Tuesday's Times reports the revision of the Swiss Constitu- tion
by a Federal Referendum on Articles 69 and 31—the proposed alterations having been accepted by a majority of 57,000. As a result of this vote the Government and not the cantons will henceforth be enabled to deal with dangerous, widespread, and malignant diseases. The measure is chiefly aimed at tuberculosis, which is responsible for about one- seventh of all deaths occurring in Switzerland, but it is also designed to check the ravages of cancer (the mortality from which is higher in Switzerland than in any other country where trustworthy statistics are available), goitre, puerperal fever, and feeble-mindedness "such as wholly to incapacitate a person from earning a living even by mechanical work." This acceptance of an important reform should be noted by those opponents of the Referendum who declare that the popular veto on legislation stops all reform. It does not, though no doubt it does stop reforms which the people dislike.
