The Star

The New York Tribune maintains that Switzerland has done perfectly right in declining to accord to the Russian government permission to erect a granite cross 130 feet high on the rock overhanging the Devil's Bridge at Andermatt. The object of the projected memorial was to commemorate the passage of the Muscovite General Souvaroff and his army over the St. Gothard in 1799. Although the plea put forward by the Federal Council at Berne for its rejection of the Russian application was that the monument would be "out of keeping with the aesthetic exigencies of the situation," yet it may be taken for granted that the real considerations which led the Swiss Government to raise objections to the proposal were to be found in the fact that the monument would, after all, serve to commemorate a most flagrant violation of that neutrality which is the basis of Switzerland's treasured independence, and to honor one of the chief offenders in the matter. Indeed, the demand of the Russian Government can only be regarded as one of a coolness as monumental in size as the projected cross.