The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (PBS) - 1992-03-02
Channel: malgent
Transcript
Language: English (YouTube automatic captions)
[0:01] [music]
[0:06] >> Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer in
[0:07] Washington.
[0:08] >> [music]
[0:08] >> And I'm Charlayne Hunter-Gault in New
[0:10] York. After the news summary, we'll take
[0:12] a look at the fallout from the troubles
[0:14] at the United Way. Roger Mudd reports on
[0:18] highways paved with pork, and we close
[0:20] with another part of our series Lifting
[0:23] the Veil, a look at the republics that
[0:25] used to be part of the Soviet Union.
[0:27] Tonight, Georgia.
[0:29] >> Funding for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour
[0:31] has been provided by PepsiCo.
[0:34] >> [music]
[0:41] [music]
[0:45] >> PepsiCo.
[0:45] >> [music]
[0:48] >> Part of helping the world live in
[0:50] communication better is keeping it well
[0:51] informed. That's why funding for the
[0:54] NewsHour is also provided by AT&T.
[0:57] >> And by the Corporation for Public
[0:59] Broadcasting.
[1:00] And viewers like you.
[1:03] >> Want to be president we're out
[1:04] campaigning across the country today.
[1:07] Georgia, Colorado, and Maryland hold
[1:09] primaries tomorrow. There will be
[1:11] caucuses in Washington state, Minnesota,
[1:14] Idaho, and Utah. The Democratic
[1:16] candidates are Arkansas Governor Bill
[1:18] Clinton, former Massachusetts Senator
[1:20] Paul Tsongas, former California Governor
[1:22] Jerry Brown, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin,
[1:25] and Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska.
[1:27] Republican Pat Buchanan focused his
[1:29] challenge to President Bush in Georgia,
[1:32] where the president campaigned this
[1:33] weekend. Charlayne.
[1:35] >> In economic news, the Commerce
[1:37] Department said consumer spending edged
[1:39] up in January for the third straight
[1:41] month. It was up 2/10 of a percent. At
[1:45] the same time, personal income posted
[1:47] its first decline since November. It
[1:50] fell a tenth of a percent. In a separate
[1:52] report, the government said the nation's
[1:54] merchandise trade deficit fell to an
[1:57] 8-year low in 1991.
[1:59] It shrank by almost a third to less than
[2:02] $74 billion
[2:04] boosted by strong growth in exports and
[2:07] a decline in imports. The Commerce
[2:09] Department said the falloff in imports
[2:12] reflected continued weakness in the US
[2:14] economy.
[2:15] >> President Bush today vetoed a bill that
[2:17] would put conditions on most favored
[2:20] nation trade status for China. It would
[2:22] require China to end human rights abuses
[2:25] and curb missile technology sales or
[2:27] lose the special trade privileges. White
[2:30] House spokesman Marlon Fitzwater said
[2:31] Mr. Bush wanted China to improve its
[2:33] human rights record, but imposing
[2:35] penalties was not the way to get it
[2:37] done. The Senate passed the bill last
[2:39] week, but not by enough votes to
[2:41] override a veto. The Mideast peace talks
[2:44] continued today in Washington. Israel is
[2:46] holding separate meetings with Syria,
[2:48] Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinians.
[2:51] Little progress has been reported the
[2:53] Syria is Israel negotiating sessions
[2:55] have stalled over their different views
[2:57] of history, particularly the 1967 Middle
[3:00] East War. This afternoon both sides
[3:02] expressed their frustration.
[3:04] >> As long as we continue
[3:07] in our
[3:08] negotiations
[3:10] to talk about
[3:12] things that happened 25 years ago and
[3:15] maybe sometimes more
[3:18] and not live the moment we have
[3:22] not grab not have the mentality to grab
[3:26] the opportunity
[3:27] to make peace
[3:29] a comprehe- and a comprehensive peace.
[3:32] As long as the Israeli delegation
[3:34] continues this kind of practice
[3:37] it is going to be a futile exercise.
[3:40] >> I cannot think of any peace negotiations
[3:43] as an exercise in futility. Uh the very
[3:47] fact that we are there, the very fact
[3:49] that we are sitting across the table
[3:51] from the Syrians is very important. Yes,
[3:53] of course, there is a wide gap. Yes, of
[3:56] course, there are many problems, but
[3:58] isn't this what negotiations are all
[4:00] about?
[4:01] >> This current round of talks is scheduled
[4:03] to end later this week.
[4:05] >> There was more ethnic unrest in
[4:07] Yugoslavia today, this time in the
[4:09] Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
[4:12] At least three people were wounded when
[4:14] militants opened fire on a peace
[4:16] demonstration in the capital, Sarajevo.
[4:19] The militants are members of Bosnia's
[4:21] Serbian minority who opposed the
[4:24] predominantly Muslim Republic's
[4:26] independence movement. The shooting came
[4:28] at barricades set up by the militants
[4:30] after the Republic voted for
[4:32] independence in a weekend referendum.
[4:35] Nick Glass of Independent Television
[4:37] News reports from Sarajevo.
[4:40] >> The barricades went up in Sarajevo
[4:42] shortly after midnight, directed by Serb
[4:44] militia on the basis of the Serb
[4:46] Democratic Party.
[4:48] There's been the crackle of gunfire
[4:49] intermittently ever since.
[4:52] Sarajevo is encircled by Serb villagers,
[4:55] but no one here can remember a situation
[4:57] when the capital has been cut off like
[4:59] this.
[5:01] Sarajevo this morning and a near miss.
[5:04] Only a few people about, no trams or
[5:06] buses, only the occasional car shuttling
[5:10] up and down the half-mile strip of the
[5:11] city center.
[5:13] Anyone approaching a barricade did so at
[5:16] their own risk. The militia opened fire
[5:18] arbitrarily at anyone coming within 100
[5:21] yards.
[5:23] The Bosnian authorities called for calm,
[5:25] told people to stay at home.
[5:28] What appears almost certainly to have
[5:29] triggered the violence with a shooting
[5:31] at a Serbian Orthodox wedding in the old
[5:34] quarter yesterday afternoon.
[5:36] Outside the church, the brother of the
[5:38] groom was shot dead as he waved a
[5:40] Serbian flag.
[5:42] A short gunfight ensued in which two
[5:44] people were wounded.
[5:47] The Serbian Democratic Party has issued
[5:50] an ultimatum. They want the weekend
[5:52] referendum on Bosnian sovereignty to be
[5:54] declared null and void.
[5:57] Tonight, the Serb Democratic Party
[5:58] leader said recognition would mean that
[6:01] Bosnia would burn and with it
[6:03] Yugoslavia.
[6:05] >> There was also unrest in the former
[6:07] Soviet Republic of Moldova. Two
[6:09] separatist militants were killed
[6:11] overnight in clashes with police. The
[6:13] fighting took place in an eastern region
[6:16] which wants to secede from Moldova.
[6:18] Meanwhile, the flags of Moldova and
[6:21] seven other former Soviet Republics went
[6:23] up at the United Nations today for the
[6:25] first time. They were among a group of
[6:28] nine nations admitted as the UN's newest
[6:30] members, the largest group since the UN
[6:33] was formed in 1945.
[6:36] It brought the world body's membership
[6:38] roster to 175
[6:40] nations.
[6:42] >> The US Supreme Court ruled today the
[6:44] government cannot ban indecent radio and
[6:47] television programming. The justices
[6:49] refused to review a lower court ruling
[6:51] which said an across-the-board
[6:53] prohibition would be a violation of free
[6:55] speech. The ban resulted from a 1988 law
[6:59] which broadened a current exclusion of
[7:00] obscene material to include so-called
[7:03] indecent matter. Federal regulators
[7:06] announced today they wanted $275 million
[7:09] in damages from a New York City law firm
[7:12] which represented the now-defunct
[7:14] Lincoln Savings and Loan. The Office of
[7:16] Thrift Supervision
[7:18] said the firm had knowingly aided and
[7:20] abetted in Lincoln's violation of
[7:22] federal law. Lincoln was seized in 1989.
