The source of the Mississippi

In the spring of 1803 President Jefferson wished someone to explore the upper Mississippi region and find the source of the great river. This river was thought to have its source in the land that was a part of the Louisiana Purchase. However, very little was accurately known about this land of the Indians living in it. Lieutenant Pike, then twenty-six years of age, was chosen by the President to lead the expedition, and orders were sent from head­quarters for him to find and map the source of the Mississippi. Pike was delighted with the duties assigned to him, for he was sure of a promotion if he could carry out the President's instruc­tions.

In June of that year he assembled twenty men and started north. At first the journey, which was made by boats, was easy; but it grew more and more difficult as the expedition progressed farther north and winter approached. It was necessary to carry the boats for long distances. The men became ill from colds and fevers brought on by the severe, raw weather. The deep snow hin­dered Pike from getting food for himself and his men.

Pike, not a man to be discouraged easily, determined to go on. He himself suffered greatly, but he never lost his good temper. He knew that he must be an inspiration to his weary men, and they appreciated his encouraging words.

At last, after great suffering and hardship. Pike reached his desired goal — the source of the Mississippi.

THE ROCKY MOUHTAINS

The majestic Rocky Mountains stretch all the way from Mexico to the Arctic. Like the Alps, they are high, sharp, rough, and un­even. Compared to the Appalachians in the east, the Rockies are young. Their faces of bare rock are capped with snow, even to the south. In the high valleys there are remains of glaciers, or rivers of ice which fill mountain valleys. Below them one finds clear, ice lakes which the glaciers made.

The whole tremendous broken system of the Rockies includes 39 named ranges. The most well-known mountain, although not the highest in the Rockies, is Pikes Peak, whose height is 4,350 me­ters. The mountain takes its name from the United States general Montgomery Pike, who explored the region in 1806. In 1859, there was a gold mining boom around Pikes Peak. There is now a highway and a railway leading to the top of the mountain. From the top of the Pikes Peak, on a clear day, the wheat fields of Kansas, more than 300 kilometres away, can be seen.

Until a century ago, the Rockies seemed almost impossible to cross; but the chance of finding gold makes men do improbable things. After 1848, when gold was found in the river beds of California, great numbers of people crossed the mountains and deserts, over trails that the mountain men had discovered. Today, eight railroads and a dozen highways go winding over the moun­tains, following routes that were made nearly a century ago.

In the days when gold was king and thousands of men lived in camps, in the wilderness, agriculture began in the Rockies. Farm­ers raised food to sell to the miners and to settlers on their way west. Most of the farmers were Mormons. In this land of little water, farming was very difficult. It would have been impossible if farmers had not planned and worked together. They built more than a hundred towns and countless gardens. Water, carefully brought by canals, made their land produce, and showed other communities how to bring life to the mountain and desert soil.

MOUNT RUSHMORE

The Black Hills of South Dakota are famous for the beauty of their nature. Here the Sioux Indians once lived; here was the scene of the famous Black Hills gold rush, and here, in modern times, stands the Mount Rushmore Memorial.

The construction of this memorial began in 1925. Gutzon Bor-glum, a famous American sculptor, was commissioned to carve on the face of Mount Rushmore the heads of Washington, Jeffer­son, Lincoln, Roosevelt. This tremendous work, which took fourteen years to complete, was almost finished in 1941, when Borglum died. It was completed later that year by his son, Lin­coln Borglum.

These gigantic heads are eighteen meters high, proportionate to a man one hundred and forty-five meters hi,gh. They are carved out of the granite of the mountain and are visible for over eighty kilometers.

This memorial is now an important point of interest which is visited by thousands every year.

 

Vocabulary

gold mining boom = gold rush – золотая лихорадка

Mormons – Мормоны, члены религиозной секты, возникшей в США в первой половине XIX

UNIT 3

THE USA

THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

Supreme legislative power in the American government lies with Congress, which consists of two chambers or houses — the Senate (the upper house) and the House of Representatives (the lower house). Each state has its own government, following the Wash­ington pattern — State Assemblies or Legislatures with two chambers.

According to the Constitution of the USA, all citizens of both sexes over 18 years of age have a right to vote, but in reality it is not so. There are different demands put to the voters — in some states the voter must be a resident of the state where he votes; he must have paid taxes before voting, etc. Thus in reality the num­ber of voters is much smaller and often even those who can vote do not participate in the election as they do not want to deal with politics.

The main task of Congress is to make laws. The US Constitu­tion also gives Congress the power to impose taxes, to make rules for trade with foreign countries and between states, to coin money, to organize the Armed Forces, to declare war, etc. An­other power possessed by Congress is the right to propose amendments to the Constitution whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall consider it necessary.

Under the Constitution, the US Senate has some special pow­ers, not given to the House of Representatives. The Senate ap­proves or disapproves major Presidential appointments of such high officials as ambassadors. Cabinet members, and federal judges. The Senate must also ratify, by a two-thirds vote, treaties between the USA and foreign countries.

The House of Representatives has a special power of its own. Only a member of the House can introduce a bill to raise money, but it must also be passed by the Senate before it can become a law.

The Senate is composed of 100 members, two from each of the 50 States, who are elected for a term of six years. Although Con­gressional elections take place every two years, only one-third of the Senate is re-elected, thereby ensuring continuity.

