20 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. 58. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
spheres, although the demarcation is not rigid in any State, and the 
organization among the several States is by; no means uniform. 
In recognition of the political organization of the United States, as 
thus briefiy sketched, it is usual in the United States to refer to three 
erades of sovernment—Federal, State, and local. The relative func- 
tional importance of these three grades may be indicated in a general 
way by comparison of their total governmental cost payments (which 
do not include debt redemption). In the fiscal year 1929 these 
expenses were estimated as shown in table 1 (3, p. 20). 
TABLE 1.—Governmentai cost payments in 1929 
2 i : Total Percentage 
Governmental unit expenditures Bfitotal 
{ 
Mederal’ GOVT Or a ee ee ae a ep a Soe ens SO | ears $3, 262, 000, 000 | ia 
‘Phe 48S tatesis =e fe ee a se a eT ee eee 1, 954, 600, 000 16. 4 
Wocaljunitssincluding District. of; Colum biaes = eee 6, 720, 000, 000 56. 3 
TO Ga eos a 8 ke as be I ee 11, 936, 000, 000 100.0 
FINANCES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 
The governmental cost payments of the Federal Government (ex- 
clusive of debt redemption) amounted to 3,262 million dollars in 
1929. A broad classification distributes these expenditures among 
the various functions of government in the proportions shown in 
table 2 (8, p. 20). 
TABLE 2.— Distribution of Federal expenditures in 1929 
i 
Percent- Percent- 
Function Amount age of Function Amount age of 
total total 
Protection 2-3 ean ae les 568, 000, 000 ASSO eH uecaAtionaesee: see ees $16, 000, G00 0.5 
General government-__-__-- 438, 000, 000 13.4 || Miscellaneous___-_--_-__- 19, 000, 000 .6 
Economic development___} 194, 000, 000 5s9ul|, interest=-=- 2-4 ee 680, 000, 000 20.8 
Publie utilitiess2o2 2222-22 163, 000, 0CO 5.0 | 
EN phiway Sea eee 97, 000, 000 3. 0 | Total ici ec. 2 sees 3, 262, 000, 000 100. 0 
Social welfare____.-.....-_ 87, 000, 000 2.7 | 
Protection is by far the most expensive function of the Federal 
Government. 
Not all of this total is spent directly by the Federal Government. 
The Federal and State governments have entered into a number of 
cooperative arrangements whereby the Federal Government grants 
to a State certain sums of money for a purpose which the Federai 
Government would like to encourage, generally on condition that the 
State will appropriate some amount from its own resources. On the 
basis of amounts appropriated, these Federal aids to the States in 
1929 amounted to 97 million dollars, or 5.7 percent of the net expen- 
ditures of the Federal Government exclusive of expenditures for 
protection. ‘These Federal appropriations in 1929 were as follows 
(4, pp. 44-77): 
