Evening Star Newspaper, November 4, 1923, Page 79

ases. color and has a host'of followers, al- though it takes a certain cleanness of sKin to weaf it. As the taflors offer it freely for'frocks and suits, its choice as a day coat is not always fraught with danger. 1 o4 Some coats in-thls color have hi mounting collars and huge. cuffs the common varigty wl hair in light belge and brow: No one objects to wearing such’ cowi- <12 binations when afoot in the city. Fdw/ the late Autumn we have In GhHCHE country, which In the southern staté3s New Purchas BY ANNE RITTENHOUSE. NE must economize on bread and butter, or ice cream and cake, according to the ap- petite, to buy a new coat. Autumn is the season of sacrifice for sartorial glory in winter. The canny honsekeeper finds that the reason the willing servant of October is the van- ished servant of De¢ember is that she has made enough money to get a win- ter coat The tearful and fretful ‘woman who pald her last installment for a fur jacket on the hottest day of August is not an isolated individual, There are some coats that last through three seasons, giving & wom- an surceases from anxlety, but their serviceabllity does not allay the gnawing desire in her mind to have a newer and a different garment, We could reform clothes in the twink- ling of an eye if we could reform ourselves. But we can't. So there's an end of dress reform, The coat that wraps about the body ltke the shawl of an eastern dance: holding itself together by one button on one hip, is seen everywhere. It was worn last winter, 50 the economists argue that it i3 in good style this. winter. And it is. One who is bound to wear what éhe possesses can cover any frock with this coat provided it has a collar easily converted into a choker around the neck or into revers that rest on the chest. * % X ‘HE high coller is\the sign of a new garment. It is rendered m fur. more often than cloth and its height is sufficlent to eclipse What is left visible of the head by ‘the hat. The mew season's coat differs, also, from its predecessor in the size of armhole. It is small and carefully fft- ted The ehoulder seam no longer droops down on the arm. Sleeves do not hang limply from a lowered opening. They are wide at the wrist under Chi- nese influence, but they do not end in cloth cuffs, carelessly turned back. They end fn muff cufts, those extravagant bands of peltry that give the occldental the chance to protect the hands from . weather as does the oriental. When the arms are down these cufts seem to bo hip protectors; the gloves vaulsh in them. - Comfortabls, old-fashioned muffs of fur are back In fashior simply because these Chinese sleeves took. S0 much glory to themselves and won the ladies. But & muff must match the fur used on the coat. Therefore, It is not easy to find one in the trunks of forgotten things that will bear the test of accompanying the new coat. oT pay for muff coats on the coat and a separate muff, too, is & burden. 1t is not possible tb treat new sleeves in & fragmentary way. = They are too important. The revivgl of the small ,armhole In coats and frocks makes for trouble. The trade talks much of coats that' BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. BERN, Switzerland. N the capital of Switzerland, half way between the borders of Germany and Italy, and omly two hours by rall from where l the league of nations is sitting at +Geneva, on the borders of France, I write of how the Swiss govern themselves. During my stay here I have visited parliament and talked with the members. I have seen something of the bundesrat, the councll or cabinet which administers the country, and, around a plain table, have sat elbow to elbow with the president of the republic and dis- | cussed the differences between his government and ours. But first let us look at the capital of Switzerland. It is Bern, one of the oldest, quaintest and most charm- ing little cittes of Burope. Founded when Richard the Lion-Hedrted of England was fighting the Turks for the possession of Jerusalem, It was an Independent free city before the Magna Charta was signed. It was chosén as the seat of the federal government at about the close of ‘our Mexican war, and since then. has been the home of all governmental ac- ! tivitles, except those of the supreme + court which, as a sop to French Swit- zerland, sits at Lausanne; Bern s only about one-fifth the size of the city of Washington, but i1t is far more picturesque. The town ‘' 13 & peninsula embraced by the deep swift-rushing Aare, whose