The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-01-22
81. 90 A Year, in Advance.

form, requiring $4,000 signatures to call
bill passed by congress to the 100000
citizens. The number of measures thus
decided at the polls since has been twen-
ty-eight-siXteen being accepted and
twelve rejected. They comprise the i'm
portant issues which engage the atten-
ton of every civilized nation the tariff,
railroad, money and liquor questions, ma
tional bankrupt and divorce laws, ap-
preparations, capital punishment, and the
like.
l have time here for but an example or
two OF Swiss national economies The
Swiss postoffice, besides the mail. man
ages the telegraph and telephone, the
parcels post express business, the 300
stage coach lines of the country, and
closely supervises the highways and the
railways, the last named being owned
by joint companies. The department
clears from quarter to half million
year. Local postage is one cent, gem
eral, for letters up to half pound, two;
newspaper, tWO-fifthS of cent book
OF half pound one cent Every rural
commune in Switzerland has free mail
delivery once day. At any Swiss post
office one may subscribe for any of a
list of 5000 principal newspapers Of the
world, paying the clerk and done with 1t.
telegram costs six cents for the stamp
and cent for two words-eleven cents
for ten words the land over A telephone
message costs one cent for transfer to
telegraph. Switzerland has twice as
many telegraph offices per million an
hab:tants and Zurich eight times as
many telephone subscribers per hundred
thousand as the United States. Switzer-
land has also more newspapers per mil
1S2S hoH toll
to every fortyfve inhabitants, or eight
families. The telephone costs $40 per
year; in New York $24O The stage lines,
models of swiftness and cheapness, cover
the country like net work. There are
more miles of railway in Switzerland
than on any equal area on the continent;
the roads, because of tunnels embank-
ments, bridges, etc, cost more per mile
than any other in Europe yet railway
charges are within shade of the lowest
in Germany, the cheapest in Europe. No
parallel lines are allowed, the govern
ment locates the stations, tax arises
when the dividends exceed stipulated
percentage on cost. Swiss highways are
the best in the world. Yet in 184S when
the Swiss Confederation was formed,
every canton had it's own dear, slow and
disjOinted postal system.
ucIc Z ID Ill OWlIZeTIduQ more ma0uIdC-
turing with imported raw materials than
in any similar area on the continent
cotton, silk and iron goods made with
no Swiss raw cotton and little raw silk
or ore. Next to the largest chocolate
factory in Europe, is in Neuchatel, with
rot one ingredient provided in Switzer-
land. These facts imply not only active
capital but steady labor for the work.
ing classes
There is in Switzerland more voluntary
cooperation than perhaps elsewhere on
earth-co-operative farming, various
forms of insurance, distribution on the
Rochdale system, etc. Kropotkine tells
us that the peasant on the shores of Lake
Geneva, is frequently a member of half
dozen societies for cooperative pur-
poses. These facts imply self-develop-
ment
There is in Switzerland, according to
Swiss statisticians, less illiteracy than in
any other country. The Constitution of
1874 requires public instruction to be
sufficient, obligatory, gratuitous, unsec-
tartan and under control of the state.
Every Swiss child is heir to the fntellec-
tual riches of the ages.
There are In Switzerland more high
class educational institutions than In any
equal population elsewhere-more uni
yersities, colleges, free technical and
special schools.
There is in Switzerland, according to
Mullhall, more wealth exchanged per
head than in any other country on the
continent. The 5000, 900 Swiss consume
as much wealth annually as do Is 900 900
1talians-that is, the average Swiss eats
wears, reads, travels and trades five
times as much as the average Italian.
Yet by nature Italy is blessed in soil and
while one-third of Switzerland
is unproductive glaciers, water-bed
sterile mountains-One-fifth is forest COW
cred, and of the remaining half two
thirds is as cold as Canada. The Swiss
until recently were proverbially poor.
Compare Switzerland with Scotland.
With 10000 voters Switzerland has
260 900 land owners-the land being sub
ject to constant division through the in
heritance laws, the farms now averag-
more than two-thirds of the whole land,
and but four in a hundred have any
ownership whatever in the soil. Large
districts have for many years been under
going depopulatiOn. The land owners
finding more profit in game than tenants,
The Scotch farmers are driven to the cities
Dr. to foreign lands.
Contrast the Swiss land-owning farm
er's situation with the Scotch tenant
farmers wages for his la Dor are his crops
entire; his taxes are light, his influence
On his government direct; his crops are
marketed over Switzerland at cost of SER
vice for carrying. The Scotch farmers
wages are his crops, minus rack-rent.
minus titheS and taxes over which he has
title influence, minus monopoly rates for
So the working Swiss
farmers wages are at least four times
he Scotch tenant-farmers wages. The
peoples law makes wages high work
plenty, and property safe, ends monop-
)ly's privileges, and opens up to the
masses natures opportunities.
The United States suffers in compar-
son with Switzerland.
In Switzerland, there is clearness on
very political issue. Every Swiss citizen
allied to vote for or against public prop
sitions gives each issue It's necessary at
ention. First things come first, and one
hing at a time. So all is simple. In
he United States campaign issues are
leaped up in confusion, parties tumble
ogether long platforms, these further
with the characters of the
andidates
In Switzerland, candidates are nothing,
measures everything. Rogues may be
legislators in vain; the peoples check is
pon them. Hence, Swiss newspapers
nalyze. explain and foreshadow the ef-
ectS of proposed law enlightening the