VETO 



VICENZA 



vote again upon the measure. If on this sec- 

 ond veto two-thirds of each house favors the 

 passage of the law, it then becomes an act of 

 Congress without further reference to the Presi- 

 dent. In this connection it should be empha- 

 sized that this two-thirds vote does not mean 

 two-thirds of the members of each house who 

 are present and voting, but two-thirds of the 

 entire membership of the Senate and House of 

 Representatives. This provision makes it more 

 difficult to override the Presidential objection. 

 On the original passage of any bill a majority 

 vote only is required. 



If the President of the United States fails to 

 sign or to veto any bill within ten days (ex- 

 cluding Sundays) after it has been presented 

 to him, the bill becomes a law without action 

 by him. There is a single important exception 

 to this rule: if Congress adjourns before the 

 end of the ten days the President need not 

 express his opinion of the bill, but may pay no 

 attention to it. This is called a pocket veto, 

 presumably because the President, if he feels 

 inclined, may put the bill in his pocket and 

 ignore it. The object of this clause of the 

 Constitution (Art. I, Sec. VII, Par. 2) is to 

 protect the President from a possible flood of 

 bills in the closing days of a session of Con- 

 gress. Cleveland, more than any other Presi- 

 dent, used this method of killing legislation of 

 which he disapproved. 



In the states of the American Union the 

 veto power is vested in the governor, and he 

 may nullify any act of the state legislature. 

 Such an act, however, may be passed again 

 over the veto by a vote of either a majority or 

 two-thirds of the membership of each house. 

 In cities, following the example of the nation 

 and the state, the mayor holds the veto power 

 over ordinances, which, however, may be re- 

 passed over his objection. 



In the Dominion of Canada. The British 

 North America Act provides that copies of all 

 laws pawed by the Canadian Parliament shall 

 be sent by the Governor-General to London to 

 tin- Secretary of State for the Colonies. There 

 o laws are duly considered and at any time 

 within two years may be vetoed in case they 



tare found to conflict with the interests of the 

 Empire. Such important acts are beyond the 

 legitimate powers of Canada as a dependency. 

 On his own initiative, except as he is advised 

 by the Privy Council, the Governor-General 

 may refuse his approval of any bill passed by 

 the Parliament; this is called reserving bills; 

 my hills thus reserved for the consideration of 



the Empire government, he forwards to the 

 home office at once with a statement of the 

 reasons for his action. W.F.Z. 



Consult Mason's The Veto Power. 



VIADUCT, vi'adukt, a long bridge, consist- 

 ing usually of a series of arches of masonry 

 or spans of steel, carrying a roadway or railway 

 tracks across a valley. The term is also often 

 applied to the elevated roadways built in cities 

 to relieve the congestion of streets. The via- 

 duct is a special sort of bridge, which was first 

 designed in America and the best types of 

 which are still to be found there. The com- 

 monest kind consists of a series of rather short 

 spans of steel or concrete supported by steel 

 and concrete piers, which are braced in all di- 

 rections. 



The longest viaduct in the world is that 

 which crosses the Kaw River valley, connect- 

 ing Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan. 

 It has a total length of 8,400 feet. The viaduct 

 at Des Moines, Iowa, is 2,685 feet long and has 

 a maximum height of 185 feet. The Tunk- 

 hannock viaduct (see illustration, page 921), 

 completed by the Lackawanna Railway in 1915, 

 is the largest concrete viaduct in the world. It 

 spans the valley of Tunkhannock Creek, at a 

 distance of 240 feet above the stream. It has 

 a length of 2,375 feet and consists of ten spans 

 of 180 feet each and two of 100 feet each. 

 The cost of this viaduct, including that of the 

 smaller one over Martin's Creek, near by, was 

 $12,000,000. Other notable viaduct* are the 

 Pecos River viaduct in Texas (see illustration, 

 page 5773), the Kinzua on the Erie Railway, 

 and the Gokteik, in Burma. See BRIDGE. 



VICAR, vih'cr, a person appointed to per- 

 form duties in place of another. In the Ro- 

 man Catholic Church the Pope culls himself 

 the Vicar of Christ on earth. He also has his 

 vicars in the patriarchs, primates, archbishops 

 and bishops, and they, in turn, have their sub- 

 stitutes, or vicars. The representative of a 

 bishop is known as a vicar-general. In ili< 

 Church of England a vicar is a clergyman m 

 charge of a parish where the main tithes M 

 a rector, for whom he acts as deputy. 



VICENZA, rcchcn'tsah, a picturesqi; 

 of Italy, about forty miles northwest of Venice, 

 and capital of the province of Vicenza. It is 

 enclosed by a moat and walls, now almost in 

 ruins. To the famous architect Palladio, a 

 native of Vicenza, the city is indebted for 

 many of its finest buildings, including the pre- 

 fect's pal.u . the Olympic Theater and the 

 Palazzo (Palace) della Ragionc. The central 



