Moreover, when, in consequence of certain economic causes, the price of coal and wood is doubled, as in the winter of1873, it is a cause of unspeakable distress to the poorer families; to the Swiss commoner, however, who has his direct sharein the produce of the soil, these fluctuations in price matter little. Whatever happens, he has the means of satisfying his actualnecessities. This produces a happy security for the future of the labouring classes.
There is a further advantage in the Allmends : they retain the population in the country districts. A man who is entitled to ashare in the "forest, field, and pasture" in his commune, will not lightly forego all these advantages to seek in the towns ahigher salary, which is far from securing him a better condition. The immense cities, where thousands of men areaccumulated without hearth, altar, or security for the morrow, and in which is formed the immense army of proletarianism,constantly panting for social revolution, are the peril and the curse of modern societies. If men have but some share ofcomfort and property in the country, they will abide there, for that is really the place provided for them by nature. Towns,the haunt of pride, luxury, and inequality, foster the spirit of revolt; the country begets calm and concord, the spirit of orderand tradition.
When the labourers are attached to the soil by the powerful bonds of collective ownership and partial enjoyment of it,industry is not fetteredas Glans and the Outer Rhodes of Appenzell will testifybut it is obliged to establish itself in thecountry, where the workmen may combine agricultural and industrial labour, and where they will be surrounded by betterconditions, moral, economic and sanitary. It is to be regretted that so many thousands of men depend for their dailysubsistence on a single occupation, which is liable to interruption, from time to time, by every kind of crisis. When they havea small field to cultivate they can bear a stoppage of their trade without being reduced to the last extremity.
The workman in the great modem industries is often a cosmopolitan wanderer, to whom `country' is a word void ofmeaning, whose only thought is to struggle with his employer for an increase of wages; this is simply because there is no tieto attach him to his native soil To the commoner, on the contrary, his native soil is a veritable alma parens , a goodfoster-mother. He has his share in it by virtue of a personal inalienable right, which no one can dispute, and which the lapseof centuries has consecrated. The patriotism of the Swiss is well known in history: it has worked wonders for them, andeven now it brings them from the ends of the world home to their native place.
It has often been said that property is the true condition of liberty. He who receives from another the land which hecultivates is dependent on him, and cannot be completely independent. In England, France, Belgium,everywhere, wherethey wished to secure liberty of voting, they were obliged to introduce the ballot and to take great precautions that thetenants might be able to conceal from their landlords the knowledge of the vote they had left in the box. In this respect itwas logical not to give the suffrage to those who did not exercise the right of property. In Switzerland, by means of the Allmends , a solution is arrived at: every one has the suffrage, but every one likewise enjoys the right of property.
Hitherto all democracies have perished, because after establishing equality of political rights, they have failed to create anequality of conditions such as to prevent the struggle between the rich and the poor leading to various revolutions, finallyending in civil war and a dictatorship. Macchiavelli declares. this truth in striking terms: "In every republic, when thestruggle between the aristocracy and the people, between patricians and plebeians, is terminated by the final victory ofdemocracy, there remains but one contest, which can only end with the republic itself: it is that between the rich and thepoor, between those who have property and those who have none." This danger, so clearly indicated in the above passage,and perceived by all great politicians, from Aristotle to Montesquieu, in part escaped Tocqueville, who had not sufficientlystudied the economic side of social problems. In the present day, the danger is apparent to every one, and recent events tendto shew once more that in this lies the real difficulty of definitely establishing a democratic government. By allowing thedistribution among all of a part in the collective prosperity, the Allmends prevent excessive inequality opening a gap betweenthe higher and lower classes. The struggle between rich and poor cannot lead to the ruin of these democratic institutions, forthe simple reason that no one is very poor or very rich. Property is not threatened: who could threaten it, where all areproprietors?
