ean
constitution.

[Footnote 602: Art. 49. Dodd, Modern Constitutions,
II., 271-272.]

*458. General Aspects.*--The fundamental thing to be observed is that
under the Swiss constitution, as under the German, the legislative
powers of the federal government are comprehensive, while the
executive authority, and especially the executive machinery, is
meager. The Confederation has power to legislate upon many
subjects--military service, the construction and operation of
railroads, education, labor, taxation, monopolies, insurance,
commerce, coinage, banking, citizenship, civil rights, bankruptcy,
criminal law, and numerous other things. In respect to taxation the
federal government possesses less power than does that of Germany, and
distinctly less than does that of the United States, for this power is
confined to the single field of customs legislation;[603] but in
virtually every other direction the legislative competence of the
Swiss central authorities is more extended. It is worth observing,
furthermore, that the centralizing tendency since 1874 has found
expression in a number of constitutional amendments whose effect has
been materially to enlarge the domain covered by federal legislation.
Among these may be mentioned the amendment of July 11, 1897, granting
the Confederation power to enact laws concerning the traffic in food
products, that of November 13, 1898, extending the federal legislative
power over the domain of civil and criminal law, that of July 5, 1908,
conferring upon the Confederation power to enact uniform regulations
respecting the arts and trades (thus bringing substantially the entire
domain of industrial legislation within the province of the
Confederation), and that of October 25, 1908, placing the utilization
of water-power under the supervision of the central authorities.

[Footnote 603: "The customs system shall be within
the control of the Confederation. The Confederation
may levy export and import duties." Art. 28. Dodd,
Modern Constitutions, II., 263. The constitution
stipulates further that imports of materials
essential for the manufactures and agriculture of
the country, and of necessaries of life in general,
shall be taxed as low as possible; also that export
taxes shall be kept