NATIONALIZATION OF SWISS RAILWAYS, 6ii 



but because tbej thought the law in itself a good measure, the result 

 was in effect a moral victory for nationalization. Furthermore, the 

 new law, of its own force, by suppressing some of the guarantees 

 which had been given the companies in the concessions, improved 

 the situation of the confederacy as to the measure of repurchase, 

 and removed some of the difficulties that had stood in the way of the 

 consummation of the scheme. Immediately upon the adoption of 

 the law of accountability by the people, the party who had thereto- 

 fore demanded the nationalization of the railroads by expropriation 

 placed themselves on the side of repurchase on the basis of the con- 

 cessions. In their opinion, there was no longer any danger of pur- 

 chase on those terms being too advantageous to the shareholders or 

 too onerous to the state, the law of accountability, as they believed, 

 giving the state power enough in adjusting the cost of the transfer. 

 Previous to the adoption of this law the socialistic party had issued 

 a demand for the initiative toward expropriation of the railroads; but 

 although more than fifty thousand signatures — the number constitu- 

 tionally required for the referendum — had been secured for their 

 petition, its authors withdrew it, in order that the partisans of nation- 

 alization might not be divided upon a question of methods. 



As the next term when the state could take the railroads would 

 fall, as to most of the companies, in the spring of 1898, the federal 

 council had no time to lose if it would avail itself of a vote of the 

 chambers and of the people in favor of purchase. The law of account- 

 ability went into force on the first day of I^^ovember, 1896. On 

 the 25th of March, 1897, the federal council laid before the federal 

 chambers the draft of a law for the purchase and ojjeration of the 

 railroads by the confederation, with a long explanatory address. 



This draft contemplated the repurchase at the earliest period 

 named in the concessions, and the subsequent operation of the 

 five principal Swiss railway systems — the Jura Simplon, the Central, 

 the ]N'ortheastern, the Swiss Union, and the St. Gothard. The lines 

 belonging to these five companies had an aggregate length of 2,578 

 kilometres, and represented all the principal constituents of the rail- 

 way system of the country. Only a few secondary lines of normal 

 gauge and the narrow gauge and mountain railroads would remain 

 in the hands of their original proprietors. The bill provided for the 

 accomplishment of the acquisition in conformity with the federal 

 legislation and the concessions, and proposed that the federal council 

 be likewise authorized, with the consent of the federal assembly, to 

 buy the lines mentioned as excepted, in conformity with the regula- 

 tions for determining the purchase price. The confederation should 

 procure the funds necessary for the acquisition of the railroads and 

 their operation by the issue of bonds redeemable in sixty years or in 



