666 



SWITZERLAND. 



Jan. 1, 1899, of 2,440 miles. Their cost up to 1898 

 was 1,210,931,534 francs. Receipts in 1897 were 

 124,084,175 francs, and expenses 75,263,964 francs. 

 In 1898 the gross earnings from a traffic of 49,- 

 543,857 passengers and 13,170,752 tons of freight 

 were 116,980,890 francs. It was decided on Feb. 

 20, 1898, that the Federal Government shall ac- 

 quire the railroads and take possession before 

 A lav. 1903. 



The post office in 1899 forwarded 94,791,000 in- 

 ternal and 44,035,000 international Letters, 33,- 

 717.<H)n internal and 22,401,000 international postal 

 cards, 37,865,000 internal and 25,003,000 interna- 

 tional newspapers and circulars, 5,491,000 internal 

 postal orders for 603,364.000 francs, and 1,173,000 

 international ones for 53,769.000 francs. 



The telegraphs of the Government had a length 

 of 4,380 miles, with 13,375 miles of wire, in 1899, 

 and during that year 1,660,994 internal and 1,698,- 

 030 international messages were sent, besides 610,- 

 074 in transit and 156,633 service dispatches. 

 There were 288 telephone networks in 1898, with 

 7.S6."> miles of line and 38,630 miles of wire, and 

 the number of conversations during the year was 

 16.335,332. The long-distance telephone wires had 

 a length of 8,035 miles, and the number of con- 

 versations between towns was 3,634,244. 



Legislation. The Federal Assembly having 

 passed an act providing for the compulsory insur- 

 ance, with aid from the federal treasury, of all 

 1>ersons who have no independent means of liveli- 

 lood against accident and sickness, a demand for 

 a referendum was signed by more than the requi- 

 site 30,000 citizens, and the law was referred con- 

 sequently to the popular vote. This turned out 

 to be opposed to the scheme, less than a third of 

 the total vote being cast in its favor, and of all 

 the cantons only one giving approval. Proposals 

 in the Federal Assembly to curtail the military 

 budget were either rejected or withdrawn. The 

 Chief of the Military Department proposed com- 

 pulsory naturalization, on pain of having to leave 

 Switzerland, of persons capable of military service 

 who settle in the country without having dis- 

 charged their military duties in their native land. 

 This was intended to make the Swiss practice 

 uniform with that recently adopted in Germany. 

 Several Swiss citizens of military age residing in 

 Prussia were notified that unless they could prove 

 that they had done military service at home they 

 must apply for naturalization and thereby render 

 themselves liable to the German conscription ; 

 .otherwise they would be expelled from German 

 territory. The Federal Council raised objections 

 to the proceeding as contrary to treaty. The Prus- 

 sian Government replied that the article of the 

 treaty permitting the expulsion of persons dan- 

 gerous to the internal or external security of the 

 state justified the action because young Swiss 

 residents in Prussia who are entirely free from 

 military obligations necessarily have a demoraliz- 

 ing influence on Prussian subjects of the same age 

 who are compelled to serve in the army. The 

 Federal Council protested in vain that dangerous 

 political activity was what the article was in- 

 tended to guard against. The only concession that 

 the Gorman Government would make was to ac- 

 cept proof from Swiss settlers in Germany that 

 they nave paid the tax for exemption as evidence 

 that they have discharged their military duties. 

 In the law framed by M. Mttller it was therefore 

 provided that when a legal equivalent has been 

 tarnished in lieu of personal military service a 

 foreigner residing in Switzerland will not be dis- 

 turbed. Two constitutional amendments were sub- 

 mit led to a referendum on Nov. 4. The right of 

 demanding a revision of the federal organic law 



was secured to the people by the Constitution 

 of 1848. The federal authorities having decided 

 in 1880 that a demand for the amendment of 

 specific articles or the insertion of new ones was 

 invalid, that only a general revision could be ob- 

 tained by popular initiative, a new law 7 was framed 

 in 1891 which provided that the repeal or modi- 

 fication of particular articles of the federal Con- 

 stitution as well as the insertion of new consti- 

 tutional clauses may be demanded through the 

 medium of popular initiative; that as soon as 

 50,000 Swiss citizens having the right to vote 

 should present a demand of this kind the question 

 whether such a revision take place should be put 

 to the electors, and the answer would depend upon 

 the majority of the citizens taking part in the 

 vote, and should the answer be in the affirmative 

 the Federal Assembly was to proceed witli the 

 revision. The Conservatives, the Socialists, the 

 Democrats, and some of the Radicals objected to 

 this proposal because it left the Chambers free to 

 tamper with the expression of the popular will 

 by drafting a measure calculated to defeat or to 

 give only partial effect to the demand of the peo- 

 ple. They proposed to confer on 50,000 electors 

 the right of presenting an amendment or a new 

 clause fully drafted which should be submitted 

 to the people and, if approved, inserted in the 

 Constitution in its original form. Although the 

 Liberals protested against allowing irresponsible 

 persons to formulate bills altering the fundamental 

 laws and by skillful agitation to secure the ap- 

 proval of the people without the careful study 

 and the public discussion which the least im- 

 portant bills of the Federal Assembly must un- 

 dergo, nevertheless the formulated initiative was 

 approved by the Council of State and the Na- 

 tional Council, and on July 5, 1891, the Swiss 

 people, by a vote of 181,882 to 120,372, adopted 

 the law by which a partial revision of the Con- 

 stitution can be submitted to a referendum in the 

 form of a formulated draft of the proposed amend- 

 ment or new clause. Only the rural half canton of 

 Basel, the half canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes, 

 and the cantons of Aargau, Thurgau, and Vaud 

 gave a majority against the law. The Conserva- 

 tive and Socialistic alliance, which with the support 

 of a part of the Radical and Democratic center 

 party carried through the formulated initiative, 

 proposed two further amendments embodying whal 

 is called the double initiative, intended to make 

 the legislative and executive authorities of the 

 federation really representative of the nation. 

 The party of the Right and the party of the K\- 

 treme Left affirm that the Federal Assembly and 

 the Federal Council are not organs of the national 

 will, composed as they are at present composed. 

 The system of election by majorities, which places 

 the Radical party in control of Parliament and 

 thus enables it to select the members of the Fed- 

 eral Council, did not seem to members of the, 

 parties which for years have commanded between 

 them a majority of the voters of the nation and 

 which have been acting in concert to be the right 

 system to secure true popular representation. The 

 Federal Council and its decisions have been sub- 

 jected to severe criticisms, and its opponents have 

 for a long time asserted that it had lost the eon 

 fidence of the nation and that there existed against 

 it a deep general dissatisfaction. The double ini- 

 tiative, which would give every interest and every 

 group of political thinkers, even the smallest, its 

 due weight in shaping the legislation of the conn- 

 try and would create a truly democratic national 

 executive, in which only those who are mo-t 

 trusted by the greatest number of oili/ens ran 

 become members of the Federal Government, con- 





