SWITZERLAND. 



THE PEASANTS' UNION AND PEASANTS' SECRETARIAT IN 1916. 



SOURCE : 



DiX-NEUVIEME RARFORT ANNUEL DU COMITE DIRECTEUR DE ly' UNION SUISSE DES PAYSANS 



ET DU Secretariat des Paysans Suisses, 1916 (Nineteenth Annual Report of the 

 Managing Committee of the Swiss Union of Peasants and the Secretariat of Swiss 

 Peasants, 1916). Brougg, Secretariat of Swiss Peasants, 1917, 95 pages. 



The nineteenth annual report of the managing committee of the Swiss 

 Union of Peasants and the Secretariat of Swiss Peasants treats of the ac- 

 tivity of these two institutions in 1916, shows its results, adducing evidence, 

 and publishes data relative to the finances of the institutions. 



We will examine this important report and resume its chief parts, as 

 we have done in the case of reports of earlier years. 



A. — SWISS PEASANTS' UNION. 



§ I. Social position and activity of the union in 1916. 



In the beginning of 1916 the Swiss Peasants' Union had twenty-eight 

 sections which comprised 197,761 members. During the year one new 

 society adhered to the union and was admitted as forming a new section. 

 This was the Federation des societes de mise en valeiir du lait de la Suisse 

 Centrale (Federation of the Societies for Realizing the Value of the Milk 

 of Central Switzerland). The union thus acquired 6,451 new members. 



a) Economic Measures for Meeting the Effects of the War. 



In 1916 the union took economic measures with a view to meeting the 

 effects of the war. They were rendered necessary by the circumstances 

 to which the war gave rise in Switzerland and they greatly preoccupied 

 the managing committee, and more especially the Peasants' Secretariat, 

 as well as the Office of Information as to Prices. 



As regards the potato supply, the defective potato harvest was a 

 pretext for reproaching the farmers for hoarding seed potatoes for motives 

 of speculation. But the Peasants' Secretariat took its stand on the result of 

 enquiries made by the Office of Information as to Prices, and was able to show 

 that this reproach was unfounded and thus to contribute to calming public 

 opinion. The union undertook to take an inventory of the stocks of pota- 



