Part 5

Types of the executive councils are those of Geneva, city and canton. The city executive council is composed of five members, elected by the people for four years. The salary of its president is $800 a year; that of the other four members, $600. The cantonal executive has seven members; the salaries are: the president, $1,200; the rest, $1,000. In both city and cantonal councils each member is the head of an administrative department. The cantonal executive council has the power to suspend the deliberations of the city executive council and those of the communal councils whenever in its judgment these bodies transcend their legal powers or refuse to conform to the law. In case of such suspension, a meeting of the cantonal Grand Council (the legislature) must be called within a week, and if it approves of the action of the cantonal executive, the council suspended is dissolved, and an election for another must be had within a month, the members of the body dissolved not being immediately eligible for re-election. The cantonal executive council may also revoke the commissions of communal executives (maires and adjoints), who then cannot immediately be re-elected. Check to the extensive powers of the cantonal executive council lies in the fact that its members are elected directly by the people and hold office for only two years. But in cantons having the obligatory Referendum, Geneva's methods, however advanced in the eyes of American republicans, are not regarded as strictly democratic.

The Federal Executive Council.

The Swiss nation has never placed one man at its head. Prior to 1848, executive as well as legislative powers were vested in the one house of the Diet. Under the constitution adopted in that year, with which the Switzerland as now organized really began, the present form of the executive was established.

This executive is the Federal Council, a board of seven members, whose term is three years, and who are elected in joint session by the two houses of the Federal Assembly (congress). The presiding officer of the council, chosen as such by the Federal Assembly, is elected for one year. He cannot be his own successor. While he is nominally President of the Confederation, Swiss treatises on the subject uniformly emphasize the fact that he is actually no more than chairman of the executive council. He is but "first among his equals" (primus inter pares). His prerogatives--thus to describe whatever powers fall within his duties--are no greater than those pertaining to the rest of the board. Unlike the President of the United States, he has no rank in the army, no power of veto, no influence with the judiciary; he cannot appoint military commanders, or independently name any officials whatever; he cannot enforce a policy, or declare war, or make peace, or conclude a treaty. His name is not a by-word in his own country. Not a few among the intelligent Swiss would pause a moment to recall his name if suddenly asked: "Who is President this year?"

The federal executive council is elected on the assembling of the Federal Assembly after the triennial election for members of the lower house. All Swiss citizens are eligible, except that no two members may be chosen from the same canton. The President's salary is $2,605, that of the other members $2,316. While in office, the councilors may not perform any other public function, engage in any kind of trade, or practice any profession. A member of the council is at the head of each department of the government, viz.: Foreign Affairs, Interior, Justice and Police, Military, Finances, Commerce and Agriculture, and Post-Office and Railroads. The constitution directs a joint transaction of the business of the council by all the seven members, with the injunction that responsibility and unity of action be not enfeebled. The council appoints employes and functionaries of the federal departments. Each member may present a nomination for any branch, but names are usually handed in by the head of the department in which the appointment is made. As a minority of the board is uniformly composed of members of the political party not, if it may be so described, "in power," purely partisan employments are difficult. Removals of federal office-holders in order to repay party workers are unheard of.

The executive council may employ experts for special tasks, it has the right to introduce bills in the Federal Assembly, and each councilor has a "consultative voice" in both houses. In practice, the council is simply an executive commission expressing the will of the assembly, the latter having even ordered the revision of regulations drawn up by the council for its employes at Berne. The acts of the assembly being liable to the Referendum, connection with the will of the people is established. Thus popular sovereignty finally, and quite directly, controls.

While both legislators and executives are elected for short terms, it is customary for the same men to serve in public capacities a long time. Though the people may recall their servants at brief intervals, they almost invariably ask them to continue in service. Employes keep their places at their will during good behavior. This custom extends to the higher offices filled by appointment. One minister to Paris held the position for twenty-three years; one to Rome, for sixteen. Once elected to the federal executive council, a public man may regard his office as a permanency. Of the council of 1889, one member had served since 1863, another since 1866. Up to 1879 no seat in the council had ever become vacant excepting through death or resignation.

Features of the Judiciary.

Civil and criminal courts are separate. The justice of the peace sits in a case first as arbitrator, and not until he fails in that capacity does he assume the chair of magistrate. His decision is final in cases involving sums up to a certain amount, varying in different localities. Two other grades of court are maintained in the canton, one sitting for a judicial subdivision called a district, and a higher court for the whole canton. Members of the district tribunal, consisting of five or seven members, are commonly elected by the people, their terms varying, with eight years as the longest. The judges of the cantonal courts as a rule are chosen by the Grand Council; their number seven to thirteen; their terms one to eight years. The cantonal court is the court of last resort. The Federal Tribunal, which consists of nine judges and nine alternates, elected for six years, tries cases between canton and canton or individual and canton. For this bench practically all Swiss citizens are eligible. The entire judicial system seems designed for the speedy trial of cases and the discouragement of litigation.

No court in Switzerland, not even the Federal Tribunal, can reverse the decisions of the Federal Assembly (congress). This can be done only by the people.

The election by the Assembly of the Federal Tribunal--as well as of the federal executive--has met with strong opposition. Before long both bodies may be elected by popular vote.

Swiss jurors are elected by the people and hold office six years. In French and German Switzerland, there is one such juror for every thousand inhabitants, and in Italian Switzerland one for every five hundred. To a Swiss it would seem as odd to select jurors haphazard as to so select judges.

