Detroit evening times., 1945-11-28
The Swiss Rely on Themselves,
Rather Than Their Government
and Collect Dividends Both
inCash and in Liberty
By EDWIN MULLER

o'n.ss 2- NJ h.. AT1Sn me- M T., E'qs cspss BY s.
''' '''''' Ths o American M,rcurS Inc
THE Swiss nave none of the things that are
i supposed to be essential to prosperity.
Their country is sNall and overcrowded- -They
haven't enough arabic land to feed HALF THE
POPULATION. They have no coal or oil,
little iron or other ores-ALMOST NO RAW
MATERIALS OF ANY KIND. They have no
access TO the sea.
Yet the Swiss have maintained degree
of prosperity as high as, if not higher than,
ANY IN THE WORLD.
In our prosperous year Of 192S-the last
for which comparative figures are available
the United States had per capita wealth of
S2O9S Switzerland had S3 1876 IN SWITZ-
ERLAND POVERTY WAS RARE.
During the depression years SWitzer-
land suffered Nth the rest of the Uorid, but
unemployment, in proportion to population.
less than one-fourth OF ours There Uas
widespread destrtution. And today SWitx-
eriand /, a bright oasis in the economic desert
Of Europe.
With this relative prosperity the Swiss
have kept something even more important
INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM. Perhaps they are
prosperous BECAUSE they are free
THERE is theory widely held today, that
L individualism is not compatible with ma
tlonal we'll being, that we must barter our free
dom for prosperity, that there must be increas-
ing government control and central planning
of industry.
But the Swiss haven't abandoned free,
emergency they NEVER HAVE HAD CEN.
or THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF THE Ma
TON
For the Swiss way of life rests solidly on
one concept; THE RESO AND
INITIATIVE OF THE INDIVIDUAL-every
man solving his own problems, responsible for
himself, striving constantly to make his own
living and free to choose how to make it.
More than that, there is cooperation as
we'll competition. EACH SWISS RECOG-
NfZES THAT HIS OWN PROSPERITY IS
BOUND UP WITH THAT OF HIS
NEIGHBOR.
Take as an example dairy farmer of the
high Alps His farm is perched at the head
of narrow valley, against background of
snowy preciplces - seven or eight acres of
stony soil some of it so steep that if he weren't
sure-footed he might fall out of his farm and
break his neck.
A central planning board would no doubt
decide that such a farm 'submarginal,'
an inefficient part of the national economy The
farmer would be moved out, put to work on
some big collectivist farm in the owlands
BUT THIS FAMILY, LEFT TO DO ITS
PLANNING FOR ITSELF, STAYS HERE
AND FIGHTS OUT IT'S OWN LIVING ON ITS
OWN LAND. AND DOES PRETTY WELL
THERE are pigs, cows and chickens. Bas-
L ketfuls of oam are carried to sheltered
spot to make productive vegetable garden
The farm is nearly independent of an outside
food supply. The cash crop is milk. Milk
means hay
So the stones are removed from the mead
oWs, and the land is manured and fertilized
with painstaking thoroughness.
An ingenious irrigation system is con.
structed by the farmer himself A small
brook, boiling down from, the high snows, is
diverted by trough made of hoIiowe ed-out
logs and carried in a network of ditches out
oUer the sioping neodoUs.
As a result the farmer has stand of
hay as thick and uxuriant as if it had grown
on rich river bottom.
In winter this farmer and his family go to
work in the factory in the village or operate
as an Independent manufacturing unit