[7:25] Its bailout will cost taxpayers an
[7:28] estimated $2.6 billion.
[7:31] The law firm of Kaye, Scholer, Fierman,
[7:33] Hayes and Handler issued a statement
[7:35] saying the government was looking for
[7:37] scapegoats in Lincoln's failure.
[7:40] >> That's it for the news summary. Still
[7:42] ahead, fallout from United Way troubles,
[7:45] the pork barrel politics of the highway
[7:47] bill, and the newly independent Republic
[7:49] of Georgia.
[7:54] >> [music]
[8:00] >> Trouble at the United Way is our lead
[8:02] story tonight. Questions about his
[8:04] $463,000
[8:06] a year salary and other perks forced
[8:09] United Way national president William
[8:11] Aramony to resign. Friday is going
[8:14] triggered further questions about how
[8:15] the United Way does business and about
[8:18] the state of organized charities in
[8:20] general. The United Way is the largest
[8:22] charity in the United States. It
[8:24] collects some $3 billion annually in
[8:26] donations, mostly from employee payroll
[8:29] check-offs. The Salvation Army, the Red
[8:32] Cross, the Boy Scouts, and the American
[8:34] Cancer Society are among the largest
[8:36] recipients of those funds. The specifics
[8:39] of Aramony's conduct are being pursued
[8:41] now by an internal United Way
[8:43] investigation due for completion in
[8:46] April. We look at some of the more
[8:48] general questions raised by his
[8:49] departure. Eleanor Brilliant is a former
[8:52] associate executive director of the
[8:54] United Way of Westchester County, New
[8:56] York. She's also the author of a book
[8:58] called The United Way: Dilemmas of
[9:00] Organized Charity. Robert Bothwell is
[9:03] the executive director of the National
[9:05] Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
[9:07] Virginia Mason is the president of the
[9:09] United Way of Northeast Florida. Charles
[9:12] Sennott is deputy city editor of the New
[9:14] York Daily News. His book, Broken
[9:15] Covenant, about the New York-based
[9:17] charity Covenant House, will be
[9:20] published later this year.
[9:22] First to you, Ms. Mason, have these
[9:24] national problems of the national United
[9:28] Way had local fallout for you in
[9:30] Jacksonville?
[9:31] >> Oh, yes. We've been caught in a tidal
[9:33] wave of backlash. Our donors are having
[9:36] a very difficult time making the
[9:37] distinction between our national office
[9:40] and our local efforts.
[9:42] >> Is there a legitimate distinction to be
[9:44] made?
[9:45] >> Yes, there's a legitimate distinction.
[9:47] Our local organizations, there are at
[9:49] least 1,400 of them that were paying
[9:51] dues to United Way of America and some
[9:53] 2,100 in all are all local and
[9:56] autonomous and governed by local
[9:58] volunteers.
[10:00] >> Ms. Mason
[10:01] >> office was a trade association.
[10:02] >> I see. It was a trade association of of
[10:06] local United Ways like yours, right?
[10:08] >> Yes, we've been paying dues for many
[10:10] years for a variety of services.
[10:12] >> I see. All right, the tidal wave of
[10:16] uh of from the from the people in your
[10:18] area, what are they most upset about?
[10:20] >> They're very concerned about a
[10:23] national scandal, about issues of
[10:26] accountability,
[10:27] about compensation,
[10:29] uh and about stewardship of their
[10:31] dollars which they are giving in a very
[10:33] tough time.
[10:36] >> Ms. Brilliant, is $463,000
[10:39] a year too much for the head of the
[10:42] United Way of America to be paid?
[10:44] >> Uh I would think it is too much uh for
[10:47] an executive, but not by as much as the
[10:50] press perhaps has led us to believe.
[10:52] It's a
[10:53] very big question about what exactly
[10:56] should be the salary compared to other
[10:58] salaries in the charitable world, it is
[11:00] extremely high. But, Bill Aramony was in
[11:03] a difficult position. In one sense, he
[11:05] was certainly a a in the company of
[11:10] corporate executives who had a much
[11:12] larger salary. He had a very visible
[11:14] position and great demands were made
[11:16] upon him. Nevertheless, I would say that
[11:18] the salary was excessive for somebody in
[11:22] the charitable business.
[11:23] >> Are there are there guidelines for the
[11:25] United Ways generally about salaries far
[11:28] as you know?
[11:29] >> Not that I have ever heard of. Um they
[11:31] are set by boards of directors. The uh
[11:33] United Way of New York City, for
[11:35] example, also gets, I understand,
[11:37] something above $200,000 for its
[11:40] executive. The salaries have been high.
[11:43] The demands of the jobs, however, are
[11:45] also very high.
[11:46] >> Ms. Mason, back to you quickly just on
[11:48] the salary issue. Do you have Do you Are
[11:50] there national guidelines for uh for
[11:52] paying executives of United Way
[11:54] organizations?
[11:55] >> Yes, I think uh there are not national
[11:58] guidelines, but there has been a sort of
[12:00] standard that has uh been, I think, a
[12:04] natural result of the requirements of
[12:06] the job across the country and what it
[12:08] costs the community to hire and retain
[12:11] and maintain a United Way executive with
[12:14] a very complex job.
[12:16] >> I see. Would you take Would you Would
[12:18] you agree uh with Ms. Brilliant that uh
[12:20] $463,000
[12:22] is too much to pay Mr. Aramony?
[12:25] >> I really don't feel uh equipped to
[12:27] answer that question. I think Mr.
[12:29] Aramony had a very complex job
[12:32] um and $463,000
[12:34] was the result of 22 years of service.
[12:38] Um I do think, however, that local
[12:40] United Way volunteers should have say in
[12:44] the governance and budget and the
[12:46] standards of United Way of America's uh
[12:49] processes. And perhaps local scrutiny uh
[12:52] could have avoided this sort of
[12:54] activity.
[12:56] >> But Ms. Brilliant, in general terms, uh
[12:58] are there are there guidelines or
[13:00] standards or anything that can be used
[13:02] in judging whether or not Mr. Aramony
[13:04] was paid too much money or anybody else
[13:07] what they should be paid for doing that
[13:09] kind of work for a charitable
[13:10] organization?
[13:12] >> Well, but the only way to uh judge it is
[13:14] by comparing salaries with other
[13:16] charities.
[13:18] Um and when I look at
[13:19] >> But not not with other
[13:22] Ms. Brilliant said that
[13:23] >> Oh, not with corporations.
[13:24] >> No, I think that's silly. I mean, it
[13:25] doesn't matter if Aramony uh was dealing
[13:28] with the corporate people all the time.
[13:29] The point is is that he came out of the
[13:31] social service movement, out of the
[13:33] United Way movement. Therefore, the
[13:34] standard for salaries should be among
[13:37] charities, member agencies of United Way
[13:39] and United Way. So, I think his salary
[13:41] was way off the the chart. All right,
[13:44] tell me about the chart.
[13:46] Well, the the chart in terms of local
[13:48] United Ways is pretty high. They're
[13:49] usually the highest paid executives of
[13:51] any charity in in any city.
[13:54] But, we're still talking down in the in
[13:56] the $75 to $200,000
[13:59] for most of them. So, $463,000 including
[14:03] compensation is off the chart. When you
[14:05] look at other major national charities,
[14:07] according to facts I saw presented by
[14:10] the Washington Post,
[14:12] some of the highest paid officials of
[14:14] major national charities were in the
[14:17] $150,000 to $250,000 range.
