The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-05-02
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD.

Berne May "A little blue book,
Mr.. American, with your name and
your photograph and score of facts
about your life written in it, which
you would carry in your pocket all the
time, would be the token of the up
heaval in American life which would
be caused by the introduction of the
Swiss military system, in its entirety,
in the United States
Here's my book" said Luigi Corti,
a storekeeper of Chiasso, who used to
live in Texas. Every Swiss must car
ry his book with him When I go to
the bank l take it. When I go to a
strange Swiss city I'm asked for it. I
show it when I register at the hotel,
when L draw money, when l send a
telegram. My book shows how much
military service I've done. If I neg
lected my duty my book will show it
Americans Wouldn't Like That.
do you think Americans would
like to have to carry books like that ~
Not the kind of Americans I used
to know in Texas twenty years ago.
Americans don't like their government
to interfere with them said Luigi.
Luigi was in the American army
during the Spanish-American war
This little book" he explained. sis
issued by the federal government.
Down in Texas the folks got along all
right with the mayor and the police
men and the sheriff. but the minute
you said United States marshal they
pricked up their ears.
american folks don't like to be
governed by Washington
Luigi Corti had his Texas folks
right. He had a lot of other Ameri=
cans right. too. This little blue book
would mean that you were tabled and
listed by the federal government.
Some years ago this would have
sounded more un-American than it
does today, because in reality you are
now tabled and listed on the federal
income rolls. But this little book of
military service and citizenship would
keep you in your niche, right under
the eye of the federal military authori-
ties, all the time.
Keep Trace of Every Man.
If you left Chicago to live in Cleve+
land you would be forced to have your
military book vised by the military
commander of the city you were leav-
ing and signed by the commander in
the city to which you moved.
A centralized government would
have its grip on you.
Even the Swiss, after eighteen
months of war, are becoming restless
under the central military control of
Berne. In peace times the local COM
mander is an officer, chosen by the
soldiers in the local troops; he is al
ways d man from the neigh DOrhOOd.
During the war high officers from
Berne have gone to the various cor
rsrs of Switzerland to take control and
the independent Swiss citizens don't
like it. Not any more than Americans
in California would like to have an
army officer from Washington come
and rule their lives and actions. There
have been half a dozen parliamentary
quarrels in the Swiss congress within
the last four months over this matter.
The little blue book, issued by the
state government, wouldn't be an in
convenience. Americans in every dis
trict, to judge by the experience of
the Swiss, would want to elect their
own officers and be under the con-
troll of their own state government
Any Swiss can tell you that to sub
NIT to any other arrangement is to up
set the fundamental ideas on which
both the United States and the Swiss
federation were founded.
Military men in Switzerland want
federal control.
The citizens want canton or state