SOME STATISTICAL FACTS
Switzerland is not all scenery and hotels. The little nation has a
prosperous life apart from the tourists who make of its mountains a
playground. There is interesting matter to be gleaned from the facts
given in the publications of the Swiss Federal Statistical Bureau.
The residential population of Switzerland is 3,753,293, and the area
4,129,827 square kilometres, of which 3,203,089 are counted as
productive, and 926,738 as unproductive. Thus three-quarters of the
land is capable of being put to some use. There are over 120 lakes
within the Swiss area.
The population of Switzerland lately has grown steadily. The
marriage-rate (7.3) is low; the birth-rate (25.0) fairly high; the
death-rate (15.1) a little above the average. All three rates show a
tendency to dwindle, following the rule of the western European
countries. The death-rate from infectious diseases is high,
representing one-fifth of the total. Emigration to foreign lands is
not large now, Switzerland losing about 5000 people a year from this
cause, the great majority of whom go to the United States and the
Argentine.
The chief agricultural and pastoral products of Switzerland are milk,
cheese, cream, cereals, vines, fruits, and tobacco. The vintage is
worth L600,000 a year. The forests are made to pay well, and are very
carefully safeguarded. On an average about L500,000 a year is devoted
to re-planting and to protecting woods. The woods are divided into two
classes, protective and non-protective. The former are treated as
safe-guards against avalanches, and are exploited only with a due
consideration for their primary purpose as bulwarks. Altogether 21 per
cent of Switzerland is forest land, and three-quarters of this area is
treated as "protective forest." The Governments of the United States
and of Canada, which are disturbed regarding the de-forestation of
their areas and the consequent deterioration of soil and climate,
should make a careful study of the admirable Swiss system of forestry.
The Swiss lake and river fisheries are very carefully preserved and
cultivated. There are in all 188 fish nurseries maintained within the
country, and during a year over 100,000,000 fish of various sorts
(trout chiefly) are hatched out and released in the rivers and lakes.
Incidentally a steady war is carried on against crows, herons, and
other birds destructive to fish. In this, as in every other respect
when the life of the Swiss people is examined, there will be found a
steady, thrifty, scientific effort to make the most of every available
resource of the country. There is probably less waste and more
utilisation of natural opportunities in Switzerland than in any other
country of the world.
Swiss industries are in some cases Government monopolies, and help the
national revenue considerably. The salt monopoly brings in about
L1,500,000 a year, of which a great part is profit. The total trade of
Switzerland reaches L120,000,000 value a year, of which the exports
represent about L50,000,000 and the imports about L70,000,000. That is
exclusive of coin, on which there is a balance in favour of
Switzerland of about L600,000 annually. The tourist traffic is mainly
responsible for the balance of imports in favour of Switzerland, for
there is practically no foreign borrowing. The Swiss have a
flourishing export trade in various manufactures, such as watches
(export worth nearly L6,000,000 a year). In all 75 per cent of the
Swiss export trade is in manufactured goods. Of the imports into
Switzerland 40 per cent are of raw materials, 26 per cent of food
supplies, and the balance of manufactured goods. Germany claims the
largest share of the import trade into Switzerland, with France,
Italy, and Great Britain next in that order. Of the export trade also
Germany takes the largest share, but that of Great Britain is very
nearly equal. The United States comes third in the list of customers
for Swiss exports.
The public services in Switzerland are excellent, and show a high
power of organisation. The postal, telegraph, and telephone system has
been, in particular, wonderfully organised in Switzerland, as the
visitor soon finds and the inhabitant fully realises. You may use the
post office for almost anything and telephone almost anywhere in
Switzerland. Some L2,500,000 has been sunk in the telegraph and
telephone lines in Switzerland, and the annual revenue is about
L700,000. The articles carried by post in Switzerland total in a year
about 360,000,000. The number of telegrams sent per inhabitant in
Switzerland is greater than in any other European country except Great
Britain. The Swiss railways are very well developed, too well
developed for some lovers of the Alps. Each year there are constructed
new funicular railways and tramways, until soon it will be hard to
find a ten-miles' square in all Switzerland which has not a railway of
some sort. Counting in all the mountain railways, the total length of
Swiss lines runs to the astonishing total of over 5,250,000 metres,
and additions go on at the rate of over 250,000 metres a year. These
railways bring in about L9,000,000 a year, on which a good profit is
realised--about L3,000,000 a year--representing 3.32 per cent on the
capital invested. The Federal Government controls the chief lines and
manages them very well, making a good profit out of providing
reasonably cheap facilities to the public. Tourists are able to buy
circular tickets, which frank over all the Swiss lines under the
control of the Federal Government. The funicular railways up the
mountain sides are usually privately owned. Over L1,000,000 of capital
has been sunk in these enterprises, and they pay well on the average
by the strength of their appeal to the arm-chair Alpinist.