glacial ‘waters roar as they tear their way on down toward the Rhine. The city is on both sides of the river and magnificent bridges cross from one bank to the other. The capitol build- ing and the president's palace are right over the stream, but 100 feet i | SRS RIS 3k THREE-QUARTER COAT OF DARK GREEN VELVET DECORATED ‘WITH DEEP CUFFS AND COLLAR OF SABLE SQUIRREL. are not full length. They are offered as parts of street sults, also as wraps, and they are chosen for both pur. Pposes, sometimes to the sorrow of the buyer. higher up. They look out on the Alps and face a half dozen mountalns more than two miles §n height. Af- ter my italk with the president we walked out on the balcony in front of his office and his excellency pointed out the gigantic crest of the Jung- frau and other snow-capped moun- tains which are known all over the world. Before entering. the government buildings I strolled about through the business parts of the city. The most of,them are like a slice out of the middle ages. They have narrow streets, walled with three and four story bulldings with overhanging tiled rqofs, out of which peep dormer windows which look down like so0 many red-rimmed .eyes on the traffic | below. Some of them are s0 old that they lean this way and that, making | ome think of the drunken structures on the Amsterdam plles. Here and there a tower is bullt over the high- way, arching the street and mak- ! ing each block a winding court walled with these .houses. Some of the towers have great clocks in them, erected 600 years ago, and there is one out of which, on the stroke of the hour, a great rooster struts and crows while a troop of bears marches back and forth in procession. The clock has hands and figures plated with gold. Its dial, which i{s about twenty feet In dlameter, is surround- ed by frescoes. It was through this tower under the clock that I walked into a mile or 80 of the cave-like stores that make up the business of Bern. The pavements are tunneled, it were, through the walls of the houses, backed by the stores which' look out into the roadway beyond. The whole of the business is done in arcades and the stores are like. monastery ut The trouble one encounters with such abbreviated wraps Is In match- ing them to one's frock. A goodly portion of these frocks show below the hem of the coat. All celors do ! which the people walk back and |forth. This makes it so dark that most of the shops have to burn electric lights throughout the day.| The arcades are.about fifteen feet wide, and in the oldest part of the town so low that one's head is not far from the ceiling. Now and then there atje cross tunnels for the streets cutting through to the fight and left, the whole formiag a kind of cata- combs, quaint and delightful, but not in accord with modern business efM- ciency. * % k& HE chiet government builafngs are situated between these ar- caded streets and the Aare, on the high bluff which borders the river. From the other side of the river they look like fortifications. They were planned by Swiss architects and built by Swiss workmen. Their material is of sandstone from the quarries of Bern, and of marble from several | cantons. The wood is all native and | the furnishings, even to the great clock in the ent‘uu hall, were made | in Swiss shops.” The clock, which is the official timeplece of the republic. 18 as big as a plano box and has a glass case that shows the works. These bulldings had just been com- pleted when 1 was here at Bern.in DAY COAT OF BLACK VELVET, SHOWING' GQDETS AT SIDES IN MODIFIED FORM. not harmonise. Rarely does a brown coat appear otherwise than ugly when worn over a black gown; a blege and blue coat does not look well over a gray frock. 8o It runs. One is up lcalll looking out mpon cloisters in|The western is largely French and s hydra-headed, or at least “almost the southern, Italian; but all of these are Swiss. About 70 per cent of the people speak German, 20 per cent French and about 6 per cent Itallan, with a small percentage speaking other languages. In western Switz- erland nearly all the signs are in French, in the east. German, and in Ticino Italian, ¥ * ok Xk X N I interviewed the president of twenty years ago we talked together in Germany. My conversa- tion with the president today was in French; and from then until now they have had just twenty presidents chosen from different parts of the republic without regard, however, to linguistic ability. The president of Switserland has & different position from .that of the President of the United