 
 known, public duties are intrusted with men who 
 truly represent the citizens. The mere demagogue 
 is soon well known. Bribery becomes treachery to 
 one's neighbor. The folly of partisanship is seen. 
 Public issues, usually relating to but local matters, are 
 for the most part plain questions. The press,, no 
 longer absorbed in vague, far-off politics, aids, not the 
 politicians, but the citizens. Reasons, every one of 
 these, for even the conservative to aid in establishing 
 local self-government. 
 
 But the radical, looking further than the conserva- 
 tive, will see far greater opportunities. In local self- 
 government with direct legislation, every possibility 
 for his success that hope can suggest maybe perceived. 
 If not in one locality, then in another, whatever politi- 
 cal projects are attainable within such limits by his 
 school of philosophy may be converted by him and his 
 co-workers from theory to fact. Thence on, if his 
 philosophy is practicable, the field should naturally 
 widen. 
 
 The political philosophy I would urge on my fellow- 
 citizens is summed up in the neglected fundamental 
 principle of this republic : Freedom and equal rights.
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. I03 
 
 The true point of view from which to see the need of 
 the application of this principle is from the position 
 of the unemployed, propertyless wage-worker. How 
 local self-government and direct legislation might 
 promptly invest this slave of society with his pri- 
 mary rights, and pave the way for further rights, 
 may, step by step, be traced. 
 
 The Relation of Wages to Political Conditions. 
 
 The wages scale pivots on the strike. The employ- 
 er's order for a reduction is his strike ; to be effective, 
 a reserve of the unemployed must be at his command. 
 The wage-worker's demand for an increase is his 
 strike ; to be effective it must be backed up by the in- 
 dispensableness of his services to the employer. Ac- 
 cordingly as the worker forces up the scale of wages, 
 he is the more free, independent, and gainer of his 
 product. To show the most direct way to the condi- 
 tions in which workers may command steady work and 
 raise their wages, this book is written. For the wages 
 question equitably settled, the foundation for every 
 remaining social reform is laid. 
 
 To-day, in the United States, in scores, nay, hun- 
 dreds, of industrial communities the wage-working 
 class is in the majority. The wage-workers com- 
 monly believe, what is true, that they are the victims 
 of injustice. As yet, however, no project for restoring 
 their rights has been successful. All the radical means 
 suggested have been beyond their reach. But in so 
 far as a single community may exercise equal rights
 
 I04 THE WAY OPEN 
 
 and self-government, through these means it may- 
 approximate to just social arrangements. 
 
 Any American city of 50,000 inhabitants may be 
 taken as illustrative of all American industrial com- 
 munities. In such a city, the economical and political 
 conditions are typical. The immediate commercial 
 interests of the buyers of labor, the employers, are 
 opposed to those of the sellers of labor, the employed. 
 To control the price of labor, each of these parties in 
 the labor market resorts to whatever measures it finds 
 within command. The employers in many branches 
 of industry actually, and emplo5^ers in general tacitly, 
 combine against the labor organizations. On the 
 wage-workers' side, these organizations are the sole 
 means, except a few well-nigh futile laws, yet devel- 
 oped to raise wages and shorten the work day. In 
 case of a strike, the employers, to assist the police in 
 intimidating the strikers, may engage a force of armed 
 so-called detectives. Simply, perhaps, for inviting 
 non-unionists to cease work, the strikers are subject to 
 imprisonment. Trial for conspiracy may follow arrest, 
 the judges allied by class interests with the employers. 
 The newspapers, careful not to offend advertisers, 
 and looking to the well-to-do for the mass of their 
 readers, may be inclined to exert an influence against 
 the strikers. The solidarity of the wage-workers in- 
 complete, even many of these may regard the fate of 
 the strikers with indifference. In such situation, a 
 strike of the wage-workers may be made to appear to
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. 105 
 
 all except those closely concerned as an assault on the 
 bulwarks of society. 
 
 But what are the bulwarks of society directly arrayed 
 against striking wage- workers ? They arc a ring of 
 employers, a ring of officials enforcing class law made 
 by compliant representatives at the bidding of shrewd 
 employers, and a ring of public sentiment makers — 
 largely professional men whose hopes lie with wealthy 
 patrons. Behind these outer barriers, and seldom 
 affected by even widespread strikes, lies the citadel 
 in which dwell the monopolists. 
 