Education, as already observed, has been brought to a high pitch of
organisation in Switzerland. From the primary schools to the seven
Universities there are splendid facilities for learning. In the 4690
primary schools there are about 530,000 pupils yearly under 12,023
teachers. The cost of this primary education is a little over
L2,000,000 a year. In the 642 secondary (higher) schools there are
about 55,000 pupils yearly under 2000 teachers, and the cost of these
schools is about L300,000 a year. There are, in addition, schools of
agriculture, of dairying, of commerce, and other technical schools. In
the various agricultural colleges about 1250 pupils are trained each
year, in the schools of commerce about 4000 pupils. In addition,
continuation commercial schools give further instruction to some
10,000 pupils yearly, who attend holiday and evening classes. But
that does not exhaust the list of educational facilities. In all,
Switzerland spends L3,200,000 a year on State education, nearly L1 a
year per inhabitant. Since salaries are on an extraordinarily thrifty
scale in all branches of the Swiss public service--the President of
the Republic getting a salary which would be scorned by the manager of
a small business house in London or New York--this appropriation
allows for a very large number of teachers. In the seven universities
of Switzerland (Bale, Zurich, Berne, Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg, and
Neuchatel) there is an average of 8500 students a year, of whom fully
a third are foreigners.
Correctional schools and schools for the feeble-minded are integral
parts of the Swiss social system. An average of 1500 children a year
are treated in the correctional schools, and of 1300 a year in the
schools for the feeble-minded (of which there are 28 in all). There
are 14 special schools for deaf mutes, treating an average of 700
pupils a year.
Switzerland gathers in for Federal purposes a public revenue of nearly
L6,500,000 a year, about half from the Customs, almost all the rest
from the posts, telegraphs, and railways. Outgoings are on a thrifty
scale. The whole of the "general administration" absorbs only L55,000
a year. The excellent army costs barely L1,700,000 a year. The Federal
receipts and expenses are, of course, apart from the Canton revenues.
The Cantons separately raise and spend about L5,500,000 a year. That
makes the total taxation in Switzerland some L12,000,000 a year.
The production and sale of alcohol is a Federal monopoly in
Switzerland. The Regie makes about L400,000 a year profit, the bulk of
which is returned to the Canton governments.
Some further indications of Swiss social life will be given by these
facts: there are in Switzerland 385 savings banks with 446,247
depositors and L63,000,000 in deposits. The gaol population is about
4170, of whom about one-fourth are serious criminals. Capital
punishment is not allowed in Switzerland, nor is imprisonment for
debt.
The Swiss army stands to-day at an effective strength of 142,000 for
the _elite_ and 7000 for the _Landwehr_. The efficiency of the
_Landwehr_ (reserve) is helped much by the general popularity of rifle
shooting as a sport. The Federation has 3958 rifle clubs with
232,225 members. The Government encourages these clubs with subsidies,
and spends about L25,000 a year in that way. Since there are 839,114
male voters in Switzerland, it will seem that more than a fourth of
the total male population belongs to rifle clubs.
[Illustration: LAUSANNE.]
The Swiss are keen politicians and go industriously to the polls for
the election of representatives, and for the settlement of the
numerous questions referred to their decision by direct vote. In 1912
there was a Swiss referendum on the subject of the new Insurance law
against sickness and accidents. Of the 839,114 electors 529,001
recorded their votes.
