28. What does the Department of Agriculture have charge of?

29. What matters in charge of the secretary of commerce can you

30.

name?

When is the census taken?

31. What has the secretary of labor charge of?

32. What does the Interstate Commerce Commission do?

33. What has the librarian of congress charge of?

34.

What appointments does the President make for the District of
Columbia, for Alaska, for Porto Rico, for the Philippines?

35. Which territories and possessions have legislatures of their own and which are represented at Washington?

36. What does civil service mean?

37.

What is the spoils system and how does the civil-service law end it?

38. What appointments must be confirmed by the Senate?

SECTION 3

39. What is the chief legislative power of the President?

40.

If exercised, what can Congress do?

41. How are the President's messages to Congress delivered?
42.
Who can call Congress in special session?

SECTION 4

43. Are there any limits to the President's pardoning power? 44. What criminals does it touch?

SECTION 5

45. What is the Electoral College?

46.

How has it worked out differently from the original plan? 47. What is a minority President?

48.

Can you explain how such a President can be elected?

49. What happens if no candidate has a majority in the Electoral

College?

50. When is the President elected and when does he take office?

51. What happens on Inauguration Day?

52.

If the President and Vice-President should both die, who would succeed to the office?

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

SECTION 1

1. How many Presidents have been re-elected?

2. Has there ever been a President from your State?

SECTION 2

3. Can you name any cabinet officers from your State?

4. How many present members of the cabinet can you name?

5. Why was it necessary for the Senate to ratify the Covenant of the League of Nations?

6. What national parks can you name?

SECTION 3

7. Have you ever seen a presidential message to Congress?

SECTION 5

8. How many Presidents have died in office?

9. Has the succession ever gone beyond the Vice-President?

CHAPTER X

CONGRESS

1. THE Two HOUSES

The Legislative Branch.-The rules of baseball, as we saw, are made by a national commission representing the big leagues. Most of the rules are very old, and were followed by boys playing the game long before they were written down. But changes are made almost every year to meet new conditions or clear up doubts, and that is why a rule-making body is always needed. The laws of the United States are much the same. Many of them are very old and were customs, habits of right and fair-dealing among men, before they were written down into laws. But the country grows so rapidly, conditions of life change so constantly, that new laws are needed every year. Therefore, the Constitution creates our Congress that sits every year in Washington, debates our national problems and makes our laws (subject, as we have seen, to the President's right of veto). It is called the legislative branch of our government. (Art. I, Sec. 1.)

Two Houses of Congress.-Congress is composed of two bodies, the House of Representatives (usually called the "House") and the Senate. One meets in one end of the Capitol at Washington, the other in the other. A bill must be passed by both House and Senate before

it can become a law. The two bodies are unlike in every important respect save that both are elected by the people.

The House of Representatives now (1919) contains 435 members, allotted to the States according to population. Thus the large States have many representatives, the small ones few. New York has 43 representatives, Delaware 1. Originally each State was allowed 1 representative for every 33,000 inhabitants, and this gave the first House 65 members. If this ratio had remained unchanged the House would now consist of over 3,000 members, which would make a body far too large for effective deliberation. Congress has therefore increased the ratio from time to time. A representative is now allotted to every 210,000 inhabitants (about). But each State, however small, is entitled to 1 representative. (Nevada, for instance, has a representative, though its population is only 81,000, less than half of the quota.) Congress fixes the ratio of representation after each decennial census. (Art. I, Sec. 2.)

The Senate has 96 members, 2 from each State. Large and small States are thus represented alike. Illinois, with 5,600,000 inhabitants, has two senators, and so has Wyoming, with 145,000. It has increased in size only as new States have been admitted to the Union. (Art. I, Sec. 3.)

There are several other important differences between House and Senate. A senator must be at least thirty years old; a representative need be only twenty-five. A senator is elected for a term of six years, a representative for only two years. Besides, all the representatives

are elected at the same time and thus go out of office at the same time, whereas in the Senate the terms are so arranged that only one-third are elected at any one election, two-thirds always holding over.

Why Two Houses.-Can you see any reasons for having two legislative bodies so unlike one another? The explanation of one great difference is historical. As we saw before, when the Federal Government was formed in 1789, the original States came in with all their existing governments. They varied much in size, and local pride was very strong. The smaller States would not have come into the Union if the Senate had not been planned so as to give them equal power and prestige, and thus prevent the larger States from taking full control. The theory was that the Senate represented the States as governments. That is the first reason why large and small States have the same vote and power in the Senate.

But there are other and better reasons for having two houses and having the membership of one older in years and less frequently changed. The preparing and passing of good laws is a slow and difficult business requiring much thought and care. People are constantly having new ideas that sound well but that do not work out. If we had one legislative body, and that the House, new and untried and ill-considered laws might be passed. With the Senate we are surer of thorough debate and investigation and careful decisions. They represent different points of view. Each is a check on the other. By the time both have agreed on a law, we can be fairly confident that it is a wise and just one.