[14:20] >> Is that Is that in line from your
[14:21] perspective?
[14:22] >> Um
[14:24] Again, it's it's all relative.
[14:26] But, Aramony salary should be compared
[14:29] against charities, not against corporate
[14:31] salaries.
[14:32] >> But, this whole issue, this was clearly,
[14:34] as
[14:34] as Ms. Mason said, that's what that's
[14:36] what caused the public reaction in
[14:38] Jacksonville and reading the stories as
[14:40] I did today around the country, that's
[14:42] what really triggered the public
[14:44] reaction was how much money this was
[14:45] paid this man was paid. Now, how do you
[14:48] how do you gauge that kind How do you
[14:49] Have the charities been been derelict in
[14:52] explaining their compensation? Have they
[14:54] kept it under the rug? What's what's
[14:56] gone wrong on this?
[14:58] >> I don't think the charities generally
[15:00] speak about the compensation of
[15:03] executives to the public, particularly
[15:05] national charities, because you're
[15:07] talking about over $100,000 a year. Um
[15:10] and that's not the kind of thing that
[15:13] they go to the public with,
[15:15] particularly when in most cases almost
[15:17] every single national charity is asking
[15:19] contributions from those that are
[15:21] smaller.
[15:22] On the other hand, um national charities
[15:24] that are involving billions of dollars
[15:27] or even hundreds of millions of dollars,
[15:29] it's a complex business to run. Uh it
[15:31] does take some talent uh and it does
[15:33] take somebody who's spent a lot of time
[15:35] learning how to do that. I think I'd
[15:38] like to focus on another issue. Though,
[15:40] coming back, the issue is efficiency. Um
[15:42] I saw some statistics that the post
[15:45] paraded that the United Way in the 20
[15:48] years of Aramony's reign went from an
[15:50] increase of 17% in real dollar terms.
[15:54] That's discounting for inflation. That
[15:55] sounds pretty good, right? He beat
[15:57] inflation over 20 years, helped the
[15:59] United Way movement. But in reality, the
[16:01] post also cited that national income
[16:04] went up nearly 60% and total private
[16:07] giving went up even at a greater rate
[16:09] than that. So, somehow
[16:11] is the salary then appropriate
[16:14] to the productivity when the
[16:16] productivity is is not even keeping pace
[16:19] with national income or certainly other
[16:22] charitable giving?
[16:23] >> Mr. Senator in New York, how would you
[16:26] what kind of assistance can you give us
[16:28] in trying to arrive at whether or not
[16:30] the public is right to have reacted the
[16:33] way it Not only the public, but the
[16:34] people
[16:35] the United Way people around the
[16:37] country. Were they correct to have
[16:38] reacted in horror when they discovered
[16:41] how much money Mr. Aramony was being
[16:43] paid?
[16:44] >> Yeah, I I think they are correct. I
[16:46] think that people work very hard for
[16:48] their money
[16:49] and they want to make sure that their
[16:51] donations go to the people who need it,
[16:54] to the people who will be serviced by
[16:55] the charity.
[16:57] I mean, I think the big confusion in the
[16:59] 1980s when charities began to grow
[17:02] rapidly, there was this
[17:04] tremendous
[17:05] growth in in charitable giving
[17:08] as a result of the Reagan and Bush
[17:10] administration
[17:12] and their push toward privatization of
[17:15] removing the social responsibility away
[17:17] from government and towards charities,
[17:20] the charities got very big. They became
[17:23] uh
[17:24] charities like United Way, charities
[17:25] like Covenant House
[17:27] became very large and didn't have the
[17:30] the accountability that is required for
[17:32] that large a charity that is moving that
[17:35] much money that is that responsible for
[17:38] different uh satellite programs around
[17:40] the country. And I think there's a need
[17:42] for a lot more accountability.
[17:43] >> Well, let's talk about accountability.
[17:45] That's that
[17:46] Who should they be accountable to? I
[17:48] mean, let's say let's use the United Way
[17:50] example. Uh
[17:52] uh Mr. Aramony or whoever whoever's
[17:54] running the the United Way of America,
[17:56] the national organization, as long as
[17:58] they please the local
[18:02] uh United Way people who are making the
[18:04] contributions as as Ms. Mason explained
[18:06] it, is that as accountable as they
[18:08] should be or should there be some other
[18:10] to the government or should there be
[18:11] regulations or what?
[18:13] >> There are really two things that uh are
[18:14] important in terms of accountability. I
[18:16] think primary is a very strong national
[18:20] board. This has been uh a problem at
[18:23] United Way. It was also a problem at
[18:25] Covenant House that if you don't have a
[18:26] strong national board that is very
[18:28] informed, that is very active, that is
[18:31] very aggressive, and very vigilant uh
[18:34] over the charity, you're going to run
[18:36] into problems. And that was the case
[18:38] here. The second tier to that is I think
[18:41] the
[18:43] the state and uh federal watchdogs and
[18:46] state government agencies that are
[18:49] have a specific purpose of monitoring
[18:51] charities have not grown
[18:54] in comparison to the way the charities
[18:56] have grown. For example, the state
[18:58] attorney general's office in New York
[19:00] has only 10 investigators, and there are
[19:02] 100,000 charities in New York. The uh
[19:06] National Charities Information Bureau
[19:08] has 19 people on their staff.
[19:12] There are 400,000
[19:14] registered not-for-profits in the United
[19:16] States. It's It's inconceivable that
[19:18] these agencies can watch over everyone.
[19:20] I think they're going to have to expand.
[19:23] I think they're going to have to listen
[19:25] to warnings a lot more closely. And I
[19:27] think they're going to have to be a lot
[19:29] more aggressive in the reviews of
[19:31] charities, especially large charities.
[19:33] >> As very empty you Do you agree with that
[19:34] that the answer here is for those people
[19:36] who serve on on boards and whatever and
[19:40] and also those who are who are under the
[19:42] law supposed to regulate these things
[19:44] are going to have to get on the stick
[19:45] and do their job?
[19:46] >> I think there are a number of issues
[19:47] here. In the first place, if you
[19:49] remember the Filer Commission in the
[19:50] mid-1970s had
[19:52] >> I don't.
[19:53] >> Okay, can I bring it into play because
[19:55] it was very important? The Filer
[19:57] Commission did a number of studies and a
[19:59] serious
[20:00] look into the nature of charities under
[20:04] sponsored by John D. Rockefeller and the
[20:06] Internal Revenue Service. It also
[20:07] contributed staff and it was a serious
[20:10] research effort. Plus, there were also
[20:12] ideological and political issues raised
[20:15] about the charitable sector. At that
[20:17] time, the Filer Commission report
[20:19] recommended that there be a national
[20:21] commission which would gather data and
[20:24] have some review function. I presume
[20:26] that the independent sector, which is
[20:28] now an organization which has some of
[20:30] the data gathering functions, might have
[20:32] grown at one point into that kind of a
[20:35] commission, but it was
[20:37] foreclosed. That was not the way we went
[20:39] and we have relied primarily upon the
[20:41] IRS and also as we've heard the state
[20:45] reviews that are done in various locales
[20:47] throughout the state through both
[20:49] through the charity boards. That isn't
[20:52] working and will not work enough. I have
[20:54] looked at the forms that the charities
[20:56] filled out, the 990s and the state board
[20:59] forms. They are totally inadequate.
[21:01] >> me, 990 is an IRS
[21:03] >> Yes, but that's the federal government.