Switzerland each year attracts more and more the attention of
sociologists. Its completely popular system of government, which has
solved the problem of carrying on a democracy without extravagance and
without bureaucratic inefficiency, its close and effective
organisation of military, education, and charity matters, its methods
of referring political issues for settlement directly to the
people--all are being carefully studied in various countries of the
world with a view to imitation. It yet remains to be seen whether
methods and policies which work notably well in their native land
would bear transplanting; whether, too, they would be as suitable for
larger areas and larger populations than Switzerland has. In some
respects the Swiss example will doubtless prove useful for imitation
(with modifications) in other countries.
But it is fair to question whether the happiness to which the little
Swiss people have reached is the ideal with which civilised democracy
would be content. The Swiss are happy, but it is a strictly mediocre
happiness. They are content because they have a very modest standard
of contentment. The people of the country, with all their virtues, are
not inspiring; and the life they lead suggests a little too much the
life of an excellently-managed institution to be really attractive. At
the outset of this volume I ventured to question the justice of some
eminent travellers who have abused the Swiss. They, it would seem to
me, had formed an extraordinarily heroic idea of the Swiss character,
and were disappointed that close examination showed a people who are
very estimable, very well-educated, very firm in their patriotism, but
not always suggestive of the heroic. Between an unfair depreciation
and the idealising of the Swiss nation there is a reasonable middle
ground, and from that middle ground the social and political inquirer
should approach the study of Swiss sociological institutions.
INDEX
Aare, River, 120
Aargau, 35
Achaens, 20
Adelboden, 147
Adler Pass, 172
Agricultural and pastoral products, 186
Alamanni, 21, 27, 28
Albristhorn, Mt., 147
Alcohol monopoly, 192
Aletsch, Great, 99, 135
Allalin Pass, 172
Alliance of France and Switzerland, 42, 46
Alp pastures, 88, 89
"Alpine" character, the, 1, 11
Alpine climbing, 96, 102, 105, 106, 145, 150
clubs, 99, 104, 138, 141, 144
flowers, 114, 153, 163
aconite plant, 162
alyssum, sweet, 158
anemones, 156
arabis, 158
_arnica montana_, 158, 162
asters, 158
campanulas, 158
crocus, 154, 163
edelweiss, 158, 161
forget-me-nots, 156
gentian, 155, 158, 162, 163
geums, 158
gypsophila, 158
hepatica, 155
louseworts, 158
"marmot's bread," 158
orchis, 158
primrose, 155, 158
primula, 158
rampions, 158
ranunculi, 156, 158
rhododendrons, 156
rock roses, 158
roses, 156
saxifrages, 156
sedums, 158
_semper vivum_, 158
soldanella, 155
thyme, wild, 158
toadflax, 158
grass, 154
lakes, 18
meadows, 153, 163
spring, 156
storm, 149
sunset, 112
villages, 86, 87
Alps, the, 96, 100-108, 119, 120
Andes, 105
Arar (Saone), 24
Argentina, glaciers in, 99
Army, Swiss, 53, 192
Arnold, Matthew, 66, 68
Association for the Protection of Plants, 162
Asylum, Switzerland as an, 181, 183
Attinghausen, 35
Augsburg, 26