States. Our President 1s -elected for four years by the vote of all the people, men nd women, and he receives a salary of $75,000 & year with $25,000 extra for traveling expenses. The presi- dent of Switseriand is chosen by the bundesrat, or the seven members of the federal council. His term is for one year and his salary is $5.400. ‘Whether he gets railroad passes I do not know. The president is really only the \chairman of the councll, al- 1902, and. at that time the president! though he has the title of the presi- ‘made a speech, which I fild In mY |dent of the republic and represents occasions. note: Sald he “People of Switzerland, we here hand over to you the mew capitol. Its cupola, surmounted with the fed. -eral cross, will ever be a: token of' the unity and amity that exists throughout our dear nation. May, these conditions continue and, under the protection of the almighty God, may we preserve them with justice, 'wisdom and truth, animated by a brotherly love equal to that we have for our free fatherland. \ That was more than twenty years ago, and the bullding is still as spic and span s when it was finished. The Swiss keep everything polished up and the parliament halls are scrubbed iike so many Dutch kitch- ens. There a gang of old women on thefr kni washing the tiles as 1 passed through on my way to the president. There were foot scrapers and foot wipers at the entrance and rugs for cleansing your shoes at every floor. This afternoon I'visited the parita. ment chambers and lingered awhil in the lobbies, which are walled with marble and have cellings gorgeous with paintitigs and carvings. Th house of representatives is in the of a moon, with the seats rising iIn concentric rows from the front to the back. The president sits on & raised platform somewhat like our Spesker's desk, with a clerk on exch side of Bim, and the press eallery is at the front, o that the members face the newspaper men as they speak. A 5 A curious feature is the pubdile *|translator. Speeches may be made in three languages, German, French and Italian. The.orders of the president are trauslated -by ‘the official fnter- preter and all of his 1t on all ceremontal This repyblic is as free and demo- cratic as ours, but the machinery of dministration is different. The coun- try is divided into twenty-two can- tons or states and they join together in electing a national council and the state council. The state council cor- responds to our Benates It is com- posed of forty-four members or two from each state. The national coun- cil is like our House of Representa- tives. It has 198 members, chosen by direct vote at the rate of one for every 20,000 souls in the republic. Elections take place every three years on the last Sunday in October, and are often held In the churches. Only men over twentyrone jiave the right to vote, Switseriand being one of the countries which have not yet adopted suffrage for women. Each state elects its own two members of the state, council in‘any way it may| choose, and their pay cothes fiom'm state, The . Geneva councilors 36 a day, but the average’ salary of. the others i §4 and for those 'of some cantons .only $5./The repre- sentatives of the lower are paid from the governmaent ry. They get 35 a day for the days fhey are present and nothing when'absent. against ‘a dosen misalliances In the course of a week. For that reason one should be wary in choosing a three-quartér coat. 4 No problem of color matching arises 0. The Hydra, or water serpent, {killed by Herculées had nine heads. The Swiss - government has only seven. It consists of the bundesrat, or seven members of the federal coun- cil which {s elected by the federal assembly every three years. These the republic’s if $5,000 a year and boarding one's self can be called fat. They are the cablnet, and collectively they have the powers of the presi- dent. To each of the seven is allot- ted a department. One is secretary | of forelgn affairs, another secretary of the interlor, another of justice and police, another finance and cus- toms, another agricuiture and still another secretary of posts and rail- WAays. L ' FTHE federal council meets here In , Bern. It elects its own preei- ent, who is the president of the re- public, although his duties are little more than that of chairman of the oouncil. He is here today and gone tomorrow. The vice president fis elected In the same way, and it is a matter of courtesy that the vice president should be the next presi- dent. - Indeed, it is usual to give eadh of the seven. members