Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/631

Rh but because they thought the law in itself a good measure, the result was in effect a moral victory for nationalization. Furthermore, the new law, of its own force, by suppressing some of the guarantees which had been given the companies in the concessions, improved the situation of the confederacy as to the measure of repurchase, and removed some of the difficulties that had stood in the way of the consummation of the scheme. Immediately upon the adoption of the law of accountability by the people, the party who had theretofore demanded the nationalization of the railroads by expropriation placed themselves on the side of repurchase on the basis of the concessions. In their opinion, there was no longer any danger of purchase on those terms being too advantageous to the shareholders or too onerous to the state, the law of accountability, as they believed, giving the state power enough in adjusting the cost of the transfer. Previous to the adoption of this law the socialistic party had issued a demand for the initiative toward expropriation of the railroads; but although more than fifty thousand signatures—the number constitutionally required for the referendum—had been secured for their petition, its authors withdrew it, in order that the partisans of nationalization might not be divided upon a question of methods.

As the next term when the state could take the railroads would fall, as to most of the companies, in the spring of 1898, the federal council had no time to lose if it would avail itself of a vote of the chambers and of the people in favor of purchase. The law of accountability went into force on the first day of November, 1896. On the 25th of March, 1897, the federal council laid before the federal chambers the draft of a law for the purchase and operation of the railroads by the confederation, with a long explanatory address.

This draft contemplated the repurchase at the earliest period named in the concessions, and the subsequent operation of the five principal Swiss railway systems—the Jura Simplon, the Central, the Northeastern, the Swiss Union, and the St. Gothard. The lines belonging to these five companies had an aggregate length of 2,578 kilometres, and represented all the principal constituents of the railway system of the country. Only a few secondary lines of normal gauge and the narrow gauge and mountain railroads would remain in the hands of their original proprietors. The bill provided for the accomplishment of the acquisition in conformity with the federal legislation and the concessions, and proposed that the federal council be likewise authorized, with the consent of the federal assembly, to buy the lines mentioned as excepted, in conformity with the regulations for determining the purchase price. The confederation should procure the funds necessary for the acquisition of the railroads and their operation by the issue of bonds redeemable in sixty years or in