 Such, in outline, are the intermingled political and 
 economic conditions common to all American indus- 
 trial centres. But above every other fact, one salient 
 fact appears : On the wage-workers falls the burthen 
 of class law. On what, then, depends the wiping out 
 of such law ? Certainly on nothing else so much as on 
 the force of the wage-workers themselves. To de- 
 prive their opponents -of unjust legal advantages, and 
 to invest themselves with just rights of which they 
 have been deprived, is a task, outside their labor or- 
 ganizations, to be accomplished mainly by the wage- 
 workers. It is their task as citizens — their political 
 task. With direct legislation and local self-govern- 
 ment, it is, in considerable degree, a feasible, even an 
 easy, task. The labor organizations might supply the 
 framework for a political party, as was done in New 
 York city in 1886. Then, as was the case in that cam- 
 paign, when the labor parcy polled 6S,ooo votes, even 
 non-unionists might throw in the reinforcement of
 
 Io6 THE WAY OPEN 
 
 their otherwise hurtful strength. Success once in 
 sight, the organized wage-workers would surely find 
 citizens of other classes helping to swell their vote 
 And in the straightforward politics of direct legisla- 
 tion, the labor leaders who command the respect of 
 their fellows might, without danger to their character 
 and influence, go boldly to the front. 
 
 The Wage- Workers as a Political Majority. 
 
 Suppose that as far as possible our industrial city of 
 50,000 inhabitants should exercise self-government 
 with direct legislation. Various classes seeking to 
 reform common abuses, certain general reforms would 
 immediately ensue. If the city should do what the 
 Swiss have done, it would speedily rid its adminis- 
 tration of unnecessary ofhce-holders, reduce the salar- 
 ies of its higher officials, and rescind outstanding 
 franchise privileges. If the municipality should have 
 power to determine its own methods of taxation, as is 
 now in some respects the case in Massachusetts towns, 
 and toward which end a movement has begun in New 
 York, it would probably imitate the Swiss in progres- 
 sively taxing the higher-priced real estate, inheri- 
 tances, and incomes. If the wage-workers, a majority 
 in a direct vote, should demand in all public work the 
 short hour day, they would get it, perhaps, as in the 
 Rockland town meeting, without question. Further, the 
 wage-workers might vote anti-Pinkerton ordinances, 
 cqmpel during strikes the neutrality of the police, and 
 place judges from their own ranks in at least the local
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. 107 
 
 courts. These tasks partly under way, a change in 
 prevailing social ideas would pass over the com- 
 munity. The press, echo, not of the widest spread 
 sentiments, but of controlling public opinion, would 
 open its columns to the wage-working class come to 
 power. And, as is ever so when the wage-workers are 
 aggressive and probably may be dominant, the social 
 question would burn. 
 
 The Entire Span of Equal Rights. 
 
 The social question uppermost, the wage-workers — 
 now in political ascendency, and bent on getting the 
 full product of their labor — would seek further to 
 improve their vantage ground. Sooner or later they 
 would inevitably make issue of the most urgent, the 
 most persistent, economic evil, local as well as gen- 
 eral, the inequality of rights in the land. They would 
 affirm that, were the land of the community in use 
 suitable to the general needs, the unemployed would 
 find work and the total of production be largely in- 
 creased. They would point to the vacant lots in and 
 about the city, held on speculation, commonly in 
 American cities covering a greater area than the land 
 improved, and denounce so unjust a system of land 
 tenure. They could demonstrate that the price of 
 the land represented for the most part but the power 
 of the owners to wring from the producers of the city, 
 merely for space on which to live and work, a consider- 
 able portion of their product. They could with reason 
 declare that the withholding from use of the vacant
 
 I08 THE WAY OPEN 
 
 land of the locality was the main cause of local pov- 
 erty. And they would demand that legal advantages 
 in the local vacant lands should forthwith cease. 
 
 In bringing to an end the local land monopoly, 
 however, justice could be done the landholders. Un- 
 questionably the fairest measure to them, and at the 
 same time the most direct method of giving to city 
 producers, if not free access to land, the next practica- 
 ble thing to it, would be for the municipality to con- 
 vert a part of the local vacant land into public prop- 
 erty, and to open it in suitable plots to such citizens 
 as should become occupiers. Sufficient land for this 
 purpose might be acquired through eminent domain. 
 The purchase money could be forthcoming from sev- 
 eral sources — from progressive taxation in the direct 
 forms already mentioned, from the city's income from 
 franchises, and from the savings over the wastes of 
 administration under present methods. 
 
