The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-22

could hardly be. The most noticeable
 traces of war at present are the short
 age of milk and milk products and the
 general high range of prices-with, ff
 course. the scarcity and exhorbitant
 price of coal. Gone are the days when
 great masses of whipped cream foated
 in evGry cup of coffee or chocolate or
 fragrant flakes of butter made up the greater part of the scanty Swiss
 breakfast. Milk and cheese are now rationed and butter, imported from Denmark at great price, must be paid for separately when eaten at meals. The visitor suffers practically no hard ship; his ration of milk is ample for his needs, and with the sweet rolls
 and cakes which are a speciality of the country the lack of butter and cheese is very little felt. But the peo- pie in general, who are accustomed to consume more milk than those of al-
 most any other country. feel the lack of it severely. As a consequence, the export of cheese and condensed milk two of the largest of Switzerland's articles of foreign trade-have had to be very greatly curtailed. This gen eral shortage of milk and Its products
 in every country is becoming seri- ous menace to the health of Europe, and it is a matter which will have to engage the serious attention of gov ernments and of international sci entists.
 As to the cost of living. this inn presses itself upon the visitor at every | turn. A taxi drive of 10 minutes is l apt to cost six or seven francs, and with the present rate of exchange franc is practically the equivalent of an English shilling. A modest pen | sion will charge 12 ($2.40 to 14 francs (S2.S0) day with two GAO cents) | more for heating two for bath) 40 cents), and extras for almost every 1 thing. Nor is this range of prices con- fined to the tourists. Coal costs at present about s56 per ton and wood an equivalent price. Clothes, furniture, food. houe rent. even wine-always an 1 important and once cheap part of the i Swiss household budget-are doubled | or trebled in price. Yet signs of pow erty or discomfort ore practically not l to be seen. The fact is that the work l ing people of Switzerland are better | paid and work under better conditions than thuG of practically any other l country in Europe
 1 A policeman in Basic, a tram con- ! ducter in Berne, may expect to get from | 5000 to 5000 francs year or from $20 1 to $24 a week, with annual increases. An unskilled factory worker, male or female gets from s2 to $240 a day, with various perquistes and holidays, | and a skilled worker will get corre- l spondingly more. More important still l perhaps are the conditions under which | the work is done. Almost all the newer l Swiss factories-including the Bally Company, which is now the largest boot I and shoe factory in Europe-are situ-
 ated in the country in what one might
 almost call garden cities. They are light and airy, not more than two stories high, ventilated and heated by the most up-to- date methods, and equipped as a rule with electricity driven plants. Almost anywhere in one of these factories one could be quite content to sit down and eat ones dim ner while the work was actually going on. Hours of work are longer than in England-from fifty to fifty-four-but there are certain generally accepted pauses Ga light meal is taken about 9:30) which are counted in the working hours.
 Perhaps the fact that the distribu-
 tion of incomes is very much more even in Switzerland than in England or America contributes to the feeling of prosperous contentment which the wis.,
 itor notices. There are no millionaires,
 no beggars, and for all practical pur-
 poses no class distinctions. People who
 use first-class railway rickets and pala-
 tial hotels may be identified at once as
 
 comfortable house and three good
 meals a day-and in addition he car
 1 afford to take his family out in the
 evening and give them coffee and poi
 sonous-looking liqueurs. The big Co
 | operative Union at Basic is building
 model houses for it's employees. The,
 l will be better than the Lever houses al Port Sunlight and they will be rented $160 a year, which the employees vii very willingly pay. Every house vii have bathroom, sitting room, kitcher
 and pantry and three bedrooms as wei as a piece of garden.
 One disquieting sign to be noticed 1T the economy of this country, as in Ire land and other countries which ar largely agricultural. is the growing distrust ad antagonism between tn producers and the consumers of food | Practically every village in Switzerlant has some kind of cooperative society but only too many have two--one rep resenting the agriculturists, the othe the townsfolk, and between the tw' movements there is no communication ! Through the Swiss Peasants Union, | semiofficial body, receiving grants iron the federal government, the agricul tural population is politically organized and they have been responsible fo turning Switzerland into a protection | ist country and for the signing of vari ous commercial treaties. These activ ities are resented by the socialists am industrialists whose only common in l terest is opposition to the peasants. an vigorous struggles have been waged. I is satisfactory, however, to know tha war conditions have done much to brin,
 all parties together.
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