Augustus, Emperor, 26
Austerities of Calvinism, 75, 77
Australian aborigines, 15
Alps, 97, 98, 105
Autun, 25
Avalanches, 122, 123, 124, 126, 128, 134
_Grund-Lawine_ or Ground-Avalanche, 130, 131
_Lawinen-Dunst_, 133
_Schlag-Lawine_ or Stroke-Avalanche, 129
_Staub-Lawine_ or Dust-Snow-Avalanche, 128, 131
Aventicum (Avenches), 27
Baden, 176, 177
Basel, 70, 74, 114
Council of, 70
Bath-resorts, 176
Bertold V., 34, 119
Berne, 34, 119, 120
Bernese Oberland, 158
Republic, 120
Bertha, the "spinning Queen," 33
Betemps Hut, 172, 173
Beza, 77
Bibracte, 25
Bienne, 17
Lake, 18
Blanc, Mt., 96, 102, 104, 105
Blaser, Sergeant, 43
Bob-sleighing, 169, 175
Bonderchrinde, 147
Bonderspitze, Mt., 147
Boniface IV., Pope, 2
Bonivard, Francois, 117, 118
Boswell, 79, 80
Bourg St. Pierre, 163
Britannia Hut, 139, 172
Bronze Age, 17, 20
Brunhilde of Burgundy, Queen, 29
Brunnen, 38
Buckle, 75
Bullinger, 73, 74
Burgundian Kingdom, 25, 33
Burgundians, 27, 28
Byron, 31, 64, 65, 68, 117, 118
Caesar, 23, 24, 25, 33, 43, 103
Calvin, 70, 71, 74, 75, 76, 77, 118
Campbell, 39
Carline thistle, 162
Cassius, 23
Catherine the Great, 79
Cattle on Alp pastures, 88, 89
Celtic immigrants, 21
Celts, 10, 21
Chamois, 167
hunting, 166
skin, 167
Champery, 147
Character, Swiss, 194
of mountain peoples, 6
Charlemagne, 29, 30, 33, 162
Chateaubriand, 66
Chillon, Castle of, 31, 117, 118
"Chillon, Prisoner of," 117
Christian League, 71
_Christianae Religionis Institutio_, 74
Cimbri, 23
Civilisation, birthplace of, 9
of the plains, 11
Codex Manesse, 56
Communism, general, 160
Consistory of Geneva, 77, 79
Constance, Lake, 18
Constant, Benjamin, 63
Constitution of 1848, 120
Conway, Sir Martin, 100, 117, 124, 136, 142
Coppet, 57, 60, 62, 63, 65, 104
Correctional schools, 191
Cranbunden, 47
Cresta Run, 169
Crusades, 34
Curchod, Mlle, 57, 58, 59
Curling, 169, 175
Dairying industry, 91
Danger of climbing, 145
D'Aubigne, Agrippa, 119
De Broglie, Duke Victor, 65
De Choiseul, Duchesse, 79
Defence against avalanches, 127
Dents du Midi, 148
Department of Forests, 92
De Saussure, Horace, 101
Desert Pea, Sturt's, 158
Desert plants, 158
De Stael, Madame, 12, 57, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 164
Devil's Bridge, 117
De Voght, Baron, 62
Diablerets Mts., 148
Dr. Schrumm's death, 147
Druidical worship, 23
Dumas, Alexandre, 12
Education, 178, 170
Einsiedeln Abbey, 71
Elsigfirst, Mt., 147
Elsighorn, Mt., 147
Emigration, 186
_Emile_, 78
Engadine, 26
Equalisation of the earth's temperature, 100
Erasmus, 70
Etruscans, 23, 26
European Alps, 98
Euthyphron, 7
Exhilaration from change of air, 8
Farel, 75
Favre, Louis, 115
Federal Post Office, Swiss, 110
States, Swiss, 38
Ferdinand of Austria, 72
Ferney, 78, 79, 104, 117
Fetan, Avalanche record, 132, 133
Findelen Glacier, 172
Finnemore, John, 167
Flemwell, Mr. G., 155
Flower-hunting, 161
Forest Cantons, 35, 36, 37, 38, 46
laws, 127
Forests, 92, 186
Fouche, 61
Franco-Prussian War, 51
Free Cities, 34
French Directory, 45, 46, 48
Reformation, 74
Revolution, 42, 44, 48, 78, 118, 120
Fresh air, gospel of, 69
Funicular railways, 106, 189, 190
Gallic Switzerland, 26
Geant, Col du, 137
Gemmi Pass, 147
Geneva, 22, 24, 60, 71, 95, 117, 120
Lake of, 119
University, 102
