EACH time statistics are published about Swiss foreign trade, about the Swiss revenue, about the activities of the Federal railways and postal services, Swiss prosperity is found to be growing persistently. With scarcely a set-back since the end of the war, the very rate of expansion has tended to grow. In the parliamentary session of June I956 the Minister of Finance, Dr Streuli, announced that the Swiss national income had reached 24 milliard Swiss francs in I955, the figure which had been roughly estimated, a little earlier, as likely to be realized in I960, provided no recession set in. The problems created by full employment have been solved by the common-sense of the Swiss trade unions. Since an agreement in I937 between employers and employed in the machine, metal, and watch industry which established elaborate possibilities for negotiation, organized Swiss labour has abandoned the strike weapon as wasteful for both parties. Thanks to negotiation and the demand for labour, the Swiss Trades Union Council (Schlieizerischer Gewerkschaftsbund) reckons that real wages have risen by approximately 30 per cent since I939. In order that production shall not be jeopardized for lack of labour, no objection is raised to the import of foreign workers on condition that foreigners shall be dismissed first if dismissals become necessary. In the spring of I956 over I94,000 foreigners-the big majority Italian-were working in Switzerland, apart from the yearly influx of seasonal hands. There are, incidentally, not many more than half a million organized Swiss workers. Inflationary pressure exists in Switzerland 1 and causes some anxiety, but the problem is as nothing by comparison with Britain. Thus Switzerland is generally regarded as too placid and too prosperous to interest the outsider other than the tourist. But success is not without, interest, and within a framework of success the Swiss have problems of their own. Switzerland differs from other countries because it is a multi-lingual Confederation, a direct democracy, and a permanently neutral State. Four languages are recognized as the languages of the Confederation: German, dialects of which are spoken by about 312 million Swiss; French, which is spoken by about i million; Italian, which is spoken by about 300,000; and rornaniscis, which is spoken by about 5o,ooo. The Italian-speaking Canton of Ticino expects to be represented by one out of the seven members of the governing Boundesrat or Federal Council. Its population is relatively humble and politically passive, seeming will-
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Jan 1, 1963
Emily Clark Brown 
