How Switzerland Indemnified All Connected With the Absinthe Traffic

How Switzerland Indemnified All Connected With the Absinthe Traffic TO the average American familiar with US Supreme Court decisions concerning the compensation question it may be of interest to learn that following the precedent established at the time of the introduction of the monopoly the legislative body of Switzerland in obedience to the popular mandate enacted a law granting compensation not only to the owners or lessees of absinthe distilleries and the owners or lessees of wholesale establishments but also to the owners or lessees of the land upon which the absinthe plant has hitherto been raised and to the salaried officers and the wage workers employed in the business of making and selling absinthe During the two years which have elapsed since the adoption of the constitutional amendment the executive officers of the Swiss federation have ascertained by a method of investigation which for thoroughness and fairness cannot be excelled the number of acres devoted to the culture of the absinthe plant the number of absinthe distilleries the number of wholesalers of absinthe the number of men employed in the two latter branches of the business together with the amount of capital invested in agriculture manufacture and commerce so far as the prohibited article is concerned and the amount of profit annually derived from each Upon the basis of these exhibits compensation will be awarded in each case The compensation averages four times the amount of the yearly profit in each case labor excepted it being assumed with the concurrence of the parties injured that the agricultural lands and the buildings and business devoted respectively to the raising of the raw material and the manufacture and sale of absinthe can readily be used for other profitable purposes Labor is compensated in an equally equitable manner The Swiss people and government have caused a thorough scientific investigation of the nature of all fermented and distilled liquors used in their country They have found that some are so perfectly wholesome and absolutely harmless that in the interest of the common weal they deserve encouragement that others apt to lead to excesses should be reasonably restricted In only one case absinthe the public welfare seemed to demand a drastic measure and in applying this in the form of prohibition the people decided by means of the referendum that fairness and equity imperatively demand the indemnification of the parties who must bear the losses growing out of the law. A Text-book of True Temperance By M. Monahan