The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1947-10-16

much like that between Canada
and the United States, a very
curscry, friendly inspection.
! To attract tourists, the govern
ment permits an American to
cash up to 5000 per week in trav-
er's checks, at a special tour
list rate of 4.25 Swiss francs to
the dollar This would appear to
work out advantageously to the
traveller who is. remaining in
Switzerland only for a few days,
because whens you depart. you
can change your Swiss francs
back into dollars at the rate of
3.75 to the dollar. This proce-
dure affords a profit of about
$3.50 on every $40 you cash.
But the paradox is that prices
are so high that your. money
goes very fast indeed Costs here
are very nearly the same as in
the States, with the result that a
visit to Lucerne or Geneva is
about as expensive as compar-
able visit to New York.
Living costs here, in fact, are
about equal with those in Am
erica. The average workman re-
eeives 500 Swiss francs per
month, plus a 100 frame cost-of-
living bonus. The total amounts
to about $3.50 per month. The
cost of clothing and food here
and the only short iteEn' is SUI
gar-iS very close to ours and
people here complain about the
differnce in wages and cost of
living as in the States.
! But there is no fear of commu-
nism, because there is no good
soil in which it can take root.
The average Swiss is solid type
of citizen, who understands his
obligation to his government as
an obligation to himself, his fam
lily, his village, his canton and his
way of life. He is, in essence, a
capitalist, for the chances are he
owns his own farm, or his own
home, and he knows that he has
freedom and a standard of liv-
ing few other European peoples
, now enjoy.
The European ideal of self
sufficiency has come to full flow
er here in Switzerland, neutral
through many wars which might
have ruined her economy if it
had not been for the determine
! ton of her people. Lacking coal
for fuel and power, Switzerland
has made admirable use TO her
hydro electric power, and at the
lpresent time almost all her rail
transport is powered by electri-
city, as are most Of her few in
dustries. The nation, during
World War IL, lived in constant
dread that the rail tunnel to It
aly-one of the great engineering
triumphs of our time-might be
bombed. She also feared inva-
sion. And the reminders of war
you see in Switzerland are all
of a defensive nature; tank traps
and posts set in huge rows in the
fields. to ward off parachute
; troops, bombproof shelters i, for
ammunition in deep moufftain
caves, followed out in the rock.
1t is refreshing to see land with
no bombed out buildings, no shell
craters, no crumbling trenches.
1t is an interesting fact that
military CONSUMPTION here is
and has been for years an &C
copied fact Most of the able
bodied men are held in a reserve
status to the age of go. There is
no quarrel or discussion about it
Its just one of those things a
good citizen must be willing to
, do, to preserve his own free
dom.
! There are large numbers of
people here from other nations,
on business or as tourists. The
French and British are in the
greatest numbers, and it is hard
to reconcile Britain's dire need
for foreign exchange, with the
large number of her people who
are spending it over here in
tourist travel Not that the Bri-
fish don't deserve Warehouses;
pecially after all that they went
through in this war. But it
seems strange that if foreign ex-
change is short in Britain, the
! British should be expanding it
abroad, on the luxury of tourist
travel.
: Among the so-called tourist at
fractions here, as elsewhere on
the Continent, are the "specta-
cles," concerts and theatrical re-
! vues, of which each country has
its own speciality. The concerts
in Switzerland are magnicicently
provided by some of the worlds
best musicians. Their .'spectacles'