GETTING DOWN TO FACTS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 919, 12 September 1910, Page 6

GETTING DOWN TO FACTS.

' 'For some time ; past there have been evidences in-the newspapers and magazines of America that the people of that alert country are beginning to get--at the truth about the two countries which the Socialist and semi-Socialist agitators have for years' flourished before the American public as the models' for all civilised States. These countries, as everyone -knows, are Switzerland and New Zealand. That the .real facts of New Zealand life and politics are obtaining some publicity in America has probably been made obvious even to those who do not read the serious section of the American press by the Hon. T.Mackenzie's occasional clamour concerning the "misrepresentation" and "slander" of this country by American writers.. And now it has been discovered that Switzerland —the other, "model' 'State"—has a political "boss"'! The discovery was made by Mr. George Judson King, who tells the story in the Twentieth •Century, and the story is of a kind tomake New Zcalanders in America think of their native land. For the experience of .Fribourg, tho canton with the "boss;" is in some respects extraordinarily similar to the experience of New Zealand, during, say, the last dozen years., Mr. King was informed that M. Georges • Python was "the master of this canton, which he holds in the hollow of his hand," and he was not surprised at this fact 'after meeting M. Python. "My first thought," he writes, "was, ■'A typical ward heeler!' Of medium -heightj heavily built but not too fat; round head, thick neck, closolyoropped hair, sensual face, and coid inquiring eyes—he looked his part." Mr. King could get nothing out.of M. Python, but later he .visited Dr.' Gross,- editor of a Liberal paper in Fribourg, from whom he gleaned seme . very interesting ■ facts. Python's actual basis of power is his control of the two largest banks. All public officials are of his choosing. He selects all the Government employees, down even to the stonecutters on the public roads. He gives fat jobs to members of-the leading families of the canton, thus gaining their support or silencing their opposition. The night beforo election, crowds of men are kept in hotels and boardinghouses, and are promised jobs if thoy vote Python's way. A short time previous to elec•tion.day more men than usual arc employed on the streets and. in the

public works. About this point, Mr. King burst into laughter, and informed the surprised editor that he die) so because Fribourg was so like America that he began to feel at home. AYe can believe it. A New Zealander would also get the homefeeling in M. Python's domain as depicted by the writer in the Twentieth Century.