Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1918 — Switzerland Like United States. [ARTICLE]

Switzerland Like United States.

Switzerland is the only European example of a federative and democratic republic of the American type, observes a writer. Switzerland, as the United States, was born from a desire for emancipation from autocratic despotism ; like the United States, Switzerland never believed in the divine right of kings. The very past which the ancient federates, on that quiet spot, the “Rutli,” on the classic Lake of Lucerne' on August L 1291 - swore to, embodies that great principle for which now, 626 years later, the United States is fighting, namely, to quote President Wilson’s own words, “For the right of those who submit to authority to have* a voice in their own governments." There the old Swiss proclaimed self-government against the autocratic rule of the Hapsburg, in the following words: “We ordain and direct with unanimous accord, that in the above-mentioned valleys we shall recognize no judge who shall have bought his rights with money or in any other manner, or who shall not be a native and an inhabitant of these districts.”