tia… . It is the pride of the countryrnthat every citizen is allowed tornkeep his army rifle and ammunitionrnin his house. So orderly andrnethically advanced is the populationrnof this model country thatrnthere is rarely a case where this officiallyrnsanctioned and encouragedrncustom leads to violence. Withrnher main inaccessible mountains,rnher passionately liberty-loving populationrnfamed for marksmanship,rnSwitzerland is a classic backgroundrnfor guerrilla warfare.rnThe Alps were “honeycombed withrnbomb and gas-proof shelters,… pillboxesrnand perfectly concealed nests forrnsnipers, advance machine gun andrnflame-thrower units.” Just as they hadrndone at Morgarten in 1315, when theyrnlaunched boulders down the mountainsidesrnto crush the Austrian invaders, thernSwiss could create landslides andrnavalanches that no infantry or armoredrndivisions could survive. “The world’srnmodel democracy, Switzerland, is thusrnon the alert, in trigger readiness to teachrnthe Nazis a costiy lesson should desperationrnor arrogance tempt them to attack.”rnThere was no holocaust on Swiss soil.rnSwiss Jews served in the militia side byrnside with their fellow citizens, and keptrnrifles in their homes just like everyonernelse. It is hard to believe that there couldrnhave been a holocaust had the Jews ofrnGermany, Poland, and France had thernsame privilege. Indeed, just bare recognitionrnof a right to keep arms would havernsaved lives. The heroic Warsaw ghettornuprising of 1943, after all, began whenrnJewish resisters acquired just ten handguns.rnSwiss-bashing has become fashionablernin the American media in the pastrntwo years, but Senator Alfonse D’Amato,rnwho has done more than any to stir uprnthe frenzy, just does not have the samerncredibility as Winston Churchill, whornwrote in E)ecember 1944:rnI put this down for the record. Ofrnall tlie neutrals Switzerland has therngreatest right to distinction. Shernhas been the sole internationalrnforce linking the hideously sunderedrnnations and ourselves. Whatrndoes it matter whether she hasrnbeen able to give us the commercialrnadvantages we desire or hasrngiven too many to the Germans, tornkeep herself alive? She has been arndemocratic State, standing for freedomrnin self-defence among herrnmountains, and in thought, in spiternof race, largely on our side.rnStephen P. Halbrook is an attorney inrnFairfax, Virginia. His latest book, TargetrnSwitzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality inrnWorid War II, will be published thisrnspring by Sarpedon.rnREGIONALISMrnThe Whiskey Boysrnand Their Fightrnby Ralph R. ReilandrnMy grandfather spent most of hisrndays underground, as a cutter inrnhis cousin’s coal mine in Imperial, Pennsylvania,rnoutside Pittsburgh. At night, hernwould arrive home looking like he hadrnbeen through an explosion. Outside thernkitchen door, my grandmother kept arnlarge metal tub fijll of water to soak therncoal dust oflFhis clothes.rnMost nights he would open a quart ofrnlight pink wine after dinner and shootrnthe breeze with his buddies, at thernkitchen table in the winter and outsidernon rockers the rest of the year, and thenrnfall asleep in his clothes. The wine camernfrom his two dozen or so cherry trees.rnMy grandmother’s job was seven kidsrnand a constant supply of cherry pies. Inrnthe coal cellar, rows of wooden shelvesrnwere lined with her Mason jars of cherries,rnpeaches, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes,rnand rabbits. The rabbits, skinnedrnand headless, floated in vinegar andrnspices. Green pears ripened on a shelf,rnindividually wrapped in newspaper. Arnfive-gallon stone crock of shredded cabbagernstood in the corner, fermenting intornsauerkraut. There was no refrigerator.rnMy grandfather died in 1951 in thernsame small white frame house where hernwas born in 1886, a house that his fatherrnhad built in 1884. I was in fourth gradernwhen he died. He and my grandmotherrnlived downstairs in two rooms, myrnparents and I upstairs. In what is nowrnWhitehall, an upscale Pittsburgh suburb,rnthe house sits on an acre that myrngreat-grandfather bought in 1883 forrn$250.rnAlong with the cherry bees, that acrernwas home to a pig or two, a lamb, somernchickens, a couple of rabbit dogs, and,rnunder a pear tree, a sturdy two-hole outhouse.rn”Their toilet’s inside and they eatrnoutside,” I remember my grandfatherrnsaying, remarking on the peculiar practicesrnof some of our newer neighbors.rnHe never had a car, or much of a road.rnThe front street was dirt or mud in thernsummer and covered with ashes in thernwinter. Each morning after breakfastrn(usually sauerkraut), he would toss ashesrnfrom the coal furnace onto the street.rnThere was no gas furnace or salt truck.rnThe street was eventually paved whenrnone of our neighbors called the mayor afterrna rainstorm and told him that a housernfull of kids was aflame. The firetruck,rnunable to make it through the mud, convincedrnthe local council to appropriaternfunds for some asphalt.rnThose harsh times, impoverished byrntoday’s standards, fostered a certain autonomyrnand self-sufficiency—and vulnerability.rnSupermarkets didn’t supplyrnthe lamb chops, the news didn’t comernfrom Peter Jennings, and the wine didn’trncome from a liquor store. In its selfreliantrndaily grind for essentials, it was anrnexistence not altogether dissimilar fromrnthe toil and obstacles faced by smallrnfarmers and laborers in western Pennsylvaniarna century earlier.rnHard times, exhausting work, andrnhomemade spirits were fundamentalrncomponents of life at the close of thern18th century in Pittsburgh. “In WashingtonrnCounty, there were about 500rnstills by 1790, one for every ten families,”rnwrites Thomas P. Slaughter of Rutgers inrnThe Whiskey Rebellion. “The desire tornfill local needs and discover a profitablerncommodity for inter-regional exchangernled farmers to distill their grains intornwhiskey.”rnSlaughter tells the story of how a federalrnexcise on domestic spirits ignited anrnarmed insurrection in 1794 by 7,000 settlersrnin western Pennsylvania, the firstrnlarge-scale resistance to a federal law.rn”Independent of habit,” declared antiexcisernpetitioners in WestmorelandrnCounty at the time, “we find the moderaternuse of spirits is essentially necessary inrnseveral branches of agriculture.” Forrnone thing, whiskey, a principal mediumrnof exchange in the undeveloped barterrn40/CHRONICLESrnrnrn