

TELEGRAPHY, WIRELESS. 



the Department of the Interior, Eugene Ruffy, of 

 Vaud ; Military Affairs, E. Miiller, of Bern ; Justice 

 and Police, Dr. E. Brenner, of Basel ; Commerce, 

 Industry, and Agriculture, A. Lachenal, of Geneva; 

 Finance and Tolls, W. Hauser, of Zurich : Posts and 

 Railroads, Dr. J. Zemp, of Luzern. The Federal 

 Assembly, on Dec. 15, 1898, elected M. Miiller Presi- 

 dent of the Confederation for the ensuing year, and 

 M. Hauser Vice-President. 



Area and Population. Switzerland has an area 

 of 15,976 square miles, and a population' of 2,917,- 

 754. The number of marriages in 1897 was 25,297 ; 

 of births, 95,540 ; of deaths, 60,116 ; excess of births, 

 33,424. The population of the town of Zurich in 

 1898 was 146,517; of Basel, 98,117; of Geneva, 82,- 

 120 ; of Bern, 54.577. 



Finances. The revenue of the Federal Govern- 

 ment in 1897 was 91,556,543 francs, of which 530,- 

 649 francs were derived from real property, 2,144,- 

 615 francs from invested capital, 66,570 francs from 

 the general administration, 31,075 francs from the 

 Department of Foreign Affairs, 384,683 francs from 

 Justice and Police, 2,663,103 francs from the Mili- 

 tary Department, 48,105,863 francs from Finance 

 and Customs, 224,481 francs from Industries and 

 Agriculture, 29,117,203 francs from the post office, 

 7,887,189 francs from telegraphs and telephones, 

 368,146 francs from railroads, and 32.966 francs 

 from various sources. The total expenditures were 

 87,317,364 francs, of which 4,649,782 francs were for 

 interest and amortization, 1,169,786 francs for gen- 

 eral administration, 611,694 francs for the Political 

 Department, 12,688,675 francs for the Interior, 385,- 

 350 francs for Justice and Police, 24,433,748 francs 

 for the Military Department, 4,286,194 francs for 

 Finance and Customs, 3,356,987 francs for Industry 

 and Agriculture, 27,464,177 francs for the postal 

 service, 7,887,189 francs for telegraphs and tele- 

 phones, 304,993 francs for railroads, and 78,789 

 francs for unforeseen expenses. The indebtedness 

 of the Confederation amounted on Jan. 1, 1898, to 

 83,891,688 francs, the assets to 188,063,126 francs. 



Commerce. The total value of the imports in 

 1897 was 1,114,442,000 francs, and of the exports 

 747,436,000 francs. These figures include 83,223,- 

 000 francs of coin and bullion imported and 54,263,- 

 000 francs exported. The special imports of grain 

 and flour were 124,500,000 francs; raw silk, 116,- 

 400,000 francs; animals, 52,100,000 francs; wool- 

 ens, 44,500,000 francs ; coal, 43,800,000 francs ; wine, 

 37,700,000 francs; iron, 35,900,000 francs; cotton 

 goods, 33,300,000 francs; chemicals, 33.200,000 

 francs; machinery, 27,700,000 francs; raw cotton, 

 26,700,000 francs; timber, 24,400,000 francs; iron 

 manufactures, 23,600,000 francs; sugar, 19,700,000 

 francs ; leather, 16,500,000 francs ; coffee, 16,100,000 

 francs; barley, malt, and hops, 15,600,000 francs; 

 silks, 13.600,000 francs; wool. 12,500,000 francs; 

 structural materials, 11.800,000 francs; books, 11,- 

 700,000 francs; tobacco, 10,700,000 francs: linens, 

 9,700,000 francs; eggs, 9,300,000 francs. The ex- 

 ports of silks were 135,200,000 francs; cotton goods, 

 108,700,000 francs; watches, 103,800,000 francs; 

 cheese, 38,400,000 francs ; raw silk, 36,700,000 francs; 

 silk thread, 34,700,000 francs ; machinery, 34,000,- 

 000 francs; chemicals, 25,800,000 francs ; milk, 20,- 

 100.000 francs; cotton thread, 16,600,000 francs; 



animals, 15,800,000 francs; straw goods, 11,600.000 

 francs; hides and skins, 9,200,000 francs; woolen 

 yarn, 8,900,000 francs ; woolens, 8,000,000 francs. 



The special commerce was distributed among for- 

 eign countries according to the following table, 

 giving values of imports and exports for 1x9? in 

 francs : 



ImporU. 



:. - 



Communications. The railroads in 1897 had a 

 total length of 2,351 miles. Their cost up to the 

 end of 1895 was 1,134,493,000 francs. The receipts 

 for 1895 were 111,544,765 francs; expenses, 66.1!*:;.- 

 333 francs. In 1896 the receipts from 43,015,131 

 passengers and 11,896,393 tons of freight were 106,- 

 298,896 francs. 



The length of the state telegraphs in 1897 was 

 4,435 miles, with 12,608 miles of wire. The number 

 of messages sent in 1897 was 3.882,337, of which 

 1,665.333 were internal, 1,487,793 international, 

 576,068 in transit, and 153,143 service dispatches. 

 The post office carried 88,929,000 domestic and 39,- 

 603,000 foreign letters. 18,595,000 domestic and 15,- 

 975,000 foreign postal cards, 31.075.000 domestic 

 and 22,181,000 foreign newspapers and circulars, 

 4,748,000 domestic postal remittances amounting to 

 521,948,000 francs, and 1,015,000 foreign ones for 

 44.868,000 francs. 



Legislation. The Federal Assembly voted on 

 June 30, 1898, for a revision of the Constitution 

 in the direction of co-ordinating the civil and penal 

 law, and this decision was ratified by a popular vote 

 taken in November. The Assembly agreed to guar- 

 antee the bonds of the company and to pay a sub- 

 sidy for the Simplon tunnel, which was authorized 

 to be begun in August. The Government proposed 

 to open a short route from Thun to Brieg and the 

 Simplon by piercing the Lotschenberg. This tun- 

 nel, which is to be completed by the beginning of 

 1904, will be 2,312 feet above the sea level, or only 

 three fifths of the altitude of the St. Gothard, and 

 with easy approaches on the Swiss side it will afford 

 the most direct route from Bern. Lausanne, and 

 Geneva to Milan and the north of Italy. The tun- 

 nel will be 12^ miles long, and the cost is estimated 

 at 70,000,000 francs. 



Following the example of the German Govern- 

 ment, the Federal Council issued a decree in July 

 prohibiting the importation of American fruits. 

 with the object of preserving Swiss orchards from 

 infection by the San Jose scale insect. 



T 



TELEGRAPHY WIRELESS. The transmis- called more properly "space Mr-raj-hy." as one 



sion of electric telegraphic signals through space system at least makes extensive use of wires. 



without the use of any wires that run directly from, name is not applied to any of the optical or other 



the transmitting to the receiving instrument ; also non-electric signaling syst 



