NATIONALIZATION OF SWISS RAILWAYS. 617 



convention at Berne, December IGth, recommended tlie rejection of 

 the scheme. 



The conservative liberal party, alone of the more important 

 Swiss parties, had no organization extending throngh all the cantons. 

 It was composed of cantonal groups who found themselves in gen- 

 eral agreement on federal questions, and were most numerous in the 

 Protestant cantons. They made an energetic campaign against pur- 

 chase. 



Parties divide themselves, in Switzerland, on most questions, ac- 

 cording to their centralistic or unitary, or their federalistic tend- 

 encies. The centralists seek the progressive unification of the nation, 

 and would give the utmost power to the central authorities, at the 

 expense of the cantons; while the federalists, regarding the his- 

 torical traditions of Switzerland, would preserve to the cantons the 

 power left them by the Constitution of 1874, and contend, step by 

 step, against any rupture between the central power and the local 

 authorities. These two tendencies were again ranged in conflict on 

 the present occasion. Besides objections to any disturbance of the 

 present relations between the cantons and the federal authority, 

 other considerations were urged in the discussions before the peo- 

 ple against the principle of the nationalization of railroads. The 

 management of the railroads, some said, should not be commit- 

 ted to the state, because it is not one of its proper functions, 

 and because of the wrong of exposing its finances to the risks in- 

 herent in such a combination. The state goes out of its sphere 

 when it undertakes to manage transportation. Its mission is to 

 defend the interests of the public by exercising an effective super- 

 vision over the administration of the private companies. Further, 

 mischievous results were to be feared from the influence of politics 

 over railroad management. State management might be a good 

 thing if it was inspired solely by regard for the general interests of 

 the country; the lines should be administered in a commercial spirit. 

 "With the railroads in the hands of the state, political influences would 

 operate in the appointment of functionaries, the arrangement of 

 time schedules, the adjustment of rates, and the construction of new 

 lines, and their effects could only be disastrous. The control of so 

 considerable a financial administration would also be detrimental to 

 general politics. Entering into political discussions, it would make 

 them more complicated and bitter; and the central power would be 

 able to exercise a considerable pressure on the deputies in the cham- 

 bers and on the electors themselves. Those who feared the effect 

 of such influence on parliamentary independence and on the 

 freedom of the vote of the people ought, therefore, to reject the 

 project. 



