The Washington herald., 1915-09-12

Ae Mz L/zzZ@ REeezsSr

erty loving democracy that imaglnat1or
| paints her.
| when the French Revolution, which
Rousseau. Swiss, had kindled. swept IL
upon her and regenerated her from
without. But centralized Helvetiar
republic. made in Paris, did not At the
habits of the people and Napoleon ha6
to remodel it in 1902. When he was over.
thrown, the allied monarchs undid wha,
he had done in Switzerland as every.
where else and set back the hands OF
the clock twenty-five years.
Not without painful struggles in the
revolutionary eras of 1890 and 1sis, did
the Swiss democracy emerge from the
universal reaction and set up the re-
public We know today This time the
trainers of the structure wisely went to
Washington rather than to Paris for
their model and deliberately initiated the
American federation of States.
The Swiss Democracy.
The young republic of the New World,
therefore, has the strange honor to be
the parent of the oldest republic. The
twenty-five cantons. like States, remain
in control of all the things they can do
separately. The federal government. like
the United States, has its supreme court
the American Congress, one of them rep
resents the cantons, and the other is
chosen by the people grouped in districts
More significant still, the Swiss reject
ed the Europeon example of parliament
tary government and crossed the sea to
adopt the American principle of an in
dependent executive, which cannot be
turned out. like the British and French
cabinets. by vote of Parliament. But
they did not accept the American plan of
electing the executive by popular vote
On the contrary. they lodged the power
Of election in the parliament. as in
France
Nor did they set up a one-man execu-
tive like the President Of the United
states, with the power OF veto. They re-
coiled from that as too nnonarchical and
created instead a federal council
Every year we hear that Switzerland
has chosen a new president. But there
really Is no Swiss President. Or rather,
there are seven presidents, for all MEM
bers OF the council are equal in authority.
They choose chairman or president,
but he remains on level with the other
six. except that he opens the mail. re-
ceives ministers from foreign nations
and draws salary of 5000 where his
fellow-members have only 50. 400 each.
men in New England country town is
not more democratic than this so-called
president Of Switzerland. He has no
of1cial residence. and when the British
minister, with his decorations blazing on
his diplomatic uniform. once sought him
out at his home. he surprised Nine. Pres
ident up to her elbows In the weeks
wash.
One proof of democracy is the lack
Of personalities in government The
swiss get along without strong men,
Or brilliant men" Their government
8 singplarly impersonal Most of
them. II stopped in the street. could
not tell you the name of their presi-
lent for the time being. and they
have no governors at all.
Having freed themselves from per-
'onalfties. they are little troubled with
jealousy of the men who quietly do !
heir work. One member Of the fed |
'ral council was elected over and over
lgain for twenty-seven years and an
,ther for twenty-eight Most inex- i
'licable Of all to Americans. men Of |
opposite political parties sometimes |