The Constitution says that a Senator must be at least 30 years old, a citizen of the US for nine years and a resident of the state from which he is elected. The individual seats in the Senate are numbered. Democrats sit in the western part of the chamber — on Vice-President's right. Republicans sit on his left. Vice-president presides over the Senate and he conducts debates. The Senate is stabler and more conservative than the House of Repre­sentatives, as many Senators are re-elected several times and of­ten they are more experienced politicians.

The House of Representatives, at the present time, has 435 members. The number of Representatives which each state sends to the House depends on its population. California, which had the largest population at the 1986 census, has the greatest number of representatives. The Constitution says that each state, no matter how small in population, must have at least one Representative.

A Representative must be at least 25 years of age, a US citi­zen for seven years and live in the state from which he is elected. Congressmen of the House of Representatives do not have indi­vidual seats, by tradition Democrats sit on the Speaker's right, Republicans — on his left. The Speaker presides over the House, he conducts debates. The Speaker, like Vice-President in the Sen­ate, may vote, but usually he does not do it, except in case of a tie-vote. When the House meets, the Speaker calls the members to order and the Sergeant-at-Arms places the mace (the symbol of authority) on the pedestal near the Speaker's platform. Then the Chaplain reads prayers. When any member wants to speak he is to stand up and to address himself to the Speaker.

Votes are taken in American Congress in four different ways. Usually the Speaker or Vice-president says, "As many as are in favour say 'Aye'!" and then, "As many as are opposed say 'No'!; in most cases it is enough. But if there is doubt those in favour are asked to stand up and they are counted. The Speaker or Vice-President does the counting in his chamber and announces the result. If there is still doubt, two tellers are appointed. They take their place at the head of the central aisle. All Congressmen in favour of the proposition walk between them and are counted, then those opposed do the same. The fourth way is the roll-call, where the names of all Congressmen are called out and they an­swer "Aye" or "No".

Almost all the Congressmen are members of the two big bour­geois parties. Among Representatives more than 40% are lawyers (Senators — 62%). More than 30% are businessmen and bankers, with a small number of journalists, scientists, landowners, a few trade union representatives. There are no workers, as congres­sional elections need lots of money and only rich people can afford it. At least one-third of the Senators in the 80s were millionaires. Under the pressure of the progressive circles the number of rep­resentatives of racial minorities has grown, but still the elections have a discriminatory character. In neither chamber there is a representative of American youth, because of the age census for Congressmen.

The congress at work

A new Congress session begins on the 3rd of January each odd-numbered year and continues for two years. Many people think that nearly all the 435 Representatives are in the House chamber and the 100 Senators are in the Senate chamber most of the day. They imagine that heated arguments about bills are constantly going on.

But a visitor who watches the House and the Senate in session loses these ideas quickly. Unless the Congressmen are called in to vote for or against a bill, most of them seldom appear on the floor. The visitor usually sees only a few Congressmen there — usually chatting, reading their mail, paying little attention to anyone making a speech.

Congressmen do work long and hard. But most of their work is done in committee meetings. Here bills are studied, experts are consulted, and recommendations are made to the whole House or Senate. During a two-year term of Congress, as many as 20,000 bills may be introduced. Some may be important, some not, but no Congressman could possibly know enough about 20,000 bills to vote intelligently on them. Here's where the committees come in. There are 16 "standing", or permanent, committees in the Senate and 22 in the House. Each Committee sits and sorts the bills it is responsible for. Because the Congressmen on a committee are ex­perts in that field, they accept and improve some bills, but reject most of them.

Generally Congress goes along with the decisions of its com­mittees. For a bill to become a law it must be passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by President. If President disap­proves, he vetoes the bill by refusing to sign it and sends it back to Congress. President's objections are read and debated, then the bill is put to vote. To overcome President's veto the bill must get a two-thirds majority in each chamber.

A Committee chairman is the member of the majority party who has served longest on the committee. His job makes him a real power in Congress. Among the standing committees are a Committee of Finance, of Foreign Relations, of Agriculture, of Aeronautical Space Science, of Armed Services, etc. President Woodrow Wilson summed up the importance of the committees when he said, "Congress in its committee rooms is Congress at work."

The lobbyists

In the previous centuries people who wanted to hand in petition or to discuss some project went to Washington, to the Capitol and there met the Congressmen from their states. The tradition is still alive, only today it is big corporations, social organizations, foreign diplomats, etc. who try to influence law-making in their favour. This is done with the help of lobbyists who arrange meetings with Congressmen, and through bribery and persuasion make them vote for measures favourable to the group they repre­sent. Practically lobbyism (backstage influencing of legislation) has become legal, it means, that the passing of a bill can be pre­vented if it does not suit the interests of a definite group of Big Business.

The delicate art of influencing legislation has moved a great distance from the days when votes were bought with black satch­els" full of money. Today's successful lobbyists are more likely to be smooth professionals. But if lobbying techniques have grown complicated, the name of the game is still the same: special inter­est. Lobbyists may call themselves legislative counsels or Wash­ington representatives, but they are still hired to sell their cli­ents' special interests.

The lobbyists' role in government, to hear them tell it, is greatly misunderstood. They only exercise their Constitutional right of petition. The First Amendment guarantees "the rights of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances". Apparently the Founding Fathers did not forsee that this amendment would be so distorted.

Although a 1946 law requires all lobbyists to register with the clerks of both chambers of Congress, and to give annual reports of the money used for this or that bill, the most effective lobby­ists seldom do. They try to remain, if possible, invisible. They do not even like to call themselves lobbyists. But more and more people realize that legislation is shaped as much by the hidden influences as by the public debates.