a year at the Dresidency before .he retires from cublic office, The. president for '1923 is Can Sheurer, a citisen of Berne. He s a. well educated, stout little man, with a falr complexion and scanty thatch of plonde hair on the ' sides of his head and & shiny baldness on top. ‘When he received me today he was dressed fn'a business suit with a high; wing collar.and & black tie. He wore large glasses with black rims and his blue eyes twinkled as he talked. The reom where we sat was plainly furnished. In a cabinet against one wall were the models of rifles and cartridges used by Switzerland to guard her neutrality during the world war and opposite this, looking down upon the president's desk, was sn old photograph of Abraham Lin- coln, while in the secretary’s room adjoining I saw -two portralts, one of Robert E. Lee and the other of ‘Willlam T. Sherman, both painted in 1869 by a Swiss artist. i The. conversation began with & question ‘as to the national aims of the Swiss. His Excellency rep)led: We are & small people and wi Bhave.s small country. We want only two things and:those are work and peace. . We haye always believed in iJreedom, and we céa, fight for it if | necemsary, but w :would like to see the world so constituted that fight- cessary dnd. I he- ":m"nih think the ‘league has seven men have the fattest jobs in ' THE .AMERICAN ADAPTATION OF THE CAMBODIAN JACKET IN- VENTED BY CHERUIT, IN PARIS, FOR AMERICAN BUYERS. with the full-length coat. Tt looks as though it were ome. Slm and straight it dreps plumb from shoulder seams to hem, hiding whatever is beneath like & cloak of charity. Interesting Facts Presented '‘About Europe’s Oldest Republic and Some of” the Unusual Ways in Which the.People Govern' Themselves—A Talk With the President and a Look at the Parliament—Congressmen at $5 a Day and Cabinet Ministers at $5,000 a Year—-The Initiative and Referendum. only system that is suited to us, Buch matters depend on climate, geography, ‘size and history of the country. Our government corresponds to the historical development of Switzerland. It might not do for a large country like the United States but it is the Tight government for us.” “What is the condition of Switzer- land as far as business Is concerned?” “Just now It is not good,” replied the president. “Some our fac- tories are idle and we have many men out of work. Our industries depend largely upon stable conditions in the countries abaut us and the low eéx- change all around us'ls hurting our | trade. I think we may have become over’ Industralized. the chief business of the Swiss was agriculture. Today, most of our peo- ple are manufacturing in_one'way or other, and the factories have imported cheap labor to such an ex- tent that we have more people than ‘we can support. We must have for- eign trade to be progperous. -The class of goods' we make s what is known as luxury products, the sale of which is limited in times of finan- cial depression ‘among the nations about us. That is'the situation to- day. Nevertheless our money Is good and our people are thrifty. We are cutting dewn our expenses, reducing the number of our government em- ployes, and in time we shall again be on the high road to prosperity.” 'Y conversation with the presi- dent covered a wide range. ‘We talked of the political parties, of It used to bé that| Among the colors accepted for day coats are rust, beige, plaids of sub- dued tones and faint marking; the rude and garish is omitted even for sport costumes. Rust is the newer which the country has a half dozen or, more, includbhg social ‘democrats, liberal democrats,. Catholics, agrari- ans -and others.. We discussed the stretches into early spring, this rys¥’, shade is quite enchanting. It blend¥ with autumn, follage better thin af3* color we moderns wear. It enough red in it to look like a frost: bitten leaf and it brings a mostalg to city folks for the smell of bur leaves In a hazy atmosphere. %% g 'HE Cambodian Jacket, named fror the French colonial possession. . ! is bound to simmer @own: into an es« * tablished garment. It has the ear- . e s has L% Loy vk g ol marks of popularity somewhat 1ike.zed the Jumper jucket exploited at Deau: ville well over a year ago.” Thé ** oMginal garment as fashioned -by the house of Cheruft of Parls; Is ¥% sensational, with stiffened godets at each side, mak-~ ing it appear even shorter than ‘it is. The American adaptation of «#t easily meets the moderate Americamn demand. The flares at the hips are its flaring apd-iesg merely two circular flounces set