 From the standpoint of equal rights there need be 
 no difficulty in meeting the arguments certain to be 
 brought against this proposed course — such sophistical 
 arguments as that it is not the business of a govern- 
 ment to take property from some citizens to give to 
 others. If the unemployed, propertyless wage-worker 
 has a right to live, he has the right to sustain life. To 
 sustain life independently of other men's permission, 
 access to natural resources is essential. This primary 
 right being denied the wage-workers as a class, any or 
 all of whom, if unemployed, might soon be property- 
 less, they might in justice proceed to enforce it. To
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. IO9 
 
 enforce it by means involving so little friction as those 
 here proposed ought to win, not opposition, but ap- 
 proval. 
 
 Equal rights once conceded as just, this reasoning 
 cannot be refuted. Discussed in economic literature 
 since before the day of Adam Smith, it has withstood 
 every form of assault. If it has not been acted on in 
 the Old World, it is because the wage-workers there, 
 ignorant and in general deprived of the right to vote, 
 have been helpless ; and if not in the New, because, 
 first, until within recent years the free western lands, 
 attracting the unemployed and helping to maintain 
 wages, in a measure gave labor access to nature, and, 
 secondly, since the practical exhaustion of the free pub- 
 lic domain the industrial wage-workers have not per- 
 ceived how, through politics, to carry out their convic- 
 tions on the land question. 
 
 Our reasoning is further strengthened by law and 
 custom in state and nation. In nearly every state, the 
 constitution declares that the original and ultimate 
 ownership of the land lies with all its people ; and 
 hence the method of administering the land is at all 
 times an open public question. As to the nation at 
 large, its settled policy and long-continued custom 
 support the principle that all citizens have in- 
 alienable rights in the land. Instead of selling the 
 national domain in quantities to suit purchasers, the 
 government has held it open free to agricultural la- 
 borers, literally millions of men being thus given access 
 to the soil. Moreover, in thirty-seven of the forty-four
 
 no THE WAY OPEN 
 
 states, execution for debt cannot entirely deprive a 
 man of his homestead, the value exempt in many of 
 the states being thousands of dollars. Thus the gen- 
 eral welfare has dictated the building up and the se- 
 curing of a home for every laboring citizen. 
 
 In line, then, with established American principles 
 is the proposition for municipal lands. And if munici- 
 palities have extended to capitalists privileges of many 
 kinds, even granting them gratis sites for manufac- 
 tories, and for terms of years exempting such real es- 
 tate from taxation, why not accord to the wage-work- 
 ers at least their primary natural rights ? If any prop- 
 erty be exempted from taxation, why not the homesite 
 below a certain fixed value ? And if, for the public 
 benefit, municipalities provide parks, museums, and 
 libraries, why not give each producer a homesite — a 
 footing on the earth ? He who has not this is deprived 
 of the first right to do that by which he must live, 
 namely, labor. 
 
 Effects of Municipal Lafid. 
 
 A city public domain, open to citizen occupiers un- 
 der just stipulations, would in several directions have 
 far-reaching results. 
 
 Should this domain be occupied by, say, one thou- 
 sand families of a population of 50,000, an immediate 
 result, affecting the whole city, would be a fall in 
 rents. In fact, the mere existence of the public do- 
 mam, with a probability that his tenants would re- 
 move to it, might cause a landlord to reduce his rents,
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. m 
 
 Besides, the value of all land, in the city and about it, 
 held on speculation, would fall. Save in instances of 
 particular advantage, the price of unimproved resi- 
 dence lets would gravitate toward the cost, all thing? 
 considered, of residence lots in the public domain. 
 This, for these reasons : The corner in land v. ould be 
 broken. Home builders would pay a private owner no 
 more for a lot than the cost of a similar one in the pub- 
 lic area. As houses went up on the public domain, the 
 chances of landholders to sell to builders would be di- 
 minished. Sellers of land, besides competing with the 
 public land, would then compete with increased activ- 
 ity with one another. Finally, just taxation of their 
 land, valueless as a speculation, would oblige landown- 
 ers to sell it or to put it to good use. 
 
