CHAPTER XV

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 £600,000 a year. The forests are made to pay well, and are very carefully safeguarded. On an average about £500,000 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 £1,500,000 a year, of which a great part is profit. The total trade of Switzerland reaches £120,000,000 value a year, of which the exports represent about £50,000,000 and the imports about £70,000,000. That is exclusive of coin, on which there is a balance in favour of Switzerland of about £600,000 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 £6,000,000 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 £2,500,000 has been sunk in the telegraph and telephone lines in Switzerland, and the annual revenue is about £700,000. 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 £9,000,000 a year, on which a good profit is realised--about £3,000,000 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 £1,000,000 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 £2,000,000 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 £300,000 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 £3,200,000 a year on State education, nearly £1 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 (Bâle, Zurich, Berne, Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg, and Neuchâtel) 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 £6,500,000 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 £55,000 a year. The excellent army costs barely £1,700,000 a year. The Federal receipts and expenses are, of course, apart from the Canton revenues. The Cantons separately raise and spend about £5,500,000 a year. That makes the total taxation in Switzerland some £12,000,000 a year.

The production and sale of alcohol is a Federal monopoly in Switzerland. The Regie makes about £400,000 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 £63,000,000 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 £25,000 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.

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 (Saône), 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

Bétemps 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, François, 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

Champéry, 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'Aubigné, 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 Staël, 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

_Émile_, 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

Fouché, 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

Géant, 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

Märjelen 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

Neuchâtel, Lake, 17, 18

Neuenegg, 120

New Zealand lakes, 15

Nibelungen, 56

_Nouvelle Héloïse_, 78

Obermann, 66

Ochs, Peter, 45

Orcitrix, 22

_Origin of Inequality_, 78

Palu Glacier, 99

Panixer Pass, 47

Papuans, 15

Pas d'Éncel, 148

Pas de l'Écluse, 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

Récamier, 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

Rhætia, 26

Rhætians, 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

Rütli, 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

Strübel, 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

Wülpelsburg, 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.