[21:05] So, you have the federal government 990
[21:07] for those forms, and you also have the
[21:09] state forms. Neither of them really
[21:11] covers the kind of questions you would
[21:13] ask. The way funds are aggregated, you
[21:16] do not get the kind of detail which
[21:18] would address the issues we are
[21:20] concerned with. But, there is no
[21:22] substitute for a board of directors
[21:24] doing its job. That is simply something
[21:27] that boards of directors have got to
[21:29] take a responsibility for. There is I
[21:32] know the reasonable standard is what is
[21:34] expected of what a reasonable person
[21:36] would be expected to know. But, I have
[21:38] served on national boards, and I have
[21:39] seen boards operate, and they do not
[21:42] take enough account of their fiduciary
[21:45] responsibilities. One last word on this
[21:48] that I think is interesting. I read over
[21:50] 40 years of uh minutes from the United
[21:52] Way of America,
[21:54] and that was somewhat tedious, but
[21:56] turned out to be very valuable. Those
[21:58] records indicated a great shift in the
[22:01] amount of minute taking and the content
[22:04] of the minutes of the board of
[22:05] directors. If they had revealed more, I
[22:08] think there would have been a greater
[22:10] knowledge on the part of board of
[22:12] directors. They became much more PR
[22:14] documents, and much less minutes for
[22:16] accountability sake.
[22:17] >> Mr. Bothwell, how do you feel about the
[22:18] accountability question?
[22:20] >> Without disagreeing with what's been
[22:21] said, I have another angle altogether
[22:24] which is that uh one of the problems as
[22:26] I see it is that United Way is the
[22:28] largest charitable network in the
[22:30] country
[22:31] uh has operated in many places as a
[22:33] virtual monopoly in raising money at the
[22:36] workplace.
[22:37] Uh
[22:38] competition certainly doesn't do
[22:39] everything, but I think there are over
[22:42] 130 alternatives to United Way out in
[22:45] the country today. And, in many
[22:48] corporations and public workplace
[22:51] campaigns, they are now operating side
[22:53] by side with United Way and providing an
[22:56] additional
[22:57] scrutiny on United Way operations to
[23:00] provide feedback into the employer. Uh
[23:03] give employees more choice, employees
[23:06] will make some of their own decisions
[23:07] about which is the organization it
[23:09] should be supporting. Uh I really would
[23:12] hate to see uh any community suffer in
[23:16] its workplace giving because of this
[23:18] scandal. Uh so the
[23:20] >> It's clearly It's clearly happening even
[23:22] at the the
[23:22] >> Well, but the best way to avoid that is
[23:25] for employers to invite competitors in
[23:28] such as health charities or social
[23:30] action charities or women's charities so
[23:32] that it provides uh some competition to
[23:35] United Way.
[23:36] >> Do you think that would help uh the
[23:37] situation, Ms. Mason in Jacksonville?
[23:39] >> Well, I think there are a number of key
[23:41] points that have to be made from the
[23:43] local level. First, that while we have a
[23:46] national scandal, I think the single
[23:48] most accountable organization in any
[23:50] given community and also the most
[23:52] efficient is going to be the United Way.
[23:54] And it's based on on a single principle
[23:57] and that is that we've got to have a
[23:59] community fund that has some flexibility
[24:02] through which we can collaborate and
[24:05] find some solutions to human problems.
[24:07] Without that sort of collaborative
[24:09] activity, we get into a uh fragmentation
[24:13] which is a nightmare when it's really uh
[24:16] reduced down to a designated campaign.
[24:19] To have every donor give to the charity
[24:21] of his or her choice may sound
[24:23] emotionally like a good idea in the
[24:25] first blush, but what it does is reduce
[24:28] the community's ability to deal with its
[24:30] own problems. What we have to do in this
[24:33] uh in this community in Jacksonville and
[24:35] in other communities is find a way to
[24:37] accommodate both the choice needs of
[24:40] donors and the community chest, the old
[24:44] community chest, which is the fund for
[24:45] the community. There are a variety of
[24:48] very accountable communities in this
[24:50] country that are accommodating donor
[24:52] choice, are allowing other charitable
[24:55] groups to collaborate for campaign at
[24:57] the workplace and all of us are working
[25:00] very hard at the local autonomous level
[25:03] to solve the problems of competition and
[25:07] and charitable accountability. The
[25:09] national scandal should not uh affect
[25:13] our donors' view of what we're doing
[25:14] locally, but unfortunately, that's
[25:16] exactly what's happening.
[25:18] >> And back your point, Mr. Bothwell, and
[25:19] Ms. Mason's point is well taken, is it
[25:21] not? I mean, the United Way was created
[25:23] as first the Community Chest, and then
[25:25] it became the United Fund, and the
[25:27] United Way was created to to stop
[25:30] exactly what you're advocating, which is
[25:31] for different charities to go in and
[25:33] compete, uh and everybody go in for
[25:35] their own deal.
[25:36] >> Well, the world has changed a lot in the
[25:39] 50 years that the modern United Way has
[25:41] been there. Uh we have seen a burst of
[25:44] of new issues from the international
[25:46] area to the domestic area.
[25:48] Uh we talk in terms of problems that
[25:50] we're looking at today, whether you're
[25:51] talking about AIDS or women's issues,
[25:54] uh or international relief efforts that
[25:56] just weren't contemplated then.
[25:59] United Way doesn't encompass all of
[26:00] that. Or whether you're talking
[26:01] environmental health issues, toxic waste
[26:04] dumps, United Way doesn't provide any
[26:06] funds to deal with environmental health
[26:08] issues. The world has changed, people
[26:10] have changed, choices need to change.
[26:13] There are very efficient ways of
[26:15] providing for this competition.
[26:17] >> Mr. Senator, I want to go back to you on
[26:18] this question of of regulation
[26:21] etc. and national guidelines and
[26:24] oversight and all of that. Are you Do
[26:26] you believe that that guidelines could
[26:28] be written at a state level or even much
[26:31] less at a national level that could, in
[26:34] fact, uh set the way the compensation
[26:37] standards and all these kinds of things
[26:38] that have caused the problem for the
[26:40] United Way of America?
[26:41] >> I don't think they can be set on a state
[26:43] or a federal level. I think that one of
[26:45] the really interesting things that
[26:47] happened with Covenant House was, in the
[26:49] wake of the scandal that they went
[26:51] through,
[26:52] They did a full review. They spent some
[26:56] $500,000
[26:58] uh on an internal report by a private
[27:01] investigative firm to find out exactly
[27:03] how these problems happened.
[27:05] Covenant House survived that scandal.
[27:07] Covenant House is a good charity that
[27:09] does good work as does United Way.
[27:12] And Covenant House took the opportunity
[27:15] with the scandal to come up with some of
[27:17] the uh some very remarkable thorough
[27:20] guidelines for internal review. And I
[27:23] think became a model for other charities
[27:26] um to set up these kind of standards
[27:28] that can prevent against exactly the
[27:30] kind of thing that's happened with
[27:31] United Way and that happened with its
[27:33] own charity.
[27:33] >> Ms. Bryant, based on your uh
[27:36] looking at the national picture on the
[27:38] United Way, do you think that would be
[27:40] possible for United for there to be
[27:42] national standards that would avoid this
[27:44] kind of thing ever happening again?
[27:45] >> I certainly think there could be
[27:46] national standards for local United Ways
[27:49] to operate within if if that's the
[27:51] question. The locals are in any case uh
[27:55] not bound by the national because that
[27:58] is not true. They are very autonomous.
[28:00] However, they are very influenced by
[28:02] national and there's no question that
[28:04] national does set other kinds of
[28:06] policies that would have to go through
[28:09] the the United Way system. The United
[28:11] Way system has always operated from the
[28:13] bottoms up and gets to the national
[28:16] board via its local executives. So, they
[28:18] clearly if it's going to be system-wide,
[28:21] it's going to be a great deal of
[28:22] negotiation. It's not going to happen uh
[28:24] just by fiat. But, that kind of
[28:26] negotiation is healthy and probably
[28:28] should happen now and if it hasn't
[28:31] already started.