Genevan Consistory, 118
German Empire, 42
Gessler, 36
Gibbon, 57, 58, 59, 60
Glacier colouring, 136
Glaciers, 122, 134
beauties of, 135, 137
Swiss, 98, 99
Glarus, 70, 71
Canton of, 47
Glenarvon, 64
Goethe, 78
Golf-links, 175
Gorner Glacier, 172
Grand Muveran, 148
Grandson, 41, 119
Grauholz, 120
Great St. Bernard, 116
Gregory VII., Pope, 33
Grey, Lady Jane, 74
Grimsel, 116
Grindelwald Glaciers, 99
Gsur, Mt., 147
Gymnastic sports, 165, 166
Habsburg, House of, 34, 35
Hannibal, 103
Happiness of Swiss, 194
Harbinger of spring, 122
Harvest festival, 90
Haute Cime, 148
Helvetia, 26, 27, 176
Helvetians, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 33, 43
Helvetic Club, 45
Consulta, 48
Republic, 45, 46
Society, 45
Henry VI., Emperor, 33
Himalayas, 96, 105
Hohenstaufen, House of, 119
Homeric period, 19
Horace, 122
Hotel-keeping, 85
Hugo, Victor, 12
Hungarians, 33
Ice Age, 100
Ice-hockey, 175
Ice-sailing, 169
Increase of warmth of climate in Europe, 98
Influence of mountains, 2, 3
Iron Age, 17, 21
Italian civilisation, 27
lakes, 114
_Jardins refuges_, 163
Jesuits, the, 50
Johnson, 79, 80
Jura, Mount, 24
Kandersteg, 147
Keller, Dr. Ferdinand, 18
Kinzig Pass, 47
Knox, John, 75
Kopp, 37
Korsakow, General, 47
Kosciusko, Mt., 150
Lake-dwellers, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21
Lake-dwellings, Early, 16, 18, 21
Lake forces, 15
Lake prompting to community life, 16
Landgrave, Phillip of Hesse, 73
Lausanne, 22, 117
novelists at, 56, 57, 60
League of Thirteen Cantons, 42
Leman, Lake, 18, 117
Lemanic Republic, 45
Leopold, Duke, 37, 39
Les Plans, 148
Loetschberg Railway, 115
Lombardy, 114
Londinium, 27
Longfellow, 109
Lucerne, 38, 113, 114, 115, 116, 120, 121
Luther, 71
Luxeuil, 28, 29
Lyons, 26
Machiavelli, 32
Maerjelen Sea, 135
Mary of England, Queen, 74
Massena, 55
Mediterranean civilisations, 20
Meilen, 17
Melchthal, 36
Mendelssohn, 111
Middle Ages, 30, 31, 44, 181
Milan, 115
_Milchsuppe_, the, 72
Minnelieder, 56
Missionaries from Ireland, 28
Monte Rosa Glacier, 172
Montreux, 78, 117
Morat, 41, 119
Lake, 18
Morgarten, Battle of, 37, 38
"Mottoes for Mountaineers," 139
Mountain's birthday, 97
Muller, 36
_Municipal Gymnasium_, 179
Muotta, 47
Naefels, 47
Battle of, 40, 41
Nancy, 41, 119
Nantes, 29
Napoleon, 42, 45, 48, 49, 61, 62, 103
Napoleonic Constitution, 48
National costume, 94
service, 92
Natural beauties of Switzerland, 109
Necker, Madame, 57, 59, 60, 61
Necker, Mr., 59
Neuchatel, Lake, 17, 18
Neuenegg, 120
New Zealand lakes, 15
Nibelungen, 56
_Nouvelle Heloise_, 78
Obermann, 66
Ochs, Peter, 45
Orcitrix, 22
_Origin of Inequality_, 78
Palu Glacier, 99
Panixer Pass, 47
Papuans, 15
Pas d'Encel, 148
Pas de l'Ecluse, 24
Pastoral and agricultural products, 186
Peasant life, 84, 85, 89
Peoples of the plain, 10
Peter of Savoy, 31
_Pfahl-bauer_ (pile-builders), 18
Pilatus, 113
Piso, 23
Polar glaciers, 134
Pont de Nant, 163
Population of Switzerland, 185
Pragel Pass, 47
Prehistoric Switzerland, 20
Primarschule, 178
_Progymnasium_, 179
Public revenue, 191
services, 110, 188
Radbot of Habsburg, 35
"Ranz des Vaches," 91, 92
Recamier, Madame, 63
Reding, 46
Referendum, 50, 193
Reformation, 70-77
Republic, French, 46
Helvetic, 45, 46
Lemanic, 45
Reuss, 119