 Even should the growth of the city be rapid, the 
 value of land in private hands could in general ad- 
 vance but little, if at all. With the actual demands of 
 an increased population, the public domain might from 
 time to time be enlarged ; but not, it may reasonably 
 be assumed, at a rate that would give rise to an up- 
 ward tendency of prices in the face of the above-men- 
 tioned factors contributing to a downward tendency. 
 
 At this point it may be well to remember that, con- 
 ditions of land purchase by the city being subject to 
 the Referendum, the buying could hardly be accom- 
 panied by corrupt bargaining. 
 
 When the effect of the public land in depressing 
 land values, in other words in enabling producers to 
 retain the more of their product, was seen, private as
 
 THE WAY OPEN 
 
 well as public agencies might aid in enlarging the 
 scope of that effect. The philanthropic might transfer 
 land to the municipality, preferring to help restore 
 just social conditions rather than to aid in charities 
 that leave the world with more poor than ever ; the 
 city might provide for a gradual conversion, in the 
 course of time, of all the land within its limits to 
 public control, first selecting, with the end in view, 
 tracts of little market value, which, open to occupiers, 
 would assist in keeping down the value of lands held 
 privately. 
 
 But the more striking results of city public land 
 would lie in another direction. The spontaneous ef- 
 forts of each individual to increase and to secure the 
 product of his labor would turn the current of produc- 
 tion away from the monopolists and toward the pro- 
 ducers. With a lot in the public domain, a wage-worker 
 might soon live in his own cottage. As the settler 
 often did in the West, to acquire a home he might first 
 build two or four rooms as the rear, and, living in it, 
 with later savings put up the front. A house and a 
 vegetable garden, with the increased consequent thrift 
 rarely in such situation lacking, would add a large 
 fraction to his year's earnings. Pasture for a cow in 
 suburban city land would add yet more. Then would 
 this wage-earner, now his own landlord and in part a 
 direct producer from the soil, withdraw his chil- 
 dren from the labor market, where they compete for 
 work perhaps with himself, and send them on to 
 school.
 
 TO PEACEFUI, REVOLUTION. II3 
 
 What would now happen should the wage-workers 
 of the city demand higher wages ? It is hardly to be 
 supposed that any industrial centre could reach the 
 stage of radical reform contemplated at this point 
 much in advance of others. When the labor organiza- 
 tions throughout the country take hold of direct legis- 
 lation, and taste of its successes, they will nowhere 
 halt. They will no more hesitate than does a conquer- 
 ing army. Learning what has been done in wSwitzer- 
 land, they will go the lengths of the Swiss radicals 
 and, with more elbow room, further. Hence, when in 
 one industrial centre the governing workers should 
 seek better terms, similar demands from fellow labor- 
 ers, as able to enforce them, would be heard elsewhere. 
 
 The employer of our typical city, even now often un- 
 able to find outside the unions the unemployed labor 
 he must have, would then, should he attempt it, to a 
 certainty fail. The thrifty wage-working householder, 
 today a tenant fearful of loss of work, could then strike 
 and stay out. The situation would resemble that in 
 the West twenty years ago, when open land made the 
 laborer his own master and wages double what they 
 are now. Wages, then, would perforce be moved up- 
 ward, and hours be shortened, and a long step be made 
 toward that state of things in which two employers 
 offer work to one employe. And, legal and social forces 
 no longer irresistibly opposed to the wage-workers, 
 thenceforth wages would advance. At every stage 
 they would tend to the maximum possible under the 
 improved conditions. In the end, under fully equal
 
 114 THE WAY OPEN 
 
 conditions, everywhere, for all classes, the producer 
 would gather to himself the full product of his labor. 
 
 The average business man, too, of the city of our 
 illustration, himself a producer — that is, a help to the 
 consumer — would under the better conditions reap new 
 opportunities. Far less than now would he fear failure 
 through bad debts and hard times ; through the wage- 
 workers' larger earnings, he would obtain a larger vol- 
 ume of trade ; he would otherwise naturally share in 
 the generally increased production ; and he would 
 participate in the common benefits from the better 
 local government. 
 