[28:31] >> Okay. Well, look, we have to leave it
[28:33] there. Uh Mr. Bothwell, Ms. Mason, Ms.
[28:36] Bryant, Mr. Senate, thank you all four
[28:38] for being with us.
[28:40] >> Still to come, the pork barrel politics
[28:42] of the highway bill and the independent
[28:44] republic of Georgia.
[28:55] The benefits from the largest
[28:57] transportation bill ever signed into law
[28:59] are beginning to be felt in states and
[29:01] congressional districts throughout the
[29:03] country. Most of the credit for billions
[29:06] of dollars in special road projects
[29:08] approved last year goes to a select
[29:11] group of senators and congressmen who
[29:13] helped push through the bill.
[29:15] But as Roger Mudd reports, that select
[29:18] group made sure their efforts didn't go
[29:21] unrewarded.
[29:22] >> Last December, President Bush flew down
[29:24] to Texas on Air Force One to sign into
[29:27] law the same surface transportation bill
[29:30] that his transportation secretary,
[29:32] Samuel Skinner, had denounced in July as
[29:35] pork.
[29:37] But between July and December, times had
[29:39] changed. And at the highway construction
[29:42] site at Euless, Texas that day, the word
[29:44] pork was never uttered by the Washington
[29:47] visitors.
[29:48] The word they used most often was jobs.
[29:52] >> Now, this bill will launch the
[29:53] post-interstate era
[29:55] of America's surface transportation
[29:57] system. It'll enable us to build and
[30:00] repair roads,
[30:01] fix bridges, and improve mass transit.
[30:04] Keeps Americans on the move and help the
[30:07] economy in the process. But really, it
[30:09] is summed up by three words: jobs, jobs,
[30:13] jobs.
[30:14] >> But whatever Washington chose to call
[30:16] it,
[30:17] the $151 billion bill had also
[30:20] authorized the building of more special
[30:23] highway projects, generally known as
[30:26] pork, than any highway bill in history.
[30:29] Let me single out
[30:31] the um
[30:32] members of Congress, the one sitting on
[30:34] the dais here.
[30:35] Uh this bill required some very heavy
[30:38] lifting, and I'm particularly grateful
[30:40] to all those members that are here
[30:42] today.
[30:44] They are Democrat Robert Roe of New
[30:46] Jersey, chairman of the House Public
[30:48] Works and Transportation Committee.
[30:51] John Paul Hammerschmidt from the Ozarks
[30:53] of Arkansas, the senior Republican on
[30:55] the committee.
[30:57] Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania, the ranking
[30:59] Republican on that subcommittee, a man
[31:01] with a highway named in his honor.
[31:04] From the Senate,
[31:06] Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New
[31:08] York, chairman of the Transportation
[31:10] Subcommittee, the man who had floor
[31:12] managed the bill.
[31:15] And Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada from
[31:18] that same Senate Subcommittee.
[31:21] Those were the men who had done the
[31:22] heavy lifting, all right, but they were
[31:24] also the ones who had taken back to
[31:26] their states and congressional districts
[31:28] huge chunks of highway pork money.
[31:31] Money that was above and beyond the
[31:33] regular highway and mass transit funds
[31:35] distributed to each state.
[31:37] The highway bill President Bush
[31:39] originally proposed a year ago
[31:42] would give the states and localities
[31:43] more flexibility in how they spent their
[31:45] federal share.
[31:47] It was a landmark proposal, but because
[31:49] it would reduce the federal share to the
[31:51] states, everyone knew it would need help
[31:54] in getting passed.
[31:56] Much of the help came in the form of
[31:58] pork called demonstration projects,
[32:01] bypasses, new bridges, road
[32:04] straightenings, road widenings, projects
[32:06] which Congressman Shuster, for instance,
[32:08] says are important to his constituents.
[32:11] >> In central Pennsylvania, we have Route
[32:13] 220, just a project of special
[32:16] significance. In the past 2 years, along
[32:19] that 35-mi stretch of new highway,
[32:22] the fatality rate has dropped from six
[32:25] fatalities a year to two fatalities, the
[32:27] old highway versus the new.
[32:30] And
[32:31] 4,500 new jobs have been created.
[32:34] 52 businesses either expanded
[32:38] or opened up and a 37% increase in
[32:41] retail sales.
[32:43] >> As a gentle reminder to the voters, that
[32:46] stretch of Route 220 is officially named
[32:48] the Bud Shuster Highway.
[32:51] The president's transportation bill
[32:52] emerged from the house in October and it
[32:55] authorized spending over the next 6
[32:57] years 5.4 billion dollars for 489 pork
[33:02] projects. The Senate's version contained
[33:04] no
[33:06] Democratic Senator Robert Graham of
[33:07] Florida, a member of the Public Works
[33:09] Committee, explains why.
[33:11] >> The Senate starts with a position that
[33:13] there should be no demonstration
[33:15] projects.
[33:16] The House has projects typically
[33:19] at least one for every congressional
[33:21] district. Then when they get to
[33:23] conference committee,
[33:24] the Senate conferees
[33:26] quickly agree with the House that there
[33:28] will be demonstration projects and
[33:30] incidentally we'd like some too and most
[33:33] of the projects that end up being added
[33:35] from the Senate side are added just
[33:38] fortuitously in the states represented
[33:40] by the senators who are sitting at the
[33:42] table where the bill is being finally
[33:44] carved up.
[33:45] >> As a result, the compromise bill that
[33:48] emerged 3 weeks later contained, lo and
[33:50] behold, 6.2 billion dollars for 539
[33:56] special projects.
[33:58] Traditionally there is very little open
[33:59] discussion about pork barrel. So when
[34:02] the bill reached the House floor at 4:12
[34:04] a.m. November 27th, the debate consisted
[34:07] mainly of the conferees congratulating
[34:10] each other.
[34:11] >> And I do want to pay the highest regard
[34:12] and special tribute to their leadership,
[34:15] particularly John Paul Hammerschmidt and
[34:17] also to thank
[34:19] the Surface Transportation Subcommittee
[34:21] Chairman Norm Mineta.
[34:22] >> And with the Bud Shuster from
[34:24] Pennsylvania, probably the the most
[34:26] knowledgeable person in the House of
[34:28] Representatives when it comes to surface
[34:30] transportation law. Now Mr. Speaker,
[34:33] I can tell you that the conferees fought
[34:36] very hard to preserve the projects in
[34:39] this bill, and we succeeded in doing
[34:42] that.
[34:44] >> The next day in the Senate, debate was a
[34:46] little livelier, but not much. Moynihan
[34:49] of New York, Bond of Missouri, and
[34:52] Warner of Virginia took turns
[34:54] complimenting each other.
[34:55] Then Gramm of Florida rose to denounce
[34:58] what he called some egregious just
[35:00] details of the bill.
[35:01] >> The demonstration projects, these little
[35:03] piglets that have now become giant hogs.
[35:06] I'm not going to to mention him by name,
[35:09] but there is a congressman
[35:11] uh from a uh state not far north of here
[35:16] uh who has an important position
[35:18] in the House Public Works Committee.
[35:21] Mr. Speaker, I haven't run the
[35:22] calculation, but I'd suggest that that
[35:24] one congressional district probably got
[35:27] more demonstration projects
[35:30] than half the states in America.
[35:32] >> Senator Gramm, of course, was talking
[35:34] about Congressman Shuster. But Gramm's
[35:36] guess was wrong.
[35:38] Shuster had gotten for his district more
[35:41] money in demonstration projects, $453
[35:44] million, than all the other states in
[35:47] the Union save one, his own,
[35:50] Pennsylvania.