Valley, 47
"Revivalist" preachers, 95
Rhaetia, 26
Rhaetians, 21
Rhine, 25
Glacier, 99
River, 120
Rhone, River, 24
Rifle clubs, 193
Rifle-shooting, 164, 165, 166
Rigi, 113
Ritter, Mr., 17
Rochers de Naye, 163
Rockies, 105
Roman Empire, Disruption of, 27
Gaul, 23
roads, 26
summer resorts, 27
Romans, 23, 26
Rosa, Monte, 135
Roumanians, 26
Rousseau, 56, 66, 70, 78, 79
Royal Chapel of the Savoy, 31
Ruskin, 11, 68
Ruetli, 36
Saas, 143
Saas Fee, 139, 172
Safe climbs, 147
St. Columban, 28, 29, 70
St. Gall, 29, 70
St. Gall, Monastery of, 29
St. Gothard, 116
St. Gothard Pass, 47, 114
St. Gothard Railway, 115
St. Jacob, Battle of, 116
St. Moritz, 169
Salt monopoly, 187
Salvation Army, 118
Saracens, 33
Savoy, Duke of, 117, 119
Saxon invasion, 10
Schauenberg, General, 120
Schiller, 78
Schopenhauer, 5
Schwartzhorn, 150
Schwyz, 35
Selkirks, 105
Sempach, 39
Senancour, 66
Senate conspiracy against Napoleon, 61
Shelley, 67, 68
Simplon, 116
Railway, 115
Skating, 164, 174
Ski-ing, 164, 169, 173, 174,
Ski-runners, 171
Smith, Mr. Albert, 104
_Social Contract_, 78
Socrates' method, 4
Soleure, 22
Solothurn, 72
South Seas, 97
Sports, Swiss National, 164
Spring season, 175
Stansenhorn, 114
Statutes of Geneva, 76
Stauffacher, 35
Stephen, Sir Leslie, 105
Stockjoch, 172
Stone Age, 17, 20
Straits of Sunda, 97
Struebel, Glacier, 147
Summer season, 176
sports, 175
Sumptuary laws, 94
Susanfe, Pass of, 148
Suwarow, General, 77, 103, 116
"Swiss Admiral," 55
Swiss Alpine Club, 98
army, 53, 192
character, 194
character in the Middle Ages, 32
cheese, 86
colonists, 82
cosmopolitan book-shops, 94
courage, 31, 40
fisheries, 187
Guard, 43, 44, 82
a handicapped people, 12
heterodoxies, 69
industries, 187
League, 42
mercenaries, 43, 44
mercenary service, 41, 70
military organisation, 50, 51, 53
milk, 86
"navy," 55
newspapers, 93
prowess, 32, 41
railways, 189
Reformed Church, 78
Republic, 34, 35
system of government, 49
thrift, 82
Symonds, John Addington, 84, 89, 112, 129, 130, 150, 165
_Tartarin de Tarascon_, 104
Technical schools, 180
Tell, William, 36
Tennis courts, 175
Tennyson, 9
Teutonic invasion, 21
Switzerland, 26
Thiele, River, 17
Thingor, Abbot of, 116
Thucydides, 24
Tigurini tribe, 23, 24
Tissot, Dr., 69
_Titanic_, 128
Tobogganing, 164, 169, 170, 171, 174
Tourist traffic, 188
Town life of the Swiss, 93
Trade, total, 187
Trelawney, 67
Troncain, Dr., 69
Tuileries, 82
defence of, 43, 44
Turnfests, 165
Turnvereins, 165
Universities, 190
Unterwalden, 35
Uri, 35, 36
Uri, Lake, 47
Vatican, 72
Vaud, Canton of, 111, 119
Vaudois Alps, 148
Verdun, Treaty of, 33
Versailles, Palace of, 69
Vespasian, 27
Vevey, 78
Vienna Congress, 49
Vindonissa, 177
Voltaire, 12, 66, 70, 72, 78, 80, 164
Von Wengi, Nicolas, 72
Warm Age, 100
Williams, Colonel, 55
Winkelried, Arnold, 39, 40, 81
Winter season, 176
Wordsworth, 68
Wuelpelsburg, 35
Yodel, 92
Young Egyptian Party, 182
Zahringer dynasty, 34, 119
Zermatt, 111, 158, 143, 172
Zermatt Breithorn, 145
Zinal, 143
Zug, 72
Zurich, 18, 22, 38, 47, 71, 114, 116
Congress, 49
Lake, 17, 18, 55
Zwingli, 70, 71, 73
THE END
_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
Transcriber's note:
Archaic and inconsistent spelling, punctuation, and syntax retained.