 But the disappearance of the local monopolist would 
 be predestined. The owner of local franchises would 
 already have gone. The local land monopolist would 
 have seen his land values diminished. In every such 
 case, the monopolist's loss would be the producer's 
 gain. The aggregate annual earnings of all the city's 
 producers (the wage-workers, the land-workers, and 
 the men in productive business) would rise toward 
 their natural just aggregate- — all production. As be- 
 tween the various classes within the city, a condition 
 approximating to justice in political and economic ar- 
 rangements would now prevail. 
 
 What would thus be likely to happen in our typical 
 city of 50,000 inhabitants would also, in greater or 
 less degree, be possible in all industrial towns and 
 cities. In every such place, self-government and di- 
 rect legislation could solve the more pressing imme- 
 diate phases of the labor question and creote the local
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. I15 
 
 conditions favorable to remodelinj^, and as far as pos- 
 sible abolishing, the superstructure of government. 
 
 Wider Applications of These Principles and Methods. 
 
 The political and economic arrangements extending 
 beyond the control of the municipalities would now, 
 if they had not done so before, challenge attention. In 
 taking tip with reform in this wider field, the indus- 
 trial wage-workers would come in contact with those 
 farmers who are demanding radical reforms in state 
 and nation. As the sure instrument for the citizen- 
 ship of a state, direct legislation could again with con- 
 fidence be employed. No serious opposition, in fact or 
 reason, could be brought against it. That the mass of 
 voters might prove too unwieldy for the method would 
 be an assertion to be instantly refuted by Swiss statis- 
 tics. In Zurich, the most radically democratic canton 
 of Switzerland, the people number 339,000 ; the voters, 
 80,000. In Berne, which has the obligatory Referen- 
 dum, the population is 539,000. And it must not be 
 overlooked that the entire Swiss Confederation, with 
 600,000 voters, now has both Initiative and Referen- 
 dum. Hence, in any state of the Union, direct legisla- 
 tion on general affairs may be regarded as immedi- 
 ately practicable, while in many of the smaller states 
 the obligatory Referendum may be applied to par- 
 ticulars. And even in the most populous states, when 
 special legislation should be cast aside, and local legis- 
 lation left to the localities affected, complete direct
 
 Il6 THE WAY OPEN 
 
 leg-islation need be no more unmanageable than in the 
 smallest. 
 
 United farmers, wage-workers, and other classes of 
 citizens, in the light of these facts, might naturally de- 
 mand direct legislation". Foreseeing that in time such 
 union will be inevitable, v/hat more natural for the 
 producing classes in revolt than to unite today in 
 voting, if not for other propositions, at least for direct 
 legislation and home rule ? These forces combined in 
 any state, it seems improbable that certain political 
 and economic measures now supported by farmer and 
 wage-worker alike could long fail to become law. Al- 
 ready, under the principle that " rights should be 
 equal to all and special privileges be had by none," 
 farmers' and wage-workers' parties are making the 
 following demands : That taxation be not used to build 
 up one interest or class at the expense of another ; 
 that the public revenues be no more than necessary 
 for government expenditures ; that the agencies of 
 transportation and communication be operated at the 
 lowest cost of service ; that no privileges in banking 
 be permitted ; that woman have the vote wherever 
 justice gives it to man ; that no force of police, mar- 
 shals, or militiamen not commissioned by their home 
 authorities be permitted anywhere to be employed ; 
 that monopoly in every form be abolished and the 
 personal rights of every individual respected. These 
 demands are all in agreement with the spirit of free- 
 dom. Along the lines they mark out, the future suc- 
 cesses of the radical social reformers will most prob-
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. I17 
 
 ably come. But if, in response to a call nowadays fre- 
 quently heard, the many incipient parties should de- 
 cide to unite on one or a few things, is it not clear that 
 in natural order the first reforms needed arc direct le- 
 gislation and local self-government ? 
 
 To a party logically following the principle of equal 
 rights, the progress in Switzerland under direct le- 
 gislation would form an invaluable guide. The Swiss 
 methods of controlling the railroads and banks of 
 issue, and of operating the telegraph and telephone 
 services, deserve study and, to the extent that our in- 
 stitutions admit, imitation. The organization of the 
 Swiss State and its subdivisions is simple and natural. 
 The success of their executive councils may in this 
 country assist in raising up the power of the people as 
 against one man power. The fact that the cantons 
 have no senates and that a second chamber is an ob- 
 stacle to direct legislation may here hasten the aboli- 
 tion of these nurseries of aristocracy. 
 