[35:51] >> Well, we did very well, but my district
[35:53] is in great need. It turned out that
[35:55] Altoona was the only city in
[35:58] Pennsylvania that was not connected by
[36:01] an interstate to the Pennsylvania
[36:03] Turnpike. Now, that was a fact until we
[36:05] had two 20 built. So, we've been playing
[36:07] catch-up, and I'm very pleased that we
[36:09] have been able to successfully play
[36:11] catch-up.
[36:12] >> Shuster was one of the chief negotiators
[36:15] on the transportation bill during the 3
[36:16] weeks it was in conference.
[36:18] Counting Shuster, there were 27 main
[36:21] conferees from either the House or the
[36:23] Senate Public Works Committee who fixed
[36:26] the final shape of the bill. And those
[36:28] 27 from only 17 states took home 68% of
[36:34] all the project money.
[36:37] Rhode Island's conferee was John Chafee,
[36:39] the Senate Committee's ranking
[36:41] Republican.
[36:42] This is some of what Rhode Island's $57
[36:45] million
[36:45] will buy.
[36:47] In Cranston, $5.7 million to reconstruct
[36:51] and repave the city streets, including
[36:54] Wildflower Drive and the Comstock
[36:56] Parkway, a residential street which
[36:58] allows no trucks and has a speed limit
[37:01] of 25.
[37:03] In Kingston,
[37:04] $2 million for the historic renovation
[37:07] of the fire-damaged Amtrak railroad
[37:10] station, including its development as an
[37:12] intermodal center.
[37:16] Also, $18 million for the operating
[37:19] expenses of the Rhode Island Public
[37:21] Transit Authority.
[37:23] Arkansas' conferee was John Paul
[37:25] Hammerschmidt, the senior Republican on
[37:27] the House Public Works Committee.
[37:30] Arkansas got $317 million in project
[37:33] money.
[37:34] This is most of what that will pay for.
[37:38] $170 million for upgrading Route 71 into
[37:42] what is called a north-south
[37:44] high-priority corridor from
[37:46] Fayetteville,
[37:47] 300 miles south to the Louisiana border.
[37:51] And $110 million for converting Route
[37:54] 412 into an east-west high-priority
[37:57] corridor from Siloam Springs, 150 miles
[38:01] east to Mountain Home.
[38:03] Both projects will run through the heart
[38:05] of Hammerschmidt's congressional
[38:06] district.
[38:08] Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick
[38:10] Moynihan was the principal conferee from
[38:12] New York. In fact, he was the manager of
[38:15] the bill in the Senate.
[38:16] New York special project money totaled
[38:18] almost $307 million, of which
[38:22] of which at least 72 million was added
[38:25] because of Moynihan's clout.
[38:28] In Manhattan,
[38:29] 55 million dollars to upgrade, repair,
[38:32] and paint the Hell Gate Viaduct between
[38:35] the East River and the Harlem River.
[38:37] 2 million dollars to reconstruct the
[38:39] ferry landing at Battery Park for the
[38:41] ferry connecting Manhattan to Staten
[38:43] Island and Governor's Island.
[38:46] 10 million dollars to reconstruct and
[38:48] improve stretches of the FDR Drive along
[38:51] the East River.
[38:53] Nevada's conferee was Democratic Senator
[38:55] Harry Reid, who is just finishing his
[38:57] first term.
[38:59] Nevada's share totaled 92 million
[39:01] dollars, including
[39:04] 3.8 million for an environmental study
[39:07] and preliminary engineering plans for an
[39:10] access road linking I-15 with the
[39:13] airport in Las Vegas.
[39:15] 10.5 million for improvements on I-15.
[39:19] And 45 million dollars to reconstruct
[39:22] and upgrade the so-called Spaghetti Bowl
[39:25] in Las Vegas, the intersection of I-15
[39:28] and US 95.
[39:32] Republican Bud Shuster was one of
[39:34] Pennsylvania's four conferees, but was
[39:36] by far and away the most influential.
[39:39] For 20 years, he has represented the
[39:41] ninth district, where the people are
[39:43] locked in by the Allegheny Mountains and
[39:45] need good roads to get out.
[39:48] Shuster took home to his ninth district
[39:50] more than half of Pennsylvania's total
[39:53] of 885 million. It included the
[39:56] following.
[39:57] 148 million to continue the four laning
[40:00] of Route 220.
[40:02] This time, the 12 miles from Bald Eagle
[40:05] to Martha's Furnace, north of Altoona.
[40:08] 7.1 million to widen and extend Chestnut
[40:12] Avenue from Altoona to Juniata.
[40:16] 52 million to relocate Route 22 around
[40:19] the borough of Hollidaysburg, just south
[40:22] of Altoona.
[40:23] >> Another project I noticed was
[40:25] almost $9 million to add a third lane to
[40:29] Route 36 from 220 up to Roaring Spring.
[40:34] >> And when we filmed up in your district,
[40:36] we noticed that in Roaring Springs on
[40:38] that road is a Chrysler dealership that
[40:41] is owned and operated by your son.
[40:43] >> That's right. What
[40:43] >> What did that have a role in in that
[40:45] project?
[40:46] >> in fact, that is not where the highway
[40:48] is widened. The highway is widened
[40:50] several miles north of that that
[40:54] dealership, my son's dealership. So, it
[40:56] will not be affected at all by that
[40:59] widening.
[41:00] >> The dealership is actually 3/10 of a
[41:03] mile from the projected end of the
[41:05] widening.
[41:06] And the Pennsylvania Department of
[41:07] Transportation says it has considerable
[41:10] leeway in deciding at which of the three
[41:12] intersections in Roaring Spring
[41:15] to end the widening.
[41:17] Pennsylvania's Highway Commissioner,
[41:19] Howard Yerusalim, says the roads in
[41:22] Shuster's district are no worse off than
[41:24] those in other districts, but that all
[41:26] the projects he got were good ones.
[41:28] >> Knowing what you know about the
[41:30] condition of highways and bridges in
[41:32] Pennsylvania, could not that money have
[41:35] been a little more fairly distributed
[41:37] around the state?
[41:38] >> No, I don't think
[41:39] >> a couple of districts didn't I don't
[41:40] think got anything, did they?
[41:42] >> Uh, that's true.
[41:44] >> But I mean, could not that money have
[41:45] been spread a little more evenly?
[41:47] >> It could have been spread a little more
[41:49] evenly, yeah.
[41:50] I would say that all the projects that
[41:52] that are listed are good projects. Now,
[41:54] if you were to ask me the next question,
[41:56] if they just gave me that $900 million,
[41:59] would I would I list the same exact
[42:02] projects for use of not $900 million?
[42:06] Certainly, I would be dishonest if I
[42:08] said yes.
[42:09] But I think that a majority of those
[42:10] projects would still have been listed
[42:12] because they were important projects.
[42:14] >> Truth be told, pork barrel projects have
[42:17] been an honorable part of the
[42:18] legislative process since the days of
[42:20] Henry Clay in the early 1800s.
[42:23] But some critics of highway pork are not
[42:26] sure honorable is quite the right word.
[42:28] >> I think Congress
[42:30] deserves a lot of criticism and I think
[42:32] the criticism
[42:34] relates to the
[42:36] the high degree of parochialism of focus
[42:38] as opposed to on national need,
[42:41] the focus on individual projects, the
[42:47] the insular and relatively closed
[42:50] method by which this bill was developed.
[42:53] I think we can always improve it,
[42:55] but I think as long as human beings are
[42:58] involved and as long as real people are
[43:01] making decisions not to put highways in
[43:03] the sky, the decisions aren't being made
[43:05] by angels, but rather by politicians and
[43:08] bureaucrats, then I think this is a
[43:10] pretty good way. In fact, when you stop
[43:12] and think about it, if you believe in
[43:15] representative government, if you
[43:16] believe in democracy, and you believe in
[43:18] the elected representatives of the
[43:20] people
[43:21] knowing what the problems are, this is a
[43:24] mighty good way to deal with the
[43:25] problem.
