People.— The Swiss are a mixed people as to race and language. The bulk of the popula tion is of Teutonic race, but the Latin race (partly French, partly Italian) compose nearly three-sevenths of the whole. The Swiss Teu tons belong to the Alemannic stock and still speak a difficult Alemannic dialect usually called Swiss German or simply Swiss. They occupy the whole of the upper Rhine valley, as far as its extreme western angle at Basel, consequently the whole of the Helvetian highlands lying north of the Central Alps, besides the upper Rhone valley down to Sion or Sitten, under the Bernese Alps. The rest of the upper Rhone valley and the western slopes of the Jura are French, comprising the cantons of Valais, Vaud, Geneva and Neuchatel. The Italian portion is made up of those parts which belong to the basin of the Po—the whole of the canton of Ticino and the valley of Pos chiavo in the Grisons. Along the head streams of the Rhine, in the valleys of the Grisons, and in the 'region between these .rivers and the banks of the upper Inn, and even still farther eastwards, in some Tyrolese valleys beyond the Swiss frontier, are scattered the Rumonsh speaking people, whose language at first sight seems like a sort of connecting link between German and Italian. These are the interesting Rhmto-Romance tribes, which had long failed to receive the attention of the scientific world. Critical research has since established that Rumonsh is an entirely independent Neo-Latin tongue, standing on the same level as Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Langue d'Oc, Moldo-Wal lachian (Rumanian) and Lan,gue d'Oil. Ru monsh has two main dialects — the Overland oialect or Rumonsh proper, divided into two sub-dialects, the Sur-Selvian and Sub-Selvian, and the Engadine or Ladin dialect (sec RiLirrin). Yielding to the pressure of the vig orous Teutonic tribes, the Rhwto-Romance races became at last confined to the solitary upland valleys, where they still continue to eke out a laborious existence. Their speech is also steadily yielding to encroachments and is grad ually being supplanted either by German or Italian. As the Swiss races differ in origin and language, so also do their temperamental characteristics vary. The French Swiss is active and vivacious; the Italian Swiss, fiery and irritable; the German Swiss, calm and thoughtful. Yet with all their racial and spir itual divergences, a fervent patriotism is com mon to all of the Swiss people. Independence and liberty are the keynotes of their existence. There is no desire among the German, French or Italian Swiss to be united with their neigh bors of corresponding nationalities. It has been said that the Swiss as a people often suffer in the judgment of tourists by failure to live up to their reputation as a °mountain people"— to a glorious °Alpine" character. In truth, how ever, the idea that dwelling in a mountain re gion has an ennobling influence on the human character is mostly fallacious. The Swiss are expected by the traveler to carry themselves in all things with the pride and dig-nity of people who are born and bred in the original home of European liberty. But civilizations and tra ditions of human freedom have always begun on the plains — by seashore and river bank. If all the facts are taken into account, it is rather a handicap than an advantage to a race to in habit a mountain country, for in the earlier stages of civilization the mountain fastnesses have imposed upon them the duty of sheltering alike fleeing patriots and criminal fugitives from justice. In later stages, again, mountains interfere greatly with development of the ma chinery of civilization. It has been facetiously pointed out that mountain air sharpens the ap petite more than the wits, and there are some diseases attacking particularly the brain which are almost peculiar to mountain districts. The one favorable national circumstance of the Swiss is that their central position in regard to the great plains of Europe has put tnem in the track of all the chief currents of civilization. What they have achieved in spite of the handi cap of their mountains is one of the marvelous stories of the human race. To these massive barriers they owe in the main their sense of national unity.
Industries; Chief The Swiss de pend for their support on various branches of industry, to which much attention has been given of late years. There are now large silk' and cotton factories, while the watch-making industry established in Geneva since the end of the 16th century has long been famous. Other
industries are: Embroidery, musical boxes, chocolate (Suchard, Cailler, etc.), shoemalcing, straw plaiting, wood carving, aniline dyes, pot tery and aluminum. Asphalt is worked by an English company at Val de Travers and Neu chatel. In the lowlands the chief occupations are agriculture, horticulture and wine growing. In the highlands almost the sole industry is the rearing of livestock. The principal imports are cereals, fruits, vegetables, colonial produce, ani mal food substances, iron and mineral products. Being an inland country, Switzerland has direct commercial intercourse only with the surround ing states; but the trade with other countries, especially Great Britain and the United States, is very important. A source of enormous profit is the catering for the thousands of tourists who invade the country. Switzerland is noted for its hotels, and it is no exaggeration to say that the Swiss are the most expert artists in hotel-keeping. The large modern establish ments at Geneva, Vevey, Ziirich, Lucerne, Inter laken, etc., are models of comfort and organiza tion; the smaller hotels are often equally well conducted, and indeed a really bad inn is rarely met with in French or German Switzerland. In normal times the prices are extraordinarily moderate. A flourishing occupation is that of the professional guide, who is indispensable for expeditions among the higher mountains, espe cially on those which involve the passage of glaciers. As a class, these guides are intelli gent and respectable men, well versed in their duties and thoroughly acquainted with the peo ple and resources of the country. The town life of the Swiss is strongly affected by the hotel life of the tourists. The inhabitants are generally well educated and proficient in lan guages. Offering asylum as it does to political and social rebels of all countries, Switzerland i% a kind of international clearing house for thought and theory. For many years it has been the free and open laboratory in which the schemes of anarchists, Bolsheviki, Nihilists, Young Egyptian and Young Turkey exiles were hatched. During the European War the coun try was the mecca of diplomats, conspirators and high-born refugees. The Gallic, the Teu tonic and the Slav new thought of the day are all understood and discussed in Switzerland, and the Swiss book stores are the most cosmo politan and representative in the world. There are few important towns, the chief being Zurich, Basel, Geneva, Bern (the federal capital), Lausanne, Saint Gallen, Chaux-de-Fonds, Lu cerne, Biel Winterthur and Neuchatel. Geneva, the home of the Red Cross, was designated the capital of the League of Nations by the Allied Peace Conference of 1919.
The state railroads of Switzerland have a length of 3,670 miles, while there are 32 miles of foreign railways within the confederation. Owing to the heavy capital charges ($465,000,000) the state railways do not show a profit. In the last normal year (1913) they carried 91,546,639 passengers. The cars on most of the lines follow the American plan. On the waterways and lakes 22 companies oper ate 170 steamers and barges. The organization of the post office is highly efficient. Tourists' baggage may be transported very cheaply by parcel post; delivery is prompt and reliable. There are over 2,000 post offices; 2,135 miles of telegraph lines and 2,390 telegraph offices. Every year there are constructed new funicular railroads and tramways leading up the moun tain sides; these produce a good profit — over 3 per cent, and are usually privately owned. In June, 1918, the Swiss National Council adopted a project of Federal subvention of a port on the Rhine at Basel, which will open that river to commercial traffic between Ger many and Switzerland. To counteract the pos sibility of drawing the republic within the sphere of German economic Influence, an alter native was proposed, by which Switzerland could be placed into direct communication with the Mediterranean via the Rhone. This river could be made navigable for the 20 miles be tween Geneva and Lyons by the construction of a lock at Genissiat, just below Geneva. By this route Switzerland could obtain all the products necessary for its existence. In April 1919 it was announced that Switzerland had ac quired 28 vessels, of 105,000 tons total tonnage, to be attached to the port of Cette on the French coast (Gulf of Lyons), with which a special line will connect with the Swiss rail ways. The installation of a central warehouse is projected at the Etang de Than.