In most of the manufacturing cantons, councils of prud'hommes are elected by the people. The various industries and professions are classified in ten groups, each of which chooses a council of prud'hommes composed of fifteen employers and fifteen employes. Each council is divided into a bureau of conciliation, a tribunal of prud'hommes, and a chamber of appeals, cases going on appeal from one board to another in the order named. These councils have jurisdiction only in the trades, their sessions relating chiefly to payment for services and contracts of apprenticeship.

A Democratic Army.

In surveying the simple political machinery of Switzerland, the inquirer, remembering the fate of so many republics, may be led to ask as to the danger of its overthrow by the Swiss army. The reply is that, here, again, so far as may be seen, the nation has wisely planned safeguards. To show how, and as the Swiss army differs widely from all others in its organization, some particulars regarding it are here pertinent.

The more important features of the Swiss military system, established in 1874, are as follows: There is no Commander-in-chief in time of peace. There is no aristocracy of officers. Pensions are fixed by law. There is no substitute system. Every citizen not disabled is liable either to military duty or to duties essential in time of war, such as service in the postal department, the hospitals, or the prisons. Citizens entirely disabled and unfit for the ranks or semi-military service are taxed to a certain per centage of their property or income. No canton is allowed to maintain more than three hundred men under arms without federal authority.

Though there is no standing army, every man in the country between the ages of seventeen and fifty is enrolled and subject annually either to drill or inspection. On January 1, 1891, the active army, comprising all unexempt citizens between twenty and thirty-two years, contained 126,444 officers and men; the first reserve, thirty-three to forty-four years, 80,795; the second reserve, all others, 268,715; total, 475,955. The Confederation can place in the field in less than a week more than 200,000 men, armed, uniformed, drilled, and every man in his place.

On attaining his twentieth year, every Swiss youth is summoned before a board of physicians and military officers for physical and mental examination. Those adjudged unfit for service are exempted--temporarily if the infirmity may pass away, for life if it be permanent. The tax on exempted men is $1.20 plus thirty cents per year for $200 of their wealth or $20 of their income, until the age of thirty-two years, and half these sums until the age of forty-four. On being enrolled in his canton, the soldier is allowed to return home. He takes with him his arms and accoutrements, and thenceforth is responsible for them. He is ever ready for service at short call. Intrusting the soldiery with their outfit reduces the number of armories, thus cutting down public expenditures and preventing loss through capture in case of sudden invasion by an enemy.

In the Swiss army are eight divisions of the active force and eight of the reserve, adjoining cantons uniting to form a division. Each summer one division is called out for the grand manoeuvres, all being brought out once in the course of eight years.

In case of war a General is named by the Federal Assembly. At the head of the army in time of peace is a staff, composed of three colonels, sixteen lieutenant colonels and majors, and thirty-five captains.

The cost of maintaining the army is small, on an average $3,500,000 a year. Officers and soldiers alike receive pay only while in service. If wounded or taken ill on duty, a man in the ranks may draw up to $240 a year pension while suffering disability. Lesser sums may be drawn by the family of a soldier who loses his life in the service.

At Thoune, near Berne, is the federal military academy. It is open to any Swiss youth who can support himself while there. Not even the President of the Confederation may in time of peace propose any man for a commission who has not studied at the Thoune academy. A place as commissioned officer is not sought for as a fat office nor as a ready stepping-stone to social position. As a rule only such youths study at Thoune as are inclined to the profession of arms. Promotion is according to both merit and seniority. Officers up to the rank of major are commissioned by the cantons, the higher grades by the Confederation.

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In Switzerland, then, the military leader appears only when needed, in war; he cannot for years afterward be rewarded by the presidency; pensions cannot be made perquisites of party; the army, i.e. the whole effective force of the nation, will support, and not attempt to subvert, the republic.

The True Social Contract.

The individual enters into social life in Switzerland with the constitutional guarantee that he shall be independent in all things excepting wherein he has inextricable common interests with his fellows.

Each neighborhood aims, as far as possible, to govern itself, so subdividing its functions that even in these no interference with the individual shall occur that may be avoided. Adjoining neighborhoods next form a district and as such control certain common interests. Then a greater group, of several districts, unite in the canton. Finally takes place the federation of all the cantons. At each of these necessary steps in organizing society, the avowed intention of the masses concerned is that the primary rights of the individual shall be preserved. Says the "Westminster Review": "The essential characteristic of the federal government is that each of the states which combine to form a union retains in its own hands, in its individual capacity, the management of its own affairs, while authority over matters common to all is exercised by the states in their collective and corporate capacity." And what is thus true of Confederation with respect to the independence of the canton is equally true of canton with respect to the commune, and of the commune with respect to the individual. No departure from home rule, no privileged individuals or corporations, no special legislation, no courts with powers above the people's will, no legal discriminations whatever--such their aim, and in general their successful aim, the Swiss lead all other nations in leaving to the individual his original sovereignty. Wherever this is not the fact, wherever purpose fails fulfillment, the cause lies in long-standing complications which as yet have not yielded to the newer democratic methods. On the side of official organization, one historical abuse after another has been attacked, resulting in the simple, smooth-running, necessary local and national stewardships described. On the side of economic social organization, a concomitant of the political system, the progress in Switzerland has been remarkable. As is to be seen in the following chapter, in the management of natural monopolies the democratic Swiss, beyond any other people, have attained justice, and consequently have distributed much of their increasing wealth with an approach to equity; while in the system of communal lands practiced in the Landsgemeinde cantons is found an example to land reformers throughout the world.

THE COMMON WEALTH OF SWITZERLAND.