[43:26] >> When did politicians cease to be angels,
[43:29] Mr.
[43:30] >> Long before I got here.
[43:32] The problem with highway pork, if indeed
[43:34] there is a problem with highway pork, is
[43:37] that too many people like it, depend on
[43:39] it, need it, live by it.
[43:42] From the angry motorist in Altoona stuck
[43:44] on a two-lane highway to the big road
[43:47] building lobby here in Washington.
[43:49] From every state highway commissioner in
[43:51] the union to every savvy politician here
[43:54] on Capitol Hill.
[43:58] >> [music]
[44:05] >> Finally tonight, we continue our series
[44:07] profiling the republics that used to
[44:09] make up the Soviet Union. Tonight, we
[44:12] look at the Republic of Georgia,
[44:14] birthplace of Stalin and form former
[44:17] foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
[44:19] Georgia is the only republic of the
[44:21] original Soviet Union that has refused
[44:24] to join the new Commonwealth of
[44:25] Independent States and the only one that
[44:28] has not applied for membership in the
[44:30] United Nations.
[44:34] Georgians have a favorite tale
[44:35] explaining why theirs is such a
[44:37] beautiful country.
[44:39] God, it seems, had already parceled out
[44:41] all the Earth's land when he came upon
[44:43] the Georgians.
[44:44] In typical fashion, they asked the
[44:46] creator to drink with them and join in
[44:48] their merriment.
[44:53] The Lord had such a good time, he gave
[44:55] his host the one spot he'd reserved for
[44:58] himself.
[44:59] The land that now sits at the crossroads
[45:01] of Europe and Asia.
[45:04] To the north are Europe's highest
[45:06] mountains, the Caucasus.
[45:08] Here, legend has it, Prometheus was
[45:11] lashed to a rock and tortured for giving
[45:13] humans the secret of fire.
[45:17] To the west, the Black Sea and more
[45:20] legend.
[45:21] Here, Jason and the Argonauts sailed in
[45:23] search of the mythical golden fleece.
[45:29] The capital of Georgia is Tbilisi, a
[45:32] modern, ethnically diverse city of more
[45:34] than a million people.
[45:36] In these scenes taken before the Soviet
[45:38] Union's collapse, Lenin stood triumphant
[45:41] in the main square.
[45:43] But there were few additional signs of
[45:45] communism.
[45:47] Though very much a part of the Soviet
[45:49] Union, Georgia has managed to preserve
[45:52] its own character. These graceful
[45:54] verandaed houses, for example, in the
[45:56] old part of town.
[46:00] To Americans, Georgia is probably best
[46:02] known for the longevity of its
[46:04] citizenry.
[46:05] >> By the way, 89-year-old Bagrat the Pagua
[46:08] liked Dannon so much, he ate two cups.
[46:12] That pleased his mother very much.
[46:15] >> But among the former Soviet Republics,
[46:17] Georgia is known for its citrus fruit,
[46:19] grapes, wine, tobacco, and tea.
[46:23] Its people have a reputation as
[46:25] entrepreneurs, natural-born capitalists.
[46:28] They produce enough food in their
[46:30] cooperatives to feed themselves and are
[46:32] quite prosperous by Soviet standards.
[46:35] Georgia's Black Sea resorts used to be a
[46:37] favorite getaway spot for
[46:39] vacation-minded Muscovites.
[46:41] But that was before April 9th, 1989,
[46:45] better known as Bloody Sunday.
[46:51] That night, with the Soviet Union slowly
[46:54] splintering, Georgians gathered in
[46:56] Tbilisi's main square to demand
[46:58] independence.
[47:00] Soviet troops, under orders to quash the
[47:02] demonstration, encircled the crowd and
[47:05] began clubbing people.
[47:07] 20 demonstrators were killed.
[47:10] It was the latest chapter in Georgia's
[47:12] tumultuous history of revolt and
[47:14] invasion, unification, and dissolution.
[47:18] That story begins in the hills and
[47:20] valleys of the Caucasus Mountains in
[47:22] prehistoric times.
[47:24] A few isolated tribes with similar
[47:27] cultures began gathering into kingdoms.
[47:30] This community of cave dwellers dates
[47:32] from the 6th century BC.
[47:35] Ronald Grigor Suny is a Georgian expert
[47:37] at the University of Michigan.
[47:40] >> Those kingdoms lasted for nearly a
[47:41] thousand years before, in the 4th
[47:43] century,
[47:44] Georgians converted to Christianity.
[47:47] And then, for 1,500 years, a Georgian
[47:51] kingdom existed, or kingdoms in that
[47:54] area, divided, sometimes fighting with
[47:56] one another, conquered by the Arabs in
[47:59] the 7th century, by Mongols in the 13th
[48:02] century, by various Turkish and Persian
[48:04] empires that formed on either side of
[48:06] it.
[48:06] >> Between invasions, in the relative
[48:08] security of the Middle Ages, the
[48:10] fragmented Georgian principalities began
[48:13] developing their own Christian culture.
[48:16] Georgian monarchs constructed churches
[48:18] and monasteries.
[48:20] Early writers and artists created
[48:22] religious manuscripts and illustrations
[48:24] distinct from those of neighboring
[48:25] Muslims.
[48:27] But the strength of a shared culture was
[48:29] no match for military force.
[48:32] >> In the 18th century, Georgia underwent a
[48:34] series of devastating invasions from
[48:36] Persia. It was divided, it was weak, and
[48:39] at that point, the Georgian kings began
[48:42] to petition the Russian czars,
[48:43] particularly Catherine the Great, to
[48:46] establish a protectorate over Georgia.
[48:48] And in 1783, at the Treaty of
[48:50] Georgievsk, Catherine agreed to this.
[48:53] >> Agreed, and then later claimed the
[48:56] Georgian provinces as part of the
[48:57] czarist empire.
[49:00] Separate Georgian principalities were
[49:02] joined, and a single Georgian economy
[49:04] and culture was created.
[49:07] >> A Georgian intelligentsia emerged, began
[49:09] writing more than ever in George in the
[49:11] Georgian language.
[49:12] And so in time, you could say that it's
[49:15] kind of irony that Russian rule began to
[49:18] produce a sense of nationality among the
[49:21] Georgians. Different Georgians with
[49:23] different dialects and different regions
[49:25] began to see themselves more than they
[49:27] ever had in the past
[49:28] as part of a single people.
[49:31] >> [music]
[49:37] >> Then came the 1917 Russian Revolution,
[49:41] and a year later, Georgian independence.
[49:44] At the time, Georgian society was
[49:46] largely rural and strictly divided
[49:49] between peasants and nobles.
[49:51] Its leaders, moderate Marxists known as
[49:54] Mensheviks, envisioned a classless
[49:56] communist society.
[49:58] But unlike the hardline Bolsheviks in
[50:01] Moscow, they wanted a democratic society
[50:04] and an essentially capitalist economy.
[50:08] Reforms which took land from the
[50:10] nobility and put it in the private hands
[50:12] of peasants won the Mensheviks
[50:14] widespread allegiance.
[50:16] >> And for nearly 3 years, Georgia was an
[50:19] independent Social Democratic Republic,
[50:21] very democratic,
[50:23] had ties with the West, was recognized
[50:25] by the West, had visits from prominent
[50:27] socialists in the West,
[50:29] and developed quite flourishing
[50:32] system, but it was all brought to an end
[50:35] in February 1921 with the invasion of
[50:38] the Red Army.
