uniting to form a division. Each summer
one division is called out for the grand manoeuvres, all being brought
out once in the course of eight years.

In case of war a General is named by the Federal Assembly. At the head
of the army in time of peace is a staff, composed of three colonels,
sixteen lieutenant colonels and majors, and thirty-five captains.

The cost of maintaining the army is small, on an average $3,500,000 a
year. Officers and soldiers alike receive pay only while in service. If
wounded or taken ill on duty, a man in the ranks may draw up to $240 a
year pension while suffering disability. Lesser sums may be drawn by
the family of a soldier who loses his life in the service.

At Thoune, near Berne, is the federal military academy. It is open to
any Swiss youth who can support himself while there. Not even the
President of the Confederation may in time of peace propose any man for
a commission who has not studied at the Thoune academy. A place as
commissioned officer is not sought for as a fat office nor as a ready
stepping-stone to social position. As a rule only such youths study at
Thoune as are inclined to the profession of arms. Promotion is according
to both merit and seniority. Officers up to the rank of major are
commissioned by the cantons, the higher grades by the Confederation.

* * * * *

In Switzerland, then, the military leader appears only when needed, in
war; he cannot for years afterward be rewarded by the presidency;
pensions cannot be made perquisites of party; the army, _i.e._ the whole
effective force of the nation, will support, and not attempt to subvert,
the republic.

_The True Social Contract._

The individual enters into social life in Switzerland with the
constitutional guarantee that he shall be independent in all things
excepting wherein he has inextricable common interests with his fellows.

Each neighborhood aims, as far as possible, to govern itself, so
subdividing its functions that even in these no interference with the
individual shall occur that may be avoided. Adjoining neighborhoods
next form a district and as such control certain common interests. Then
a greater group, of several districts, unite in the canton. Finally
takes place the federation of all the cantons. At each of these
necessary steps in organizing society, the avowed intention of the
masses concerned is that the primary rights of the individual shall be
preserv