Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-08-28
HAPPY SWITZERLAND.
The Extent to Which It's People
Enjoy Home Rule.
A Country Where Every Citizen L. Leg
islatOr and No Act OF Government Be-
comes q Law Until 1t Has Received
the Popular Approval.


islatOr and No Act OF Government Be-
comes a Law Until 1t Has Received
the Popular Approval.
| The political divisions and subdivisions
Of the Swiss confederation are the same as
those of the United States, save that the
/ commune performs the functions of both
township and county. The citizens of q
nelghborhood are grouped in the govern
ment OF commune; regional interests
have given rise to the canton; the federal
| government unites the whole people. A
correspondent of Geneva writes: To what
extent the Swiss enjoy home rule and how
FAR the people govern themselves directly
may be seen in the operations of the ref
erendum in each division of the state, and
in the composition of the cantonal and fed
eral executive powers.
In one form or other the system of the
referendum has prevailed in some parts of
| Switzerland from time immemorlal To
tins day IN many Of the communes of Uri,
Glaris, Schwyz, Appenzen and Unterwald
the citizens meet, as did their fathers be-
fore them, in the town market place or in
the open air on mountain plain to accept
or reject by show of hands the laws laid
| before them by the communal councils. In
these radical democracies the right of
initiative belongs to every citizen, he who
conceives law having the opportunity to
present it and explain it at a meeting of his
fellow-electors. The Swiss commune is as
, nearly autonomous as is consistent with
cantonal and federal rights. 1t is re-
garded as in state en- petit. 1t really ex-
ercises the powers that M. de Tocqueville
mistakenly attributed to the American
| township. 1t is jealous of interference by
| the state. 1t does not part with the ad-
mimstratlon OF its forests, police, roads,
| schools, churches or asylums until the
point is reached where the interest of the
state manifestly take the place of locality
Through the refe rendum of the popular as
semblages of the purely democratic COM
! munes every citizen becomes Legislator,
his voice and vote directly influencing the
decision of public questions. Yet even the
communes having a representative govern
ment the referendum may be invoked so
readily that the people hold control in de-
tails. Within a year on the official bulletin
boards OF commune in Geneva was posted
O printed notice announcing that, unless
vote of the people to the contrary was
called for, professor in one of the colleges
would be presented by the communal coun-
Gil with an honorarium of S240.
The constitution Of the canton Of Geneva
provides that the people may sanction or re-
ject not only the laws passed by the can
topal legislature, but the orders issued by
the cantonal legislative and executive pow
ers. The exceptions to the exercise of the
oantonal referendum are laws declared to
be ''of urgence" by the legislature and
those relating to the annual budget, except
ing when the latter establish a new tax, in
creasing tax already existing, or necessi-
tates Q call for q public loan. On the de-
mand Of at least $500 votsrs-about one in
four Of the total number in the canton
within thirty days after enc official publica-
ton Of o law or order the question of.adoption
or rejection must be submitted to the
people. The vote on the referendum must
take place within forty days after the thirty
days Just mentioned. Thus all the functions
! of direct democracy lie with the citizens
/ of the canton in general, save that of DELHI
Grafton in assembly.
| Under the Swiss constitution sc, 900 citi-
zens, or a majority in eight cantons, may
demand popular vote on any federal law
whatsoever and on any order emanating
! from the legislative or executive power
which is of general import or is not urgent
in character. The petition of the federal
! referendum must be made within ninety
days after the publication Of the law or
| order.
| The cantonal and federal constitutions
are also subject to revision on a vote of the
people. The voters of the canton of Geneva
are called upon every fifteen years to de-
| eide whether its constitution shall be re-
vised. The federal constitution may be re-
vised at any time. On the petition of Sc, 600
| voters-about one -twelfth of the total vote
or in case either house of the federal as
! sembly (Congress) demands revision, the
| question whether 1t shall take place is sub
mitted to the country.
The records of the referendum are curl
! Gus, inasmuch as they show the frequency
with which the people have had recourse to
it and the tenacity with which the democ-
racy has chung to the conservative GUS
toms. In the ffty-fve years from 1859 to
! 1924 the referendum was resorted to IN
! Berne sixty times. In the six years from
| 1874 to 1SS0 five measures recommended by
! the federal executive and passed by both
! houses of the federal assembly, the men,
! bers of which were elected by universal
! suffrage, were vetoed by a national vote. In
| 1880 proposal to revise the federal consti-
| tuition so as to change the regulations of
! the issues of bank notes was rejected by a
! majority of 134, 900. In 1862, and again
| in 1878, the people of the canton of Geneva
| rejected proposed change in Its constitu-
! ton, the last time by majority of 5000 in
| canton has voted not to increase the salary
| of the members of its executive council, and
! it has since declined to reduce the number
| of members from seven to five. The two
! French cantons Of Geneva and Neuchatel,
which only entered the confederation in the
present century, adopted the referendum on
/ the avowed ground of its efficiency as a
check to hasty and inconsiderate legisla-
! ton.
On the other hand, the Swiss people have
shown no blind dislike of change or fear of
settling once and for all questions of the
! gravest character. A constitution sub
mitted to them in 1872, the work Of the
partisans of Capitalization, who had pre-
! scented the programme of ian army and o
| law,n went down before a majority of
| 1000. Only two years later, however, the
present constitution was adopted, religious
questions connected with it arousing q
| strong feeling. 1t was adopted by a vote of
/ 10000 against 1875, 900, the Catholic cantons
| throwing heavy majorities against it, as it
| suppressed converts and the Order of
| Jesuits in Switzerland. In 1878 in the mat
! ter of the St. Gothard tunnel subsidy the
/ Swiss people showed their capacity to ap-
| preciate questions of broad policy. AL
| though the granting. of the subsidy put a
| strain upon the National resources and the
| enterprise was adverse to the local inter
ests of cantons, half a million voters went
to the polls on wretched day in midwinter
/ and two-thirds of them voted Yes
How . Society Interloper Was Disciplined
by a Washington Club Man.
Washington has long been notorious for a
small class of hard-faced, persistent people,
| who make the rounds Of fashionable enter