WOOD IN SWITZERLAND


   Switzerland has no castles, no walled
towns. She has been governed for five hun-
dred years by her own people and without
the help of kings. She is a land of villages,
of homes. Of six hundred thousand house-
holders, five hundred thousand own a bit of
land. The Swiss are the freest people in

  EmToa's NoTE.-An editorial which appeared in
the Boston Transcript, some time during the month
of August last, completely justifies the statements
made by Mr. Corthell regarding the prosperity of
Switzerland and the causes for the same.
  The editorial opens with a quotation from Mr.
Peek, a former United States minister to the
mountain republic, who lately said: "There is no
country, no nation on the globe, which can compare
in quality and number of educational institutions
with those of Switzerland, according to the number
of inhabitants." The writer of the article then
develops a comparison between Switzerland and
Massachusetts, in both of which commonwealths
it has been discovered that the intelligence of the
people is a prime cause of all other prosperity,
material as well as moral.
  In the course of his observations the writer states
that, long ago, emigration from Switzerland ceased,
and immigration into that country began; since
Germans, French, Italians and Slavs were and are
still attracted by the excellent economic conditions
there prevailing.
  The democracy of the European state, the writer
maintains, is much more essential and powerful
than that of Massachusetts: popular control being
now almost absolute, and preventing the use of the


the world, the Athenians of modern times.
They are the most universally educated of
any country, it being their boast that every
one who is not mentally incapacitated, is
able to read and write. They have all the
virtues and none of the vices of our own
political life.

public resources for the selfish advantage of the
few. These conditions are maintained by means
of an article of the constitution, the Referendum,
which provides that all measures of vital import,
in order to become laws, must be referred to the
whole body of the citizens.
  The editorial closes with a second quotation from
Mr. Peek, who says that the three millions of
Swiss consume more commodities to-day than the
fifteen millions of Italians, although the natural
productiveness of the two countries can not be
compared.
In these and many other favorable facts to be
noted in the present condition of Switzerland we
may discern the effects of good government, pure
and simple; but before instituting a parallel be-
tween that country and Italy in the matter of
commercial consumption, the geography of the two
countries should be considered. Switzerland is
protected from the greed of the continental powers
by a natural barrier. Her children are thus left
free to cultivate the soil, to develop manufac-
tures, and to elevate themselves. On the contrary,
Italy is now, of necessity, an armed camp, forced
to nourish its defenders, who are drawn away from
the peaceful life of the fields that they may learn
to kill, to devastate and destroy.


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