In * . - an.extra movement of material. Jumper jacket alive, it is apparen e that it is dead g5 a first-class fashion, Its stitchery is dead, ‘also, and ' the sash at the right hip. The two coats of . (us the season are the modified Cambodian, and the three-quarter length with high collar and small armholes, It may be the Chinese influence agaln that tempts us into coats# iy .tis 0c 104 for winter nights. At least, they oF° are, the , fashion. Voluminous fhur capes hold a powerful place and cost a_pretty price, but other gar- ments usually have sleeves. The Oriental brocades are plentifully used, especially In red, gold, black _and, ... dull yellow. Black and gold together o make a good cloth comes in with other Orlental & suggestions. Velvet, especially in green, topaz, Peking blue, and black is the best choice after fur and brocade. The silhouette of the evening coat * fs a twin to the day coat. Many” animals go to make the decoration u';““ hem, neck and wrists. Belts are un known. They do not appear any- where. The lining is plain as the outer combination. Metal 5, a surface is too decorafive to admit of gay coloration®beneath. (Copyright, 1823.) {and telephones are under the post |office department. They are extrav- agantly managed, and last year the ! posts - and railways' ran -almost tariff, the president saying that our| $2,000.000 behind. “Fhe people want. ' high dutles do much'to cut down the work of the Swiss. We spoke of the initiative .and referendum, of both of which he approves with some grains of salt. - A The initiative is-the right to de- mand that any new act or amendment may be put to jopular vote upon the petition of a ‘certain number of yoters. Such a demand, signed by 50,000, can force a vote to amend the constitution, and only 30,000, or the request of elght cantons, are rpquired to force a vote on any new law. If the majority vote in favor of it, the law or amendment ls In fo: The referendum Is the submission to the popular vote of any measure ‘whigh congress has already enacted. This relates also to both the con- stitution and laws, and, with certain restrictions, the majority rules. During my stay here the nation has taken a referendum vote upon a‘law passed prohibiting the farmer or citi- zen from making his own “hootch” and gliving the government the con- trol of the home production and sale of strong alcohollc liquors, and. has decided that it is null and vold. As T understand it the government wished to control the sale both on moral and -economic grounds. The lower classes are drinkidg deal of almost pure alcphol,” witch they manufacture of pot and refuse material, and this i’ having the same degrading resilts -as in some parts of our counéry.!Y am|| told -that ene reason why the ’people voted against the;law was'the greaf fncrease in the number: of public officials which swould be .requiréd o enforce it * < The government .of Switgeriand owns the railways and the Yelegraph the .clvil service reduced to a mint mum. Republicanism goes .further here than with us. Every village and dis- trict is a little republic. The com- munes, | states are divided, corresponding thing relating to their own localities. teachers and policemen, and they have town meetings in which they | decide upon all local matters. Some- s times the meetings are held In the y word of mouth, Some. of the communes own prop- o and houses, and every family may be for the winter. In the early morn- ing, one sometimes hears the concert of the cowbells as the town cow owned, by the various families, are , being driven by a boy or so to the, . communal pastures in the mounfains nearby, and the same bell-ringin; is | village, every cow knows fits own home and seeks it stralghway. The citizenship in some of the com- munes is_valudlile, and it is some- itimes B0ld for:meveral hundred dol- lars or more. It may be Inherited. . On’the’ gther hand:it may prove less an a' blessing,- for each commune mist pay - ifs. lodal expensess and support its own' poor, and a poor maawi a_m‘ig‘lmuy may demand gome support..<The . contracts for e g put up at auc- ‘Bidde; in Switzerland Elect the School Teachers and Policemen: aise A erty in common, such as forest lands ™ tody v (4 into- which the cantons or fach somewhat to our countles, townships biss and wards, are more than 3,000 fn\= number and they settle almost every- ssw =54 3 open air, and the decisions are by aigs O entitled to free pasture or free wood ~w L o (e xepegted at night. Once back in the g1 ad ot | The people elect their own school gua™