Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-08-23
HAPPY SWITZERLAND.
The Extent to Which It's People
 Enjoy Home Rule.

The Extent to Which It's People
 Enjoy Home Rule.
 islator and No Act of Government Bo-
 comes Q Law Until It 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 neighborhood are grouped in the govern ment of 8 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 ono form or other the system of the referendum has prevailed in some parts of Switzerland from time immemorial. To this day in many of the communes of Uri, Glaris, Schwyz, Appenzell 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 meeting of his fellow electors. The Swiss commune Is as nearly autonomous as is consistent with cantonal and federal rights. It Is re- garded as in a state on petit It really ex- ercises the powers that M. de Tocqueville mistakenly attributed to the American township. It is jealous of interference by the state. It does not part with the ad- ministration 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 l communes having representative govern ment the referendum may be invoked so | readily that the people hold control in de- | tails. Within year on the official bulletin | boards of commune in Geneva was posted | 8 printed notice announcing that, unless vote of the people to the contrary was called for, a professor in one of the colleges would be presented by the communal coun- Gil with an honorarium of $40.
 The constitution of the canton of Geneva provides that the people may sanction or re- ject not only the laws passed by the car- tonal legislature, but the orders issued by | the cantonal legislative and executive pow CTS. The exceptions to the exercise of the cantonal referendum are laws declared to be ''of urgence" by the legislature and those relating to the annual budget, except l ;pry xxhon ho 1otf oofo oh fav ip. creasing tax already existing, or necessi- tates 8 call for public loan. On the de- mand of at least S,5OO voters-about one in l four of the total number in the canton within thirty days after the official publica- ton of 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 delib- eration in assembly.
 Under the Swiss constitution 30, 1000 citi- zens, or 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. Tho 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 q vote of the people. The voters of the canton of Geneva are called upon every fifteen years to de- eide whether it's constitution shall be re- vised. The federal constitution may be re- vised at any time. On the petition of 56, GOO voters-about one-twelfth of the total vote or in case either house of the federal as- sembly (Congress) demands a revision, the question whether it shall take place is sub mitted to the country.
 The records of the referendum are curi ous, inasmuch as they show the frequency with which the people have had recourse to it and the tenacity with which the democ racy has clung to the conservative GUS toms. In the fifty-five years from 1469 to 15A the referendum was reSorted to in Berne sixty times. In the six years from 1874 to 1880 five measures recommended by the federal executive and passed by both houses of the federal assembly, the mem bers of which were elected by universa suffrage, were vetoed by a national vote. Ir 1880 proposal to revise the federal consti. tuition so as to change the regulations o1 the issues of bank notes was rejected by z majority of 134 900. In 1862, and agair in 1878, the people of the canton of Genevs rejected a proposed change in it's constitu tion, the last time by majority of ,000 fir a vote of il. 200. Twice since 1847 the same canton has voted not to increase the salary of the members of it's executive council, anG it has since declined to reduce the number of members from seven to five. The twt French cantons of Geneva and Neuchatel which only entered the confederation in the present century, adopted the referendum or the avowed ground of it's efficiency as { check to hasty and inconsiderate legisla tion.
 On the other hand, the Swiss people have shown no blind dislike of change or fear 0, settling once and for all questions of the gravest character. A constitution sub mitted to them in 1872, the work of the partisans of centralization, who had pre- sented the programme of Ian army and { law" went down before a majority O. 5000. Only two years later, however, thu present constitution was adopted, religion! questions connected with it arousing strong feeling. It was adopted by vote O. S4O, 900 against 19S, 900, the Catholic canton. throwing heavy majorities against it, as i suppressed convents and the Order O. Jesuits in Switzerland. In 1878 in the mat