NATIONALIZATION OF SWISS RAILWAYS. 609 



THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE EAILROADS IN 

 SWITZERLAND. 



By M. HORACE MICHELI. 



ON the 20th of February, 1898, the Swiss people accepted by an 

 overwhelming majority a law referred to them providing for 

 the purchase and operation by the state of the railroads of the coun- 

 try. The vote marks the end in Switzerland of the system of private 

 management of railroads, and the coming in of a new system of state 

 management. The action is one of interest and importance to all 

 people everywhere, because it evolves momentous political and finan- 

 cial as well as economical and social considerations. 



The agitation of the question whether the railroads should be 

 constructed and managed by the state began in Switzerland almost 

 with the beginning of railroad building. The first railroad, from 

 Basle to Baden (Switzerland), was opened in 1847. A plan for the 

 construction of a system of railroads by the confederation and the 

 cantons concurrently, prepared by the federal council at the sugges- 

 tion of the national council, was rejected by the national council, 

 which voted in July, 1852, by a large majority, in favor of con- 

 struction by private companies, under charters issued by the cantons 

 with the approval of the confederation. This condition was not 

 satisfactory to the federal authorities, and a law was passed in 1872 

 enlarging the powers of the confederation and giving it the control 

 of the concessions. That law, with supplementary provisions making 

 it stronger, has continued in force till the present time. 



All the concessions, both cantonal and federal, contained pro- 

 visions looking to the ultimate repurchase of the railroads, oppor- 

 tunity for which was given at certain stated intervals (apparently 

 every fifteen years) upon five years' previous notice. On the coming 

 of the first of these periods of maturity, in 1883, the question of re- 

 purchase was raised in the federal council, but the financial condi- 

 tion of the railroads not being very good then, no action was taken. 

 This opportunity having been allowed to pass, no other would be 

 aflPorded till 1898. Still, the friends of the national system pushed 

 their measures, urging that the state enter into friendly negotiations 

 with the railroads for buying them in, or buy enough of their stock 

 to secure control of the disposition. Tentatives were made in both 

 these directions, but they all came to an end in one way or another 

 before any material results were accomplished. Then the idea of 

 expropriation was started, its advocates maintaining that the state 

 was not bound by the limitations in the concessions, but could take 

 the railroads at any time upon paying a just price. The federal eoun- 



VOL. LIII. 42 



