INFORMATION RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAT, 83 



capital and labour ; to follow the development of the organizations of workers 

 and emx)loyers ; to analyse social relations as affecting strikes, boy- 

 cots and lock-outs, determining the causes of these and resuming their de- 

 velopment and results ; to favour the development of the trades schools 

 of artisans and workers, and of new industries, agricultural works, and trade 

 and traffic, in the interests of intensiiicd production and of workers ; and 

 finally to help injured workers to take the necessary steps in order to ob- 

 tain indenuiities. 



SWITZERLAND. 



FEDERAL AID TO SWISS AGRICULTURE. — Landwirtschaftliches Jahrbuch des Schweiz. 

 Heft 3. Berne, Wyss, 1916. 



Few branches of federal acti^'ity provoked as much criticism and 

 discussion, during the years wliich preceded the war, in the press and in 

 the federal chambers, as the subsidies granted to agriculture. On the 

 one hand the large increase' in the sums voted attracted the attention 

 of political and financial circles, and on the other the subsidies were criti- 

 cized as being in reality a distribution of money to the large farmers from 

 which the country as a whole drew no advantage. 



These discussions, sometimes very lively, attracted the attention of 

 the economists and the federal authorities and provoked a careful exami- 

 nation of the subject. On 23 June 1910 the National Council passed the 

 following resolution: " The Federal Council is invited to submit the whole 

 question of federal subsidies to the examination of a commission of experts 

 and to present a report on the subject ". After a sufficiently long period of 

 examination the commission nominated by the Federal Council presented 

 in February 191 3 its report in which the grants to agriculture are examin- 

 ed in detail. Proposals aimed above all at obtaining certain modifications 

 of detail, a more stable obhgation to grant the subsidies, their greater social 

 importance, and an extension of authority which would allow the results 

 attained by the means of the subsidies in the domain of agricultural impro- 

 vement to be controlled. 



We should also recall in this connection the studies, entitled " I/'en- 

 couragement a I'agriculture per la Confederation, de 185 1 a 1912 " and 

 " I,es ameliorations foncieres en Suisse " and published by the Agricultural 

 Division of the Swiss Department of PubHc Economy, on the occasion of 

 the National Swiss Exliibition at Berne in 1914. 



Further the question of the grants made to agriculture by the Confe- 

 deration was the subject of a scientific study by Dr. A. Schmid, agronomic 

 engineer at Berne, published in exicnso in the German edition of the 

 Agricultural Yearbook of Switzerland, No. 3 (r). Dr. Schmid first 



(i) Landwirtschaftliches Jahrbuch des Schweiz, Heft 3, Wyss, 1916. — Die landwirtschaft- 

 lichen Massnahmen zur Fordcrung der Landwirtschaft in der Schweiz, insbesondere die Subven- 

 tion des Bundes. A. Scliinid, pages 257-356, Berne. 



