On payment of reasonable indemnity, the Confederation has the right to use or acquire drill-grounds and buildings intended for military purposes within the Cantons, together with the appurtenances thereof. The terms of the indemnity shall be fixed by federal law. The Federal Assembly may forbid public works which endanger the military interests of the Confederation.
No decoration or title conferred by a foreign government shall be borne in the federal army. No officer, nor non-commissioned officer or soldier, shall accept such distinction.
The Confederation has no right to keep up a standing army.[68] No Canton or half-Canton, without the permission of the federal government, shall keep up a standing force of more than three hundred men; the mounted police (gendarmerie) is not included in this number.
By these provisions, while the military system, as a whole, has fallen under the authority of the Confederation, many important details are left to be exercised by the Cantons. Upon them devolves the responsible duty of carrying the federal laws into execution. They appoint all officers below the rank of colonel, keep the military registers, provide the equipments, uniforms, and necessary stores for the troops (to be reimbursed by the Confederation), recruit and maintain the effective strength of the body of troops formed within their respective limits. The infantry, field artillery, and cavalry are all recruited by the Cantons and called cantonal troops; the engineers, guides, sanitary and administrative troops, and the army train are recruited by the Confederation and called federal troops. The enrolling of men belonging to the same Canton, as far as practicable, in the same corps is known as the système territorial. Every man fights under the banner of his own Canton, follows the regiment of his own Commune, keeps step with the company of his own hamlet, or dies beside his brother, son, or neighbor. These were the tactics of nature, and probably of heroism, with mutual enthusiasm and reciprocal attachments, with common interests and similarity of manners; like the children of Israel who went out to battle, each “under the colors of the house of his father.”
For the proper execution and furtherance of the constitutional provisions, several federal laws have been enacted, establishing these general rules:
Every Swiss citizen is subject to military service from the time he enters his twentieth year to the close of his forty-fourth year of age. There are seven classifications of officials who are exempted, during the time they are in office or employed:
1. Members of the Federal Assembly during the session of the Assembly.
2. Members of the Federal Council, the Chancellor of the Confederation, and the clerks of the Federal Tribunal.
3. Those employed in the administration of the post and telegraph (the latter now includes the telephone); employés in government arsenals, workshops, and powder magazines; directors and wardens of prisons; attendants in public hospitals; members of cantonal and communal police, and frontier guards, or Landjäger.
4. Ecclesiastics who do not act as army chaplains.