 With the advance of progress under direct legisla- 
 tion, attention would doubtless be attracted in the 
 United States, as it has been in Switzerland, to the 
 nicer shades of justice to minorities and to the broader 
 fields of internal improvement. As in the cantons of 
 Ticino and Neuchatel, our legislative bodies might be 
 opened to minority representatives. As in the Swiss 
 Confederation, the great forests might be declared for- 
 ever the inheritance of the nation. What public lands 
 yet remain in each state might be withheld from 
 private ownership except on occupancy and use, and
 
 Il8 THE WAY OPEN 
 
 the area might be so increased as to enable every pro- 
 ducer desiring- it to exercise the natural right of free 
 access to the soil. Then the right to labor, now being 
 demanded through the Initiative by the Swiss work- 
 ingmen's party, might here be made an admitted fact. 
 And as is now also being done in Switzerland, the 
 public control might be extended to water powers and 
 similar resources of nature. 
 
 Thus in state and nation might practicable radical 
 reforms make their way. From the beginning, as has 
 been seen, benefits would be widespread. It might not 
 be long before the most crying social evils were at an 
 end. Progressive taxation and abolition of monopoly 
 privileges would cause the great private fortunes of 
 the country to melt away, to add to the producers' 
 earnings. On a part of the soil being made free of 
 access, the land-hungry would withdraw from the 
 cities, relieving the overstocked labor markets. Pov- 
 erty of the able-bodied willing to work might soon be 
 even more rare than in this country half a century 
 ago, since methods of production at that time were 
 comparatively primitive and the free land only in the 
 West. If Switzerland, small in area, naturally a 
 poor country, and with a dense population, has gone 
 far toward banishing pauperism and plutocracy, what 
 wealth for all might not be reckoned in America, so fer- 
 tile, so broad, so sparsely populated. 
 
 And thus the stages are before us in the course of 
 which the coming just society may gradually be 
 established — that society in which the individual shall
 
 TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION. II9 
 
 attain his highest liberty and development, and con- 
 sequently his greatest happiness. As lovers of free- 
 dom even now foresee, in that perfect society each 
 man will be master of himself ; each will act on hs 
 own initiative and control the full product of his toil. 
 In that society, the producer's product will not, as 
 now, be diminished by interest, unearned profits, or 
 monopoly rent of natural resources. Interest will tend 
 to disappear because the products of labor in the hands 
 of every producer will be abundant — so abundant that, 
 instead of a borrower paying interest for a loan, a 
 lender may at times pay, as for an accommodation, for 
 having his products preserved. Unearned profits will 
 tend to disappear because, no monopolies being in pri- 
 vate hands, and free industry promoting voluntary co- 
 operation, few opportunities will exist for such prof- 
 its. Monopoly rent will disappear because, the natural 
 right to labor on the resources of nature made a legal 
 right, no man will be able to exact from another a toll 
 for leave to labor. Whatever rent may arise from dif- 
 erences in the qualities of natural resources will be 
 made a community fund, perhaps to be substituted for 
 taxes or to be divided among the producers. 
 
 The natural political bond in such a society is plain. 
 Wherein he interferes with no other man, every indi- 
 vidual possessing faculty will be regarded as his own 
 supreme sovereign. Free, because land is free, when 
 he joins a community he will ente** into social rela- 
 tions with Its citizens by contract. He will legislate 
 (form contracts) with the rest of his immediate com-
 
 I20 THE WAY OPEN TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTIOlSf. 
 
 munity in person. Every community, in all that re- 
 lates peculiarly to itself, will be self-governing. Where 
 one community shall have natural political bonds with 
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 of the citizenship. Executives and other officials will 
 be but stewards. In a society so constituted, commu- 
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 languish ; free men will leave them. The commu- 
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 examples through their prosperity, will be imitated ; 
 and thus the momentum of progress will be increased. 
 Communities free, state boundaries as now known 
 will be wiped out ; and in the true light of rights in 
 voting — the rights of associates in a contract to ex- 
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 into its natural units — in this resolving of society into 
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 whole practical treatment of labor, about the bad effect of this injustice upon 
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 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
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