[50:39] >> There were bloody reprisals, but the
[50:41] Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin
[50:43] eventually adopted a policy of
[50:46] tolerance.
[50:47] Lenin nurtured the seeds of Georgian
[50:49] nationalism, perhaps unintentionally, by
[50:53] promoting Georgian language magazines
[50:55] and newspapers and building schools.
[50:58] Under his rule, the economy, devastated
[51:01] by World War I, began to grow, as did
[51:04] the ranks of the Bolsheviks.
[51:06] Lenin died in 1924
[51:09] and Georgian-born Joseph Stalin emerged
[51:12] as the new head of the Soviet Communist
[51:14] Party.
[51:15] >> Stalin was a very odd kind of Georgian.
[51:18] Uh Georgians, that is at least the sort
[51:20] of stereotype of their behavior, is a
[51:22] relatively laid-back people who enjoy a
[51:26] life which includes much festivity,
[51:29] uh banqueting, drinking. Uh Stalin was
[51:32] quite different. He was a kind of loner.
[51:35] He was a darker figure. He rejected
[51:37] Georgia just as Georgia rejected him. In
[51:39] fact, many people complained that uh
[51:41] that he knew where all who in Georgia
[51:43] were his enemies, and he took care to
[51:45] take care of them.
[51:47] >> Stalin was ruthless.
[51:49] During his 25-year reign, he forced the
[51:52] peasants off their land and into large
[51:54] collectives where they became in effect
[51:57] serfs of the state.
[51:59] He also instituted central planning for
[52:01] all of the republics.
[52:02] >> Production graphs measure individual and
[52:05] group output
[52:06] >> [music]
[52:06] >> and set the standards to be met by the
[52:08] worker.
[52:11] Those who produce the most are rewarded
[52:14] by having their pictures publicly
[52:15] displayed.
[52:17] >> By encouraging industry, Stalin created
[52:20] a Georgian working class and transformed
[52:23] the country from an agrarian society to
[52:26] an urban industrial one.
[52:28] But the human cost was enormous.
[52:32] Throughout the Soviet Union, millions of
[52:34] people's lives were broken by
[52:36] imprisonment, exile, and execution.
[52:39] >> Beginning with Stalin
[52:41] and continuing even after Stalin, there
[52:43] was a very serious policy of limiting
[52:46] national expression.
[52:48] Also, he was interested in developing
[52:49] the country and playing down any
[52:52] tendencies towards separation or
[52:55] autonomy from the center. This is the
[52:57] moment the Stalinist years of the
[52:58] greatest centralization.
[53:01] >> With the death of Stalin in 1953,
[53:04] Georgian nationalism, suppressed for 30
[53:07] years, was reborn.
[53:10] A national film industry, theater, and
[53:12] opera flourished.
[53:13] But nationalism also had a dark side.
[53:17] Discrimination against Georgia's ethnic
[53:19] minorities, which made up 30% of the
[53:22] population, sharply increased.
[53:25] For Georgia's Communist Party, the
[53:28] post-Stalin era meant greater autonomy
[53:30] and enormous power.
[53:33] >> With more autonomy on the one hand
[53:35] and
[53:36] no democracy, what you get is the rise
[53:39] of what I would call national mafias.
[53:41] Local communist elites who take power,
[53:45] run the economy largely in their own
[53:47] interest, actually enrich themselves
[53:49] quite successfully in many republics as
[53:51] in Central Asia and indeed in the
[53:53] Caucasus.
[53:54] >> Nowhere did the local elite do more to
[53:56] enrich themselves than in Soviet
[53:58] Georgia.
[54:00] Through the 1960s, Georgia's official
[54:02] national income was among the lowest of
[54:04] all the republics. Yet the savings rate
[54:07] was nearly twice the Soviet average.
[54:10] In 1972, Eduard Shevardnadze, the future
[54:14] Soviet foreign minister, was named head
[54:16] of the Georgian Communist Party. His
[54:19] assignment, root out the corruption.
[54:22] Shevardnadze was more successful than
[54:24] anyone could have expected, but it was
[54:26] an impossible task.
[54:28] Georgian society is tightly controlled
[54:31] by family ties, kinship, and ideas of
[54:34] loyalty and honor.
[54:36] Bonds that strong could not be entirely
[54:38] destroyed.
[54:40] Nor the tradition of a privileged elite
[54:42] and autocratic rule easily denied.
[54:48] Georgia declared its independence from
[54:50] the Soviet Union on April 9th, 1991,
[54:53] 2 years to the day after Bloody Sunday.
[54:56] But the transition to democracy rapidly
[54:59] disintegrated into civil war.
[55:03] The new president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia,
[55:06] elected with 87% of the vote, was
[55:08] accused of becoming a dictator.
[55:11] >> Indeed, in many ways the nationalist
[55:13] movement in Georgia, particularly the
[55:14] figure of the leader, Zviad
[55:16] Gamsakhurdia,
[55:18] reflect much more a Soviet political
[55:20] culture, authoritarian,
[55:22] intolerant of difference,
[55:24] uh repression of non-Georgian
[55:27] nationalities.
[55:28] And that has led to deep splits in
[55:30] Georgian society.
[55:33] >> In December, anti-government rebels
[55:35] attacked the Georgian Parliament
[55:37] building and eventually forced
[55:39] Gamsakhurdia to flee. He is now in
[55:42] hiding somewhere in the Republic trying
[55:45] to rally his supporters so far without
[55:48] much success.
[55:50] We will continue our series on the
[55:52] former Soviet Republics over the next
[55:54] few weeks.
[55:58] >> [music]
[56:01] >> Again, the major stories of this Monday,
[56:04] Democrats who want to be president
[56:05] campaign for votes in tomorrow's seven
[56:07] primaries and caucuses while Republican
[56:10] Pat Buchanan focused his challenge to
[56:12] President Bush in Georgia. Mr. Bush
[56:15] vetoed a bill which would have required
[56:17] China to improve its human rights and
[56:19] arms control record in exchange for most
[56:21] favored nation trade status. He said he
[56:23] supported the intent of the bill but not
[56:26] the means for achieving it. This
[56:28] evening, Senate Majority Leader George
[56:29] Mitchell criticized the president saying
[56:31] the veto showed Mr. Bush supported the
[56:34] Chinese leadership up against the
[56:35] interest of the Chinese people. Good
[56:37] night, Charlayne.
[56:39] >> Good night, Jim. That's the NewsHour for
[56:40] tonight. We'll be back tomorrow night
[56:42] with full coverage of Tuesday's
[56:43] primaries and caucuses. I'm Charlayne
[56:46] Hunter-Gault. Good night.
[56:49] >> Part of helping the world live and
[56:51] communicate better is keeping it well
[56:54] informed.
[56:56] That's why funding for the McNeil/Lehrer
[56:58] NewsHour is provided by AT&T.
[57:03] And by Pepsico.
[57:11] Pepsico.
[57:14] >> Down the hallway it will go.
[57:17] Around the corner.
[57:21] And into the fax machine.
[57:23] When the typed up document comes back,
[57:25] you can sign it at your table.
[57:28] And if you need it notarized, well, just
[57:30] ask for the manager. Each is a notary
[57:32] public.
[57:35] Stressful life business. Mr. Farrell and
[57:37] his associates want to help people enjoy
[57:40] a clubby atmosphere. Something to read.
[57:43] In the restrooms, no clanking towel
[57:45] dispensers, but plenty of other things.
[57:48] A restaurant designed to get away from
[57:49] the pressures of the office, but not too
[57:52] far.
[57:53] Brace yourselves at large.
[57:55] >> But check your cellular phone at the
[57:57] door.
[57:58] >> All right. Thanks for joining us.
[58:00] >> Good night for now.