THE CITIZEN ARMY OF SWITZERLAND 



NOWHERE else in the world has 

 the art of self-defense better ad- 

 justed itself to geographical con- 

 ditions than in the little Republic of 

 Switzerland. While the subject of na- 

 tional preparedness holds such a large 

 place in the minds of the American peo- 

 ple, it becomes of value to study the re- 

 markable system the Swiss people have 

 evolved — a system fitted to national 

 ideals which do not accept the doctrines 

 of militarism on the one hand, and which 

 reject the doctrines of peace at any price 

 on the other. The Swiss system is par- 

 ticularly interesting to Americans because 

 of the kindred theories of government in 

 Switzerland and the United States, the 

 similar aspirations of their people, and 

 the close relationship of their needs. 



Although they have democratic ten- 

 dencies perhaps stronger than our own, 

 although they believe in local self-gov- 

 ernment perhaps more thoroughly than 

 we do, and although they possess a very 

 deep conviction that central authority 

 must not encroach upon the rights of the 

 cantons, the people of Switzerland have 

 made themselves a nation under arms, 

 yet a nation without the slightest thought 

 of adding a foot to its territory or of 

 disturbing that peace whose blessings it 

 loves and appreciates. 



There is nothing in Switzerland corre- 

 sponding to a regular army. One might 

 hunt for months around the country 

 without finding one man whose profes- 

 sion is military ; yet almost as hard would 

 it be to discover one able-bodied citizen 

 who has not had some soldier training. 



QUICK MOBILIZATION 



While Switzerland has a population 

 smaller than that of Massachusetts, with 

 an area twice as large, it can mobilize 

 240,000 men in 24 hours. On the same 

 basis, the United States could put 8,000,- 

 000 men into the field, though of course 

 it would take longer to get them to cen- 

 tral points of mobilization. Behind a 

 field army of 240,000 the Swiss have 

 a reserve of equal proportions. The 

 United States could, under the Swiss 



system, have a trained army of citizens 

 reaching a grand total of 16,000,000 men 

 of all arms. Under that standard we 

 would have 160 trained men from every 

 town of 1,000 population; while a county 

 of 30,000 inhabitants could thus send 

 2,400 men to the front and hold as many 

 more in reserve. 



There is no soldiery in the military 

 world costing as little per man as the 

 Swiss. 



This difference arises from the fact 

 that the army of the Swiss Confederation 

 is in truth a citizen army. It is organized 

 on what has been called the "voluntary 

 compulsory" system, to which the Swiss 

 people have freely resigned themselves 

 in order to guarantee the independence 

 of their country. They were the first 

 people of Europe to introduce universal 

 liability to military service. 



UNIVERSAL SERVICE 



Universal compulsory military service 

 in Switzerland dates from 1874, when the 

 old system of requiring each canton to 

 raise an allotment of three men for every 

 hundred men of its population was done 

 away with, and the system of requiring 

 every able-bodied man to meet for train- 

 ing was substituted. The new system 

 worked with very little trouble or friction 

 from the beginning, and the Swiss people 

 are very proud of their citizen army. 



In its fundamentals the idea of the 

 citizen soldier laid down by the men who 

 framed the Constitution of the United 

 States is the same as that followed in the 

 organization of the Swiss army. The 

 Swiss do in practice what we do in 

 theory. Every able-bodied man in Amer- 

 ica is supposed to be a member of the 

 militia, and yet how few have ever shoul- 

 dered a gun or marched in company 

 formation ! 



The Swiss boy, at the age of ten, is 

 put into the gymnastic class at school, and 

 begins learning the elements of the sol- 

 dier drill on the school-house playground. 

 Long before he is old enough to be called 

 upon for service he has learned to do the 

 manual exercises and to go through much 



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