Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/637

Rh convention at Berne, December 16th, recommended the rejection of the scheme.

The conservative liberal party, alone of the more important Swiss parties, had no organization extending through all the cantons. It was composed of cantonal groups who found themselves in general agreement on federal questions, and were most numerous in the Protestant cantons. They made an energetic campaign against purchase.

Parties divide themselves, in Switzerland, on most questions, according to their centralistic or unitary, or their federalistic tendencies. The centralists seek the progressive unification of the nation, and would give the utmost power to the central authorities, at the expense of the cantons; while the federalists, regarding the historical traditions of Switzerland, would preserve to the cantons the power left them by the Constitution of 1874, and contend, step by step, against any rupture between the central power and the local authorities. These two tendencies were again ranged in conflict on the present occasion. Besides objections to any disturbance of the present relations between the cantons and the federal authority, other considerations were urged in the discussions before the people against the principle of the nationalization of railroads. The management of the railroads, some said, should not be committed to the state, because it is not one of its proper functions, and because of the wrong of exposing its finances to the risks inherent in such a combination. The state goes out of its sphere when it undertakes to manage transportation. Its mission is to defend the interests of the public by exercising an effective supervision over the administration of the private companies. Further, mischievous results were to be feared from the influence of politics over railroad management. State management might be a good thing if it was inspired solely by regard for the general interests of the country; the lines should be administered in a commercial spirit. With the railroads in the hands of the state, political influences would operate in the appointment of functionaries, the arrangement of time schedules, the adjustment of rates, and the construction of new lines, and their effects could only be disastrous. The control of so considerable a financial administration would also be detrimental to general politics. Entering into political discussions, it would make them more complicated and bitter; and the central power would be able to exercise a considerable pressure on the deputies in the chambers and on the electors themselves. Those who feared the effect of such influence on parliamentary independence and on the freedom of the vote of the people ought, therefore, to reject the project.